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GuLinux / PlanetaryImager

Qt capture software for astronomy, mainly planetary shooting
http://planetaryimager.gulinux.net
GNU General Public License v3.0
53 stars 13 forks source link

Bravo + Feature request #21

Open Blueshawk opened 7 years ago

Blueshawk commented 7 years ago

Having just had winblows10 try to eat my Linux and itself AGAIN(managing only to kill itself), I can say that having a good Linux planetary imaging solution is going to be pretty much the last camel breaker for me. I was booting to windoze only to use RS!3 and firecapture/sharpcap for planetary imaging and keeping a sharp eye out for Linux alternatives when I found this and finally got to try it last night on my ASI178MM with excellent results! Despite wifi VNC and USB 2 connection(long story) bottlenecks it performed quite well for hours.

One feature I'd really like to see is an image tracker like in Firecapture. They have an image stabilization routine that keeps image updates set in position on the screen and a set of 4 blocks moving to indicate actual alignment. This makes evaluating sky conditions and focus easier, and even makes tweaking position to keep the planet onscreen on rough nights more fun as conditions + the ROI can make it appear to leave the sensor when it has not.

---DSO related toys I'd like to see---- I like the apply button approach to settings changes but I'd like to see them take effect faster. I realize it's not the main forte of the program but when taking longer exposure shots the UI appears to stop responding between frames. A switch to a photo format when exposures reach a certain length is one way I've seen this dealt with. I often use longer exposure shots for framing and star hopping to targets.

Thanks for working on this and I hope to see more updates soon!

Cheers! Ray Wells 4.0

GuLinux commented 7 years ago

Hi, thank you :)

The tracking feature is already planned for 0.8 (although I'm having a few problems right now to release even 0.7... let's hope it'll get out in the next days..)

As for the DSO feature, it's where it gets a bit complicated. The problem is that although they seem similar, short and long exposure work in a very different way. In short exposures, you can wait for the next frame to apply the changes, while in long exposures you might have to wait a lot for that. The best approach would be to abort the current exposure, apply the changes, and start a new exposure; unfortunately for many cameras (at least ZWO) this is not possible in "live mode", so we should switch to "single shooting" mode. It's not impossible, but it will require quite some work, and I can't really put this on high priority, as DSO is not really the goal for Planetary Imager (as the name would suggest :P)

It will be implemented though, eventually, so I'll keep this issue open as a reminder.

Cheers, Marco

Blueshawk commented 7 years ago

"unfortunately for many cameras (at least ZWO) this is not possible in "live mode" Interesting, I didn't realize the camera was doing that. That might explain why input delays happen so often and not just in PI, especially if the buffer gets a bit behind due to comm or cpu issues.

"I can't really put this on high priority, as DSO is not really the goal for Planetary Imager (as the name would suggest :P)" Agreed, I nearly wrote the same thing when I suggested it but erased it as self defeating. :)

Thanks again!