The Mac in Astronomy

Above and below: Although most of the equipment that I used to make the photograph at the top of this page is not visible in these photos, here is a list of major components:
• The camera is a Canon 20D. I captured the image on a Macintosh PowerBook running Canon’s Digital Photo Professional software. The 20D has a Canon Angle Finder C and a Canon TC-80N3 remote timer attached. The remote timer is needed to make long exposures because Digital Photo Professional cannot control the camera with the mirror locked up or for exposures longer than 30 seconds. An image such as the one at the top of the page is typically made of a combination, or “stack” of any number of exposures of from three to five minutes in duration. The camera is powered by a Canon AC-DC converter; batteries don’t last long in the cold.
• The telescope through which the photo was made is a TeleVue 76 Apochromatic refracting telescope.
• The TeleVue 76 is mounted piggyback on a Meade LX200GPS reflecting telescope.
• The computer is a 17" Macintosh PowerBook. The PowerBook connects to my network via an AirPort Express 802.11g device that is configured to act as a relay (WDS) for my AirPort Extreme wireless network. I move my captured images from the PowerBook to an iMac or a Dual G5 in the house; clear skies are too scarce, and it’s too cold in the winter, to spend time in the observatory processing images. If I collect a great deal of data I transfer it via an iPod. I review and sometimes process my astrophotos on the iMac; in most cases, I also move the captured images to a Dual G5 Macintosh with a 30" Cinema Display, and that is where I do my heavy-duty Photoshop magic. The Dual G5 has over a terabyte of storage for my images as well as the (non astronomical) digital videos that I make. Among the astronomical software that I use is a utility that turns the entire PowerBook display dark red so that it interferes less with dark-adapted eyes. While observing I sometimes throw an old towel (on the shelf at right) over the display to darken it completely.
• Everything that requires power, including the Canon 20D, is powered by plug-in DC converters. The ambient temperature at the time I made the M42 photograph was 0° F, and batteries discharge very quickly at such temperatures. Laptops cannot be left in the observatory in this kind of weather; the “L” in “LCD Display” is liquid, and liquid freezes in the cold and expands to burst its container.
• The image was processed in Photoshop CS. Of all the good reasons for choosing to run Photoshop under the Mac OS, the inclusion of the Mac OS’s ColorSync color management software, which ensures a consistent and accurate color workflow from camera (or original artwork) to press or inkjet printer or Web, is near the top.

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