Paul81

Hi Don, Unsure, do you have any raw FITS files you can send me? I can then take a closer look at what might be going on. Cheers Paul

This is actually a trick that will no longer work in the next release (V0.13)... So V0.12 (and previous) automatically connect to the Lodestar camera, but you can use command line arguments to connect to the SX-825, so by starting one instance of LL with no command line arguments (connect to the Lodestar) and one with command line arguments (connect to the SX-825) you can have both running. The latest code I am working with auto connects to (the first one it finds) lodestar, ultrastar, SX-825 and oculus, so this trick will no longer work when V0.13 gets out there. However, it is a planned mod later in the future to allow multiple cameras with multiple instances....

Superb write-up Dom and a fantastic set of captures showing what the 825 chipset is capable of! It will be really interesting to see the differences between the Ultrastar and SX-825, and what effect the TEC cooling will have once that is up and running. I do not know if the Ultrstar has antiblooming? Looking forward to your next session!

Happy days V0.11 is finally available - see post http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/234260-lodestar-live-v011-beta/ Looking forward to seeing how people get on with the new display processing controls!

It ha been a while (thanks to a hectic work schedule) but there first beta version featuring live stacking is now available: http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/220800-lodestar-live-version-09-beta-download-live-stacking/ I am looking forward to seeing the results of peoples observing sessions!

I have put a video if the latest code running on YouTube. Still lots to do, but hopefully showing some good progress.. See post http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/217378-lodestar-live-stacking-demo-video/

I have posted some technical information and some initial results of the live stacking coming soon to Lodestar Live in the Video astronomy forum: http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/213955-lodestar-live-version-08-beta-download/ Live stacking is coming on well but lots more still to do!

Version 0.8 (beta) is now available to download from the Video Astronomy part of the forum: http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/213955-lodestar-live-version-08-beta-download/ The new version adds a few minor features and has some tweaks and bug fixes. Work on live stacking is proceeding very well, I should be in a position to start running some end-to-end tests on previously captured data very soon! :laugh:

Version 0.7 is now available which has a few tweaks, bug fixes and now also is available for Windows platforms. Below is a link to the video astronomy forum where the links to download the application are available. http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/212494-lodestar-live-version-07-beta-download/ Currently working on the live view stacking, and in my latest development version I have also been working on optimising the colour processing by re-writing the critical bits in SIMD assembler. Also I have made the dark frame acquisition mode display the median stacked master dark rather than the individual dark frame exposures. I thought that might be better...?! No doubt there will be other tweaks (and bug fixes) in the next version!

The colour display and processing is now completed. You can edit edit each colour channel separately or as one. The histogram display shows each colour channel so should allow the right tweaks to get a nice balanced colour. Results so far with sample Lodestar-C images have been encouraging. Looking forward to seeing some future results when people give it a go under the stars. I still only have the Lodestar-M - I didn't buy a Lodestar-C at Astrofest. Also working on a better zoom mode, the current one is clunky from a user perspective. Also adding the ability to add the target name and scope details etc as an overlay in the exported PNG images. After that it will adding the real-time stacking. I also need to sort out a website (a high priority). For anyone who is not familiar with the Lodestar Live application, or short exposure video imaging then check out the video astronomy section - there are lots of sample pictures from various cameras and it gives a good flavour of what can be achieved with modest budgets and short exposures!

After what seemed a struggle colour decoding is now working. Turns out the Lodestar-C sensor is CYGM (rather than RGGB or that ilk). Oh and also it isn't read out by the SX electronics like the Sony datasheet suggests. Got there in the end though. The main app now 'understands' OSC but displays it in properly converted luminance. The next task is to add R, G and B processing to the pipeline and allow the UI to separately tweak levels in R, G and B. When that is complete the Lodestar-C will display in full glorious colour. Hmm.. after all that effort I might get a Lodestar-C myself for the bright colourful stuff (and use the mono on the dim stuff requiring filters). Maybe.. Oh, I also fixed the interlaced readout issue (for very short exposures) - nice and smooth images now! Hurruh!

I had a request to allow the user to save and restore master dark frames, such that if using the same exposure length and roughly the Lodestar ambient temp is the same you do not have to recapture the dark frames between sessions. Well, I had a 24 hr plane journey home from Oz, so added this functionality in. Sadly it didn't distract me from the boredom of long haul flying for very long... Colour decoding for the folks with Lodestar-C is still being worked on.

A couple of kind people have sent me some raw FITS files from the colour version of the Lodestar camera so work is underway to integrate colour into the application!

I've decided it is soon time to get an icon for the app - any ideas - I am rubbish at art! Suggestions welcome (clean ones please...)

I decided to start a blog charting the development of Lodestar Live. I know a few folks are interested in the latest goings on with development, so this seems the easiest way... So here goes.. The last few 6 weeks have been hectic from a lifestyle point of view so I haven't been able to spend as much time as I would have liked. Infact, I have not even been able to get out observing in the last 6 weeks either :-( That said, I had a set of data laying around of images I took whilst focusing, so this allowed me to work on the focus assist mode. This turned out to be a larger task than anticipated, but I'm quite satisfied with the result, and the algorithm looks to be pretty robust. I basically perform adaptive thresholding over the image (localised by dividing the image into 8x8 regions), then extract the star closest to the centre. The algorithm then performs a least squares fit of a 2D gaussian function to the star. Using this it then computes the FWHM. The FWHM, maximum ADU as sampled in the star, and a 'roundness' factor are then fed to the UI. The values are 3 sample averaged filtered (to help normalise seeing effects) and the UI also tracks the 'best' values observed. Using this you should hopefully be able to obtain optimum focus. Sadly time and weather has not allowed me to perform a test under the stars (only on the data I previously recorded). I also have ideas to solve the interlacing readout artefacts which are present at small exposures (< 1 sec). This is less evident on longer exposures (30+ sec). Itching to optimise the adaptive threshold filter using SIMD assembler too... The other progress is I have bundled the app for Mac OSX as a release package (a fairly easy process which is now scripted), so can be distributed in a nice easy form for us Apple users. One member of the forum has received a copy to try out on some saved images. They are also expecting to receive a colour Lodestar from Santa, and have kindly agreed to send me data so I can add colour support - so watch this space for news on that (I think this will be quite a popular feature). Sadly, nothing is every straight forward. As part of bundling, I tried the bundled app on my older Macbook white (running a fresh install of snow leopard, my dev machine runs Mavericks) and annoyingly on the Mac white the USB code is returning no devices when it runs! Grrr...!! It should at least see the root hub (regardless of whether the lodestar is plugged in or not)!! I am in the process of debugging this - it all runs fine on my development system. Maybe a permissions thing, or something wrong with config of the apps interface to the IOKit. To be investigated.... I also have on my list to finish of the unification of my own driver (for Mac and Linux) with the SX Windows driver. I know a few people want to run on Windows so must do this at some point. The last I left it was getting the discovery mechanism to work in Windows. Windows uses a pain in the ass way of establishing a device tree - Occams Razor people - the simplest solution is ALWAYS the best! I am also off on holidays this Thursday - for a month! So I doubt there will be much progress in that time. Myself and the Mrs are off visiting relatives down under, so hoping to get some Mk1 eyeball views of the southern skies. Might get a pair of bins... That said, I am taking my Macbook so you never know - I have a habit of waking up early before the Mrs so might keep my engineering muscles flexed...