Annoucement : Astro Live Stacker software

[deufrai]

On 10/05/2020 at 10:21, Martin Meredith said:

From a fellow open-source Python EAA tool developer I fully applaud your efforts! I see we have gone down different lines with the main libraries we are using (I'm using scikit-image and Kivy for instance), but if there are any ways we can help each other out algorithmically then let's do so.

I would absolutely love to see open-source Python-based platform-independent capture tools that can be used (but unfortunately lack the low-level skills to produce them myself). Maybe a topic for another thread?

Martin

Thanks. I'll have a look at Jocular for sure !

And sure : why not benefit from each-other's findings !

Regarding image capture, we strongly think about having ALS work as an INDI client so it can talk to most imaging hardware out there, without relying on any other third party. More on this in a little while

PEACE

[deufrai]

@stash_old

I wanted to thank you for your contributions : you pointed out several issues we overlooked. It is sometimes easy to get sort of trapped in one's habits. And having you taking the time to test ALS with your frames and own user ways allowed us to improve things and fix others. This is highly appreciated.

[deufrai]

Hi

A quick video introducing ALS was put up :

Made in the morning, maybe a bit to early

[Bill S]

Well I tried!

Tried running the latest (15 May) build of ALS under 64 bit Windows 10. Slow to start up and did not successfully stack a set of CR2 (Canon 650D) files. It appeared to keep only one file and reject the others. Tried different series of files with the same result. The problem may be my files, of course.

Most recent attempts have led to the program starting to read image files from the scan folder and then closing.

Best regards

Bill S

 

[deufrai]

hi @Bill S

First of all, thanks for trying it out and reporting.

Slow to start : Indeed, until we have a proper installer (expected in a couple weeks) slow startup is expected.

12 hours ago, Bill S said:

It appeared to keep only one file and reject the others.

Did you have any warnings in the session log that could help us diagnose your issue ?

The best way to help us help you, is to :

• enable 'debug logs' in the preferences screen (at the bottom)
• restart ALS
• reproduce the issue with the same CR2 files
• close ALS
• Grab the file named 'als.log' located in your home directory and attach it here.

That would allow us to pinpoint the issue and hopefully fix it

Thanks for your time !

Cheers

[Bill S]

Latest go with some files which seemed to stack OK in Deep Sky Stacker.

ALS started and read the files from the scan folder and then closed.

The log file is attached.

 

Best regards

als.log

[deufrai]

8 hours ago, Bill S said:

The log file is attached.

Many thanks

You seem to be triggering one of the very few real issues we need to solve : If images arrive into the scan folder faster than ALS can process them, the Stacker component sometimes end up dying and erratic behaviour occurs. I suggest you try and lengthen the time interval between 2 shots. 2 seconds is way to small, for big DSLR frames on your system.

When ALS is made robust enough in that regard, this workaround will be useless. But for now, this is the only way.

Thanks for your time, @Bill S

[Bill S]

Hello again

I've found another way of making it not work.

I put four files in slowing and things seemed be running but then it crashed.

Log attached.

Best regards

als.log

 

 

[deufrai]

11 hours ago, Bill S said:

Hello again

I've found another way of making it not work.

 

I put four files in slowing and things seemed be running but then it crashed.

Log attached.

Best regards

als.log 224.96 kB · 2 downloads

 

 

Hi again

Your system is quite low on memory and you seem to have put your third image into the scan folder before the second image finished its trip down the processing pipeline.

Please make sure you Stacker worker is done before copying a new image into the scan_folder. You can tell it is done when its Status indicator does not read 'busy' as shown below :

But those crashes should not happen anyway. We'll take care of it.

Thanks again for taking the time to test & report

[deufrai]

Some news : ALS v0.7-alpha2 is out !

Just needs a few little cleanups before an official v0.7 release.

What's new since we last spoke :

• switchable night mode
• switchable 'save on stop' mode
• allow manual choice of Bayer pattern for demosaicing
• Various eye candy and stability stuff

This was made possible by the feedback you guys gave us. This is MUCH appreciated

Test away => https://als-app.org/assets/releases/v0.7-alpha2/

Thanks again and clear skies to all

[Gmx76]

Any plans to support TIF files as inputs?

[deufrai]

11 hours ago, Gmx76 said:

Any plans to support TIF files as inputs?

Hi

Not yet. But that could be done.

Could you tell me what capture software provides TIFF images ?

clear skies !

[Gmx76]

Hi, I'm on a Mac and have Altair Capture, which captures TIF and/or JPG. As the Mac version doesn't do LiveStacking, I was hoping to try it alongside your software, which looks quite straightforward to use.

[Gmx76]

Anyone got this working on a Mac? getting an error Unable to locate an executable at "/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk-16.0.1.jdk/Contents/Home/bin/apt

even though i just installed the JDK

[deufrai]

Hi

Can you tell me where you got your Mac version from ? Are you running from source or a pre-built binary ?
And please tell us a bit more about your mac : OS version and hardware (what CPU is this ? I hope it's not a new M1 CPU)

[Gmx76]

Mac version of ALS? I just downloaded from your website.  Does it support Mac? I'm on Catalina. Not in front of it now,  will try to add version details later.

Edited May 31, 2021 by Gmx76
Can't spell!