Showing posts with label howto. Show all posts
Showing posts with label howto. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Michael A. Phillips' Planetary Processing Routine version 8.1

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HINT: To download this tutorial as a Microsoft Word Doc, click here - http://www.mediafire.com/?yj4em1omomn




Introduction

1. This is by no means a replacement to the tutorials I learned the most from such as Mike Salway's (http://www.mikesalway.com.au/2008/08/26/planetary-imaging-and-image-processing) or Paul Haese's (http://paulhaese.net/planetaryprocessing.html). I am simply tuning, tweaking and automating some of the steps to suit my own taste and hope you find some ideas here to use for yourself!


    1. Incorporating a large portion of the v7 tutorial (seen here), I was able to skip the Registax application altogether. The advantage here is the I now stack in Iris direct from Ninox and Iris has a very robust scripting engine to automate stacking and saving of raw files.


    1. All the routines in this HowTo use applications running on Linux, even the windows only software packages run under Wine (http://www.winehq.org) running under Linux. All of the video screencasts are recorded and produced using applications running on Linux. I am confident that all software and processes detailed in this HowTo can be run on MS Windows with one exception. The capture software I use, Coriander, will run only on Linux. Even some of the bash scripts may be run under Cygwin (http://www.cygwin.com/) although I've not tried myself. Never fear, the main method of this HowTo still applies to users running on MS Windows.


    1. OK, HERE'S the SHORT METHOD!

All videos are best viewed in HD (click the button in the lower right) and full screen!!

      1. Acquisition: Using Anthony Wesley's custom coriander 1.0.0. This works well for me as I have a firewire camera and motorized TruTek Color Filter Wheel with PC control cable. - Part 1 Video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF70aenFIq4)


      1. Sorting by quality, rescaling, centering and cropping in ninox: (http://acquerra.com.au/astro/software/ninox/ - A tool for processing planetary images by Anthony Wesley) – Part 2 Video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWZ7Gc8kmTM)


      1. Stacking in Iris: Major change in this version 8, is the absence or skipping of Registax for stacking. Move Ninox sorted and cropped images into Iris for stacking.


Stacking ninox sorted data right into Iris - Part 3 Video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjPwY5NQYnw)


      1. Processing in Iris: RGB combine, whitebalance, black point, sharpening and processing. - Part 4 Video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKlshHH3Zhg)




  1. Acquisition

      1. My equipment consists of

        1. I use a Celestron C8i SE (orange tube)

        2. Lenovo T61 laptop running Ubuntu 9.04 Linux and custom coriander (for firewire cameras – Thanks Anthony Wesley! )

        3. DMK 21AF04 (Firewire)

        4. 2.5x PowerMate

        5. Astronomik LRGB filters

        6. True Tek Color Filter Wheel with visu diag and PC serial cable (USB-to-Serial)

        7. Homemade Hand Controller extender or PC mount control for drift corrections

        8. some shots here:























http://picasaweb.google.com/maphilli14/MichaelAPhillipsAstronomyEquipment#5244213374458800210





























http://picasaweb.google.com/maphilli14/MichaelAPhillipsAstronomyEquipment#5244213381800624706



      1. Once everything is connected up I follow the 'custom coriander 1.0.0' modified by Anthony Wesley (aka Bird - http://acquerra.com.au/astro/software/coriander/ ).

      2. Before beginning capture, I suggest you get some basics covered - Michael A. Phillips' Astronomy Lesson on Seeing, Collimation and Focusing (http://maphilli14.multiply.com/journal/item/70/)

      3. Here is a screencast that demonstrates a regular capture routine that I follow for Jupiter. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF70aenFIq4

      4. After completing your captures you may move onto the next section that moves data from 'transit' to 'sorted'. It is important to note that this coriander outputs a static image stream of .fit files not a .avi or video file. This saves me a step extracting the movie to images later on!






Sorting by quality, rescaling, centering and cropping in ninox

      1. I prepare all captured source images that are really .fit files by passing it through ninox (http://acquerra.com.au/astro/software/ninox/) to sort and crop the images and then output to a new subdirectory called 'sorted'

      2. An optional, short getting started video on downloading, installing and using ninox - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpOJQxzyTnw

      3. Additional changes to the version 8 routine include batch processing of all the nights images in a single command as well as upscaling to 200% or 300% of raw images before stacking.

      4. The full script is a bash script and can be found here:

        1. Generate list of nights captures - http://www.mediafire.com/file/nfyimywxnny/MAPgenplanetlist.sh.zip


Execute looping ninox:

        1. In version 8 of my routine, I now have a simple loop that reads all the nights captures and allows you to selectively run Ninox against all or some of the captures. This script that will read the capture directories and use them to create all the sorted, Ninox folders. Per these guidelines (http://maphilli14.blogspot.com/2008/01/tips-on-organizing-your-computer.html).

      1. The key ninox syntax is:

        1. ninox -width=300 -height=300 -cutx=300 -cuty=300 -qestimator -qrenumber -outdir=Astronomy/Sorted/2-Scratch/Jupiter-$1/$2 /Astronomy/Transit/1-Corianders/$1/$2

          • This, “-width=300 -height=300 -cutx=300 -cuty=300” crops the images to a square 300x300 pixel size

          • This “-qestimator -qrenumber” sorts the data and renumbers the images based on quality

          • This “-outdir=Astronomy/Sorted/2-Scratch/Jupiter-$1/$2” allows me to specify a new folder in a sorted (not transit) folder for safer keeping. The $1 and $2 are the arguments passed to the script at runtime in which $1 is the ISO date that coriander writes ( IE 20081122) and $2 is the UTC time (IE 001122UTC).

          • There is another path following the outdir, /Astronomy/Transit/1-Corianders/$1/$2 this specifies the source files if not in the current directory.

          • Upscaling is in the format of -resample=3/1 scales all the subframes to 300% the original size after cropping. A tip from Anthony Wesley citing that it helps to remove artifacts made me want to try for myself and it in fact does work quite well on good data!! I've gotten fantastic results running a raw stacked, 3/1 upscaled image through AstraImage, which is part of my long routine, v8.2





Stacking in Iris: notes on skipping Registax and how to get 'Iris-ready'

      1. Why skip Registax? Only because I can automate stacking and saving of Red, Green and Blue with a single click!

      2. Skipping Registax is a two step process. First ensure the proper naming of files. Second, use the command window or Iris script to automate the stacking.

      3. The key to taking Ninox sorted data straight to Iris is in the naming. Iris has a fairly rigid naming scheme for any sequences of data that it works with. In particular if you are going to stack a series of raw monochrome data in the red channel it will NEED the numbering to appear as follows, as this is how Iris requires the images to be numbered, IE no leading zeros.

      • R1.fit

      • R2.fit

      • R10.fit

      • R99.fit

      • R100.fit

      • and so on...

This is not the same scheme that most image capture programs work with and I was able to solve this with the Linux package for batch copy / move called 'mmv' (mmv is a program to move/copy/ append/link multiple files according to a set of wildcard patterns)

In a nutshell your files need to get renamed from:

xxxx-yyy-q001999.fit → R1999.fit

or

xxxx-yyy-q00239.fit → xxxx-yyy-R239.fit

where all all leading 0's get stripped off as Iris does not like that.

I've not tested yet but for windows users this suggestion came across the Yahoo Group for Iris Software via Christian Viladrich:

The numbering rule in Iris is :
1, 2, ..., 10, 11, ..., 100, 101,

So, if you have a numbering such as :
0001, 0002, etc
you have to renumber your files.

You may renumber your files with "remultfile" software:
http://www.ptorris.com/windows.php

This is a French software, but very easy to understand.”” - Christian Viladrich



The fun part is starting the automated stacking and walking away for something more exiting!

Once the files are in the right format you may use this Iris script (http://www.mediafire.com/file/xzy3ihqamwt/MAPPlanet81.pgm.zip)
to convert and or stack the raw images in a manner similar to Registax's stacking scheme. Before using, test with one or both of these commands:



Non-FIT users need to convert to fit first! (For BMP users, use PIC settings not FIT settings)

BMP2PIC red redpic $1


add_norm red $1

Where $1 is simply the number of frames 'located in the iris working directory' that are to be stacked.

Some notes about the final image. First it is a After stacking you may find the brightness to be clipped or oversaturated. This is actually not the case and you should notice that Iris works in 48-bit space so you may fix this issue by using the following command:

mult $2

Where $2 is a number less than 1 to which all pixels are multiplied by. If you save the raw stack you may reload at anytime before you find the final desired brightness.







  • This image was a normal brightness image which I used mult 1.5 several times to give the over exposed view on, but using mult 0.8 or mult 0.5 a few times will bring it back to this. If it does NOT bring it back then you have gone beyond the 48-bit max value point and I've never encountered this before with my 8-bit camera and anywhere between 500-600 frame stacks.


























Processing in Iris

Flow – I like to follow a framework of a routine, that worked for me in the past under varying conditions. Here's my flow that I load from a text file and then paste into the Iris command window.















>run mapplanet81 500



>load r0



>--processing / wavelets-- 1,5,10,3,1



>unsharp 3 2 1



>save r81



>load g0



>save g81



>load b0



>save b81



>--view / rgb-- x81--



>white



>black



>save rgb81a



>scale 2 0.67 0.67



>--processing / wavelets-- 1.1,1.9,1.7,1,1



>save rgb81b



>--Saturation 1.3--



>gauss 0.5



>--processing / blur filter--



>visu 25000 200



>save rgb8a



>run rgb8a



>load rgb8a



>scale 2 0.75 0.75



>



Anything with a > is the 'prompt' and not a command

Anything with a >-- is just a note to find that in the menu system as it's not a command (not that I can see)







Step by Step Explanation:



stack per step 3 above with Iris script

Load each raw file (EG R0)

apply wavelets to taste

apply unsharp mask (optional and mixed success)

save as new filename (EG R81)

repeat for Green and Blue

RGB combine (EG Trichro – located in View RGB) - GREAT explanation of Whitebalance and black point by Sebastien Leboutte http://www.skyimaging.com/filter-wheel.php

whitepoint “

blackpoint “

save 'backup'

scale down to intermediate step (EG from 3x to 2x)

more wavelets

save new 'backup'

saturation increase to 1.3x

smooth with gauss

smooth with blur (again to taste)

adjust levels with visu

save as final

this final gets picked up by next iris script which saves as a variety of formats to get copied by bash script

At this point you're done and you can use Gimp or Photoshop or other similar editor to brush up and put in stats, logos etc...



Some additional Iris resources are found here:



Sebastien Leboutte - http://www.skyimaging.com/tutorials.php

and of course Christian Buil, author of Iris! - http://www.astrosurf.com/buil/us/iris/iris.htm (Scroll past halfway to find the TUTORIAL section)



TO DO's:



Include more MS Windows automation

Add Astra Image per my v8.2 routine.

Figure out how to use Deconvolution in Iris, in lieu of AstraImage.



HTH!



Mike




Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Failed Rosette 2009-02-16




CGE with Meade LXD55.
3minute subs x 34
no dew / light shield till past half way of the observing session.
no light pollution filter
no guiding

1st image is a raw stack with no stretch
2nd image is flatted (but why the poor 'gradient'?)
3rd image is NOT flatted, but had some gradient removed in Iris

Friday, December 19, 2008

Adding a Clear Sky Clock widget/screenlet to Linux

I had to spend some time on this one, but I'm very happy with the results.

I use Ubuntu Linux, but I'm sure this will work for any distribution that supports screenlets.

1) Install Screenlets - http://www.screenlets.org/index.php/Download

2) Add the Widget Screenlet via - http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/show.php?content=70799&vote=good&tan=90243706

3) Create a new .html from the attachment and save it into the ~/.screenlets/Widget/widgets/ folder.  You may wish to edit the site for your specific location.  I had to browse the img source to find the proper URL.

4) Use screenlets to add the new CSC to your desktop and then change the widget to the newly created CSC.html file.

Also note that I set the widget to a meta refresh of 2 hours too!!!

ENJOY!

Mike

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Michael A. Phillips' Planetary Processing Routine version 7.0

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    1. Introduction

    2. This is by no means a replacement to the tutorials I learned the most from such as Mike Salway's (http://www.mikesalway.com.au/2008/08/26/planetary-imaging-and-image-processing) or Paul Haese's (http://paulhaese.net/planetaryprocessing.html). I am simply tuning, tweaking and automating some of the steps to suit my own taste and hope you find some ideas here to use for yourself!


    1. Living document, I do plan in incorporating changes and suggestions over time and will reversion and date accordingly so please send feedback. Please critique, that's how we all get better!


    1. All the routines in this HowTo use applications running on Linux, even the windows only software packages run under Wine (http://www.winehq.org) running under Linux. All of the video screencasts are recorded and produced using applications running on Linux. I am confident that all software and processes detailed in this HowTo can be run on MS Windows with one exception. The capture software I use, Coriander, will run only on Linux. Even some of the bash scripts may be run under Cygwin (http://www.cygwin.com/) although I've not tried myself. Never fear, the main method of this HowTo still applies to users running on MS Windows.


    1. OK, HERE'S the SHORT METHOD!


      1. Run your Planetary captures through ninox (http://acquerra.com.au/astro/software/ppmcentre/)


      1. Move ninox sorted data through Registax


      1. Move Registax stacked data to Iris for RGB Combine and processing.

          Video Tutorials:



    1. Acquisition

      1. My equipment consists of

        1. I use a Celestron C8i SE (orange tube)

        2. Ubuntu 8.04 Linux and custom coriander (for firewire cameras)

        3. DMK 21AF04 (Firewire)

        4. 2.5x PowerMate

        5. Astronomik LRGB filters

        6. True Tek Color Filter Wheel with visu diag and PC serial cable (USB-to-Serial)

        7. some shots here:




















http://picasaweb.google.com/maphilli14/MichaelAPhillipsAstronomyEquipment#5244213374458800210

























http://picasaweb.google.com/maphilli14/MichaelAPhillipsAstronomyEquipment#5244213381800624706



      1. Once everything is connected up I follow the 'custom coriander 1.0.0' modified by Anthony Wesley (aka Bird - http://acquerra.com.au/astro/software/coriander/ ). This document is a work in progress and you may email me for a preview!

      2. After completing your captures you may move onto the next section that moves data from 'transit' to 'sorted'. It is important to note that this coriander outputs a static image stream not a .avi or video file. This saves me a step extracting the movie to images later on!






    1. Ninox

      1. I prepare all captured source images that are really .fit files by passing it through ninox (http://acquerra.com.au/astro/software/ppmcentre/) to sort and crop the images and then output to a new subdirectory called 'sorted' The full script is a bash script and can be found here:

      2. http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=2c029c78ccec6d383eb48d43a6cb8a62606ebfa4f4a2d337

        1. I'm working on a newer version of this script that will read the capture directories and use them to create all the sorted, ninox folders. Per these guidelines (http://maphilli14.blogspot.com/2008/01/tips-on-organizing-your-computer.html). When done I will revise this blog per v7.1 :)

      3. The key ninox syntax is:

        1. ninox -width=300 -height=300 -cutx=300 -cuty=300 -qestimator -qrenumber -outdir=Astronomy/Sorted/2-Scratch/Jupiter-$1/$2 /Astronomy/Transit/1-Corianders/$1/$2

          • This, “-width=300 -height=300 -cutx=300 -cuty=300” crops the images to a square 300x300 pixel size

          • This “-qestimator -qrenumber” sorts the data and renumbers the images based on quality

          • This “-outdir=Astronomy/Sorted/2-Scratch/Jupiter-$1/$2 /Astronomy/Transit/1-Corianders/$1/$2” allows me to specify a new folder in a sorted (not transit) folder for safer keeping. The $1 and $2 are the arguments passed to the script at runtime in which $1 is the ISO date that coriander writes ( IE 20081122) and $2 is the UTC time (IE 001122UTC).





    1. Registax

      • NOTE at as of 2008.12.12 - I was unable to get AviStack to load the .fit files that I work with.  A shame too as the batch mode looks VERY promising!

      1. Double Click for widescreen video or press the links below


        1. Widescreen version on YouTube is here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrFcvwTjdbI

        2. Full Resolution AVI (DivX 1280 x 768) version can be found here - http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=2c029c78ccec6d383eb48d43a6cb8a62606ebfa4f4a2d337

      2. Drag & Drop into Registax

      3. Switch align mode from “Default (single)” to none. No align, no reference.

        1. Locate a good cutoff point by moving the frame slider at the bottom left and right. Good frames are on the left and bad frames on the right. For example I typically stack the good frames on the 'left', typically 500 of the total 1500.

        2. Now hit the limit button to trim out the bad frames on the 'right' that will not be stacked.

      4. Notice that after hitting the limit button you will skip the Optimize tab and go directly to the stack tab. At the stack tab simply hit the stack button. Ninox has already sorted and aligned the data so there is no reason to have registax do it again. Some folks believe that ninox's alignment is actually better and or more efficient than registax's.

      5. After stacking you are at the wavelet phase. I typically apply 3 schemes much like a Small, Medium and Large drink sizing.

        1. No wavelets or a raw stack. This is my small wavelets scheme, denoted as R0.tif (Where R is the color, like R,G or B)

        2. Mike Salway's scheme (http://www.mikesalway.com.au/2008/08/26/planetary-imaging-and-image-processing) This is my medium wavelets scheme, denoted as R7.tif

          • 3 @ 10.5, 4 @ 15.2, 5 @ 16.5.

        3. And something I call Ice 150% Which is basically about 50% more than the medium scheme listed above. This is my v7 (large) wavelets scheme, denoted as R71.tif

          • 3 @ 15.2, 4 @ 22.6, 5 @ 24.6.























      1. Net net is that you've got to find a sweet spot for your optics, conditions and taste.

      2. If you save the files to the hhmmssUTC name (Up one folder when hitting the save button and has the numbered filter subdirectories under it), with the x7.tif filenames then you can use this bash script (http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=2c029c78ccec6d383eb48d43a6cb8a62606ebfa4f4a2d337) to slide the Registax files into Iris and back again in a pretty cool manner. When using this script, first verify the directory locations agree with your Registax and Iris working directories. This step is an optimization when working with many files and not completely necessary, as you can move the files manually.





    1. RGB combining in Iris.

      1. Download Iris (http://www.astrosurf.com/buil/us/iris/iris.htm) and set the Iris scripts and working path locations.

        1. File → Settings:


















        1. File Type to PIC

        2. Working Folder → “YOUR FOLDER” (such as C:\astronomy\temp\irisscratch 2000-01-01\)

      1. Loading a test file, File → Open. Find a file processed in Registax .tif format

      2. Load each channel into Iris

        1. Adjust visu levels via the thresholds

          • Move the top slider right towards 30,000+

        2. Set mono








        1. adjust wavelets (slight)

          • Processing → Wavelet...

        2. Save as new, R7.PIC in Iris' Working Folder location (C:\astronomy\temp\irisscratch 2000-01-01\)

      1. Iris LRGB (trichro) function to assemble as RGB

        1. View LRGB and set channels to:

          • Red: R7

          • Green: G7

          • Blue: B7

        2. APPLY! COOL!

        3. The section with video below details how to fine tune the alignment of the channels.

      2. Now lets look at how to automate this

        1. PART 1 Introduction

        2. PART 2 RGB Combine Options

        3. PART 3 Post Processing Options

        4. Set the Iris scripts and working path locations.

          • File → Settings:


















          • File Type to PIC

          • Script Path → “YOUR FOLDER” (such as C:\astronomy\permanent\scripts\iris\)

          • Place the planet.pgm (http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=2c029c78ccec6d383eb48d43a6cb8a62606ebfa4f4a2d337) file here C:\astronomy\permanent\scripts\iris\

          • Working Folder → “YOUR FOLDER” (such as C:\astronomy\temp\irisscratch 2000-01-01\)

          • Copy the file names R7.tif (Red Channel), G7.tif (Green Channel) and B7.tif (Blue Channel) to the Iris “Working Path” folder

        1. Bring up an Iris command prompt by clicking this button












        1. Now type the command, “run planet” VIOLA!!!

      1. Fine tuning of the separate RGB channel alignment:

        1. View LRGB and set channels to:

          • Red: R7

          • Green: G7

          • Blue: B7

        2. Apply

        3. Now set the step to 10

        4. Set the channel you wish to move via the radio button


















        1. Use the arrows in the upper right to move the channel around relative to the other channels.

        2. Change the Step value to something smaller or larger based on your needs

        3. When done, click OK

        4. Save as the format you like.





    1. Processing in Iris

      1. Wavelets

        1. Processing → Wavelets...

        2. Typically I apply a very small scheme such as....
















      1. Unsharp mask

        1. Processing → Unsharp Mask

        2. This can make the data over processed quickly so be careful. You will have an opportunity to remove noise or oversharpening in the next step













      1. Blur

        1. Processing → Blur Filter...

        2. Sometimes I add the full amount in the 1st run and have to run it again iteratively.







      1. Iris resize and or final visu levels - save as .bmp for sending to gimp (anyone know any gimp/iris compatible formats, let me know!) and .jpg for web

      2. There is a great whitebalance option available by using the mouse to select a portion of the image that 'should be' white.  Then in the command window type 'white'.  You may also tweak via the "View -> White Balance Adjustment".  The same can be done for setting a black background.  The video shows this well!

        1. I have another Iris script that runs here to save as a variety of formats. These then get picked up by the bash script waiting for us. The data then returns to the 4-TempStacked folder.

          • Run iris7 (savejpg “name” 1) etc...

    ENJOY and PLEASE COMMENT!!!






      MS Windows Addendum:

    Carried forward from my v5 routine.

        Batch .avi to .bmp conversion:

    Use VirtualDub to convert/extract the .avi video to .bmp still images:

    Download script here for windows: http://www.ericphelps.com/scripting/samples/VirtualDub/index.html

    Load job in Vdub

    Now back to Ninox Sorting in section 3

    all the Red, Green and Blue files are mixed in the same directory. Here's an example script to sort into subdirectories. My IC Capture filenames might not match yours, but have a look.

    Sort by rgb capture via bash script

    Bash script that sorts LRGB image series into sub-folders for organization and processing - http://www.mediafire.com/?2jmfkmxmnxe

    To be honest, I hate looking at the script now to figure out how to explain what it does.

    I recall chaning directories into the mess of RGB files and running this with the variables described in the top of the script!

    ENJOY and PLEASE COMMENT!!!

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