News
The latest in Mac astronomy — software releases, app announcements, version updates, and notable developments in the astrophotography world. When a new Mac-compatible app hits the scene, an existing tool gets a major update, or something shifts in the ecosystem, we cover it here. Short-form coverage designed to keep you current.
Meridian 1.0 Is on the Mac App Store, and the Beta Is Closing
Meridian, the native macOS deep sky archive manager, is now on the Mac App Store. Fourteen rounds of beta, 93 bug reports, and the features that exist because testers sent me email.
Introducing Transit: Tonight's Astronomical Events, in Your Mac's Menu Bar
Transit is a new Mac-native menu bar app that watches for astronomical events and notifies you with enough lead time to actually get outside. Here's why I built it.
Strata Build 14: Solar Tone Rebuilt, and Honesty About What's Next
Build 14 of Strata, the Mac-native planetary and solar processor in the Mac Observatory Suite, is on TestFlight. The headline change is a complete
Laminar 1.2.5: White Balance Comes to the Inspector, Plus Celestron and UVC Camera Support
Laminar 1.2.5 brings camera-side white balance directly into the Inspector, graduates the ToupTek OEM family and SVBONY out of Beta, and adds initial support for Celestron webcam-style astronomy cameras alongside generic UVC video devices including iPhone via Continuity Camera.
Laminar 1.2.3 is Out: Editable Custom ROI, a Refactored Imaging Pipeline, and Two Cameras Out of Beta
Laminar 1.2.3 finishes the editable Custom ROI workflow with eight resize handles and numeric entry, refactors live preview onto a Metal-direct path, and graduates the SVBONY SV305C PRO and ToupTek Astro G3M678C out of Beta after hardware testing.
PixInsight 1.9.4 Lockhart Brings Native Apple Silicon to Mac Astrophotography
After five and a half years of Rosetta 2, PixInsight finally runs as a native ARM64 binary on M-series Macs. I tested it on my Mac Studio M3 Ultra and the CPU score nearly doubled.
Laminar 1.1.0: Planetary Capture for Ten Camera Brands on Mac
Laminar 1.1.0 is live on the Mac App Store with native macOS support for ten astronomy camera brands — QHY, ToupTek, SVBONY, Altair Astro, OGMA, RisingCam, MallinCam, Omegon, plus ZWO and PlayerOne.
Laminar 1.0 Is on the Mac App Store — Native Planetary Capture for macOS
The first planetary capture app built specifically for the Mac is here. Real-time frame quality analysis, automatic planet tracking, and atmospheric seeing scores — $34.99 on the Mac App Store.
Strata Is Now in Beta — Native Planetary Stacking and Sharpening for macOS
Strata replaces the traditional Windows-only chain of AutoStakkert, RegiStax, and PIPP with a single GPU-accelerated macOS app. Now available as a free public beta on TestFlight.
The MacBook Behind the Black Hole: How Mac Supports Cutting-Edge Astronomical Research
Katie Bouman's viral photo told half the story — here's why professional astronomers chose Mac long before that moment. When Katie Bouman,
Space Station Passes: A Free, Ad-Free Way to Track Satellites
There’s something magical about watching the International Space Station glide silently across the night sky. For many of us, those passes are a reminder
Planet Stacker X: A macOS-Native Planetary Imaging Tool from Rain City Astro
One of the long-standing frustrations for Mac-based astrophotographers has been the lack of native, high-quality stacking software tailored for planetary imaging. While