Recent posts

#1

Announcements / Observatory 2.1.2

Last post by Sander Berents - April 06, 2025, 12:37:17 PM

https://codeobsession.com/news/2025/04/07/observatory-2.1.2/

#2

Announcements / Observatory 2.1.1

Last post by Sander Berents - November 30, 2024, 02:47:00 AM

https://codeobsession.com/news/2024/11/29/observatory-2.1.1/

#3

Bug Reports / Re: Obs v2.1 QuickLook Install

Last post by fsantore - November 18, 2024, 09:22:27 AM

I also see that my acquisition SW has options to set the extension.  They were all FIT, so are all now changed to FITS.  I should be good going forward in spite of the puzzling behavior. Also, Forklift is a very capable MacOS utility that covers many functions related to bulk file manipulation.  Renaming my existing image library files from FIT to FITS was easily accomplished. 

#4

Bug Reports / Re: Obs v2.1 QuickLook Install

Last post by fsantore - November 12, 2024, 10:25:43 AM

Thanks, your lsregister search idea allowed me to review our prior discussion.  But neither suggestion led to a working .FIT functionality.  I see now that .FIT and .FITS are the same, existing only because Windows supports just 3 letter extensions.  It is curious however that I did try a sixth mac here, with the same deficiency.  I'm relegated to 'Forklift'ing bulk file renames when transferring acquired images to my post-processing system, which while not the worst situation it is an additional step (I'll probably often forget), and one new step that seems to be just for me.

#5

Bug Reports / Re: Obs v2.1 QuickLook Install

Last post by Sander Berents - November 10, 2024, 09:34:03 PM

Although lsregister on Sequoia has a slightly different size than the one on Sonoma, its reported arguments (see with -h argument) are the same, so I assume it also works the same. Search on this forum for "lsregister" to see how to use it. Your second link also describes it well.

Also check /Library/QuickLook/ and ~/Library/QuickLook/ to see if you have any manually installed FITS related Quick Look generators on your system, which are obsolete on Sequoia but might mess up things for you.

#6

Bug Reports / Re: Obs v2.1 QuickLook Install

Last post by fsantore - November 10, 2024, 10:56:17 AM

Well it's good to know it's just me, I guess.  I did miss your complete crossed message #9, and so inspected the LaunchServices.framework as suggested.  On my main MacBook Pro M2 max machine, I see mostly your referenced nasa items, but also an out of place financial program reference.  The lsregister command may have had some changes in Sequoia, but I searched and found https://talk.tidbits.com/t/restoring-office-document-associations-after-sequoia-upgrade/29088, which led to some excellent Electric Light discussion of the problem at https://eclecticlight.co/2019/03/25/lsregister-a-valuable-undocumented-command-for-launchservices/ .  Running one of the suggested lsregister rebuild commands did indeed seem to fix the .fit quicklook issue, but had side effects on the OS.  Rebooting resolved the side effects, but restored the problem.  Do you have a suggested complete lsregister rebuild syntax I might try?

#7

Bug Reports / Re: Obs v2.1 QuickLook Install

Last post by Sander Berents - November 10, 2024, 02:49:40 AM

Yes I have tested Observatory with macOS 15 Sequoia. macOS 15.0 as well as macOS 15.1. I haven't tested macOS 15.2 beta yet. It has no problem with FITS files having a .fit extension in my tests. Observatory as well as its Quick Look extension open these correctly on macOS 15.0, macOS 15.1, macOS 14.7.1 and older versions.

I performed the tests with Sequoia on an external SSD, as I haven't permanently upgraded to it. I typically wait at least 6 months for a major release. These tests were with clean systems, Observatory being the only non-Apple software on it. On my regular macOS 14 Sonoma system I have lots of other software, including PixInsight, and there too .fits and .fit both work.

Observatory 2 runs on macOS 11.7 Big Sur and later.

#8

Bug Reports / Re: Obs v2.1 QuickLook Install

Last post by fsantore - November 10, 2024, 12:18:03 AM

Thanks for the additional clarifications, and your analysis of the possible source of error.  To help isolate a Launchservices database corruption (your less likely scenario), or a nefarious other app, I tested five different machines.  All were a variant of Sequoia (15.02 to 15.2), two were Apple M2 silicon machines, and three were intel processors, and some required a fresh load of Observatory 2.1.  All performed identically refusing to load a FIT file into Observatory, failing to QuickLook the file, and all would perform correctly by simply adding an 's' to the file's fit extension.  In one case (M2 MacMini), there were only the standard Apple supplied apps (iWork),so little chance for another culprit.  I'll look for a Sonoma MacOS 14 machine (you mentioned testing on one), but I may only have earlier systems.  I don't remember the minimum OS requirement for your v2.1 and would need to look at your release notes.  Have you indeed tested with Sequoia? My testing has certainly not zeroed in on a fault, but it would be good to know if you run OK with this OS.  I see I've been producing .FIT files for a long time without much thought, so QuickLook was workin in the past on these files.  If you would like to log into my machine in some way, that would be fine as well.

#9

Bug Reports / Re: Obs v2.1 QuickLook Install

Last post by Sander Berents - November 08, 2024, 11:05:51 AM

Right-click any application in macOS, select Show Package Contents, then open its Contents folder. In there is an Info.plist file that you can open, or view with Quick Look. It has the configuration. You'll see that PixInsight registers itself for handling FITS files with .fits and .fit extensions. Observatory does the same.

The issue on your system is not caused by PixInsight or Observatory. Your system's LaunchServices database may be corrupted, but because .fits does work, it is more likely that another application/extension/plugin registers itself as being able to handle files with a .fit extension, but does that incorrectly. The bug in Tycho was that it registered the FITS files with the com.tycho-tracker.fits UTI. FITS Preview had a similar bug, where it registered it with the eu.cloudmakers.fits UTI. The only correct value is gov.nasa.gsfc.fits. PixInsight doesn't register itself with an UTI so it isn't affected. Observatory doesn't have that luxury because of its extensions.

Don't modify anything in the application packages. macOS will refuse to launch signed applications if they have been modified.

#10

Bug Reports / Re: Obs v2.1 QuickLook Install

Last post by fsantore - November 08, 2024, 09:48:51 AM

Hi Sander-  I never, ever install betas, my philosophy probably from earlier days indicates a poor risk/reward ratio.  But this one time I did in order to evaluate the new MacOS 15.2 / Vision OS 2.2 wide and ultra wide screen mirroring capabilities.  My interest in these large, sharp displays is for asteroid photogrametry. My reasoning is that the released version is just several weeks away and reports show the beta is stable.  But my error was observed before the beta install.  So I now see that a FITS file defaults to Observatory opening, while a FIT file defaults to PixInsight.  Again, I've had multiple PixInsight updates since seeing this error, including a major one.  --  As mentioned, one can change the default non-recommended opening behavior from PixInsight to Observatory for all FIT files, but then attempting to open or Quicklook one of those files generates the aforementioned error that Observatory cannot open a FIT.  I'm sure you remember that in Jan of this year you, I, and Daniel Parrot worked through the Tycho role change for FITS to 'Editor'.  May I ask, how does one verify PixInsight's FIT role?  I recognize this is very likely not an Observatory deficiency, but appreciate as in the past your knowledge and support.