Thanks for the heads up. I check that site all the time (sometimes I forget and
have to
back track). Let me know if you ever see that Satellite screen saver come to
fruition (the
one that was on the WWDC). I am eagerly awaiting that one.

I know how you feel about the refractor envy. The problem with putting money
into
accessories is it just adds to what you need to bring outside on a given night.
The
refractor can be whipped out in no time and viola, your viewing. I want one.

Maybe we could get a deal on two....  No, my wife would shoot me. House done
first, toys
later :(

I am having 3 trees removed tomorrow. All elms, one dead, one half dead, and two
with
nasty splits that are oozing yucky brown wet stuff. They also happen to be the
trees that
are blocking a nice open spot in my back yard. I have plenty of Oaks and Maples
yet, but
they are not really in my way (not to mention, they're healthy). I can't wait,
my sky will be
so much nicer!!!!

Duane

--- In macstronomy@yahoogroups.com, paul@d... wrote:
> Just learned about this freeware app from the TeleVue* group:
>
>    http://tinyurl.com/52eyz
>
> Looks pretty cool. I already check the APOD site every day as part of my
startup routine,
> but I'll give this a try anyway.
>
> Enjoy!
>
> p
>
> * I've got my eyes on a used TV-85 package at the moment. I just need to
decide
whether
> dropping $2500 or so into accessories for my N8GPS might not be a more prudent
> investment. But I've always had refractor envy...  ;-)

Just learned about this freeware app from the TeleVue* group:

    http://tinyurl.com/52eyz

Looks pretty cool. I already check the APOD site every day as part of my startup
routine,
but I'll give this a try anyway.

Enjoy!

p

* I've got my eyes on a used TV-85 package at the moment. I just need to decide
whether
dropping $2500 or so into accessories for my N8GPS might not be a more prudent
investment. But I've always had refractor envy...  ;-)

This question could mean two things.

Do you want your wireless connection around your house or place of business=
?

Do you want wireless in a remote vicinity in the same sense that your cell =
phone is
wireless?

Most of the time when people refer to wireless, they are still in a sense "=
tethered" to the
vicinity of their wireless network. This type of network can be accomplishe=
d with an Apple
Airport base station (or Airport express) which is usually plugged into a c=
able modem or
other wide band internet connection.

If you need "cross country" wireless it's another story. First off, it's no=
t fast. It's about the
speed of a 56k modem. There is more than one service to accomplish this and=
  they are in
their infancy yet —meaning, the plans are not very planned out and there do=
esn't seem to
be a standard. It does require hooking up the laptop with a wire to a cell =
phone or through
bluetooth to a bluetooth capable phone. If you have an existing cellular pr=
ovider, I'd check
with them first. If this is what you are looking for, I know a couple peopl=
e doing this and I
can look into it farther. Keep in mind, it's not fast and it carries some e=
xtra cost.

This does bring up an additional story though. Did anybody see that Centrin=
o
advertisement with the group climbing up Mt Everest (dramatic wind and snow=
) and the
guy in the tent connects with his laptop and his family (on a beach somewhe=
re) e-mails
him some photo's? A friend of mine looking into this and as it turns out, i=
t took 11
donkeys to carry up the equipment (satellite, generator, fuel, etc....) to =
make that happen.
His laptop was wirelessly connected to the satellite dish being run by a ge=
nerator, none of
which you couldn't see in the ad. Biggest misrepresentation I have seen on =
TV. This ad
skewed what a lot of people think "wireless" can accomplish.

Sorry for the side track. Let me know what you need to do and I'll give my =

recommendations.

Duane Deal

--- In macstronomy@yahoogroups.com, "Bill Collins" <coll3957@b...> wrote:
> Hi all,
> I'm new to the group & the Mac. I have a PB4 with I gig ram. I have a
> LX 90 and XT8 for telescopes. The PB has an Airport wireless card
> built in.
>
> My question is what does it take to make the laptop truly wireless?
> Will the Airport card and a cell phone do it?
>
> Thanks,Bill

Hi all,
I'm new to the group & the Mac. I have a PB4 with I gig ram. I have a
LX 90 and XT8 for telescopes. The PB has an Airport wireless card
built in.

My question is what does it take to make the laptop truly wireless?
Will the Airport card and a cell phone do it?

Thanks,Bill

Wow, there is a lot of info on that Toucam on line. And it shows it's only =
$38 at
amazon.com! Not a bad deal.

I need to take a month off of work...

--- In macstronomy@yahoogroups.com, bob piatek <bobtek@f...> wrote:
> I've got one of the iSight cameras and it's a great camera for video
> conferencing which is what it was designed for.  However, I'm not
> impressed with the low-light level performance of it.  It's not as good
> as the ToUCam which is one of the best for AstroPhotography.
>
> It may be useful as a video source for auto-guiding on brighter stars
> but I have my doubts for anything else.
>
> I looked at removing the lens from mine a while back so i could do some
> prime focus tests but, for the life of me, I couldn't figure how the
> thing was assembled.  Apple must have designed it to 'snap' together.
> If anyone has been successful on disassembling the iSight, let me know.
>
> Bob
>
>
> On Aug 5, 2004, at 6:51 AM, paul@d... wrote:
>
> > Here's an web article about using an Apple iSight for webcam
> > astrophotography:
> >
> >     http://tinyurl.com/6entw
> >
> >  Unfortunately the guy hasn't posted any further results. I've been
> > checking the page every
> >  few months for the past year and no updates. Nevertheless, it is an
> > interesting
> >  proposition.
> >
> >  A few years ago they were giving away free iSights to everyone who
> > attended the Macworld
> >  show in NYC. Someone offered me a free pass but I declined. Damn! ;-)
> >
> >  Best,
> >  p
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
> >
> > ADVERTISEMENT
> > <lrec_companion_043004.gif>
> > <l.gif>
> >
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >  •  To visit your group on the web, go to:
> > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/macstronomy/
> >  
> >  • 	 To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> > macstronomy-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
> >  
> >  • 	 Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of
> > Service.
> >
> >

News so nice you said it twice!   :)

That is a great idea. I have an iSight and will have to try that out. Thanks for
the info and
I'll let you know what I come up with.

Duane

--- In macstronomy@yahoogroups.com, paul@d... wrote:
> Here's an web article about using an Apple iSight for webcam astrophotography:
>
>    http://tinyurl.com/6entw
>
> Unfortunately the guy hasn't posted any further results. I've been checking
the page
every
> few months for the past year and no updates. Nevertheless, it is an
interesting
> proposition.
>
> A few years ago they were giving away free iSights to everyone who attended
the
Macworld
> show in NYC. Someone offered me a free pass but I declined. Damn! ;-)
>
> Best,
> p

I hope you do get a G5! That should put an end to any sluggishness. My next Mac
will be a
laptop and I don't think I'm going to wait for the G5 to come out in that. Too
impatient.

I wouldn't mod the iMac to 400mhz either. If people want to, it's their priority
and some
people don't experience instability, as Apple is very lenient regarding their
cushions of
failure. But it's nice to have that extra cushion when your pushing your system
hard.

Let us know how your next observations/Imaging goes!

And feel free to post your site to the links sections!

Duane Deal

--- In macstronomy@yahoogroups.com, belatrix <belatrix@o...> wrote:
> Hi Duane,
> Thanks for the compliments! Dreamweaver 4 is a very nice website creation
> tool i must admit. But it has been a group effort involved in obtaining most
> of those shots - so i can only take a little of the credit.
> Believe it or not we had the most outrageous unseasonal weather during the
> best of Q4's and T7's apparitions, and so missed many, many great photo
> opportunities due to clouds :(. We are still getting over that! but of
> course have to be happy with what we got i guess.
>  Never too late to start getting into this wonderful hobby - we havent been
> doing astrophotography very long either really, just a few years at a
> consistent level.
>
> I do have 768 mb RAM in this machine - I need it for Photoshop to run
> properly when you get up to 400mb files whilst processing!
>  When i run Panther on this machine - its not happy when i try to run
> multiple large apps at once - whereas it works like a dream in OS 9 no
> problems, needless to say some mac using friends cant believe i am the last
> person on earth still using OS 9 primarily.
>  Maybe i should of been brave and hot rodded this 350mhz chip up to 400mhz
> at least, as i understand that is really a 400mhz chip deliberately slowed
> by apple, so there was more choices in models at the time of purchase, but i
> like the stability it has at that configuration. And it does run nice and
> cool at that speed. My understanding also is that for OS X to work as it
> should on a G3 chip, you need at least the 500mhz CPU version - that is
> something i have heard anyway.
>
> Thanks for the excellent tips on improving the OS operational speeds - i
> didnt know that -  will give it a try - if i dont get my G5 first!
>
> And I will keep posting when something happens for sure!
>
> Cheers
> Kearn
>
> P.S. has anyone ever tried the freeware planetarium program for OSX
> "Celestia" i think it is only a beta?
> <http://www.shatters.net/celestia/index.html>
>
> download is here
> <http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/celestia/CelestiaMacOSX.dmg>
> i would be grateful to hear any feed back on this.
>
>
> > From: "Duane Deal" <deal@m...>
> > Reply-To: macstronomy@yahoogroups.com
> > Date: Wed, 04 Aug 2004 14:40:58 -0000
> > To: macstronomy@yahoogroups.com
> > Subject: [macstronomy] Re: Howdy
> >
> > Hi Kearn,
> >
> > Nice site. Great comet shots! Neat Q4 was my first attempt at
AstroPhotography
> > (shows
> > you how new I am in this field). They are not as nice as yours...
> >
> > The smurf shouldn't be too bad of an OS X machine. I keep up the IT end of a
> > few labs in
> > the research end at Mayo Clinic. One of the Core Facilities I work for has
> > five 400mhz
> > iMacs running OS X. The one thing we did have to do was bump them up to
500mb
> > of
> > RAM which is really not too spendy any more. We primarily run FileMaker Pro
on
> > them
> > among a few other apps. They have served us well.
> >
> > One thing that helps to a degree on such a small hard drive is to do a
custom
> > install and
> > disable all of the extra language options and if you don't want your
computer
> > talking back
> > to you, the extra voices too. That saves a ton of space. I also install a
> > -very- bare bones
> > OS 9 to run as classic. The next build I do, I'll take a screen shot to show
> > how much I
> > disable. It really makes OS 9 fly (in classic).
> >
> > It takes some extra time, but it's worth it.
> >
> > Thanks for posting. If you see a new Mac-astro application or update (or
> > anything), let us
> > know.
> >
> > Also, keep us updated on your sky viewing.
> >
> > Duane
> >
> > --- In macstronomy@yahoogroups.com, belatrix <belatrix@o...> wrote:

That was a link from www.macastronomy.com

That's the first link in the Links menu on the left. If you have some favor=
ite links, feel free
to add them to that menu. That is a great presentation, and there is some o=
ther
information on that same site regarding web cams. I am eager to try that so=
meday.... so
much to do and so little time.

I will get out to image Friday if the weather allows (forcast for me, partl=
y cloudy).

Duane

--- In macstronomy@yahoogroups.com, bob piatek <bobtek@f...> wrote:
> Duane,
>
> That is a nice presentation on web-cam imaging.  Where was that paper
> given?  It is labeled as 'RAS' but I'm not familiar with that.
>
> Lot's of info on imaging and processing.  Also included a lot of
> references to Mac based programs.
>
> Regards,
>
> Bob
>
>
>
> On Aug 4, 2004, at 3:35 PM, Duane Deal wrote:
>
> > I like the Digital Rebel, although I haven't really taken many
> > astro-photos=
> >  with it yet. I got
> >  a meade off axis guider recently which I haven't used yet at all. I
> > would i=
> >  f God would let me
> >  see the sky on a Friday night. I need to pray more....
> >
> >  I need to get one of those cables for the it (computer to rebel) but
> > I want=
> >  to see if a local
> >  company will make a mac to rebel cable for me. (instead of the 9 or
> > 25 pin =
> >  it would have
> >  the round mac serial end and eliminate 1 more conversion). You may
> > want one=
> >  of those for
> >  your Rebel too.
> >
> >  Recently I read that the little web-cams are the way to go for solar
> > system=
> >  objects
> > http://www.digi-empire.com/macastronomy/RAS-July04-final_screen.pdf ). =

> > Now =
> >  I'm
> >  wondering if I should look into one of those —if anything, because I
> > love g=
> >  adgets and it
> >  sounds like fun.
> >
> >  Darn, have to go back to work....
> >
> >  Have a good one,
> >
> >  Duane
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
> >
> > ADVERTISEMENT
> > <lrec_companion_043004.gif>
> > <l.gif>
> >
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >  •  To visit your group on the web, go to:
> > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/macstronomy/
> >  
> >  • 	 To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> > macstronomy-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
> >  
> >  • 	 Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of
> > Service.
> >
> >

I've got one of the iSight cameras and it's a great camera for video
conferencing which is what it was designed for.  However, I'm not
impressed with the low-light level performance of it.  It's not as good
as the ToUCam which is one of the best for AstroPhotography.

It may be useful as a video source for auto-guiding on brighter stars
but I have my doubts for anything else.

I looked at removing the lens from mine a while back so i could do some
prime focus tests but, for the life of me, I couldn't figure how the
thing was assembled.  Apple must have designed it to 'snap' together.
If anyone has been successful on disassembling the iSight, let me know.

Bob


On Aug 5, 2004, at 6:51 AM, paul@... wrote:

> Here's an web article about using an Apple iSight for webcam
> astrophotography:
>
>     http://tinyurl.com/6entw
>
>  Unfortunately the guy hasn't posted any further results. I've been
> checking the page every
>  few months for the past year and no updates. Nevertheless, it is an
> interesting
>  proposition.
>
>  A few years ago they were giving away free iSights to everyone who
> attended the Macworld
>  show in NYC. Someone offered me a free pass but I declined. Damn! ;-)
>
>  Best,
>  p
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
>
> ADVERTISEMENT
> <lrec_companion_043004.gif>
> <l.gif>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>  •  To visit your group on the web, go to:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/macstronomy/
>  
>  • 	 To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> macstronomy-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>  
>  • 	 Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of
> Service.
>
>

Here's an web article about using an Apple iSight for webcam astrophotography:

    http://tinyurl.com/6entw

Unfortunately the guy hasn't posted any further results. I've been checking the
page every
few months for the past year and no updates. Nevertheless, it is an interesting
proposition.

A few years ago they were giving away free iSights to everyone who attended the
Macworld
show in NYC. Someone offered me a free pass but I declined. Damn! ;-)

Best,
p

Here's an web article about using an Apple iSight for webcam astrophotography:

    http://tinyurl.com/6entw

Unfortunately the guy hasn't posted any further results. I've been checking the
page every
few months for the past year and no updates. Nevertheless, it is an interesting
proposition.

A few years ago they were giving away free iSights to everyone who attended the
Macword
show in NYC. Someone offered me a free pass but I declined. Damn! ;-)

Best,
p

Hi Duane,
Thanks for the compliments! Dreamweaver 4 is a very nice website creation
tool i must admit. But it has been a group effort involved in obtaining most
of those shots - so i can only take a little of the credit.
Believe it or not we had the most outrageous unseasonal weather during the
best of Q4's and T7's apparitions, and so missed many, many great photo
opportunities due to clouds :(. We are still getting over that! but of
course have to be happy with what we got i guess.
  Never too late to start getting into this wonderful hobby - we havent been
doing astrophotography very long either really, just a few years at a
consistent level.

I do have 768 mb RAM in this machine - I need it for Photoshop to run
properly when you get up to 400mb files whilst processing!
  When i run Panther on this machine - its not happy when i try to run
multiple large apps at once - whereas it works like a dream in OS 9 no
problems, needless to say some mac using friends cant believe i am the last
person on earth still using OS 9 primarily.
  Maybe i should of been brave and hot rodded this 350mhz chip up to 400mhz
at least, as i understand that is really a 400mhz chip deliberately slowed
by apple, so there was more choices in models at the time of purchase, but i
like the stability it has at that configuration. And it does run nice and
cool at that speed. My understanding also is that for OS X to work as it
should on a G3 chip, you need at least the 500mhz CPU version - that is
something i have heard anyway.

Thanks for the excellent tips on improving the OS operational speeds - i
didnt know that -  will give it a try - if i dont get my G5 first!

And I will keep posting when something happens for sure!

Cheers
Kearn

P.S. has anyone ever tried the freeware planetarium program for OSX
"Celestia" i think it is only a beta?
<http://www.shatters.net/celestia/index.html>

download is here
<http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/celestia/CelestiaMacOSX.dmg>
i would be grateful to hear any feed back on this.


> From: "Duane Deal" <deal@...>
> Reply-To: macstronomy@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Wed, 04 Aug 2004 14:40:58 -0000
> To: macstronomy@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [macstronomy] Re: Howdy
>
> Hi Kearn,
>
> Nice site. Great comet shots! Neat Q4 was my first attempt at AstroPhotography
> (shows
> you how new I am in this field). They are not as nice as yours...
>
> The smurf shouldn't be too bad of an OS X machine. I keep up the IT end of a
> few labs in
> the research end at Mayo Clinic. One of the Core Facilities I work for has
> five 400mhz
> iMacs running OS X. The one thing we did have to do was bump them up to 500mb
> of
> RAM which is really not too spendy any more. We primarily run FileMaker Pro on
> them
> among a few other apps. They have served us well.
>
> One thing that helps to a degree on such a small hard drive is to do a custom
> install and
> disable all of the extra language options and if you don't want your computer
> talking back
> to you, the extra voices too. That saves a ton of space. I also install a
> -very- bare bones
> OS 9 to run as classic. The next build I do, I'll take a screen shot to show
> how much I
> disable. It really makes OS 9 fly (in classic).
>
> It takes some extra time, but it's worth it.
>
> Thanks for posting. If you see a new Mac-astro application or update (or
> anything), let us
> know.
>
> Also, keep us updated on your sky viewing.
>
> Duane
>
> --- In macstronomy@yahoogroups.com, belatrix <belatrix@o...> wrote:

Thankyou Bob!

Your right, we are very spoiled with dark skies, with lots of clear nights
on average, here in the state of South Australia. But unfortunately we dont
get much in the way of elevation though. But its also no coincidence that
worlds greatest living champion comet discoverer (Bill Bradfield) has made
all of his comet discoveries here in SA.

That is one of my favourite shots also! Barry is indeed a die-hard
astronomer (and also a mac user) - specially he now has his new 'u beaut'
moon boots! hehe :)  I have had frost like that form on the top of my
thermal beanie (dont know if you use that term elsewhere in the world for a
woolen type hat) on my head once! (but it might explain a few things - lol!
;) )

Cheers
Kearn

> From: bob piatek <bobtek@...>
> Reply-To: macstronomy@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Wed, 4 Aug 2004 06:53:32 -0700
> To: macstronomy@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [macstronomy] Howdy
>
> Nice web site!  Looks like you have got some really dark skies also.
>
> I liked the picture of Baz all bundled up and the scope with the frost
> on it.  A sign of a die-hard astronomer.
>
> Bob
>
>
> On Aug 4, 2004, at 12:17 AM, belatrix wrote:
>
>> Hi All
>>
>> Great to see a group on this topic - long overdue!
>>
>> We have a little astro website completely made using mac only -
>> scanning
>> everything - i have never owned a PC!! i hope to keep it that way - no
>> worrying about virus's for us eh? - i cant imagine having to update
>> your
>> anti-virus software everyday!! unthinkable to me! what a pain in the
>> A**
>> that would be!
>>
>> Anyway i am still using OS 9.2.2at the moment coz of the old machine
>> (smurf
>> G3 350mhz B&W) i am using doesnt like OSX as much as i would like it
>> to - i
>> do switch over to another hard drive loaded with OS 10.3 to use
>> starry night
>> 4.5 pro and some other programs - will update very soon to a G5 :)
>>
>> here's our site
>> http://www.southern-x.org/
>>
>> Cheers
>> Kearn Jones
>> Adelaide, Australia
>> Southern-X Obs
>>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>

Duane,

That is a nice presentation on web-cam imaging.  Where was that paper
given?  It is labeled as 'RAS' but I'm not familiar with that.

Lot's of info on imaging and processing.  Also included a lot of
references to Mac based programs.

Regards,

Bob



On Aug 4, 2004, at 3:35 PM, Duane Deal wrote:

> I like the Digital Rebel, although I haven't really taken many
> astro-photos=
>  with it yet. I got
>  a meade off axis guider recently which I haven't used yet at all. I
> would i=
>  f God would let me
>  see the sky on a Friday night. I need to pray more....
>
>  I need to get one of those cables for the it (computer to rebel) but
> I want=
>  to see if a local
>  company will make a mac to rebel cable for me. (instead of the 9 or
> 25 pin =
>  it would have
>  the round mac serial end and eliminate 1 more conversion). You may
> want one=
>  of those for
>  your Rebel too.
>
>  Recently I read that the little web-cams are the way to go for solar
> system=
>  objects
> http://www.digi-empire.com/macastronomy/RAS-July04-final_screen.pdf ).
> Now =
>  I'm
>  wondering if I should look into one of those —if anything, because I
> love g=
>  adgets and it
>  sounds like fun.
>
>  Darn, have to go back to work....
>
>  Have a good one,
>
>  Duane
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
>
> ADVERTISEMENT
> <lrec_companion_043004.gif>
> <l.gif>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>  •  To visit your group on the web, go to:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/macstronomy/
>  
>  • 	 To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> macstronomy-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>  
>  • 	 Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of
> Service.
>
>

If anybody would like their e-mail messages turned off, please let me know. You
can still
get the messages here in the on-line group.

You can do this in your preferences too, but I'm happy to do it for you.

I like to post and reply to what people say, which creates a lot of messages if
everybody
does that. Some people don't like all the extra e-mail. Please let me know if
you don't want
the e-mail and I'll turn it off.

Thanks,

Duane

I like the Digital Rebel, although I haven't really taken many astro-photos=
  with it yet. I got
a meade off axis guider recently which I haven't used yet at all. I would i=
f God would let me
see the sky on a Friday night. I need to pray more....

I need to get one of those cables for the it (computer to rebel) but I want=
  to see if a local
company will make a mac to rebel cable for me. (instead of the 9 or 25 pin =
it would have
the round mac serial end and eliminate 1 more conversion). You may want one=
  of those for
your Rebel too.

Recently I read that the little web-cams are the way to go for solar system=
  objects
http://www.digi-empire.com/macastronomy/RAS-July04-final_screen.pdf ). Now =
I'm
wondering if I should look into one of those —if anything, because I love g=
adgets and it
sounds like fun.

Darn, have to go back to work....

Have a good one,

Duane

--- In macstronomy@yahoogroups.com, "Duane Deal" <deal@m...> wrote:

> When you say digicam, do you mean a digital camera or a video/web cam?

Digital cameras.

I used a Canon Powershot S40 last year for the Mars opposition in September and
lunar
eclipse in November. So-so results, focusing with the tiny LCD screen was an
ordeal, lots
of hit-and-miss.

This spring I bought a Digital Rebel but have only used it to take some photos
of sunspot
region 652 which just passed out of view. Pretty good results, both at prime
focus and
with eyepiece projection using Scopetronix MaxView DSLR adapter.

p

Hi Kearn,

Nice site. Great comet shots! Neat Q4 was my first attempt at AstroPhotography
(shows
you how new I am in this field). They are not as nice as yours...

The smurf shouldn't be too bad of an OS X machine. I keep up the IT end of a few
labs in
the research end at Mayo Clinic. One of the Core Facilities I work for has five
400mhz
iMacs running OS X. The one thing we did have to do was bump them up to 500mb of
RAM which is really not too spendy any more. We primarily run FileMaker Pro on
them
among a few other apps. They have served us well.

One thing that helps to a degree on such a small hard drive is to do a custom
install and
disable all of the extra language options and if you don't want your computer
talking back
to you, the extra voices too. That saves a ton of space. I also install a -very-
bare bones
OS 9 to run as classic. The next build I do, I'll take a screen shot to show how
much I
disable. It really makes OS 9 fly (in classic).

It takes some extra time, but it's worth it.

Thanks for posting. If you see a new Mac-astro application or update (or
anything), let us
know.

Also, keep us updated on your sky viewing.

Duane

--- In macstronomy@yahoogroups.com, belatrix <belatrix@o...> wrote:
> Hi All
>
> Great to see a group on this topic - long overdue!
>
>  We have a little astro website completely made using mac only - scanning
> everything - i have never owned a PC!! i hope to keep it that way - no
> worrying about virus's for us eh? - i cant imagine having to update your
> anti-virus software everyday!! unthinkable to me! what a pain in the A**
> that would be!
>
> Anyway i am still using OS 9.2.2at the moment coz of the old machine (smurf
> G3 350mhz B&W) i am using doesnt like OSX as much as i would like it to - i
> do switch over to another hard drive loaded with OS 10.3 to use starry night
> 4.5 pro and some other programs - will update very soon to a G5 :)
>
> here's our site
> http://www.southern-x.org/
>
> Cheers
> Kearn Jones
> Adelaide, Australia
> Southern-X Obs

Thanks for lurking:)

Your setup is similar to mine. I will be upgrading my laptop soon. I don't know
how much I
am really going to use my computer to control my scope. The go to on the scope
seems to
be working great and right on. I will most likely start using iAstro for
focusing.

I have been reading The New CCD Astronomy book which is completely geared
towards PC
use. We sure are missing a lot of stuff! It would be nice if this group would
attract enough
people (and pull) to get somebody to support us Mac users.

I just downloaded Astroplanner but have not used it yet. I'll let you know what
I think of it.

When you say digicam, do you mean a digital camera or a video/web cam?

Thanks for posting.

Duane

--- In macstronomy@yahoogroups.com, paul@d... wrote:
> Hi Duane.
>
> Wishing you the best of luck with this group. I'm mostly a lurker on the
various astro
> groups but I'll be happy to share whatever useful info I can.
>
> I currently own a NexStar 8 GPS, and use a Powerbook G4 17" for imaging,
although
> to date I've only tried my hand at lunar, Solar and planetary digicam
photography. This
is
> likely to be the case until I acquire a wedge mount for the N8GPS. Cameras are
a Canon
> S40 and a 300D/Digital Rebel.
>
> I'm sorry to say that I've had best results with scope control using my Dell
laptop
running
> Windoze 2000. I really like Astroplanner and have it working on both Mac and
Win
> platforms but the sluggishness of the Mac version really spoils it for me.
>
> Best regards,
> Paul Lannuier
> Sussex, NJ

Nice web site!  Looks like you have got some really dark skies also.

I liked the picture of Baz all bundled up and the scope with the frost
on it.  A sign of a die-hard astronomer.

Bob


On Aug 4, 2004, at 12:17 AM, belatrix wrote:

> Hi All
>
>  Great to see a group on this topic - long overdue!
>
>  We have a little astro website completely made using mac only -
> scanning
>  everything - i have never owned a PC!! i hope to keep it that way - no
>  worrying about virus's for us eh? - i cant imagine having to update
> your
>  anti-virus software everyday!! unthinkable to me! what a pain in the
> A**
>  that would be!
>
>  Anyway i am still using OS 9.2.2at the moment coz of the old machine
> (smurf
>  G3 350mhz B&W) i am using doesnt like OSX as much as i would like it
> to - i
>  do switch over to another hard drive loaded with OS 10.3 to use
> starry night
>  4.5 pro and some other programs - will update very soon to a G5 :)
>
>  here's our site
> http://www.southern-x.org/
>
>  Cheers
>  Kearn Jones
>  Adelaide, Australia
>  Southern-X Obs
>

Hi All

Great to see a group on this topic - long overdue!

  We have a little astro website completely made using mac only - scanning
everything - i have never owned a PC!! i hope to keep it that way - no
worrying about virus's for us eh? - i cant imagine having to update your
anti-virus software everyday!! unthinkable to me! what a pain in the A**
that would be!

Anyway i am still using OS 9.2.2at the moment coz of the old machine (smurf
G3 350mhz B&W) i am using doesnt like OSX as much as i would like it to - i
do switch over to another hard drive loaded with OS 10.3 to use starry night
4.5 pro and some other programs - will update very soon to a G5 :)

here's our site
http://www.southern-x.org/

Cheers
Kearn Jones
Adelaide, Australia
Southern-X Obs

Hi Duane.

Wishing you the best of luck with this group. I'm mostly a lurker on the various
astro
groups but I'll be happy to share whatever useful info I can.

I currently own a NexStar 8 GPS, and use a Powerbook G4 17" for imaging,
although
to date I've only tried my hand at lunar, Solar and planetary digicam
photography. This is
likely to be the case until I acquire a wedge mount for the N8GPS. Cameras are a
Canon
S40 and a 300D/Digital Rebel.

I'm sorry to say that I've had best results with scope control using my Dell
laptop running
Windoze 2000. I really like Astroplanner and have it working on both Mac and Win
platforms but the sluggishness of the Mac version really spoils it for me.

Best regards,
Paul Lannuier
Sussex, NJ

I recently found this bug in StarryNight.

StarryNight Mac 4.5.2 with the PlusPak 2 (Galaxies)

Symptom:

Many objects will not show their distance to observer

Apparently the plus paks add databases instead of updating the previous ones. If
you turn
the new databases off, or force it to use a specific database (aka, doing a find
on the
Messier number and using the info tab) the information is back.

This is definitely a bug and they now know about it. I hope they fix it.

Hi again Ed,

I uploaded the IRAF file you need to the files section of this group.

I have loaded the app and can help you out when I get back to the computer
again.

Clear skies to you,

Duane

--- In macstronomy@yahoogroups.com, "bolideca" <epmajden@s...> wrote:
> I have joined this group as I have recently bought a Mac G4 400
> Mhz computer.  I have added an ADS Pyro A/V link for converting
> analog video from an old Canon L2 Camcorder to digital firewire.
> My main astronomy interest is meteor spectroscopy, see:
> http://members.shaw.ca/epmajden/index.htm  I'm not all that
> computer savy so I hope this news group will be of some help.
> My G4 runs OS 9.1 and OS-10 as a dual boot system.  Has
> anyone loaded IRAF on OS-10 and is using it successfully?
> My other interest is capturing video of fireball meteors from a
> Sandia Bolide Detection All-sky Camera.  I am station operator of
> the Courtenay, B.C. all-sky camera which is part of the West
> Coast Sandia Bolide Detection Network.
> Ed

Hi Ed,

It sounds like you have a fun job.

Have you used IRAF before? I checked out there web site and it looks like it
runs on pretty
much every flavor of unix there is. (I really thought it was funny when they
said it runs on
ALL operating systems, and elsewhere when they listed them, Windows was not
among
them)

Now it's true that OS X is a flavor of unix (open BSD). However, in order to
take advantage
of this application, you may need to add something that is not installed by
default.

This is not easy for the average computer user, but I'll try to explain what all
needs to be
done to get IRAF up and running.

First you need to go here, download this and install it.

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/x11formacosx.html

This will allow you to run X11 (a unix windowing system) on OS X.

Are you familiar with any FTP clients?

You need to go to IRAFs FTP server (iraf.noao.edu) and get all the parts needed
to run this.
This software can be run terminal (via command line interface) or through a GUI
(graphic
user interface). The GUI app needs a few more files than the other. Personally,
I like the
GUI route.

I am happy to try to help you through this. Are you prepared to tackle this? It
sounds like
they have contacts and are happy to help if we get stuck somewhere along the
way.

If you or somebody you know is familiar with unix, you might want to consult
with them.
They could probably help you out better than I can, but I am happy to give it a
cross
country try if you are.

Thanks for joining ED, and by the way, what is your cat's name? I have two, one
is named
Buddy and one is named Moses.

Duane Deal

--- In macstronomy@yahoogroups.com, "bolideca" <epmajden@s...> wrote:
> I have joined this group as I have recently bought a Mac G4 400
> Mhz computer.  I have added an ADS Pyro A/V link for converting
> analog video from an old Canon L2 Camcorder to digital firewire.
> My main astronomy interest is meteor spectroscopy, see:
> http://members.shaw.ca/epmajden/index.htm  I'm not all that
> computer savy so I hope this news group will be of some help.
> My G4 runs OS 9.1 and OS-10 as a dual boot system.  Has
> anyone loaded IRAF on OS-10 and is using it successfully?
> My other interest is capturing video of fireball meteors from a
> Sandia Bolide Detection All-sky Camera.  I am station operator of
> the Courtenay, B.C. all-sky camera which is part of the West
> Coast Sandia Bolide Detection Network.
> Ed

I have joined this group as I have recently bought a Mac G4 400
Mhz computer.  I have added an ADS Pyro A/V link for converting
analog video from an old Canon L2 Camcorder to digital firewire.
My main astronomy interest is meteor spectroscopy, see:
http://members.shaw.ca/epmajden/index.htm  I'm not all that
computer savy so I hope this news group will be of some help.
My G4 runs OS 9.1 and OS-10 as a dual boot system.  Has
anyone loaded IRAF on OS-10 and is using it successfully?
My other interest is capturing video of fireball meteors from a
Sandia Bolide Detection All-sky Camera.  I am station operator of
the Courtenay, B.C. all-sky camera which is part of the West
Coast Sandia Bolide Detection Network.
Ed

When you get a chance, please introduce yourselves.

You are the first MACSTRONOMY members!

If you get a chance, please go to the Dababase link and let us know what
equipment you
are running.

Are you all on OS X? Anybody running OS 9 yet?

If you know others who would benefit from a collective knowledge group, please
invite
them.

I am hoping your astronomy skills will help me and hopefully my Mac skills can
help you.
In some bizarre cases, maybe the other way around too.

Thanks for checking in and if you have any suggestions or want to upload
anything, I can't
wait to here from you.

Duane Deal

Enter your vote today!  A new poll has been created for the
macstronomy group:

Which software program would you most like to
update to support Macs?

   o Meade/Celestron (software and firmware)
   o TheSky 6 and CCDsoft
   o MaxImDL
   o Other (please specify with a post)


To vote, please visit the following web page:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/macstronomy/surveys?id=1333767

Note: Please do not reply to this message. Poll votes are
not collected via email. To vote, you must go to the Yahoo! Groups
web site listed above.

Thanks!

Here is a link to purchase a cable that would connect a Mac to your scope. You
will also
need a Keyspan adapter if you want to use USB ports.

http://www.stellanova.com/turner/index.html

Hello all readers of this group.

I have started this group because I couldn't get information regarding
Astrophotography
on the Mac. I am new to Astrophotography but have been an Apple Certified tech
for a
long time.

I looked for a group of this type and couldn't find it. So, BUILD IT AND THEY
WILL COME!

That is what I'm hopping for. I read from the groups I belong to daily, so I
should be able
to catch any issues or problems as they arrive. I have never started a group
before, so if
there is anything I can do to make it better, please let me know.

Thanks for dropping in, and I hope to hear from some other Astrophotographers
who love
their Macs. Please, feel free to tell us about your hardware and your Mac.

Duane Deal