One of the most incredible things about the amateur astronomy community is that they've attracted some pretty impressive software development to aid in their citizen science projects. One piece of software has become rather mainstream - WinJUPOS, a program that allows you to map the locations on a planetary disc and use them for a whole host of tasks, including the production of maps. Whilst we have software that also does this, it's often a handy quick-look tool for new data. So imagine my endless frustration that it's only ever been designed for Windows machines!
Porting WinJUPOS to MacJUPOS
Step in Wineskin, a porting utility that allows you to run Windows executables on a Mac without setting up any virtual machines. Here are the steps I followed:
1. Download Wineskin Winery (v1.7) from here: http://wineskin.urgesoftware.com/tiki-index.php?page=Downloads.
2. As soon as Winery is installed, click on 'update' to update the wrapper - I'm using v2.6.2 for this installation.
3. Install a Wineskin Engine (I'm using the latest, v1.9.9) by clicking on the '+' symbol in the window. You now have almost everything required to install a Windows program.
4. Create a Blank Wrapper - this will churn away for a few minutes, and prompt you to install a couple of windows components, Mono and Gecko - just say yes and it'll all work smoothly, prompting you to view the new Wrapper in the Finder window. Name it something recognisable (i.e., the executable name).
5. Next click on the Wrapper in the finder window, choose the option to 'Install software', and navigate to wherever you've downloaded the WinJUPOS application (http://jupos.org/gh/download.htm). It'll churn away and complete the installation in the 'dummy' folders that it's generated, making it look like a Windows file system. Note that the first time you click the Wrapper it might fail to open - just click it again and all will be fine.
6. Now, when you next click on the Wrapper it should open and run WinJUPOS without any issues. There's only one peculiarity I found so far - when mapping images with pre-saved measurements (*ims files), I found that the 'finder' didn't see the file, and I had to type in the name manually to proceed.
Quick Start Guide with WinJUPOS
The software isn't entirely intuitive, but is OK when you get set up and running.
1. Start with Recording > Image Measurement to load up your new image.
2. Add the date, time, longitude and latitude of the observation to the 'Image Tab'
3. Then go to the 'Adjust tab' to fit the limb of the planet - PgUp/Dn makes the limb larger or smaller; the arrow keys move it around, and P/N move the silhoette clockwise or anticlockwise.
3. Click 'save' to save the image measurement file (*ims) associated with this image.
Then you can move onto the mapping:
4. Go to Analysis > Map Computation, click on 'Edit' and add the *ims file (noting that this might have to be typed in manually on the Mac version, for some reason).
5. Choose the parameters of the map you want to generate (planetographic latitudes and System III west longitudes with equirectangular cylindrical projections or stereographic polar projections for professional use).
6. Compile the map and save as a JPEG.
This forms the basics of what I intend to do with the software, purely for presentation purposes, but there are tonnes of other tools within Win(Mac)JUPOS that can be helpful, all described in the documentation.
(PS. I've also been able to use Wineskin Winery to install Autostakkert on the Mac, another excellent free tool for stacking lucky imaging, following essentially the same process as that above).
Note: In the map computation window, you can change the output map quality by changing the map width. When you enter an image measurement file, an optimal map width is proposed. If you enter a smaller width, you will lose small details because of interpolation.
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