Primordial Light: Made with a Mac

January 3, 2009: I made this screen capture in the course of making a three-minute red exposure of IC 405. The planetarium program and the camera control program were Equinox 6 and Equinox Image, respectively. Guiding was accomplished with a Starfish Guide Camera and PHD Guiding software. “STL Movement.rtf” is an aide-memoire that I use to make image composition and guide-star acquisition easier. Notice the FLIFocus software at lower right. I'm waiting for a Mac developer to write software for the FLI PDF focuser. Until that happens, I control the focuser via FLIFocus running under Windows. in this case Windows is running under VMWare Fusion in Fusion’s “Unity view.” In Unity the Windows interface is invisible and application windows appear on the desktop alongside Mac application windows. It's the most transparent way of running Windows that I know. VMWare Fusion handles USB devices well; the FLI PDF focuser's USB cable connects to the same USB hub as the Mac-controlled hardware (cameras and telescope). If I am to use my FLI PDF focuser I am bound to use Windows; it is the last piece of hardware I have to tie me to Windows. If no one writes a Mac driver I'll simply sell the FLI PDF and get another RoboFocus as I complete my transition to all-Mac in my astrophotography.
 
Mac Astro