Feature release of AstroDMx Capture for all platforms Version 1.2.4

Nicola has released a feature release of AstroDMx Capture for all platforms Version 1.2.4.

Mutatis mutandis

Version 1.2.4

There are a number of significant changes in this version of AstroDMx Capture 1.2.4

• Added: Fan control for ZWO cameras
• Added: Dew heater control for ZWO cameras
• Added: Dew heater control for Altair cameras
• Added: Trigger mode for Altair cameras
• Added: RGB48 16 bit pixel format for Altair cameras
• Added: Black level value to FITS metadata
• Added: Bayer pattern value to FITS
• Added: Altair support on Raspberry PI 32 and 64 bit
• Major refactor to allow arbitrary length exposures when the camera's exposure units operate in microseconds
• Fixed: Bug associated with some ZWO cameras when operating in long exposure mode
• Fixed: Bug associated with AVI's on Windows
• Updated: ZWO SDK
• Updated: QHY SDK
• Updated: SVBONY SDK
• Updated: ZWO Filterwheel SDK
• System Information dialog has been updated
• Improved the debugging output
• The USB speed parameter is now automatically reduced to the minimum when operating in long exposure mode
• Other bug fixes and improvements

RGB48 16 bit format

Most astronomical cameras offer 8 bit RAW, 16 bit RAW (from 12, 14 or 16 bit ADCs), sometimes 8 bit mono (for a colour camera) and RGB24, which is an 8 bit format (8 bits per colour channel).

There are, however, some cameras such as the Altair cameras, that also offer RGB48. This is a 16 bit format (16 bits per colour channel). As with 16 bit RAW, RGB48 data can come from 12, 14 or 16 bit ADCs), the image data are put into a 16 bit image container. In the case of AstroDMx Capture, the 16 bit image containers can be FITS, TIFF, PNG or SER files.

In addition to Gain, Black Level and Exposure, the RGB48 format has access to all of the controls that the RGB24 has, for example, Gamma, Brightness, Contrast, Hue, Saturation, Colour Temp, Colour Tint, and One Touch white balance.

It could be argued that these kinds of adjustments can be made in post-processing, which is true. However, it is quite satisfying to have a preview image that more closely resembles the final image.

Being a 16 bit format the preview images are controlled by the 16 bit display controls and also the non-destructive display controls which are all designed to make the 16 bit images visible in preview.

The Moon with a Chromebook, AstroDMx Capture for Chrome OS and an SV305M Pro camera.

A Skywatcher Star Discovery 150mm, f/5 Newtonian was mounted on a Star Discovery AZ GOTO mount and an SVBONY SV305M Pro was placed at the Newtonian focus.

The Star Discovery scope and mount used

A Lenovo Chromebook S345 with 4GB RAM and a 64GB eMMC drive and an AMD A6 CPU was used for capturing lunar data. The Chromebook was running Crostini with Linux and had installed all of the software needed to capture and process the data.

AstroDMx Capture for Chrome OS was used for capturing. It should be noted that at the time of writing, the only cameras that will work are the SVBONY SV305 series of cameras. At this stage we don’t know whether it will become possible to use other makes of camera in Chrome OS like this, or indeed, whether future updates of Chrome OS might break its present capabilities.

The software installed in the Crostini Linux container includes:

• AstroDMx Capture for Chrome OS (native Linux)
• Wine, Windows compatibility layer (native Linux)
• Autostakkert! 2 for stacking (using Wine)
• IRIS for wavelet processing (using Wine)
• The Gimp 2.10 for post-processing (native Linux)
• Hugin Panorama Creator for stitching image panes together (native Linux)

AstroDMx Capture for Chrome OS was used to capture 1000-frame SER files of three, overlapping regions of the Moon covering the terminator side of the 98.5% waxing Moon, but not the whole lunar disk.

Click on an image to get a closer view

AstroDMx Capture for Chrome OS capturing a SER file of the Plato/Sinus Iridum region of the Moon.

Final image of the Plato/Sinus Iridum region

AstroDMx Capture for Chrome OS capturing a SER file of the Copernicus/Kepler region of the Moon.

Final image of the Copernicus/Kepler region

AstroDMx Capture for Chrome OS capturing a SER file of the Tycho region of the Moon.

Final image of the Tycho region

Hugin Panorama Creator was used to align and stitch the three panes of the terminator side of the Moon into a mosaic.

This is another demonstration that a Chromebook with Crostini Linux is capable of capturing and processing astronomical images using an SVBONY SV305 series camera and AstroDMx Capture for Chrome OS.

Combining H-alpha and Ca K-line solar images

Imaging was done with a CaK PST, a Solarmax II, BF15, H-alpha scope and a DMK  31AU03.AS CCD camera, mounted on a Celestron AVX mount.

The data were captured as SER files with AstroDMx Capture.

Click on an image to get a closer view

Screenshot of AstroDMx Capture saving a SER file of Ca K-line solar data

Screenshot of AstroDMx Capture saving a SER file of H-alpha solar data

The SER files were stacked in Autostakkert!, wavelet processed in Registax and post processed in the Gimp 2.1.

Results

Ca K-line light

H-alpha light

The Ca K-line and H-alpha images were combined in Picture Window Pro 2.5 running in Wine, using translate, rotate and scale to exactly match the features on both images and to blend the images together.

H-alpha plus Ca K-line merged

Combining Calcium and H-alpha images in this way allows one to see the different types of structure revealed by each wavelength.

Jupiter and the Moon with AstroDMx Capture and an Altair GP-Cam 225C CMOS camera

A Skymax 127 Maksutov was mounted on an AVX mount and an Altair GP_CAM 225C CMOS camera was placed at the focus. For imaging Jupiter, the lens from a x2 Barlow was attached to the camera and for imaging the Moon, no Barlow was used.

AstroDMx Capture for Windows was used to capture the data. Stacking was done in Autostakkert!, wavelet processing was done in Registax and post processing was done in the Gimp 2.10.

Click on an image to get a closer view

Jupiter with Io shadow transit

Jupiter with the GRS and Io plus shadow transit

Screenshot of AstroDMx Capture capturing lunar data

Lunar images

The second image of each pair has been chrominance enhanced to reveal variation in the mineralogy of the lunar surface.

Plato, Sinus Iridum region

Herschel, Ptolemaeus region.

Copernicus, Kepler region

Archemedes, Aristillus region

Tycho, Clavius region

The Altair GP-CAM worked very well with AstroDMx Capture and works well on macOS, Linux, and 32bit Raspberry Pi Linux.