Scientific imaging
When I took early retirement from my main occupation of Senior lecturer in Environmental Biology at Swansea University, my students presented me with a book that they knew would appeal to both the biologist and astronomer in me. The book had only just been published: ‘ Heaven and Earth , unseen by the naked eye’ by the astronomer David Malin, Photographic Scientist at the then Anglo-Australian Observatory, and later, Adjunct Professor of Scientific Photography at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology; and Katherin Roucoux, paleoecologist, Research Fellow at the University of Leeds and later, Senior Lecturer at The University of St. Andrews. This book has served to remind me over the years, that the cosmos exists on scales ranging from femtometres to more than 13 billion light years. Over much of this scale range, the objects existing at these scales, are invisible to the human eye for several reasons: they could be for example, too small, too distant, or too dim.
Scientific imaging uses cameras connected to instruments such as telescopes, to observe and image distant and dim objects, and microscopes to observe very small objects. In between these scales, cameras and lenses can be used to observe and record hard to see subjects such as the inhabitants of nest boxes, or shy, nocturnal creatures illuminated by infra-red light. Features such as motion detection can facilitate such recordings.
Since 2016, Nicola Mackin’s AstroDMx Capture software has developed into a multiplatform scientific imaging capture tool, and various articles in this blog, have seen it used to image objects across the range of scales of interest to scientists.
Nicola has now implemented AstroDMx Capture on 4 platforms: Linux (including the Raspberry Pi), Windows, MacOS, and FreeBSD. They are now, all close to release. FreeBSD has limited camera support, but that is due to the lack of SDKs for the platform.
This article explores the Windows version of AstroDMx Capture, running on a low spec laptop (Lenovo 11.6”, Celeron, 4GB RAM, 64GB SSD + 128GB fast micro SD), working with an SVBONY SV305 camera coupled with a Skymax 127 Maksutov telescope; a dissecting microscope, or a research grade transmission microscope. It was important that all of the imaging and image processing was done on this low spec machine.
The aim was to look at the capabilities of the system for scientific imaging of large and distant astronomical objects, as well as small and microscopic objects; specifically using AstroDMx Capture for Windows as the imaging platform.
Deep Sky astronomical imaging
A Skymax 127 Maksutov telescope was mounted on a Celestron AVX mount. An SV305 camera was placed at the Cassegrain focus of the telescope.
Fifteen x 50s exposures were captured as 16-bit Tiffs, with matching dark-frames. The frames were stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and post processed in the Gimp 2.10.
Screenshot of AstroDMx Capture for Windows capturing M27 data
Final image of M27
A Short Mogg adapter with a 0.5 x Focal reducer was attached to the camera and data were captured on M57.
Screenshot of AstroDMx Capture for Windows capturing M57 data
18 x 45s exposures were stacked with matching dark frames in Autostakkert! The final image was post processed in the Gimp 2.10.
Final M57 image
Medium magnification, top-illumination microscopy imaging
An SV305 camera was mounted on a monocular dissection microscope
Bark with crustose lichen, and also bryophyte samples were examined and imaged under the microscope.
Screenshot of AstroDMx Capture for Windows streaming data of the surface of the lichen
The snapshot function of AstroDMx Capture for Windows was used to capture high quality Tiff images of the samples.
Captured snapshot of the lichen surface
Screenshot of AstroDMx Capture for Windows streaming data of the bryophyte sample
Four snapshots were taken with focus at different levels and then Affinity Photo was used to focus stack the images to bring all levels into focus.
Focus stack image of the bryophyte sample
High magnification, transmission microscopy imaging
An SV305 camera was mounted on a trinocular microscope.
A Thin transverse section of a plant stem was placed on the microscope slide
Screenshot of AstroDMx Capture for Windows streaming data on part of the
stem transverse section
High quality snapshot
Screenshot of AstroDMx Capture for Windows streaming data on another part of
the transverse section
High quality snapshot
We have demonstrated here that AstroDMx Capture for Windows, in combination with a low spec computer and a good, low cost camera, the SVBONY SV305, is a very capable system for Scientific imaging for both astronomy and microscopy. However, these results could just as readily have been obtained by the Linux or MacOS versions of AstroDMx Capture. The FreeBSD version, however, is currently restricted to imaging with supported Nikon and Canon DSLR cameras and DMK/DFK/DBK cameras. However, it is also intended to implement UVC cameras for the FreeBSD version.
Scientific imaging at any scale is intended to produce images of scientific value, reflecting as accurately as possible the object being imaged. However, something that becomes evident when you use scientific imaging on a regular basis, is that at all scales of objects in the universe there can be profound beauty. As the writers of ‘Heaven and Earth...’ point out, there can be beauty at some level, even in the intrinsically grotesque.
Academia recognises the fact that art can derive from scientific research. In fact, Swansea University holds an annual competition entitled ‘Research as Art’. Researchers must distil their research down to one picture and a 150-word description. 'Research as Art is less about the stunning picture, and more about the story. It's about what goes on behind the research; what it means to be a researcher.'
AstroDMx Capture has features that enable the scientific imager to obtain images by means appropriate to the object being imaged. Nicola will maintain and continue to develop the software for this purpose on all four platforms. As there are now four OS platforms, the release cycle has been longer than when there was just one, but we are now very close!
AstroDMx Capture for Windows, macOS or Linux (Including Raspberry Pi) can be downloaded freely here:
