Now you see it...
Now you don't.
Macdob software with Starry Night running in the background.
These views show the expanded application window, complete with guide star list and more information than ever before! The transparent window is Charlie Wicks' idea. This allows all the info to be displayed on the screen while not obscuring Starry Night's graphical interface. Objects can be sent from Starry Night to Macdob via a contextual menu in Starry Night, and the Macdob app communicates the scope position and indicator type, and allows the Starry Night field of view to follow the scope's position in the sky. We are working on other ways to make using a telescope with the Macdob app and Starry Night as seamless and intuitive as possible.
Thrill seekers may proceed to the software page to download the latest. This is pre-release software and is not finished in the least, so keep that in mind!
A small FAQ
How does the MacDob system work?
Our software has the ability to interface with Sidereal Technology's servo motor and encoder hardware and Space.com's Starry Night to allow a telescope to be aligned to guide stars and find other objects. It also has some basic functionality to create, store and view lists of objects.
Is there any other software available for this controller on the mac?
Yes. We also provide Mac-related support for Mel Bartel's Scope II Java program, for those who are interested in more fully baked software that is available right now.
Big deal. Other software is available already. Why should I be interested?
Hey, the more, the merrier, right? We're trying to leverage all the cool stuff available on the Mac platform. Since we have Applescript support built in, we can do neat things like use a Bluetooth enabled phone as a wireless handpad if you have Salling Clicker installed on your Mac. Why buy a wireless handpad when you may have one already?
What machines will the MacDob system run on?
Our software will run on any PowerPC based Mac or mac clone. We have a standalone application for OS X, which, through AppleScript and a plug-in, works with Starry Night Pro 4.x. We have also made plug-ins for Starry Night Deluxe(2.x) and Starry Night Pro (3.x), but we're no longer working on these. If you have an older Mac that can't run OS X and are interested in getting it working with our stuff, please let us know.
Our software communicates to the scope hardware through an RS232 port,
but it works fine with newer Macs that
have USB ports by using a USB-serial adapter, such as those available from Keyspan and IOGear.
What hardware does the MacDob system support?
Sidereal Technology's servo controller, available through
BBAstroDesigns.
Wow. This is almost as cool as the Red Sox beating the Yankees and the Cardinals to
win the 2004 World Series. How can I get involved?
We've got a few dozen folks on a Yahoo listserver where we
discuss and announce things going on with the project. If you're interested,
please feel free to join.
Post message: MacDobs@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: MacDobs-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Unsubscribe: MacDobs-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com List owner: MacDobs-owner@yahoogroups.com Updates:
July 10, 2005
The Summer of Goto: Can it be that finally, finally, we're going to add goto functionality to the Macdob software? I can feel it, we're very very close. In prepration for this and the below changes, the plug in was reworked to use Core Foundation strings rather than the old, Pascal based strings when communicating with the Macdob app (RIP, Classic MacOS Toolbox). The main reason for this was The Handwriting was On The Wall that the old stuff would no longer be supported in OS X 10.5 (Apple always gives us fair warning!). The benefits of this were a lot of code cleaning, the plug in now compiles without errors against the 10.4 Universal Headers, meaning that it should work fine with an x86 based Starry Night, and that Apple Event messages sent between the plug in and Macdob app are now much more human-readable, which could lead to greater ease of use by folks who would want to play with Applescript and the macdob app. June 9, 2005
Mac on Intel: The big announcement at Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference, held this week in San Francisco, was that Apple will be using Intel processors in their computers starting next year. Fortunately, Apple has provided the means to create Universal Binaries, application packages that will run on both PowerPC and x86 processors. We are pleased to report that the Macdob app was compiled as a Universal Binary (with absolutely no changes in the underlying code) and ran fine in Apple's Universal Binary Compatibility Lab on an x86 based Mac at WWDC today. June 27, 2004
Macdob now supports Sidereal Technology's servo controller- an amazing little package that packs a tremendous amount of functionality! December 13, 2003
How I Spent My Summer Department: The past 6 months have been good-
in late June, we solved our AppleScript/Apple Event questions. With a small plug-in,
the Macdob app can now communicate with Starry Night 4.x, and it looks like we now
have all the functionality (and then some) in OS X that we had with MacOS and
Starry Night 3.x. Carbon, Cocoa and Applescript, all working happily together.
The Second Annual Macdob Convention took place, again,
at Calstar, with Dave and Charlie Wicks and Larry Arnold in attendance.
Web pages of folks who use the Macdob software
Larry
Arnold , Charlie Wicks
Ancient History (or: we started this project when?)
Mel Bartels is sort of the Godfather of amateur computer controlled scopes. Back in the fall of 1996, a few of us on the Amateur Telescope Maker's list wanted to do something like this with our scopes, but are Macintosh users, and Mel's system, at the time, used a parallel port, which Macs never had (they used to have SCSI). We decided to make our own serial port driven system. Jack Brindle designed and built some digital setting circle and stepper motor controllers, which got us this far. Space.com's Starry Night has an excellent plug-in interface, so when Jack brought this to our attention, I started on a Mac plug-in that interfaced with Jack's hardware. The folks at Space.com have been very helpful to us and others who are writing plug-ins for Starry Night.
Meanwhile, Mel's DOS based software got a rude reception from the Windows NT children (Win2k, XP) and he has since written a Java based version of his application. He has collaborated with Dan Gray who has made a serial addressable servo controller which can be controlled with anything that has a serial port (including a Mac with a USB-serial adapter!). A bonus of Mel's Java port is being able to run on Windows, Linux and Macs.
Who am I? Dave Sopchak- writing software for this project, and the narrator of this web page. Please post a message to the macdob list if you notice anything that doesn't work right on this site! I welcome any comments or questions about this project as well. Hopefully many things about what we're doing are made clear here.