very nice.
I was trying to list support for ASTAP in the wish list Ekos alignment module.

ASTAP's Solver is a great help when creating a remote environment with SBC.

If live stacking can also be implemented, this is a solution that can integrate EAA into SBC.
(I expect it to be easy to navigate and browse remotely as previously posted.)

I will introduce it on my blog.
Great job!

Just released ASTAP version 0.9.279 with some minor improvement. Now the stacking will also restart if the exposure time changes. It also restart stacking when the mount position changes more then 0.2 degrees/12 arc minutes. In the previous version this maximum offset was set by mistake at 20 arc seconds only.
If for Sigma Clip stacking the program keeps all images in memory (e.g. 20 megapixels equals 80 mbyte), the memory usage will rise fast and processing time will increase. You could probably avoid this by using only the first ten images to find statistically the mean and standard deviation of each pixel and to use that to detect outliers in the next images. For the moment, lets first see how the average stacking works and performs. Average stacking using the serial calculation makes it fast and simple.

Han

This evening, I had a chance to test the ASTAP live stacking during some clear sky moment between the clouds. Noted the following:

- Stacking works well!
Only there is something wrong with star detection because it didn't work well with H-alpha images and the normal stack routine has not problem with them.
- The switch-over between two different object doesn't work proper. While slewing the incoming images confuse the program. For the time being I just had to stop imaging.
- Unicode fonts didn't work well with my Win7 system.
- Memo containing the fits header is flashing too much.

Improvements will come.

Han

One example made during strong wind:
41x10 seconds live stacking with ASI1600 and HEQ5 mount. No guiding. No darks No flats.

Except the switch-over, the other problems should be fixed in v0.9.281. But more testing is required. This is an early release to test the concept.

Han

Mr.han

live stacking for EAA, please check Sharp CAP for windows app.
A slider that adjusts the brightness and color of the stacked images can be used conveniently for viewing.

wow these are impressive results indeed!! Really looking forward to integrating this feature as well with KStars, just after I finish the ASTAP astrometry integration. Great work Han!

I will do. But sliders are already available.

I'm trying to modifying an application which was designed to stack images from a stationary telescope with guiding. No guiding is no problems as long you keep the exposures short. Currently there is a concept problem that the application doesn't know what's happening with the telescope. When your continuous imaging and move the telescope you get something like this:




This will stack since a part of the exposure is good but somewhere halfway the operator decided to slew. But this will spoil the stack. Looking into the FITS header of CCDCiel there is no keyword I could use to identify the start slew halfway the exposure. So you either have to 1) suspend imaging automatic after a slew command or 2) add information to the header indicating the mount has moved or 3) ASTAP reads out the mount position. 4) stop manually the exposures

This is something for Jasem (Kstars) and Patrick (CCDCiel) to advice. Step 3 is a big step, so option 1) or 2) look the better option. Option 1) looks to me the best option since imaging and slewing doesn't make sense and any image will be worthless. Maybe this is already available in Kstars, I'm not familiar with it.

Han

Fixed some run time problem with ASTAP release v0.9.282. This version processes all my images from last night, good or bad.

Han

Han, this look very good!

You can detect if the telescope as moved with the RA and DEC FITS keyword.
But it is necessary to compare with some tolerance because the mount driver can update the coordinates after pulse guide command.

This is probably the most universal way to deal with the problem. For example many people doing EAA use the telescope handpad to move the telescope and the imaging application is not aware of that.
But the most reliable is a Start/Stop button in the stacking application, so it not stack until the user finish to center the object and sometime focus manually.

Patrick

A 'simpel' levels with histogram is very convenient for adjusting the stacked image.