Київський клуб аматорів астрономії "Астрополіс"

astromagazin.net
* *
Ласкаво просимо, Гість. Будь ласка, увійдіть або зареєструйтеся.
29 Березня 2024, 03:49:43

Увійти

google


Автор Тема: Anyone here willing to help me test my project?  (Прочитано 2719 раз)

0 Користувачів і 1 Гість дивляться цю тему.

larrylart

  • Offline Offline
  • Повідомлень: 9
  • Подяк: 0
    • my website
Anyone here willing to help me test my project?
« : 26 Грудня 2009, 17:24:26 »
. - .

Hi,

You can check a preview of my project at: http://larryo.org/work/information/unimap/index.html







I started this project back in 2004 as I realize that more and more people get into astrophotography but most will go no further then framing nice pictures. So I thought that it will be good to have a simple to use tool to allow amateur astronomers to do plate-solving(detect and match your image against star catalogs), so they can explore and learn more about these marvelous images so I started to develop this project. Now after literally tens of thousands of development hours you can just load your astrophoto and in a few clicks learn almost everything is known about your image, what are the stars, galaxies, nebulas, radio sources, x-ray/gamma bursts, supernovas, extra solar planets or asteroids, comets and even artificial earth satellites passing through. Also, you can get more advanced information like various measurements available (including spectral) and links to articles/abstracts talking about objects and/in that area in the sky.

On top of that I added several tool to help amateur astronomer to better plan his observing session like an on click collection of environmental/weather data, instruments management/control and also an online collaboration interface to allow amateur astronomers to easily exchange/review the data.

Anyone interested to help me test it and/or feedback will be appreciated!

Larry
« Останнє редагування: 14 Січня 2010, 02:02:41 від larrylart »
Записаний

LifeIsGood

  • Moderator
  • Offline Offline
  • Повідомлень: 5234
  • Подяк: 446
Re: Anyone here willing to help me test my project?
« Відповідь #1 : 26 Грудня 2009, 19:02:38 »
. - .

Hello Larry,
That's one cool project you have. A quick question. Do user need to provide any initial data with approximate image coordinates, pixel size, anything else? Is it somehow related to Aladin (http://aladin.u-strasbg.fr/aladin.gml), does it need internet access or is it possible to operate it off-line?

Thanks!
Записаний

Thomas

  • Offline Offline
  • Повідомлень: 2307
  • Подяк: 1
  • Натер зеркало - получи +1 в карму
Re: Anyone here willing to help me test my project?
« Відповідь #2 : 26 Грудня 2009, 23:15:56 »
. - .

It will be nice to provide download link.  ;)

In future this program will be freeware?
And what about Linux and other platforms (ask this question because see some wx programs on yours site)?
Записаний
Телескоп Алькор производства НПЗ
Телескоп-самопал D=150mm, F=1250, ГЗ - сфера собственного изготовления
Canon EOS 350D, Canon EF 24-85 USM, Юпитер 37 MC


larrylart

  • Offline Offline
  • Повідомлень: 9
  • Подяк: 0
    • my website
Re: Anyone here willing to help me test my project?
« Відповідь #3 : 27 Грудня 2009, 00:27:10 »
. - .

Do user need to provide any initial data with approximate image coordinates, pixel size, anything else?

It depends on the degree of magnification at which the picture was taken. For wide field picture at anything less or around 100mm there is no need for a hint. For higher focal length it’s advisable to provide a hint to speed up the search. Ad I created an easy to use dialog for/to provide a hint (not necessary in hard number but in common names as well) see here: http://larryo.org/work/information/unimap/detect_match_sample.html#hint

Is it somehow related to Aladin (http://aladin.u-strasbg.fr/aladin.gml), does it need internet access or is it possible to operate it off-line?
 

You can use it with or without internet access is up to you … if you which to download the catalogs locally and work with them that way - I implemented both ways.


It will be nice to provide download link.  ;)

Yes, I am working hard to put together a testing/user guide … and these holidays .. 

In future this program will be freeware?

Yes, my future plans with this project is to release it free and opensource (for windows, linux and perhaps macosx)… if all goes well, I mean if people show interest in it and it’s workable and from there I might be looking for sponsorship at some point to support a big central database though which amateur astronomers from all over the world can share image resolved with astrometry data etc.

And what about Linux and other platforms (ask this question because see some wx programs on yours site)?

Yes, the project is written in c++/wxwidgets (cross platform gui library)  and that means it can be compiled on other platforms such as linux/mac/etc. Most functionality will work except for the digital cameras interface (and for Mac I am not sure about the video interface either) which is for the moment is windows only. So yes, in the future I will look into releasing it  for Linux Mac osX as well.

Larry   

Записаний

Thomas

  • Offline Offline
  • Повідомлень: 2307
  • Подяк: 1
  • Натер зеркало - получи +1 в карму
Re: Anyone here willing to help me test my project?
« Відповідь #4 : 27 Грудня 2009, 00:49:56 »
. - .

Nice work  :super:
When the Linux version will be released I will try to help you with application testing and making installing packages :shuffle:. For the first time i think emulation with Wine will be enough.
Записаний
Телескоп Алькор производства НПЗ
Телескоп-самопал D=150mm, F=1250, ГЗ - сфера собственного изготовления
Canon EOS 350D, Canon EF 24-85 USM, Юпитер 37 MC

LifeIsGood

  • Moderator
  • Offline Offline
  • Повідомлень: 5234
  • Подяк: 446
Re: Anyone here willing to help me test my project?
« Відповідь #5 : 27 Грудня 2009, 00:54:05 »
. - .

Larry, you have my respect!  :up:
I'll try to test your software with some of my pictures to see how things work.
Записаний

Астротурист

  • Offline Offline
  • Повідомлень: 2113
  • Подяк: 23
  • Забанений!
  • Дорогу осилит идущий!
    • Астротурист - астрономия в горном Крыму!
Re: Anyone here willing to help me test my project?
« Відповідь #6 : 27 Грудня 2009, 01:17:53 »
. - .

Something like that is trying to develop Leonid Tkachook...

AndreyYa

  • Offline Offline
  • Повідомлень: 2140
  • Подяк: 54
Re: Anyone here willing to help me test my project?
« Відповідь #7 : 27 Грудня 2009, 01:58:41 »
. - .

Hello Larry,
thank you for interesting news.
 As I can see, you spent efforts to include DSOs (nebulae, galaxies etc.) to the list of recognized objects.
Do you know about SCAMP - Sextractor package that is dedicated to solve the same tasks (stars detecting - DSOs extracting - plate solving - photometry+astrometry)?
Do you plan to add some scripting and/or external automation possibilities to your software? This functionality could help automate a routine work for detecting asteroids, novae, etc. on image sets. Commercially available sofware for amateurs usually lacks this functionality.
Записаний
AP Mach1 GTO, HEQ-5, SW ED-80 + FF, Intes Micro Mak-Cass 6";
ATIK 383L+ + EFW2 + OAG + Astrodon 5nm 36mm NB filters set,  QHY-5 etc.

larrylart

  • Offline Offline
  • Повідомлень: 9
  • Подяк: 0
    • my website
Re: Anyone here willing to help me test my project?
« Відповідь #8 : 28 Грудня 2009, 14:38:43 »
. - .

Do you know about SCAMP - Sextractor package that is dedicated to solve the same tasks (stars detecting - DSOs extracting - plate solving - photometry+astrometry)?

Yes, I know sextractor - it does a pretty good job on photometry but not as "good" for plate solving at least not if you don’t provide reasonable good coordinates, fov, etc. On top of that it only works with fits images and also you need an unix flavor or at least cygwin. I wrote this application in the idea to be of use to the average amateur astronomer which isn’t necessary an IT professional :) Also by difference with sextractor I also do asteroids, artificial earth satellites and a bunch of other types of catalogs at once. Sure, you can do that with sextractor as well but then again you will need to write a script to put together all that functionality :) Then again for those confident enough with unix and willing to play hard there are many tools out here like iraf, gaia, etc.

Do you plan to add some scripting and/or external automation possibilities to your software? This functionality could help automate a routine work for detecting asteroids, novae, etc. on image sets. Commercially available sofware for amateurs usually lacks this functionality.

Well, in more then 16 years in IT … I mostly worked on unix and less then 1% on windows ... so you reckon :) … most certainly I will be adding the scripting capabilities and means to do/call externals for automation. I am already storing the astrometry data in readable formats csv, xml and mysql. And I also wrote some routines to import/export data (connect) with other applications in the field.
But, anyway I will do more work on this latter … right now I want to get a stable release to help (encourage) the beginner make a step forward by providing him with easy means to analyze and learn more about his astrophoto… and I am afraid that a package like sextractor could scare them away to start with … am I wrong ? :)

Larry
Записаний

Roman K.

  • Offline Offline
  • Повідомлень: 721
  • Подяк: 22
  • Забанений!
  • Plus lucis non semper melius est
Re: Anyone here willing to help me test my project?
« Відповідь #9 : 30 Грудня 2009, 06:03:47 »
. - .

Hi Larry,

It is a great project indeed. Your announce on the website has wondered me with the range of functionality. I look forward (with eager) to test how it works. Please upload the updates here on the forum when possible.

I also guess your software executes some similar work like e.g. Astrometrica does, although less precise (or not less?!). What can you say about asteroid & comet measurments and their search tools?
Anyway, I like the way it has so many different functions.

Regards,
Roman
Записаний
Arsenal 15075eq3.2, SW 1309eq3.2, біно 20х90, Watec 902h2, Canon 600d

larrylart

  • Offline Offline
  • Повідомлень: 9
  • Подяк: 0
    • my website
Re: Anyone here willing to help me test my project?
« Відповідь #10 : 31 Грудня 2009, 12:18:00 »
. - .

I also guess your software executes some similar work like e.g. Astrometrica does, although less precise (or not less?!). What can you say about asteroid & comet measurments and their search tools?
 

Hi Roman,

. I have not benchmark it against Astrometrica yet (only did some checking with aladin) but it should be at least as good for the plate-solving tasks. And well, the precision will go hand in hand with the quality of the photo - there are several parameters you can tweak to allow for lower quality pictures to solved but the errors could also popup - and in that case I do some statistical corrections. I don’t know if Astrometrica has that much tolerance to errors and/or statistical corrections. I put here a few sample of low quality images solved: http://larryo.org/work/information/unimap/low_q_solved.html

As for asteroid & comet measurements, at this it will show you the position/trajectory intersecting your image based on the very latest orbital parameters. There is also a module for "discovery" but it’s yet in its infancy :)

Larry
Записаний

larrylart

  • Offline Offline
  • Повідомлень: 9
  • Подяк: 0
    • my website
Re: Anyone here willing to help me test my project?
« Відповідь #11 : 24 Червня 2010, 00:25:44 »
. - .


I finally managed to build the pre-alpha version - with a slight delay as my life has been complicated lately.
You can download and test the very first pre-alpha release from here:

http://larryo.org/work/information/unimap/download.html

I know there are still bugs and room for of improvements, optimization, etc. "Unfortunately" I have built this application so big for so little time I’ve got that I should probably be focusing on getting the a core functionality working right and here any suggestions and ideas will really help.


Larry
Записаний

larrylart

  • Offline Offline
  • Повідомлень: 9
  • Подяк: 0
    • my website
Re: Anyone here willing to help me test my project?
« Відповідь #12 : 11 Липня 2010, 23:53:09 »
. - .

I am wondering if people here find this application useful? At the concept level what do you think I should change/add to improve it?

Записаний

larrylart

  • Offline Offline
  • Повідомлень: 9
  • Подяк: 0
    • my website
Re: Anyone here willing to help me test my project?
« Відповідь #13 : 11 Жовтня 2010, 00:27:32 »
. - .

Version 0.0.2 pre-alpha is now available for download from:

http://larryo.org/work/information/unimap/download.html

Larry

Записаний

larrylart

  • Offline Offline
  • Повідомлень: 9
  • Подяк: 0
    • my website
Re: Anyone here willing to help me test my project?
« Відповідь #14 : 29 Травня 2011, 06:07:41 »
. - .

Version 0.0.3 pre-alpha is now available for download from:

http://larryo.org/work/information/unimap/download.html

Larry

Записаний

larrylart

  • Offline Offline
  • Повідомлень: 9
  • Подяк: 0
    • my website
Re: Anyone here willing to help me test my project?
« Відповідь #15 : 30 Травня 2011, 01:04:53 »
. - .

I have also added two small video tutorials (basic) here:

http://larryo.org/work/information/unimap/support.html

I am not sure if this format is ok, feedback will help before I go on to make better tutorials.

Larry
Записаний