linux compatible hardware

[daneel]

Hi - I'd like to buy imaging hardware that is compatible with Linux, because that's what I use exclusively. So I was thinking of buying a second-hand Canon 10D from a colleague at work as it's easy to read images off its compact flash card.

I looked for "CCD linux" on google and there wasn't much out there. Are the images with CCDs much better than with DSLRs?

Is there someone in the lounge who uses Linux too?

[themos]

I use Linux but have no experience of DSLRs.

Some DSLRs have CCD chips, some have CMOS chips.

[daneel]

Hi themos - do you use linux for imaging?

[themos]

I have attached a ToUcam and used the pwc kernel module and mplayer program to capture frames and I have used an ancient serial port camera with the photopc software. No DSLR work, but some image processing. I am running a Debian system, mostly.

[daneel]

I see - you just stick the thing on with gaff tape like this:

http://www.stargazing.net/David/toucam/orion150mm.html

I tried using my camera to take multiple jpegs of the same patch of sky, then to stack them with gcx. But when I convert from jpg to fits format using either giimp or imagemagick "convert" I get saturation of some of the pixels which are then lost in the conversion. So Vega and Deneb have black holes in their centres.

[themos]

for stacking, there's lynkeos on Linux as well :

http://christophe.jalady.free.fr/lynkeos/index.html

for aligning (also called "registering") images, there's ninox:

http://acquerra.com.au/astro/software/ppmcentre/

[hairymunky]

I've used QAstrocam for recording images from the SNC900. Had a bit

of bother at first building the kernel modules for the webcam, but got there in the

end.

Registax works under Wine, and theres the Gimp for Photoshop

http://3demi.net/astro/logiciels.html for more linux astro apps.