occultation recording with SharpCap

[oopfan]

Markus,

Furthermore, why not just create a spreadsheet with the formulae embedded within? Then you can make a spreadsheet for any and all configurations. Dr. Michael V. Newberry gives you the code, It is there.

Brian

[kepler64]

Hi Brian,

I met Mike Newberry almost 30y ago when I was visiting Derald Nye in Tucson, AZ. I owned one of the first ccd cameras made for amateur use (made by OES, a german company founded by Dr. Fleischmann) and looked for alternative image processing sw. He originally developed the sw for professional use on Unix workstations at the KPO and later commercialized it. At the time I thought that was a crazy idea, because the market is so small for this. But he survived...

Theory is one thing, doing it based on real measurements is another. I would really love to have such a tool integrated in SC. I think almost everything is almost there with smart histogram and the seeing monitor.

Markus

PS. my current telescope in my observatory is a 16" SCT.

[oopfan]

Markus,

It is completely up to Robin. You can help by defining your requirements with mockups of how you want the user interface to look and behave.

Do you know about AstroImageJ?
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3 ... 1/153/2/77

I use it for exoplanets. In real-time it calibrates, measures, and plots a light curve. You can set it up to monitor a disk directory where SharpCap deposits your files. All you do is set the aperture, graphically with your mouse. It does have an SNR calculation but you would have to experiment to see if it comes close to Mirametrics' calculation. Of course you don't have to use its real-time capability. You can always process an existing set of data offline.

The author is Karen Collins seen here:
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/people/310/karen-collins/

She is very responsive to questions on the forum.

Brian

[admin]

Hmm,

if I made EPerADU and ReadNoise available as properties on SharpCap.SelectedCamera.Controls.Gain in the scripting (for cameras with sensor analysis and with a SCPro license) then you could build pretty much what you are looking for in the python scripting - you can hook the FrameCaptured event to get the image data coming off the camera and read the selection area also via the API

cheers,

Robin

[oopfan]

Hi Robin,

I too thought about solving with IronPython, but there is still something missing: the size of the aperture. Of course we can create a form control in Python to input the aperture, but there would be no visual depiction of it on the screen. I don't know if that is a deal breaker for Markus.

Brian

[oopfan]

Hi Robin,

I realize now that the "selection box" that Markus draws around the star is sufficient for him to visualize the circular aperture. However, the Python script needs help to decide whether the aperture is circumscribed or inscribed. Robin, is there an API for the Python script to read the dimensions of the rectangle and its absolute position within the frame?

Question: I am accustomed to performing photometry using three components: aperture, inner annulus, and outer annulus. The aperture encircles the star, the outer annulus samples the sky background, and the inner annulus is a buffer zone. Also, I have always performed photometry on calibrated frames, not uncalibrated which would be the case here. Regarding the outer annulus, perhaps it is unnecessary for Markus' application since he is using very short exposures. We would just need to know his camera's bias level in ADU counts. Of course SharpCap does not need to supply the script with the bias level. Markus can type it into the Python form.

Brian

[admin]

Hi Brian,

yes, you can access the selection area from Python

Code: Select all

>>> clr.AddReference("System.Drawing")
>>> from System.Drawing import Rectangle
>>> print SharpCap.Transforms.SelectionRect
{X=506,Y=636,Width=13,Height=21}
>>> SharpCap.Transforms.SelectionRect = Rectangle(10,10,10,10)
>>> SharpCap.Transforms.AreaSelection = False
>>> SharpCap.Transforms.AreaSelection = True

This shows how to retrieve and set the selection area as well as turn it on or off using python. Note that turning it on will only have any effect if a tool (like the histogram) that allows the selection box is active.

hope this helps,

Robin

[kepler64]

thanks for the clarifications and hints. I do not know Python well enough to be useful for writing this script. Just to be clear, I could use two things:

1) a planning tool based on real data already available in SC (sensor analysis, smart histogram, seeing monitor) to create maybe a chart of expected SNR by exposure time with the real sky, camera and optical system.
2) kind of real-time aperture photometry, could be an extension to the already existing seeing monitor or the collimation tool (cool for the whole pic!)

Markus

[Jean-Francois]

Hello,

Back to the question of the format ... what about ADV vs. FITS ?
I'm interesting to do my second occultation on this TNO (after Chaldeae in February) .

Advantage of SER is ... a SER-Player exists.
What is with ADV ? ADV-Player somewhere ??


Jean-Francois

[procyon12]

Hello Jean-Francois,

Yes, I forgot to mention adv. It's just as good as fits, though fits is more universal. Tangra and PyMovie can play adv recordings (and do photometry). The DVTI developers have an adv-player, but as far as I know only for Mac.
Good luck and CS with this TNO.

Cheers

Christian