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Home | Hardware Guide | Installation Guide | Using Stellarium | Using Nina | Troubleshooting | FAQ

Mac Setup Guide

MacOS Installation Video Demonstration

You can view a demonstration of parts of this documentation in the following YouTube Video. Install and Setup on MacOS

Overview

For the first release of the Alpaca Benro Polaris driver would be provided as a bundle of Python scripts and will need the usage of the command line with the help of the Terminal application.

A recent MacOS release with Python 3 is recommanded as the Alpca Benro Polaris requires Python 3+ to be run, upgrading the preinstalled Python release on older MacOS is out of the scope of this guide.

Installing

Checking Python version

Open a terminal window and type the following command to check the preinstalled Python version:

$ python --version
Python 3.9.6

On MacOS the minimal tested version is 3.9.6

Installing the Alpca Benro Polaris Driver code

  1. Download the Alpaca Benro Polaris zip file from this Github repository.

  2. Expand the zip file to a location of your choice (like in your home directory) and from a command prompt enter the following:

    cd alpaca-benro-polaris

pip3 install -r platforms/macos/requirements.txt

Running the Alpaca Benro Polaris Driver

There are a few preliminary steps before you start the driver. You'll need to do the following:

  1. Setup your Benro Polaris tripod head, camera, Mac, and power.

  2. Remove your lens cap (I often forget this step!).

  3. Level the Benro Polaris as accurately as possible (important).

  4. Turn on the Benro Polaris (how many times doesn't it turn on?).

  5. Using the Benro Polaris App, connect and change to Astro Mode.

  6. Start the Calibrate Compass and tap Confirm.

  7. Select a star to align with, tap Goto, wait, then tap Confirm.

  8. Turn on the Mac and connect it to your camera via USB.

  9. Connect your Mac to the polaris-###### hotspot using WIFI (this will disconnect you from the previous WIFI and you'll loose the Internet connection)

  10. Wait for connection.

  11. IMPORTANT: One last step is to review the file driver/config.toml. You will need to change the site_latitude and site_longitude to ensure the driver calculates the correct slewing co-ordinates for your location. All other settings can be left as default or tweaked.

  12. Start the Alpaca Benro Polaris driver with the following command from within the installation directory:

    python3 driver/main.py

Fingers crossed, you can now start the Alpaca Benro Polaris Driver (as above).

The Alpaca Benro Polaris Driver window should look like this. Winidows Shortcut

Once the driver is running, you can close the Benro Polaris App. Now you can start exploring Alpaca applications like CCDciel, or even write your own REST-based application.

Stellarium

If you want to use the Stellarium application on Mac and its Remote Telescope control protocol you'll have to edit the driver/config.toml file, set the stellarium_port to a value other than 0, for example 10001, restart the ABP driver script and configure the telescope link in Stellarium.