Nicola has released Version 2.6.3 of AstroDMx Capture
This is a feature release of AstroDMx Capture that introduces several new functions together with native support for Apple Silicon (ARM64) computers. In addition to this, there are SDK updates, various bug fixes and other improvements.
Apple Silicon
Version 2.6.3 introduces a native build for Apple Silicon computers. At the current time, this build supports cameras that have native Apple Silicon SDKs provided by the manufacturers. The list of supported cameras is as follows:
SVBONY
DSLRs
Altair
Touptek
OGMA
UVC (Web cams)
INDI Cameras
If you are Apple user and your camera is not listed above, then you should download the build for x86-64 and run it using Rosetta.
Significant New Features
A number of new features have been implemented for this release.
SVBONY: Bad Pixel Correction
SVBONY has added a bad pixel correction function into its SDK and this functionality has been implemented in this release.
After connecting to an SVBONY camera, you should notice the new functions under the “Controls: Camera” category located on the right hand side of the main UI. Depending upon the camera used, this will either just show a checkbox to active the functionality or both a checkbox and a slider. The slider can be used to alter the severity of the correction. This function is active by default.
IMPORTANT: This functionality does not exist on the SV105 or the SV205.
Plate Solver Functions
It is now possible to specify a path to the ASTAP star database. This allows for the ASTAP command line program to be in a different directory (folder) than the corresponding star databases. This function can be found in the setup UI for ASTAP.
It is now possible to automatically reduce the size of the image that is uploaded to Astrometry.net. Many high resolution astronomy cameras produce very large files which can take a long time to upload over an Internet connection. This function reduces the size of the image which allows for a faster upload to astrometry.net and faster solves. The image size is controlled by a percentage slider and can be found under the setup UI for Astrometry.net.
Disk Space Information
AstroDMx Capture now informs the user of the amount of disk space available for captures. This information is reported in the status bar (at the very bottom of the main window), in the log window and on the capture dialog box.
In addition to this, warning messages are shown in the log window if disk space is becoming critical.
Stability Features
Previously, if a camera had a glitch, it could cause AstroDMx to lockup on exit or when changing pixel formats/resolutions. If this happened, it would need the user to manually kill the application. The reason for such lockups were caused by threads becoming “stuck” in an SDK function call. Fortunately, this didn’t happen often but could be more common with specific camera types or even faulty USB cables/ports.
This version now has a monitor that detects such anomalies and, if a block is found, AstroDMx force-terminates the offending thread before handing control back to the user. This should completely remote the possibility of AstroDMx locking up due to camera SDK problems.
If such a problem is detected, the user is shown a message indicating that processing is active and asked to wait.
macOS UI
There have been changes to improve the visual appearance of the macOS user interface. This is specifically associated with the borders that group related controls. Most of the user interface has been improved but there are still some dialog boxes that are still to be done.
Version: 2.6.3 summary
Added: MacOS Apple Silicon (ARM64) native support
Added: Bad Pixel Correction for SVBONY cameras
Added: Functionality to specify the path to the star database for the ASTAP plate solver
Added: Functionality to reduce the size of images when uploaded to the Astrometry.net plat solver
Added: Disk space information for the drive where image data are saved
Added: A monitor that automatically kills the video handling threads if there is a lockup in a camera SDK. Occasionally, a camera SDK function can lockup, if this happens it would stop AstroDMx Capture from closing and would require the user to force terminate the application. This function detects such anomalies and force terminates the threads as cleanly as possible which means that AstroDMx will not lockup in such circumstances
Changes: Improvements for the macOS user interface
Changes: Improvements to the system information dialog
Updated: PlayerOne SDK
Updated: QHY SDK (all platforms, including macOS)
Updated: SVBONY SDK
Updated: OGMA Camera SDK
Updated: Atik SDK (not including ARM Linux builds)
Updated: libusb to 1.0.27 (includes changes to stop assertions being thrown in certain circumstances. These assertions could sometimes cause AstroDMx to crash)
Bug fixes and other improvements
Important Note
Initial users have reported that after downloading the Apple Silicon build of AstroDMx Capture, it reports that the app bundle is corrupt. It is not corrupt but is being incorrectly reported so by Apple. After further investigation, it appears that this is because AstroDMx is not notarised by Apple and that this is a requirement for Apple Silicon applications.
Unfortunately, Apple Notarisation requires a significant yearly financial payment to Apple and, as AstroDMx Capture is made available free of charge, this cost cannot be justified.
Fortunately, there is a simple solution to this problem. The procedure is as follows:
Double click on the downloaded AstroDMx Capture DMG file
Drag AstroDMx Capture.app into /Applications
Launch a terminal and type the following:
xattr -cr /Applications/AstroDMx*
Press enter
Once the above procedure is complete, AstroDMx Capture should run correctly.
I am pleased to say that Nicola has resumed work on INDIGO support in AstroDMx Capture
