Please HELP atik 383l and dss

[toxic]

has any one came across this problem 

suddenly DSS wont stack any pictures from my atik 383l+ mono if the capture is 600 seconds or more 300 seconds are fine.

but i can open them with any of my photo editing packages. if i convert them to png or jpeg they will work in dss but not tiff 600 seconds and above.

[Thalestris24]

Hi

I've no idea! What do the 600s subs look like? What message do you get from DSS? How many 600s subs are you trying to stack? What happens if you try and stack 1, 2 or 3 of the 600s subs?

Louise

[NickK]

There's no difference between a 500s and 600s image from a 383L (I can say that as I'm heavily involved with ATIK OS X and Linux drivers).

My thinking is that either DSS is verifying the FITS keywords or pixel number values wrongly or it's rejecting the image if there's more than a certain percentage of the image that may be saturated.

Have you tried a trial version pixinsight or Nebulosity? They're free on their websites and it will answer the question..

[cosmojaydee]

The only thing I can think of is that there may be star trailing in the longer subs , I would check that first

[toxic]

i am sorry i forgot to say that while registering the longer subs dss just freezes and dos not say any thing.now this has only just started happening about a week now i have uninstalled dss and re-installed it with different versions all of which dont make a difference. every thing was ok over a week ago when i stack the older subs from 2 weeks ago they are fine. i have tried on different computers to no avail. the only thing i cant think of now is to uninstall the camera and the re-install it i have only had this camera since september hope it isnt that.

[NickK]

If it's registering - I'm assuming it's read the image itself ok, however I think the first steps are needed:

1. verify that DSS can open the image (without being part of a register operation)

2. verify that the files being written aren't corrupt - use a different application and see if the same occurs which could be either the file or the hard disc.. (use the other app to load the image and then try registering)

3. verify the hard drive (not erase or format which would wipe all the data)- sometimes if the hard disk is failing you'll get random freezes etc.

Note that nebulosity can also load existing images, capture new images with ATIK cameras - try the demo version, try loading the old images and try capturing a couple of new ones then try stacking the new ones by registering.

There's two parts to ATIK software on windows:

1. The camera drivers themselves play no part in the loading or saving the images. They only provide the initial RAW capture in to the application from the camera and control of the camera.

2. ArtemisCapture saves the driver RAW image output in FITS format to the local hard drive.

PI and Neb are very good for stacking. 

One option that has just sprang to mind - what is the file size of the 600 second images? A 383L image is 17.1Mbytes for the mono. If this has doubled then it could be for a couple of reasons - now I'm assuming you're using Artemis Capture to capture the images? 

[NickK]

So.. to make a simple list to help track down the problem:

1. Operating system and software used to capture old and new images. Software used to view or convert images?

2. Verify the hard drive - just to check that the hard drive doesn't have any corruptions that could be causing a problem.

3. What size are the tiff images (old and new)? This is important as the storing application could be storing in a tiff format that is part of the standard but DSS doesn't recognise. Also it could point to a capture option on the software that is making DSS throw it's toys out of the pram.

4. Load singe image into DSS - does this work?

5a. Load a single file into Nebulosity trial version - does this work?

5b. Try registering using Nebulosity with the files - does this work?

If you could upload one of the tiff files that doesn't work - I could have a look at it (assuming this is 17.1MB or the forum will reject it). You can delete the file after to save forum space.

There's a few things that could cause a TIFF file to be problematical:

* parameter fields in a tiff file causing a problem  - loading in another 

* pixel depth switching from 16bpp to 32bpp automatically for some reason - file size would show this, using a seperate app that can handle these formats (PI for example) will allow you to check this.

* partially stored data in the file - this would be apparent in the file size

* corrupt HD causing problems reading the file.

[toxic]

thanks nickk for responding and help.

1. the tiff files in question get to about 50% progress bar in DSS at the registration stage that is as far as they get the just DSS freezes nothing else and i can quit out.

2. i cant load images up in photo shop and paintshop pro and adobe lightroom and even windows preview. it just seems to be the stacking.

3. the tiff files are 16.2 and always have been for tiff from the 383l+ mono but couldnt tel you what the fits file size is as i save them as tiff.

hope this helps explain and here is 1 of the tiffs to look at if you wont mind thanks.

chris

capture-_094-ha-900.tif

this is a tiff untouched.

[Thalestris24]

Hi

I downloaded your tiff and was able to register and stack it ok (Win 7 32bit, DSS v3.3.4) so not sure what's going on...

Louise

Edit: maybe there is a particular sub(s) in your set that's causing a problem? Have you looked through them in dss?

[toxic]

thank you louise that is a bit waight of my shoulders and it meens it aint me camera it just meens i have to find out the reason why its happening now thanks again

[Zakalwe]

How many stars are being detected? look under Register Settings>Advanced>Compute the number of Stars.

Also, do you have any of the Drizzle settings enabled?

[Zakalwe]

My DSS (3.3.2 on Win 8.1 64-bit) also handles the single sub, no problem. There seems to be a heck of a lot of hot pixels in the image though, so maybe DSS is detecting these as stars and then crashing?

[Thalestris24]

 There seems to be a heck of a lot of hot pixels in the image though, so maybe DSS is detecting these as stars and then crashing?

I noticed that too and wondered if they might cause a problem in a stack? Presumably the imaging incorporated dithering...

[toxic]

thanks Louise - Zakalwe and NickK yip there are a lot of hot pixels but they come out with the dark's no problem.

it is all fine now it seems that DSS was still working even though windows was teling me it was not responding i left it for a little while and it finished the job. if it gets worse then i may have to restore windows to an earlier time and see what happens.

again thanks for the help.

chris

[NickK]

That's good to know it's all sorted. PI is ok with the sub too.

Just thinking - what set point temperature do you have the camera set to? I go for something that I can do all year round, so I'm normally targeting -10 to -15 degC.

[toxic]

hi NickK you will face palm when i say i only go to 1c at the moment i need some due heaters for my focus tube and secondary to stop the icing up im still building my rig up lol.now you can slap me.