In the absence of any clear skies for the testing of AstroDMx Capture developments, the next best thing is to do the testing using a microscope instead of a telescope. Scientific imaging ranges from the very small to the very large and distant. Using a research-grade trinocular microscope enables the camera, in this case the SV305Pro to be attached to the camera port of the microscope and used as a scientific imaging system.
The tests done here were using a Raspberry Pi 4B fitted with heat-sinks and a cooling fan, all within an open-sided acrylic case.
The Pi that we routinely use has an attached USB 3.0 SSD drive onto which results are written.
Click on an image to get a closer view.
Screenshot of AstroDMx Capture for the Raspberry Pi running on 32 bit Rasbian
The filamentous alga Spirogira was imaged.
Snapshot of part of a Spirogyra filament
Snapshot of another filament at lower magnification
A SER movie file was captured showing the presence of some small, active Copepods close to the algal filaments
The short exposure experiments are now complete and demonstrate that the SV305Pro camera functions well with AstroDMx Capture for the Raspberry Pi in both 64 bit and 32 bit Rasbian, the official operating system of the Raspberry Pi.
It is important to remember at this stage that the tests so far have been with 8 bit short exposures. What is now required is to do 16 bit long exposure experiments to test the performance of the camera in this mode. There will be no release of the software until the camera works in all modes, and we are satisfied that the SDKs work correctly.
Stop press! The long exposure problems with the SDK seem to have been fixed so a release of the 32 bit version will be made soon, supporting the SV305 Pro, but it looks unlikely at this stage, that the 32 bit version will support the original SV305. When these problems are sorted out, a maintenance release will be made to support the original SV305 in 32 bit Rasbian.
AstroDMx Capture for Windows, macOS or Linux (Including Raspberry Pi) can be downloaded freely here:
