Download Star Trails for macOS 10.8 or later and enjoy it on your Mac. ‎Note: Some users are having issues exporting pictures. If you are one of them, please, manually change the file extension according to the selected format and export will work. Spss 20.0 For Mac Free Download. Sharefile Desktop Mac Download. StarStaX is a powerful photo editing software that creates stacked images from your photos to generate amazing effects. With features like gap filling, blending, and overlaying dark frames, this tool helps you create works of art from your time-lapse and other photos. StarStack is a software package for processing and enhancing astronomical photos. The features in the current version include: - Applying dark, bias and flat corrections to an image. Alignment of images. StarStax (Download Windows 64-bit, Windows 32-bit, or Mac) Intervalometer; I would recommend something with a focal length greater than: 35mm on a crop-sensor camera (eg. Canon Rebel/7D/80D) 50mm on a full-frame camera (eg. Canon 1D/5D/6D) – Intervalometer Don’t know what that is? Your camera might have one built in.

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• Starstax Windows
• Star Trail Stacking Software
• Starstax For Mac Free Download
• Starstax For Mac

So you want to learn to take stacked images like the one above – great! You’ve come to the right place 🙂

Things you’ll need:

• Tripod
• DSLR Camera
• Lens (> 35/50mm focal length)
• StarStax (Download Windows 64-bit, Windows 32-bit, or Mac)
• Intervalometer

I would recommend something with a focal length greater than:

>35mm on a crop-sensor camera (eg. Canon Rebel/7D/80D)

>50mm on a full-frame camera (eg. Canon 1D/5D/6D)

– Intervalometer

Don’t know what that is? Your camera might have one built in. My Canon 7D MkII has one built in in the 4th shooting options menu.

If not, search Amazon.com for “Intervalometer *Canon EOS 7D MkII*” or whatever your *camera model* is. They range from $20-$25 but are very useful for things like this and star trails if your camera does not have one built in.

The whole capture will take about 30 minutes to an hour [possibly longer if you use a shorter focal length, like 50mm (FF) or 35mm (crop)]. You might check your local hourly weather forecast and take a peek at what might be coming, as it might be dark and you won’t see approaching clouds/showers/storms.

To start, put your camera and lens on a sturdy tripod.

You will need to put your camera into Manual, or ‘M” mode. Settings you will be using will depend on when you start, but right after sunset (like the header photo of this tutorial) have settings around:

Your shutter speed and ISO values required for a good exposure will go down as the lunar month progresses towards a full moon, and go back up as the month progresses towards a new moon again.

For a Full Moon stack, the settings are closer to:

If your camera has a ‘daylight/sunshine’ setting for white balance , use that. You’ll need to lock down the white balance, because the color of the Moon changes as it moves across the sky, and you don’t want that affecting your stack.

So, now you are going to want to set your camera to the center, single point Autofocus. Make sure your lens is in Auto or AF mode, aim that center AF point at the Moon and half press your shutter button a few times to set the focus on the Moon. Then flip the switch on your lens from A or AF to M or Manual focus so that it doesn’t move during the capture.

If you have LiveView capabilities on your camera, you can even use that to check focus, by digitally zooming in.

Set your intervalometer (whether internal in the camera or with one attached to the camera via cable) to capture one shot every 10 seconds. Start the intervalometer and make sure the timer is working correctly.

Next, double check you’ve completed everything necessary so far:

– Camera on sturdy tripod

– Good battery installed

– Intervalometer set to 1 photo / 10 seconds and is working correctly

– Camera settings produce well exposed moon photos and are in the ballpark of the ones mentioned above, and if upon your test pictures taken with the intervalometer check are too dark, bring up your ISO from 200, to maybe 400.

– Check the focus on the Moon (don’t hesitate to zoom in on the image to check focus and exposure of the moon with the preview function of your camera.

Now you’re going to need to frame up your shot.

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Moonrise:

You will want to frame the Moon in the lower left corner (Northern Hemisphere), or lower right corner (Southern Hemisphere) depending on where you live in the world. If you live near the Equator, you will want to put the Moon near the lower center of your frame.

Moonset:

You will want to frame the Moon in the upper left corner (Northern Hemisphere), or upper right corner (Southern Hemisphere) depending on where you live in the world. If you live near the Equator, you will want to put the Moon near the top center of your frame.

The Moon always rises in the East and sets to the West. If you have to look to the south to find the Moon in the sky, frame the Moon in the upper left of the image like this:

If you live in the Southern Hemisphere, frame the shot in the same way, only in the upper right corner of the image (the moon will sweep down and left)

If you live near the equator, you’ll frame it right in the upper-center portion of the image (the moon will come nearly straight down).

Your framing will also depend on what kind of moon stack you are shooting, moonrise or moonset.

At different points during the year, the Moon will rise, pass, and set in different locations along the horizon.

To find out where the moon will be rising or setting to/from, from your current location: I use The Photographer’s Ephemeris.

It tells you where and when the Sun and Moon will rise from, and if you plug in your shooting location, you can follow the lines and see landmarks to base your framing off of.

Once you have your shot framed up, let ‘er rip and watch the Moon set through the back of your camera.

Be careful not to touch your camera, or you will get bumps in your shot, like this shown below (a mistake I learned early on when taking these):

Now for processing each of those images together into one stack. Earlier, you downloaded a program called StarStax. Plug in your SD card or camera, however you usually transfer images to your computer and open StarStax. You’ll be brought to a screen that looks like this:

If you shoot JPG usually, StarStax is a great option and is easy to navigate without having to learn how to use Photoshop and you can continue reading.

But if you’re familiar and you prefer to use Adobe Photoshop:

You can simply import all your photos as separate layers and lighten blend that way.

You’ll want to make sure that the Blending mode is set to ‘Lighten’ and that the rest of the options are deselected.

Navigate to the top left of the program and click on the left most blue icon that looks like a folder. It will open up a file browser where you will search for your images you just took. Browse through and write down or mentally note the first and last images of the sequence. Find the first image in the sequence, click on it, then press and hold the Shift Key. Navigate to the last image in the sequence and click on it, it will have selected all the frames in-between the two and click ‘Open’ in the lower right of the file browser. It will show your different files from start to finish inside of StarStax.

Next, you want to click the right-most blue icon that looks like a small blue cylinder in the first group of four icons. It will begin processing the images. If done correctly and you didn’t bump the tripod or move the camera during the capture while the Moon transits the frame of your camera. They will be laid out nicely in a line from corner to corner. Once the sequence completes. Click the icon to the left of the blue cylinder and it will bring up a window asking you to save your new stack to your computer. Save it wherever you like, and share your new work with the world on social media!

If you took images like the one above which you do not want to include in the stack, just scroll to the bottom of the file list in StarStax and uncheck them from being included and re-click the blue cylinder.

You can even take the images more frequently, and stack them all together to show the color change of the Moon when it rises, like this:

Or space them out longer than 30 seconds for a full-moon stack (110 seconds):

Bonus: This effect can also be achieved IN CAMERA using the multi-exposure function, and saving all the separate exposures or doing it at an interval which lines them up correctly – but is more risky since then you only have those exposures to work with. So once you’ve done it a few times, and know during which moon phase, which interval to use: (eg. one every 20 seconds for a crescent moon but one every 1min 30 seconds for a full moon) then you can try the multi-exposure way!

“Why does the moon change color so vividly near the horizon”, you ask?

It is due to the atmosphere, and is caused by the same reason we see the beautiful reds, oranges, and magentas at sunset. If you think about it in 3D – we are viewing the moon through thousands of miles of dusty air, and when there are events like wildfires or dust storms this effect can even be enhanced.

Here are some other examples of my best moonstacks!

Moonset in Florida (notice the steeper angle due to lower Latitude

Tag/Mention me in what you create if you post it on social media!!

You can find me on social media if you have questions:

Don’t hesitate to go to my Facebook page and send me a message and I’ll respond as quick as I can! Thanks for following this tutorial and look forward to what you capture!

Good luck!

NOTE:

Between mid October 2019 and mid February 2020 everyone in the Army was migrated to use their PIV Authentication certificate for Email access. You no longer use the Email certificate for Enterprise Email or any CAC enabled websites

Mac users who choose to upgrade (or already have upgraded) to Mac OS Catalina (10.15.x) will need to uninstall all 3rd Party CAC enablers per https://militarycac.com/macuninstall.htm AND reenable the built in smart card ability (very bottom of macuninstall link above)

If you purchased your Mac with OS Catalina (10.15.x) already installed, you can skip the uninstall part above and follow the instructions below.

6 'high level' steps needed, follow down the page to make this a painless systematic process

Step 1: Is your CAC reader Mac friendly?

Visit the USB Readers page to verify the CAC reader you have is Mac friendly.

Visit the USB-C Readers page to verify the CAC reader you have is Mac friendly.

'Some, not all' CAC readers may need to have a driver installed to make it work.

NOTE: Readers such as: SCR-331 & SCR-3500A may need a firmware update (NO OTHER Readers need firmware updates).

Information about these specific readers are in Step 2

Step 2: Can your Mac 'see' the reader?

Plug the CAC reader into an open USB port before proceeding, give it a few moments to install

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Step 2a: Click the Apple Icon in the upper left corner of the desktop, select 'About This Mac'

Step 2b: Click 'System Report...' (button)

Step 2c: Verify the CAC reader shows in Hardware, USB, under USB Device Tree. Different readers will show differently, most readers have no problem in this step. See Step 2c1 for specific reader issues.

Step 2c1: Verify firmware version on your SCR-331 or GSR-202, 202V, 203 CAC, or SCR-3500a reader. If you have a reader other than these 5, Proceed directly to step 3

Step 2c1a-SCR-331 reader

If your reader does not look like this, go to the next step.

In the 'Hardware' drop down, click 'USB.' On the right side of the screen under 'USB Device Tree' the window will display all hardware plugged into the USB ports on your Mac. Look for “SCRx31 USB Smart Card Reader.” If the Smart Card reader is present, look at 'Version' in the lower right corner of this box: If you have a number below 5.25, you need to update your firmware to 5.25. If you are already at 5.25, your reader is installed on your system, and no further hardware changes are required. You can now Quit System Profiler and continue to Step 3.

Step 2c1b-SCR-3500A reader

If you have the SCR3500A P/N:905430-1 CAC reader,you may need to install this driver, as the one that installs automatically will not work on most Macs. Hold the control key [on your keyboard] when clicking the .pkg file [with your mouse], select [the word] Open

Step 3: Verify which version of MacOS do you have?

(You need to know this information for step 6)

Step 3a: Click the Apple Icon in the upper left corner of your desktop and select 'About This Mac'

Step 3b: Look below Mac OS X for: Example: Version 10.X.X.

Step 4: Figure out which CAC (ID Card) you have

(You need to know this information for step 6)

Look at the top back of your ID card for these card types. If you have any version other than the six shown below, you need to visit an ID card office and have it replaced. All CACs [other than these six] were supposed to be replaced prior to 1 October 2012.

Find out how to flip card over video

Step 5: Install the DoD certificates (for Safari and Chrome Users)

Go to Keychain Access

Click: Go (top of screen), Utilities, double click Keychain Access.app

(You can also type: keychain access using Spotlight (this is my preferred method))

Select login (under Keychains),and All Items (under Category).

Download the 5 files via links below (you may need to <ctrl> click, select Download Linked File As... on each link) Save to your downloads folder

Please know... IF You have any DoD certificates already located in your keychain access, you will need to delete them prior to running the AllCerts.p7b file below.

https://militarycac.com/maccerts/AllCerts.p7b,

https://militarycac.com/maccerts/RootCert2.cer,

https://militarycac.com/maccerts/RootCert3.cer,

https://militarycac.com/maccerts/RootCert4.cer, and

Double click each of the files to install certificates into the login section of keychain

Select the Kind column, verify the arrow is pointing up, scroll down to certificate, look for all of the following certificates:

DOD EMAIL CA-33 through DOD EMAIL CA-34,

DOD EMAIL CA-39 through DOD EMAIL CA-44,

DOD EMAIL CA-49 through DOD EMAIL CA-52,

DOD EMAIL CA-59,

DOD ID CA-33 through DOD ID CA-34,

DOD ID CA-39 through DOD ID CA-44,

DOD ID CA-49 through DOD ID CA-52,

DOD ID CA-59

DOD ID SW CA-35 through DOD ID SW CA-38,

DOD ID SW CA-45 through DOD ID SW CA-48,

DoD Root CA 2 through DoD Root CA 5,

DOD SW CA-53 through DOD SW CA-58, and

DOD SW CA-60 through DOD SW CA-61

NOTE: If you are missing any of the above certificates, you have 2 choices,

1. Delete all of them, and re-run the 5 files above, or

2. Download the allcerts.zip file and install each of the certificates you are missing individually.

Errors:

Error 100001 Solution

Error 100013 Solution

You may notice some of the certificates will have a red circle with a white X . This means your computer does not trust those certificates

You need to manually trust the DoD Root CA 2, 3, 4, & 5 certificates

Double click each of the DoD Root CA certificates, select the triangle next to Trust, in the When using this certificate: select Always Trust, repeat until all 4 do not have the red circle with a white X.

You may be prompted to enter computer password when you close the window

Once you select Always Trust, your icon will have a light blue circle with a white + on it.

The 'bad certs' that have caused problems for Windows users may show up in the keychain access section on some Macs. These need to be deleted / moved to trash.

The DoD Root CA 2 & 3 you are removing has a light blue frame, leave the yellow frame version. The icons may or may not have a red circle with the white x

If you have tried accessing CAC enabled sites prior to following these instructions, please go through this page before proceeding

Clearing the keychain (opens a new page)

Please come back to this page to continue installation instructions.

Step 5a: DoD certificate installation instructions for Firefox users

NOTE: Firefox will not work on Catalina (10.15.x), or last 4 versions of Mac OS if using the native Apple smartcard ability

Download AllCerts.zip, [remember where you save it].

double click the allcerts.zip file (it'll automatically extract into a new folder)

Option 1 to install the certificates (semi automated):

From inside the AllCerts extracted folder, select all of the certificates

<control> click (or Right click) the selected certificates, select Open With, Other...

In the Enable (selection box), change to All Applications

Select Firefox, then Open

You will see several dozen browser tabs open up, let it open as many as it wants..

You will eventually start seeing either of the 2 messages shown next

If the certificate is not already in Firefox, a window will pop up stating 'You have been asked to trust a new Certificate Authority (CA).'

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Check all three boxes to allow the certificate to: identify websites, identify email users, and identify software developers

or

'Alert This certificate is already installed as a certificate authority.' Click OK

Once you've added all of the certificates...
• Click Firefox (word) (upper left of your screen)
• Preferences
• Advanced (tab)
• Press Network under the Advanced Tab
• In the Cached Web Content section, click Clear Now (button).
• Quit Firefox and restart it

Option 2 to install the certificates (very tedious manual):

Click Firefox (word) (upper left of your screen)

Preferences

Advanced (tab on left side of screen)

Certificates (tab)

View Certificates (button)

Authorities (tab)

Import (button)

Browse to the DoD certificates (AllCerts) extracted folder you downloaded and extracted above.

Note: You have to do this step for every single certificate

Note2: If the certificate is already in Firefox, a window will pop up stating: 'Alert This certificate is already installed as a certificate authority (CA).' Click OK

Note3: If the certificate is not already in Firefox, a window will pop up stating 'You have been asked to trust a new Certificate Authority (CA).'

Check all three boxes to allow the certificate to: identify websites, identify email users, and identify software developers

Once you've added all of the certificates...
• Click Firefox (word) (upper left of your screen)
• Preferences
• Advanced (tab)
• Press Network under the Advanced Tab
• In the Cached Web Content section, click Clear Now (button).
• Quit Firefox and restart it

Step 6: Decide which CAC enabler you can / want to use

Only for Mac El Capitan (10.11.x or older)

After installing the CAC enabler, restart the computer and go to a CAC enabled website

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NOTE: Mac OS Sierra (10.12.x), High Sierra (10.13.x), Mojave (10.14.x) or Catalina (10.15.x) computers no longer need a CAC Enabler.

Try to access the CAC enabled site you need to access now

Mac support provided by: Michael Danberry