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.
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
LuckyStackWorker: The Best Free Mac Software for Sharpening Planetary, Lunar, and Solar Astrophotography Images
LuckyStackWorker is a powerful and free post-processing application designed specifically for planetary, lunar, and solar astrophotography. Available for macOS, Windows, and Linux, this open-
Planetary System Stacker now has a launcher installer
A one-click launcher from developer Nick Kohrn gets Planetary System Stacker running on macOS without touching the terminal.
Seti Astro Scripts come to the Mac as a standalone application
The popular Seti Astro Scripts have now come to the Mac as a standalone application. If you don’t use PixInsight this suite of applications
ZWO's ASIAir comes to the Mac
The iOS only ASIAIr application has been converted to an M1 native Mac app If you are like me, and don’t want to leave