Free Astronomy Software For Mac

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Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. It is being used in planetarium projectors. Just set your coordinates and go. License: Freeware Developer/Publisher: Stellarium Project Modification Date: September 29, 2019. Mac Astronomy and Astrophotography software I currently collect and edit all of my astrophotography images on a PC computer, but what about Mac users? The post-processing side of things is easy, Mac users can use Photoshop, Lightroom, PixInsight, or any other of the premium creative tools. WinOrbit: Satellite Tracking software will compute, display and tell the whereabouts of artificial earth satellites, including information on their distance, bearing and elevation. The data can be updated in manual, simulation modes or in real-time. That’s the list of top 10 free astronomy software packages available to help you.

You don't really need a computer and software at the telescope to shoot astrophotos. When you first start out it is much easier to skip the computer. You can focus with Live View, and then take test exposures to determine the correct exposure and framing of the object you want to shoot.

I shot without a computer at the telescope for 20 years back in the days of film before digital cameras. I didn't even have a Go To mount, I just used setting circles and star charts.

Once you get a little more advanced, using a laptop at the scope can make pointing and camera control a little bit easier and also allow more advanced techniques such autoguiding, and dithering. Dithering is changing the scope pointing a small amount between exposures to help deal with noise and hot pixels in the images. The price to be paid for this, however, is additional complexity, powering a laptop computer at the scope at a dark-sky remote observing location, dealing with USB connection issues, and cable routing.

Camera control software will allow almost complete control of the camera while you sit at the laptop computer. You can use software metrics to help you focus as well as program in a series of long exposures and pauses between them. You'll also be able to see your images at a larger size on your computer screen compared to the LCD on the back of the camera.

Planetarium programs will allow you to control and point your Go To mount. Simply click on an object in your planetarium program and tell the mount to point the scope at it.

Once you have shot your images, you will need to process them to make them look their best. Usually we shoot multiple images and align and stack them to improve the signal-to-noise ratio in the images. Then additional contrast and color corrections are also applied to make them look their best.


  • Camera Control
    • BackYardEOS ($ Free / $35 / $50) Highly recommended
    • AstroPhotography Tool ($ Free / $20) Highly recommended
  • Mount Control
    • Cartes du Ciel ($ Free) Highly recommended
  • Image Processing
    • Deep SkyStacker ($ Free) - Stacking and Aligning
    • Photoshop Creative Cloud ($10/month subscription) - Processing
    • Images Plus ($200) - Stacking, Aligning, Processing

Add:

  • NINA
  • Sequence Generator Pro
  • Sequator
  • Starry Landscape Stacker
  • Starry Sky Stacker
  • Astro Pixel Processor
  • Lynkeos
  • SiriL
  • PixInsight
  • SharpCap SharpCap is an easy-to-use and powerful astronomy camera capture tool. It can be used with dedicated astronomy cameras, webcams and USB frame grabbers. A wide range of features makes SharpCap suitable for many types of astro-imaging including Planetary, Lunar, Solar, Deep Sky and EAA (Electronically Assisted Astronomy).

The line is becoming blurred between DSLR and Mirrorless digital cameras such as those by Sony, Nikon and Canon, and CMOS sensors used in dedicated astronomical cameras such as those by ZWO and QHY.

There are many different types of software that may help you astrophotography:

  • Camera Control
  • Software-Assisted Focusing
  • Image Acquisition Automation
  • Plate Solving
  • Image Calibration, Aligning and Stacking
  • Image Correction and Enhancement
  • Autoguiding Software
  • Photo Utilities
  • Photoshop Filters and Actions
  • Articles on Image Processing of Astrophotos
  • Planetarium Programs and Atlases

DSLR Camera Control

Best Free Astronomy Software For Mac

With camera control software, you can use your computer to control all of the functions and settings of your camera, such as setting the ISO, opening the shutter, and shooting multiple frames for stacking.

With the current generation of Canon EOS DSLR cameras software by the camera manufacturer will control all functions of the camera. This is accomplished through a single USB-2 Cable and includes control of the bulb setting for exposures longer than 30 seconds. This software also allows viewing of the Live-view real-time image on the computer and focusing.

With previous camera generations of Canon DSLRs and Nikon DSLR cameras, the camera manufacturer's software could control all camera functions except one critical one for astrophotography: the ability to shoot exposures longer than 30 seconds with the bulb setting. This major drawback necessitated the use of third-party software to control the camera and access bulb exposures longer than 30 seconds through the use of a serial to bulb port cable. For old cameras, two cables were necessary for astrophotography: one USB cable to control camera functions and one serial to bulb port cable for long exposures.


Software-Assisted Focusing

The latest generation cameras allow focusing through the camera manufacturer's software. This can be done by manual focusing and visual inspection of the Live-view image on the computer, or by autofocus if the camera is shooting through an autofocus lens.

For previous generation cameras without Live-View, an image had to be downloaded to the computer and then visually examined for focus accuracy. Programs will download an image and then examine a star and give a readout of the star's diameter or brightness. This metric-assisted focusing is objective and did not rely on any visual interpretation to determine focus.

Through a process of manual trial and error, accurate focus could be achieved through software-assisted focusing.

The latest DSLR camera manufacturer's software can make focusing very easy with Live-view, and some, like BackYardEOS, BackYardNIKON and AstroPhotography Tool use metric-assisted focusing for astrophotography.

If you have a mototized focuser, you can use software-assisted focusing to autofocus your telescope.


Image Acquisition Automation

Serious deep-sky astrophotography requires shooting many short exposures. This can be done manually, but it is very tedious. For example, faint deep-sky objects may require several hours worth of 5 minute exposures that are later stacked or combined in subsequent image processing.

Software such as Images Plus or MaxDSLR can automate this process. You simply specify in the software that you want the camera to shoot, say, 25 exposures of 5 minutes each at ISO 1600 with a pause of 10 seconds between frames (to give the system time to download each image).

The latest software provided by Nikon and Canon also provides the functionality for this type of automated image acquisition with the latest generation of DSLR cameras.

Free Astronomy Software For Mac Download


Plate Solving

There are several free pieces of software that will take an image (a short exposure) and 'plate solve' it for you. That means it examines patterns of stars in the image to determine the exact center of the field of view of your camera and scope. Once this is determined, the software can send these coordinates to your mount so the mount knows exactly where it is pointing to improve accuracy of GoTo's.

Plate solving is also useful if you shoot the same object over several nights. You can then solve an image from the first night, and store it. Then the > time out, you can just use that solve to frame your object for that night.


Image Calibration, Aligning and Stacking

Advanced astronomical imaging requires the 'calibration' of the raw original images. Calibration means removing unwanted fixed signals (such as thermal current and bias), and correction for signal modifications (such as vignetting) so that the raw image accurately represents the intensity of light incident on the sensor during the exposure. We will discuss these topics in detail in future sections, but right now lets just talk briefly about the software required for image calibration.

Both Canon and Nikon usually include image processing software with their cameras, but this software is for processing normal daytime images. You can not use it for image calibration, aligning, or stacking at all.

Platforms

To calibrate your original raw astronomical images, you will require some type of special astronomical image processing software, such as Images Plus, MaxDSLR, AIP (Astronomical Image Processing), AstroArt, IRIS, Deep Sky Stacker or Regim.

Windows 10 Astronomy Software

'Stacking' means combining many individual short exposures into a master image by any of several mathematical processes such as averaging, or addition. The term originates in the days of film astrophotography where images were literally stacked on top of one another to improve contrast and color.

You will also need to align your images so that the stars in them line up perfectly.

Whatever software you use for image calibration will almost certainly also do aligning and image stacking. It is possible to align and stack images in Photoshop, but for more than a couple of frames, the process is extremely tedious and not as accurate as with a dedicated astronomical image processing program.


Image Correction and Enhancement

Once your images are calibrated, aligned and stacked, you will want to correct for things such as color balance, and increase the contrast to make faint details more visible. You will probably also want to apply some type of noise reduction, and you may want to apply more sophisticated enhancement techniques.

These processes can be done in the previously mentioned astronomical image processing programs such as Images Plus, MaxDSLR, AIP (Astronomical Image Processing), AstroArt, and IRIS.

However, at this stage of image processing, many astrophotographers prefer to switch to a general image processing program such as Photoshop.


Autoguiding Software

For long-exposure deep-sky astrophotography, guiding during the exposure can be very useful in producing higher quality images. By manually or automatically following a star by making corrections in right ascension and declination higher tracking accuracy is obtained.

Autoguiding involves using a separate CCD or Webcam to monitor a stars position and then send corrections to the telescope's mounting to guide or follow the star with high accuracy to compensate for inaccuracies in the mount's tracking.

SBIG used to make the ST-4 and ST-V which were stand alone autoguiders which did not require a computer. These units have been discontinued but can be found used on Astromart.

CCD cameras and webcams can be also be used as autoguiders, but software, such as GuideDog and PHD, is required to run on a computer that interfaces between the autoguider and mount.


Photo Utilities

These programs perform useful functions like allowing you to open FITS format files, perform noise reduction, and create thumbnails for indexing and archiving.


Photoshop Filters and Actions

These filters and actions work inside of Photoshop and perform specialty functions for astronomy, such as gradient and noise reduction.


Articles on Image Processing of Astrophotos

Articles in book and video format teach you how to do astrophotography, and use programs such as Images Plus for image calibration and Photoshop for image correction and enhancement.


Planetarium Programs and Atlases

Planetarium programs and atlases let you find out what is up in the sky, and plan your observing and astrophotography session.

Astronomical Software For the PC

  • DSLR Camera Control

    • IRIS $Free - DSLR control, image acquisition automation
    • PalmDSLR $Free - DSLR control with a Palm computer
    • APT (Astro Photography Tool) - Camera control, focus, image acquisition automation
    • BackyardEOS Camera control, focus, image acquisition automation, drift alignment assist
    • BackyardNIKON Camera control, focus, image acquisition automation, drift alignment assist
    • Nebulosity Camera control, focus, image acquisition automation, image calibration, image processing
    • Images Plus Camera Control DSLR control, focusing, image acquisition automation
    • AstroArt DSLR and CCD control and image processing
    • Maxim DL DSLR control and image processing

  • Software-Assisted Focusing

    • Focus Max $Free - Focusing software that automates focusing if you have a motorized focuser that works with Maxim DL or CCD Soft
    • APT (Astro Photography Tool) - Camera control, focus, image acquisition automation
    • BackyardEOS Camera control, focus, image acquisition automation, drift alignment assist
    • Nebulosity Camera control, focus, image acquisition automation, image calibration, image processing
    • Images Plus Camera Control DSLR control, focusing, image acquisition automation
    • AstroArt DSLR and CCD control and image processing
    • Maxim DSLR DSLR control and image processing

  • Image Acquisition Automation

    • DSLR Shutter $Free - image acquisition automation
    • APT (Astro Photography Tool) - Camera control, focus, image acquisition automation
    • BackyardEOS - Camera control, focus, image acquisition automation, drift alignment assist
    • Nebulosity - Camera control, focus, image acquisition automation, image calibration, image processing
    • Images Plus Camera Control - DSLR control, focusing, image acquisition automation
    • AstroArt - DSLR and CCD control and image processing
    • Maxim DSLR - DSLR control and image processing

  • Plate Solving

  • Image Calibration, Aligning and Stacking

    • Deep Sky Stacker $Free - Image calibration, alignment, stacking
    • Regim $Free - Image calibration, alignment, stacking
    • IRIS $Free - DSLR control, image acquisition automation
    • RegiStax $Free - for stacking planetary images shot with webcams
    • Nebulosity - Camera control, focus, image acquisition automation, image calibration, image processing
    • AIP (Astronomical Image Processing) - Image calibration, correction, enhancement
    • Images Plus - Image calibration, correction, enhancement
    • AstroArt - DSLR and CCD control and image processing
    • PixInsight - Image calibration, correction, enhancement
    • Maxim DSLR - DSLR control and image processing

  • Image Correction and Enhancement

    • IRIS $Free
    • GIMPshop $Free

  • Autoguiding Software

    • GuideDog $Free
    • PHD (Push Here Dummy) $Free
    • Metaguide $Free
    • Guidemaster $Free

  • Photo Utilities

    • Dark Library $Free - Sort Dark frames by EXIF temperature data
    • EXIF Reader $Free - Reads EXIF data, such as shutter speed, ISO, aperture, date and time of photo that is stored in the image file. Also a thumbnail and image viewer
    • FITS Liberator $Free - FITS file format image handling software
    • Noiseware Community Edition $Free - Noise Reduction software
    • Background Subtraction Toolkit $Free - Remove gradients and vignetting
    • IrfanView $Free - Image viewer
    • Picassa $Free - Thumbnail and Image Viewer and database
    • ThumbsPlus $90 - Thumbnail viewer and database
    • StarTrails - $Free - Stack individual frames to creat a star-trail image
    • StarStax $Free - Stack individual frames to creat a star-trail image
    • StarMax $Free - Stack individual frames to creat a star-trail image

  • Photoshop Filters and Actions

    • Astronomy Tools - Noel Carboni's Photoshop actions for various astrophoto techniques
    • Annie's Astro Actions - Astrophotography specific Photoshop actions
    • Noise Ninja - Noise Reduction filter
    • GradientXTerminator - Removes vignetting and gradients

  • Articles on Image Processing of Astrophotos

    • PixInsight Articles $Free
    • A Guide to Film Astrophotography $25 (Download version)
    • A Guide to Astrophotography with Digital SLR Cameras $40 (Book on book)
    • IP4AP Warren Keller
    • EZ-CCD-DVD - Tony Hallas Video Articles on DVD

  • Planetarium Programs and Atlases

    • Stellarium $Free
    • Cartes du Ciel $Free
    • Virtual Moon Atlas $Free

Astronomical Software For the Mac

  • DSLR Camera Control and Focusing

    • DSLR Shutter $Free - image acquisition automation
    • Nebulosity - Camera control, focus, image acquisition automation, image calibration, image processing
    • iAstrophoto $Free - Digital camera focus and control software for Canon astrophotography using Macintosh OS X
    • Astro IIDC - primarily for planetary imaging

  • Astronomical Image Processing Programs

    • Keith's Image Stacker - For stacking planetary images
    • Lykenos $Free - Planetary image stacking and processing
    • Astrostack - Image stacking and processing
    • Nebulosity - Camera control, focus, image acquisition automation, image calibration, image processing

  • General Image Processing Programs

    • GIMPshop $Free

  • Photo Utilities

    • FITS Liberator $Free - FITS file format image handling software
    • iPhoto Bundled with New Macs, or available as part of iLife ) - image viewer, database, and image editing
    • StarStax $Free - Stack individual frames for a star trail image

  • Photoshop Filters and Actions

    • Astronomy Tools - Noel Carboni's Photoshop actions for various astrophoto techniques
    • Annie's Astro Actions - Astrophotography specific Photoshop actions
    • Noise Ninja $80 Noise Reduction filter

  • Articles on Image Processing of Astrophotos

    • A Guide to Film Astrophotography $25 (download)
    • A Guide to Astrophotography with Digital SLR Cameras $40 (Book on book)

  • Planetarium Programs, Atlases, Etc.

    • Stellarium $Free - Desktop planetarium and space simulation
    • Celestia $Free - Desktop planetarium and space simulation
    • AstroPlanner - Planning, logging, telescope control
    • Equinox6 - Desktop planetarium, telescope, webcam and focuser control
    • AstroImage Browser - Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) front end, astrophotography planning, and ability to overlay your own images on DSS images for comparison
    • The SkyX - Desktop Planetarium
    • Starry Night - Desktop planetarium

Astronomical Software For Linux


Prices on all commercial software are subject to change without notice.

Free Astronomy Software For Mac Computer

Note that you should be able to run any of the Windows programs listed above on your Mac with OS-X and software like Parallels or VMware Fusion.

Midnightkite also has a nice collection of links to lots of other astronomical related software for a variety of operating systems.


Software That I Use

  • Planning
  • Weather Evaluation
  • Polar Aligning
  • Plate Solving and Target Acquisition
    • AstroPhotography Tool with
      • Astrometric STAcking Program (ASTAP) and
  • Software-Assisted Focusing
  • Camera Control
    • BackYardEOS or
  • Autoguiding Software
  • Image Acquisition Automation
    • BackYardEOS or
  • Image Calibration, Aligning and Stacking
  • Image Correction and Enhancement
  • Photoshop Filters and Actions