I just downloaded and installed CCDI v2.1.0 and I'm trying it with a 14" LX200R at F5 and a Mallincam color s-video camera. The camera's CCD has 7.4 x 5.95 sized pixels in a 752 x 582 array. The s-video output is saved uncompressed as 786 x 576 pixel images.

I tried the Defocused Star Collimator but always get the message that the star is distorted.

I set the default image properties to:

1 arcsec/pixel
45000 ADU
Bayer Matrix
7.4 microns

I set the camera control software to generic to pick up the generated tif files.

Am I wasting my time trying to get this to work with a video camera?

If not, do the pixels have to be square (mine aren't)?

I left the ADU settings at it's default as I wasn't sure what to do with it. Any suggestions?

Any idea why CCDI thinks the stars are distorted? I've tried changing the exposure time, brightness etc but to no avail.

Thanks
Gavin

Hi Gavin,

I've not tried the one-star collimator with video yet, but that's something on my to-do list. I don't see why it wouldn't work.

The two reasons I can think of that the one-star collimator is reporting a distorted star:

1. The star is extremly bright, so as to cause pixels to saturate and bleed above and below. Try adjusting the display to show as much of the image background as possible. Does the star look round? Are there any bright spikes emanating from the top/bottom of the star? If so, just decrease exposure time, or find a dimmer star.

2. The not-square pixels are also a likely issue. CCDInspector doesn't know your full pixel size, and assumes it's square. If the star shape is detected to be too far from round, CCDI will complain. I'm going to need to add a setting to the image properties window to allow for non-square pixels. I'll post an update in this thread to let you know when this is available.

Regards,

-Paul

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Paul Kanevsky,

Hi Gavin,

Just made the change to support non-square pixels. Please give it a try with your video camera. To set the correct pixel size, please enter both, pixel Width and pixel Height in the Default Image Properties dialog:



To download, pleae get this zip file:

http://pk.darkhorizons.org/CCDI/ccdiupdate210a.zip

Extract the CCDInspector2.exe from the zip and place it in

C:\Program Files\CCDWare\CCDInspector2

folder. This will replace the original 2.1.0 version.

Please let me know how your testing goes: I'm very interested in your results with the video camera.

Regards,

-Paul

rectpix.jpg (23 KB, 225 downloads)

Thanks Paul. I'll try the update and will report back soon.

Gavin

This looks much more promising.

I no longer get the distorted star error. I now have to find a way to automatically convert the bmp files generated by the video capture software into tiff files for CCDI. If you know of any way to automatically do this please let me know.

Gavin

Hi Gavin,

I went ahead and added BMP support to CCDInspector. Please give it a try.

The new update (to be installed the same way as the previous one) can be downloaded from here:

http://pk.darkhorizons.org/CCDI/ccdiupdate210b.zip

If you encounter any problems reading your BMP files, please email me one or two for testing:

paul [at] pk.darkhorizons.org

Regards,

-Paul

quote:

Originally posted by Gavin:
This looks much more promising.

I no longer get the distorted star error. I now have to find a way to automatically convert the bmp files generated by the video capture software into tiff files for CCDI. If you know of any way to automatically do this please let me know.

Gavin

Thanks very much for the impressive support!

Unfortunately it looks like I'm clouded in for the evening. What I did do though as a test was grab a bmp from last night and copy that into the configured directory and CCDI seemed to pick it up ok. The one thing I did notice was that it didn't delete the bmp file even though I said that it should. If I manually copy a tiff file it gets automatically deleted. Also, CCDI seems to keep the bmp files open. I have to quit CCDI before I can delete these files.

The next clear night I'll try this again and will let you know how it goes.

Hi Gavin,

Here's the version that should correctly clean up after measuring the BMP files. Please let me know how things go when you get a chance to test it:

http://pk.darkhorizons.org/CCDI/ccdiupdate210c.zip

Regards,

-Paul

Paul

That update deletes the bmp files. Thanks.

I'm still waiting on clear weather to try this latest version out under the stars. I'll report back as soon as I can.

Regards
Gavin

Paul

Everything appears to be working using the single star collimation method. I'm capturing bitmaps and CCDI is processing and deleting them.

Using the collimation viewer the recommended correction kept jumping all over the place. I assume this means local seeing is not good enough. Is that correct?

I tried various exposure settings but this didn't seem to make any difference. I've attached an example image just in case I'm doing something wrong and you have any suggestions. This image is a little more exposed than some of the other settings I tried but the results were the same. Please let me know if this looks ok and I will try again later tonight if conditions improve.

Thanks
Gavin

Image0777.bmp (1,296 KB, 22 downloads)

Hi Gavin,

What values do you get for the error when it's jumping around? If the direction keeps changing drastically, that's an indication that the collimation error is below the error introduced by the seeing conditions. In other words, your collimation is as good as you can make it on that night.

Let me know how things go on a night of better seeing.

Regards,

-Paul

quote:

Originally posted by Gavin:
Paul

Everything appears to be working using the single star collimation method. I'm capturing bitmaps and CCDI is processing and deleting them.

Using the collimation viewer the recommended correction kept jumping all over the place. I assume this means local seeing is not good enough. Is that correct?

I tried various exposure settings but this didn't seem to make any difference. I've attached an example image just in case I'm doing something wrong and you have any suggestions. This image is a little more exposed than some of the other settings I tried but the results were the same. Please let me know if this looks ok and I will try again later tonight if conditions improve.

Thanks
Gavin