A new release of AstroDMx Capture for Linux

Nicola has released a new version of AstroDMx Capture for Linux.

http://www.linux-astro-imaging.uk/

Changelog (version 0.10.2.0)

Full support for the QHY-5L-II MONO
Full support for the QHY-5L-II COLOUR
Other QHY cameras should work but have not been tested
Histogram Added. The histogram supports both Linear and Logarithmic scales and shows channels in RGB combined, Luminance, RGB Average, Red, Green, Blue or Greyscale.
Histogram image saved as a TIFF file
Automatic Exposure, Automatic Gain and Automatic White Balance improvements (If supported by camera)
Frame integration now works for all cameras operating in 8-bit modes
Improvements to the camera log file
Improvements to the over-exposure markers
Over-exposure markers now have a sensitivity control
Improvements to the Reticle
Custom colours not allowed for the over-exposure markers and the reticle
Right-click to reset controls now works for the exposure control
Reset all controls implemented
Long exposure countdown indicator improvements
Long exposures are now cancelled before the new exposure is set
Installers now create menus to launch the software
Detailed debugging mode added - which can be invoked from the menus or manually by passing -D to the astrodmx binary
Bug fixes and other improvements

Release 0.10.2.0 has full support for:

Astronomy cameras
QHY 5L-II-M (USB2.0, 12 bit ADC)
QHY 5L-II-C  (USB2.0, 12 bit ADC)
DMK 21AU04.AS (8 bit ADC)
DFK 21AU04.AS (8 bit ADC)
DBK 21AU04.AS (8 bit ADC)
ZWO ASI120MC (USB2.0, 12 bit ADC)
ZWO ASI120MC-S (USB3.0, 12 bit ADC)
ZWO ASI120MM-S (USB3.0, 12 bit ADC)
ZWO ASI178MC (USB3.0, 14 bit ADC)
SVBONY T7 W2568A High-speed camera (USB2.0, 12 bit ADC)
Bresser MicrOcular Full HD Digital Camera (8 bit ADC)
SVBONY SV105 HD (8 bit ADC)
Orion Starshoot Solar System Color Imager IV
Altair (Orion Starshoot USB eyepiece) (USB2.0, 8 bit ADC)
USB cameras
ELP 1.3Mp CMOS board-level HD USB camera (8 bit ADC)
Lucky Zoom 5Mp microscope USB CMOS camera (8 bit ADC)
Vimicro USB2.0 UVC PC camera (e.g. Maplin USB2.0 Microscope) (8 bit ADC)
USB Capture cards
KWORLD DVD MAKER 2 (8 bit ADC)
UVC capture card (Motion-JPEG only) (8 bit ADC)
EasyCAP (Motion-JPEG only) (8 bit ADC)
USB webcams
Sweex WC066 HD webcam (8 bit ADC)
Sweex WC070 ViewPlus (8 bit ADC)
Sweex WC035V2 VGA webcam (8 bit ADC)
Philips SPC900NC including SPC800 and Philips 740 flashed to SPC900NC (8 bit ADC)
Philips 690 Vesta Pro Webcam (8 bit ADC)
Logitech HD C525 (8 bit ADC)
Microsoft LIFECAM 2 (8 bit ADC)
Creative Webcam Live (8 bit ADC) Bayer output only.
All Video 4 Linux cameras.
ZWO filter wheel

Nicola is now working on implementing FITs files and the Atik 314L CCD camera

Watch this space!

More tests with the low cost Sweex WC035V2 webcam

A Sweex WC035V2  VGA CMOS webcam costing less than £8 on Amazon UK was fitted with an IR/UV cut filter and placed at the Cassegrain focus of a Skymax 127 Maksutov. The scope was mounted on a Celestron AVX, EQ, GOTO mount. AstroDMx Capture for Linux, running on a Fedora laptop was used to capture 2000 frame SER files of various regions of the 63.4% waxing, gibbous Moon. The best 90% of frames in the SER files were stacked in Autostakkert! 3 and the resulting images were wavelet processed in Registax 5.1, both running in Wine. Microsoft ICE was used to stitch together two overlapping images in the Tycho, Clavius region.

Sweex WC035V2 camera

Screenshot of AstroDMx Capture for Linux, capturing a SER file

Composite of two overlapping panes showing craters Clavius, Gruemberger, Morteus, Maginus and Tycho

Eratosthenes, Mons Wolff and Montes Apenninus

Archimedes, Autolycus and Aristillus

There were some slight compression artifacts, but not enough to spoil the results from this very low cost webcam. The camera also gave very pleasing live views that would be very suitable for outreach work.

It is likely that Nicola will release the next version of AstroDMx Capture for Linux later today.