I'm verry happy to anounce new release of Collimation circles application! And it's really exciting one, expecially for macOS users!
Collimation Circles Application is now offically supported on macOS 12+

Download: github.com/sajmons/CollimationCircles/releases
Official WebSite: saimons-astronomy.webador.com/software/collimation-circles

Added global center offset support for patterns
Added new setting for main window opacity
Added French language thanks to Vincent Vidal
Added social button bar
Added GitHub issue button

Fixed Transparency issue for main window on MacOS
Fixed CheckBox for pattern visibility not working
Fixed saving and restoring window position
Fixed setting window not apearing when main windows closes in detached mode
Fixed some minor issues

Change shortcut keys requires CTRL on Windows or ⌘ on macOS to be pressed
Change upgrade to AvaloniaUI 11
Change keyboard shortcuts are now inside collapsible pannel
Change Refactoring of UI
Change Optimized translations

I'm happy to anounce that there is new version of Collimation Circles 2.2.2 available!

Download: github.com/sajmons/CollimationCircles/releases
Official WebSite: saimons-astronomy.webador.com/software/collimation-circles

Added count property to bahtinov mask for easy TriBahtinov mask support
Added property for controling patern opacity
Added pattern max count limitation

Fixed main window movement not working when settings window is detached
Fixed for new version dialog below main window when always on top enabled
Fixed icon on windows not embeded inside exe file
Fixed when settings window was detached and default button was clicked, there was duplicated settings window and pannel
Fixed cutting off of keyboard shortcut text

Updated nuget packages, AvaloniaUI 11.0.3
Updated french translation

I am very happy to announce that there are no more transparency issues with the Collimation Circles application on the new Raspbery Pi OS Bookworm!

More here: saimons-astronomy.webador.com/1504731_co...berry-pi-os-bookworm

So great, thank you !

Happy new year to Collimation Circles users! You are great! Thank you for all your support!

I have big announcement to make. Collimation Circles 3.0 is just around corners!

Here is little teaser what's comming in next release.

saimons-astronomy.webador.com/1625584_ne...-collimation-circles

At last! Version 3.0 of Collimation Circles is here!

You can read all about it here: saimons-astronomy.webador.com/1634837_co...-circles-3-0-is-here

And download it from here: github.com/sajmons/CollimationCircles/releases

Summary of changes:

Added Ability to connect to camera stream and display it in background
Added Log file console support
Added NLog library for application information logging to file
Added Option for show keyboard shortcuts in main window
Added Inclination shortcut
Added links to patreon web page and social networks
Added PayPal donation button to About dialog
Added Requirements check on app startup
Added Missing translation

Fixed fatal error when list of shapes is empty and user loads JSON file
Fixed issue github.com/sajmons/CollimationCircles/issues/13
Fixed Segmentation fault on Linux
Fixed AvaloniaUI NuGet packages Fixed VideoLAN.LibVLC references

Change Item visibility CheckBox replaced with ToggleButton
Change About tab moved to is't own dialog
Change Removed keyboard shortcuts from settings Tab
Change Simplified settings CheckBox-es
Change UI/UX optimizations
Change Upgrade .Net 8
Change Updated NuGet packages to latest versions
Change Undock button size and position
Change Code and performance optimizations
Change Translation updates

Best wishes to all!

I very happy to anounce, that new version of Colimation Circles 3.1.0 is awailable.

You can download it here: bit.ly/42yJ3BO

Whats new:
Added UVC and Raspberry Pi camera support by @sajmons in #17
Fix for issue #15 when saving JSON file if UI language is not English app crashes by @sajmons in #16



Best regards

I wrote series of articles about advanced newtonian collimation and how it's done with Collimation Circles application.

All three parts are available here:

• saimons-astronomy.webador.com/1769915_ad...e-collimation-part-1
• saimons-astronomy.webador.com/1769983_ad...e-collimation-part-2
• saimons-astronomy.webador.com/1769983_ad...e-collimation-part-3

I hope you will find it usefull.

Thanks for these Simon. A suggestion - instead of removing the primary mirror, would it not be easier to just hide it by putting a paper/card into the OTA?

I did try that method too. For larger telescopes, that would probably be easier, but for smaller ones it's very hard to squize paper inside OTA and keep it steady.
I found that removing primary mirror is by far easiest method for me.

Good point. I now need to find a suitable camera to try out the software. The ASI cameras I have dont seem to be able to focus even with the wide angle lens supplied.

Yeah, for colimation we need simple UVC Web Camera or something simmilar. If you found one to be sutable for use in telescope eyepiece, please let me know.
Curently I'm using my Raspberry Pi HQ camera for the process, but manually adjusting focus is real pain.

Something like this would probably do the job:
bit.ly/444Cwzs or this bit.ly/3U4H8B6