Lodestar Live Version 0.9 (Beta) Download - Live Stacking

[Paul81]

Hi All,

As promised here is Lodestar Live version 0.9 Beta featuring live stacking. I have compiled some notes and included them as a PDF in the ZIP file. I would strongly recommend a read before using the application. I am hoping the live stacking is easy to use, but there are a few options to gets to grips with.

OSX: LodestarLive.app.0.9.osx.140713.zip

Windows: LodestarLive.0.9.win32.140713.zip

From the change log:

- New (more accurate) median estimation used for dark frames.

- Live stacking

I should point out I have not tried this version under the stars - it has been integrated and debugged entirely using my own and other (kind) user data. Hopefully it behaves when people give it a good workout.

I am sure there will be issues found - the PDF notes has a section on how you can contribute to debugging faults - this primarily involves when using the application saving all the raw FITS files. I can then use these to fix any issues found.

I am also working on the following for the next release:

- More intuitive histogram functions

- Auto colour balance

- Colour adjustments

- A better transformation algorithm for live stacking (currently uses bi-linear which blurs the stacked image slightly - looking at bi-cubic or better)

- Hybrid live stacking combination modes (still tweaking this a little so it didn't make v0.9)

As always I hope people enjoy the application, I look forward to reading about and seeing the results of some LL observing sessions, and any feedback or comments are welcome! 

[HiloDon]

Thanks for all of your efforts, Paul. I can't wait to try it out, but will have to as we are getting the remnants of a tropical storm that luckily diminished as it approached the Island. Still a lot of rain and cloud cover. Will keep you advised of any problems.

Don

[RobertI]

Great stuff, thanks Paul, and thanks for taking the time to do the guide. Looking forward to trying it out, just need 30 minutes of clear sky.......

[DoctorD]

Thanks Paul

I look forward to trying this out.

Thanks for all your efforts in creating this fantastic piece of software!

CS

Paul

[Martin Meredith]

Likewise Paul, muchisimas gracias! Can't wait for some clear skies now...

Martin

[Martin Meredith]

Had a quick session last night. Live stacking is working well. Here's a zoom of Barnard 104, the hook-shaped dark nebula just 20' north of Beta Scuti. Left is unstacked, right is mean stacked (I forget how many -- probably 8 x 60s). Nice work Paul! Will post larger version with more details in a separate thread later.

Martin

[James]

I haven't had a chance to try this yet but that looks quite promising Martin

James

[HiloDon]

Had a quick session last night. Live stacking is working well. Here's a zoom of Barnard 104, the hook-shaped dark nebula just 20' north of Beta Scuti. Left is unstacked, right is mean stacked (I forget how many -- probably 8 x 60s). Nice work Paul! Will post larger version with more details in a separate thread later.

B104_detail.png

Martin

Excellent, Martin! Stacking real made a difference. Did you use a dark frame?

Don

[Martin Meredith]

Excellent, Martin! Stacking real made a difference. Did you use a dark frame?

Don

Thanks Don. Yes, I used 5 x 60s darks from the start of the session but the temperature was falling at the time so they weren't perfect by the time I got round to B104 -- you can see a few hot pixels which fortunately don't appear to have affected the stacking. In fact, in the stacked version you can see the effect of the integration by looking at the blue pixel near the vertex of the hook ;-)

[nytecam]

Thanks Paul - evermore amazing piece of evolving work - well done :-) Will give it a go on next clear night :-)

[Paul81]

Thank you all for the kind comments and responses! 

Its great to see that so far the new version has been working fine (its always a great worry when you add a load of complex code into a piece of software). You can defiantly see the positives of the stacking the example shown by Martin - I like the side by side comparison - the lovely dark nebulae is much better defined.

Sadly its still not dark enough by my bedtime so could be a while until I get a chance to use it myself by really pleased to see other people are having the opportunity to give it a good workout!

[Live_Steam_Mad]

If I may suggest - I would like to see a sharpness control added. Also, is it possible to get a gain control for the on-chip amplifier (same as all camcorders with manual controls have, same as manual gain control in dB on other cameras, etc), I don't mean digitally, I mean turning up the gain on the ICX829's on-chip amplifier via the LodeStar X2 driver (if this is possible ?).

I have seen this software in use in live broadcast using a LodeStar X2, (version 0.1) and it was very good and stable. But the gamma control was VERY coarse, and the color tint / correction could only be adjusted in very coarse increments. Otherwise I was impressed.

Regards,

Alistair G.

[Paul81]

Hi Alistair,

I have been experimenting with sharpness filters but nothing quite to my satisfaction. I would like to add one at some point, so watch this space.

I do not believe there are any gain controls via the camera USB protocol. To some extent this is negated by virtue of digital processing on the computer, boosting signal via various algorithms.

There is a big update of the display processing in the forthcoming V0.11. The main issue at the moment is my time to work on the app is next to nil due to workload from the day job. Will get there eventually though!

Paul

[nytecam]

Good to hear that Paul so will it include a colour saturation boost option and histogram colour balance?

Paul quotes..."I do not believe there are any gain controls via the camera USB protocol".

I think you're correct - the SX Lodestar downloaded images are essentially raw although the capture s/w has a full range of sharpening routines etc.  A few of these can be auto applied to downloaded images by pre-checking boxes but these inevitably give limited results and are not reversable.    

[Paul81]

Hi Maurice,

Yep it will include a saturation control, and the next bit I am working on is auto white balance. Sadly I haven't had much time to work on it recently, but as soon as I have something finish will post it online!

Paul

[Dom543]

Several of us have been successful at finding right color balance by moving the histograms manually. So if development time is scarse, than that could wait for a later beta. I would be perfectly happy, if v.0.11 had only the saturation improvement.

--Dom