Jump to content

Banner.jpg.b89429c566825f6ab32bcafbada449c9.jpg

Lodestar Live Question

HiloDon

By HiloDon
in EEVA - Reports

Recommended Posts

HiloDon

HiloDon

Posted
Posted

I've been using Lodestar Live with my new Lodestar X2C and have been pleased with initial results. The color saturation is good, but the balance must be adjusted manually to be right. The problem I have is that the histogram adjustments using my Mac don't seem to be fine enough. The change appears to jump in steps even if I use the two finger swipe on the slider. Am I doing something wrong? Is there some other way to make the adjustment? I end up having to download the image to a photo program to make the final adjustment. The balance just needs to be tweaked a little. I think if the adjustment was finer in LL, it would worked beautifully. Any input would be appreciated.

On a separate note, I had a great session last night viewing Hicksons with my 6" AR152 refractor using the Lodestar X2M and LL. The LL s/w worked perfectly with dark frame subtraction and sum stacking. I was able to do 10x15s stacking with no drift apparent. I viewed 14 Hicksons before dew forced me to end. Thanks again, Paul, for your efforts in creating LL and providing such a great asset to the astronomy community.

Don

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Paul81

Paul81

Posted
Posted

Hi Don,

Glad everything is still working well and you are getting lots of enjoyment from LL! :grin:

With regard to your question, you are not doing anything wrong. The LL dialogs are designed in QT Designer and I set properties for the slide controls which govern how fine the control is (this is then later scaled to the data ranges used in the actual display algorithms). Adjusting how fine the control is a simple matter of changing the slider properties in Designer. As the two finger swipe is proving quite popular (and I use it myself too) I have now adjusted the settings so that the two finger swipe is 5x finer. I just had a play with your flat data and I agree - much nicer.

I am looking to have an auto align histogram peak function, and am currently in the process of changing the way the display processing works. The day job is a killer at the moment so progress has been slower than I would have liked.

Will post the new version with the updated slider controls once I have finished the first wave of display processing mods! The other change already implemented in the next version is that it automatically adds the stacking stats to the target info in the exported image (for example '12 x 30s median').

It is meant to be clear here tonight so I am hoping to catch some more Hickson groups if the weather holds out!  :laugh:

Paul

Link to comment
Share on other sites
HiloDon

HiloDon

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Hi Don,

I am new to LL and have two newby questions.

1. What exactly are you doing to adjust color balance in the histogram? What steps?

2. What is "two finger swipe"?

Thank you,

--Dom

Hi Dom,

Once you get your image right on exposure by adjusting the black and white levels, the color balance can be adjusted by selecting the individual colors and moving the gamma slider. The problem is that the adjustment control is not fine enough and you can't really make a slight adjustment. I have a MacBook Pro, so the two finger swipe allows you to move two fingers across the mouse pad and move the slider if the cursor is on the slider control. Not sure a windows PC has that.

In another thread, Paul has discussed his most recent changes to LL that will allow finer control of the histogram and allow for better stretching with the contrast control. This should resolve all the issues that I had with the color adjustment. The only way I can tweak the color right now with version 0.10 is to open the saved image in a photo program that has a color mod tool and adjust it there. The new LL version will make the color lodestar a true NRTV camera.

Hope that answers your questions.

Don

Link to comment
Share on other sites
HiloDon

HiloDon

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Near real time viewing. I think it more accurately describes what is being done with these high sensitivity cameras to assist in viewing DSO's. Video to me implies real time and CCD cameras like the Lodestar are not really video cams.

Don

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.