Nebulosity Release Notes: 2.3.0 Nebulosity 2: (see below for Nebulosity 1) 2.3.0 (Full release 5/16/10) Highlights: - Multi-set pre-process tool - Auto color balance routine - Match histogram tool - Non-stellar auto-align tool - Updated Canon and Starlight Xpress support - External filter wheel tool for ASCOM (Windows) or Starlight Xpress (Mac) - Use of QHY "WinUSB" drivers - All bits from pre-releases 2.2.2 through 2.2.9 - (2.3.0) Built against the SBIG 4.66 Framework on OSX to support ST-8300 - (2.3.0) Re-ordered batch menu to follow processing flow - (2.2.9) Support for SX H18 cam - (2.2.8) Fixed issue with improper reconstruction of SX M25C frames - (2.2.8) Fixed support for Canon T2i - (2.2.7) Fixed numerous issues with auto-align tool. Resampling of image now done with cubic b-spline - (2.2.7) Fixed rare instance that could cause Trans+Rot(+Scale) alignment to go over 16-bit range - (2.2.7) Fixes for color QSI cams (in particular on Macs) - (2.2.7) Drag and drop to Neb now supports more formats (add raw formats) - (2.2.6) Removed "arg" dialog that could appear when capturing on Canons and saving to CF cards - (2.2.6) Fixed TEC power percent reporting for QHY9 - (2.2.6) New histogram matching tool added. Will match the histograms of any number of target images to a reference image. Note, this works much better than the Normalize tool. Run this prior to Drizzle or SD based stacking for better results. - (2.2.6) Auto color balance tool added. Will match histograms for R, G, and B channels. - (2.2.6) Progress meter added to multi-set pre-proc tool - (2.2.6) Fixes to Drizzle (please run the new Match Histogram tool before using) - (2.2.6) Filter # added to FITS header and Image Info tool - (2.2.6) Fixed issue with circle not showing up on guess of 2nd star's location during alignment - (2.2.6) If asking for a >= 10s Fine Focus run, dialog appears asking you to confirm as this is likely an error. - (2.2.6) Fixed spelling error in Prefs and size of dialog - (2.2.6) Fixed error with SBIG ST-8300 reporting a 35,1 warning on connect - (2.2.6) Fixed issue with connection to Opticstar PL-130 - (2.2.5) New multi-set pre-process tool added - (2.2.5) Fixed bug that crept in recently that kept things from being able to automatically debayer original Orion StarShoot images taken in Maxim Essentials. - (2.2.5) Slight tweak to auto black level - (2.2.5) Tweaks to SBIG color cam detection - (2.2.5) Atik 3xx, 4000, etc. cams now get the name properly set (not all are called 314). - (2.2.5) Canon 7D image capture fixed?? - (2.2.4) Updated to QSI 5.2.1 library (Mac and Windows) and added serial number to name in FITS header - (2.2.4) "Atik 314" in pull-down renamed to let users know this supports many new Atik cameras - (2.2.4) Updated to allow debayering of QHY9C - (2.2.4) Fixed issue with camera debayers causing crash - (2.2.4) Updated QHY support to use the 32/64-bit "WinUSB" drivers by default. If you wish to still use the QHY drivers from him circa 2009, head to the Preferences. The "CCD Labs Q8" and "QHY8 TVDE" have been removed as these are no longer supported by the camera makers. Users are encouraged to update to Tom and Qiu's updated WinUSB drivers. - (2.2.3) Updated Shoestring DSUSB library (Windows) - (2.2.3) Updates to deal with accented characters in filenames - (2.2.3) Fixed bug that crept in at the last minute for SX Ext filter wheel on the Mac - (2.2.3) Initial pre-release of auto-alignment routines. In the Batch menu, you will find "auto-alignment". Here, you select a "master" frame and your parameters. After hitting "OK", you will be asked to select the frames you wish to align. When this hits a full release, the # of parameters and options will probably drop, but here is a run-down of what they are and mean * Transformation Method -- "Rigid" won't distort the image at all (translation + rotation only) and affine will (translation, rotation, scale and shear) * Method -- This controls how we are determining how well the images overlap. You have a pull-down with a number of options. By default, we have "MI 5%" and other good options are "MSE" and "MSE stars". Here, MI=Mutual Information and MSE=Mean squared error. These are different "how much error is there" metrics. For "MSE stars" it tries to find and work on stars, speeding the process up over "MSE". For MI, you've got a few sampling rates -- percent of pixels and # of pixels to work on. 5% seems to work well here and is a lot faster than if you go up. * Size -- By default, I downsample the image to half size and run on that. Much faster and I've not lost any apparent accuracy, but going lower (at least with the current downsample method) doesn't seem to work well on DSOs. It'd work well on the moon is my guess though. - (2.2.2) External filter wheel support begun with new entry in View menu. ASCOM support in Windows and Starlight Xpress support on the Mac in place. New command added to script "SetExtFilter N" (N=1-indexed filter number) to move the external filter wheel. - (2.2.2) QHY8 Pro offset set to 1,1 - (2.2.2) Update to Canon EDSDK 2.7 for support of newer cameras 2.2.1 (11/28/09) - Bug fix: FLI cameras grabbing wrong area in Fine Focus - Bug fix: Bug that would lead to black pixels at times in stdev-combine fixed. - Bug fix: NGC_DLL issue on new installs fixed 2.2.0 (Full release 11/18/09) - All bits from pre-releases 2.1.3 - 2.1.11 and 2.2.0rc1 (> 60 updates) Highlights - Cameras added: SX "R" series (and >1 SX cam on the Mac), FLI (Windows), Apogee (Windows), Current QHY8 drivers (Windows), QHY8Pro / QHY9 (Windows) - Additional updates to ASCOM, Fishcamp, QSI, and Artemis / Atik camera support. - Many more DSLR RAW formats supported - Updates to Canon mirror lockup routines including new feature to specify the delay - New Gaussian blur tool, unsharp mask tool, "custom" level for standard deviation-stacking, and new flat pre-processing preference - Loads of bug fixes and minor enhancements 2.2.0 rc1 - Bug fix: Dither to PHD was only working for certain dither levels -- fixed. - Bug fix: >30s exposures on Canon T1i not working (throwing up error dialog -- error ignored). - Bug fix: Yet one more (last?) bug in BPM routine - Bug fix: Save as JPEG has the "busy cursor" up when asking about the quality - Bug fix: While in Preview, moving from one image to another does not keep the position fixed when in 200% or 400%. - Delay in mirror lockup mode on Canon DSLRs made adjustable (Preference) - Post-rc1: Added feature for Atik warm-up mode on disconnect - Post-rc1 bug fix: Opening a CR2 file from a Canon 7D would crash - Post-rc1 bug fix PPC build was having issues 2.1.11 (pre-release 10/22/09) - Support added for ASCOM cameras' Setup dialog (Advanced button) - Support added for Starlight Xpress "R" cameras (full TEC control and readout - Preferences) - Bug fix: In Preview Images (at least at 400x), when moving from frame to frame, position isn't held. - Bug fix: When zoomed in at 400x, if you have DDP, Levels, Curves, or Scale Intensity open, moving those sliders moves the image. - Bug fix: Bad link in docs to tutorials - Bug fix: GREYC's dialogs on Mac no longer letting values update (same issue as with Prefs not showing but actually changing?) - Bug fix: On Mac, Preferences aren't showing up properly as you adjust them - Bug fix: BPM could crash with bad pixels in the bottom row 2.1.10 (pre-release 9/27/09) - Fixed Mini Capture dialog to appropriately gray out items during capture - Removed dialog that would pop-up on FLI cams during capture - LibRAW support added. This brings all of LibRAW's formats (via dcraw and technically LibRAW-Lite) to Nebulosity. Existing Canon DSLR code remains in place, but existing NEF support has been migrated over to this so that bayer matrix data is extracted and you don't have to use Nikon's debayer. This also brings a huge list of other formats - Updated SX suport on the Mac - Fixed issue with manual color override dialog (RGB went missing) - Fixed issues with Bad Pixel Maps - Fixed issue in LRGB dialog: would not show color of button properly after load 2.1.9 (pre-release 9/1/09) - Frame & Focus will now use max-binning by default (override in Preferences) - BPM code changed to hopefully fix issues with very large BPM maps - Initial beta-level support for FLI cameras (Windows) - Added support for gain control on QSI cameras (0=low, 1=normal=high) - Fine Focus tool now uses crosshair cursor - Bug fix: Curves tool had stopped working - Bug fix: Pixel stats dialog could cause crash - Bug fix: Locale issues causing several issues with commas being used in place of periods when writing decimals. Forced to US locale convention 2.1.8 (pre-release 8/21/09) - Fixed bug: Preference tool crashing on Mac - Fixed bug: White background on Mac - Fixed bug: DSS dialog not computing FOV (Mac still needs to press Enter or Done if you want to see the FOV calculation) - Fixed bug: DSS dialog a bit sluggish - Fixed bug: High dither values lost in PHD link - Fixed bug: Frame and focus crosshairs only visible half the time - Possibly fixed bug: Align.txt and other files using locale-specific decimal points (try the About dialog - is there a period or a comma?) 2.1.7 (pre-release 8/19/09) - DSS Loader tool - lets you preview a shot by downloading images from the Digitized Sky Survey - Initial Apogee support (Windows) - Updated GUI tool to fix communications on Mac build (PHD link and DSS tool) 2.1.6 (pre-release 8/1/09) - TEC regulation code in place for QHY8Pro - Support added for QHY's more recent (late 2008) QHY8 driver - QHY8 / 8Pro 4x4 bin mode - Fixed TEC regulation on Artemis / Atik cams - Fixed SXV M25C Fine Focus routines - On startup, main window no longer enforces a small gap on upper-left 2.1.5 (pre-release 7/12/09) - Updated Windows build with newer Fishcamp Starfish library - Added "custom" option for standard deviation based stacking - Added 20% zoom level - Added keyboard shortcuts for zoom in/out (ctrl/cmd -/=) - Added new Gaussian blur tool for variable-sized blurs. Much, much faster than the previous tool. Previous fixed blurs removed. - Unsharp mask tool added. Laplacian and stock sharpen did not work well on our images by and large and USM is a much better solution. - Updated many internals for new version of GUI library - Updated to Canon EDSDK 2.6 and other bits for support of T1i / 500D - Updated Atik / Artemis code in several places. - Updated QHY9 to use new built-in TEC regulation code. Q8Pro is working, but regulation on it is not. CCD Temp readout works and it runs the TEC in the default flat-out. Note, Q8Pro does not work inside a VMWare VM. - Fixed bug in scripts: One-line "Listen 1" would not work - Fixed bug in small camera control window: Deselecting cameras gave issues here 2.1.4 (pre-release 6/5/09) - Fixed abort-bug in QHY9 code - Initial support for QHY8Pro - Updated SBIG code on Mac to allow direct connection to USB1-3 without scanning the bus. Bug in SBIG library causing a crash for some here. - Updated Mac QSI code to 4.6.4 version of their API for 583 support - Canon mirror lockup handling adjustment 2.1.3 (pre-release 5/21/09) - Added Preference to allow Canon users to save on the CF card (with or without also downloading to the computer) - Added Preference to let users control what processing is happening to flats - Fixed bug in Trans + Rot + Scale alignment for B&W images - Setup so that no matter how ASCOM cameras report the image size, reasonable behavior results (some drivers give X,Y others give Y,X). - Patch to identify QSI 583cs as a color camera - Initial support for QHY9 + filter wheel. TEC regulation isn't very good at the moment 2.1.2 (full-release 4/28/09) - All bits from 2.1.1 (pre-release) - More Canon fixes - Fixed size of Pixel Stats tool on Mac 2.1.1 (pre-release) - Added option for using UTC date codes during series captures rather than _### convention. - Fixed issue with Auto B/W slider checkbox during Fine Focus - Fixed Canon code to address numerous issues - Added ability to auto-detect if you're using the built-in long-exposure NR on the Canons (DIGIC 3/4, 350D & 400D for now) and to let you use this (it's not recommended, though). - Fixed bug that would keep the auto-range display checkbox from auto-ranging when no camera was selected - Fixed memory leak in Grade Image routine 2.1.0 - Everything from 2.0.4 to 2.0.11 (~40 updates in these pre-releases) - Fixed issue with batch OSC-line filter tools - Scripting delay, offset, duration, and gain now updates UI - Dialog added to alert user of any problems during download of data from a Canon DSLR - Added ability to choose which of several, connected Canon DSLRs should be used - Added support for Opticstar PL-130C and DS-145C - Cleaned up abort-during-capture code - Altered color recon for SX M7 cams (removed white balance & tuned) - Added ability to enter specific B and W slider values (press return after changing) - Added script command "ConnectName". Instead of a # (the # of the camera in the pulldown, which has the tendency to change across versions), this will let you specify the name. - Abort bug fixed in alignment routine (abort would "stick") - Amp-control automatically disabled on QHY8 for exposures <1s to allow for short exposures - Zooming now maintains center of image - Batch convert RAW->FITS now has NEF support 2.0.11 - Fixes for 50D and 5D Mk II. NOTE for 5D Mk II (and any others with a "B" setting for the mode dial): If you want >30s exposures you must set the camera to B here (and the Preference for LE adapter to DIGIC III Onboard). This will make the timing of short exposures suffer. If you want accurate short exposures, you must set it to M or use a different long-exposure adapter. Sorry, but Canon doesn't allow bulb exposures (>30s) to be programmed when in M mode for this camera. This is unlike any other Canon I have seen. - Fixed handling of CR2 (and RAW capture) for Canon cameras that use a bottom margin in the image reconstruction (e.g., XSi) - Fixed issues with new auto-grade images 2.0.10 (1/19/09) - Fixed bug in aborting exposures on Mac using QHY8 - 4x4 Bin mode added on QHY8 (CCD Labs Q8 and Mac driver) - Fixed issue with Preview and Pixel Stats tool (had run "fast" version of stats which won't get true global max and min). - Fixed issue on DSI 3 camera that could cause vertical black bars on images. - Set amplifier control for DSI 3 to have the default behavior parallel Envisage's (amp is always on - a bit of glow but less dark current somehow). - "Pan" mode added. Hold shift and then click / drag to pan around image. Note, motion is not the 1:1 of typical drag tools but faster to let you move around the image quickly. - Mac: End of image and end of series chimes changed to voice (default system voice). - Multi-threaded processing support begun. Auto-detect if >1 CPU present and if so, two threads run for Curves, Hue/Sat/Lum, and Blur. (debayer and CR2 load would be nice but are non-trivial here). - Batch OSC Line-filter menu added to automate these tools - Minor tweak to OSC "nebula filter" tool - 7 pixel and 10 pixel Gaussian blurs added 2.0.9 (12/20/08) - Fixed issue with selecting "No camera" on PPC-based Macs - Lots of internal work for Nikon support - Support for Canon 5D Mk II added - Update to Canon EDSDK 2.5 library 2.0.8 (11/27/08) - Fixes for ASCOM cameras in Fine Focus mode (thanks Alan!) - Beginnings of FITS header tool. Will now at least print out the full header (File menu) - Should now auto-debayer images from Orion SS Pro captured either in Neb (ASCOM driver) or in Maxim 2.0.7 (11/10/08) - Fixes for Starlight Xpress cams. Chooser put in on Windows version for >1 cam (still needed for Mac version). Fixes put in for M25C to actually get it to read out (specialized read function). - Opticstar DS-142C support added - Ability to remove cameras from the pull-down added (Edit menu). - Canon 50D support - Nikon NEF support (via Nikon SDK). Users must load the Nikon Picture Project software (or similar) to install needed files or download Profiles.zip. On Windows, extract this into \Program Files\Common Files\Nikon\Profiles. On the Mac, extract this to /Library/Application Support/Nikon/Profiles 2.0.6 (10/7/08) - Fixed bug in camera simulator. Stars were of a different pattern in binned mode. - Fixed SX camera issue. Abort-exposre routine changed to prevent camera lock-ups - Saturation slider in Hue/Saturation tool adjusted. Previous versions' slider was too sensitive. - Fixed bug in normalizing non-FITS files (would have wrong suffix on save). - Added DATE-OBS keyword to FITS and cleaned up handing of FITS keywords (if newly loaded file didn't have some keywords existing image's would be filled in). 2.0.5 (9/21/08) - Mac version only - fixed issue with CR2 loading on PPC-based Macs (that might have affected other functions as well). Odd bug... (really in 2.0.4c). - Re-worked menu order (thanks to RalphÕs inspirations...) - Updated QSI code for latest 4.5 driver on PCs. NOTE: To run this on the PC you need the latest 4.5 software from QSI and to run the 4.5 drivers from QSI you need this. There were some changes under the hood that necessitate this. - Eliminated troublesome and useless auto-offset feature 2.0.4 (9/16/08) - Fixed bug in connecting to Atik / Artemis devices when >1 devices are present. - Updated Canon code to tighten up timing on slower CPUs - Tweaked image blur routine - Fixed issue with Star Tighten on PPC-based Macs and saving to TIFF or PNG - Cleaned up some zooming / display issues on Windows - Fixed issue with CIM that would cause it to crash on several cameras 2.0.3 (8/26/08) - Fix for Canon DSLRs going into Fine Focus from Frame/Focus to have fine focus box in correct position. - Changed to GREYC 2.8 w/fixes put in place for grayscale images - Fixed bug in BPM that could cause crashes (introduced in 2.0.2) - Can now open FITS files that have parentheses or brackets in them - Initial Opticstar DS-142M support added - ShoeString DSUSB2 support added - PDF of manual re-created to bring back links and ability to search (blame Office 2008 for this). - If PHD->Neb link is lost during an exposure, exposure should abort. 2.0.2 - Downgraded to GREYC 2.5.2 to fix issues with monochrome images - Fixed bug that would have the Connect button in the PHD dialog hidden when the dialog was docked - Fixed check marks in View menu on startup - Saving scripts on the Mac will now append ".neb" if no extension is given. - User will be prompted if old, temporary "undo" files are found and given the option of deleting them - Bad Pixel Map slider's "feel" changed - Bad Pixel Map code updated to increase speed 2.0.1 (7/27/08) - Updated Opticstar code to fix a few issues and enable 4x4 bin - Intel / Leopard build has experimental QHY8 support - Fixed bug associated with undos - Fixed bug that kept new Neb2 users from entering license codes 2.0.0 (7/22/08) - Many, many updates over version 1.x of Nebulosity. See: http://www.stark-labs.com/NebVersions/NebVersions.html - Upgrades available for $15 on the main Stark Labs site. ----------------------- Nebulosity 1 ---------------------- 1.8.0 (8/29/08) - Bug fixes up through Nebulosity 2.0.3 - Opticstar DS-142M support added - Binning modes > 2x2 - Updates to Canon and Atik SDKs - Pause during capture now needs Ctrl-space not just space 1.7.4 (4/11/08) - Fixes to QHY2Pro support for exposures < 3s - CCD temperature will now show the last reported temperature when a new one isn't available (e.g. during exposure) in dark red instead of just N/A - ESC to abort now works when focus (where last click was) is anywhere, not just when it was on the image. - Space bar will pause things during Frame and Focus or Fine Focus - Ctrl/Cmd-K shortcut added for Image, Crop 1.7.3 (4/2/08) - Default gain on Q8 set to 1 -- here you will hit full well at ~65535 and you're still below 1 e-/ADU - Updates to QSI code - Updates to Q2Pro code - capture and debayer - SX code updated for Lodestar 1.7.2 - Scroll bar / zooming fixes on the Mac - Updated Atik 16C debayer params - Fixed a TEC-control on connect issue 1.7.1 (3/16/08) - Patched Meade DSI Driver to fix issues w/bad frames on DSI III - Mac build fixed to pull Q8 code causing issues on several machines 1.7.0 (3/13/08) - Canon DIGIC III DSLR (e.g., 40D) support added - control, CR2 debayering, and long-exposure modes. Note, if using onboard long-exposure control, mirror-lockup will not function. Windows and OS X. - Meade DSI III support added on Windows and OS X - Opticstar PL-130 support added on Windows - QSI support added on Windows - CCD Labs Q285M / QHY2Pro support added on Windows - Fine Focus and Frame and Focus now use the Time Lapse parameter as well (to enable you to put a pause between shots during fast looping). - If nothing selected and Crop is pulled down, a dialog will appear to let you specify the crop size exactly. - Current directory now remembered a lot more often - JPEG saves enabled on Mac - Updated DSUSB control on Mac - CCD Labs Q8, enabled auto-offset calibration - If >30s asked for and no LE adapter on Canon, GUI is set to 30s max and a warning dialog appears. - Mirror-lockup delay on Canon now extended to 1.5s (from 0.5s) - Canon EDSDK 2.1 used on Windows and 2.0 on Mac - Star profile 2x as wide during Fine Focus - FITS Keywords added: EXPTIME, XBINNING, YBINNING - Ability to check / re-enter license code - Fixes to debayer offsets for SBIG color cameras on Windows - Changing the TEC temp in the Preferences panel will now alter the setpoint even when the camera is connected. - Auto-detected threshold in Bad Pixel Mapping refined to better work on large-sensor cameras. - Fixes to Preferences dialog on Mac - Should be able to abort out of auto-offset calibration - Fixed bug that would cause Discard Color to fail to show the image - Cursor reverts to normal cursor post-alignment - Fixed software binning bugs - Fixed several alignment bugs - Fixed abort bug in Q8 - Fixed temperature regulation so it engages on connect for all cams - Fixed bug in DSI IIc color reconstruction - Fixed bug with directory button - Fixed bug: If you passed mono files into Batch Demosaic RAW Color, it would crash - Updated docs 1.6.0 (8/27/2007) - All updates from 1.5.1 and 1.5.2 - Fixed bug in Mac crosshairs after alignment - Auto-alignment feature added - Alt-click will accept the star position for all subsequent frames . - Adaptive Median Noise Reduction added. Will use either original value or median-filtered value based on %-difference between the two - Full-field fine tuning of alignment option added for Translation stacking - Fixed bug that would prevent Envisage .fts files from being pre-processed - CCD Labs Q8's Fine Focus cleaned up - New Canon 14-bit cameras properly scaled to 16-bit on demosaic - CFITSIO 3.06 library used. 16-bit compressed saves enabled - Debayer routines for DSI II color camera updated 1.5.2 (7/10/2007) - Refined subpixel star location accuracy - Atik 16 series support improved fixing numerous small bugs and adding Atik 16IC and 16IC Color support. Multiple Atik16/Artemis cameras supported at the same time as well. - Preference added to override automatic detection of camera type during color reconstruction. The manual camera dialog will always appear during debayering when this is set. - Vertical smoothing (deinterlacing / Venetian Blind Effect) tool added giving variable control over the amount of smoothing - 3x3 Median smoothing filter added - Image Normalization routine added to Processing menu. Will take out global offset and scaling differences across frames and scale all to have a min of ~100 and a max of ~65535. This should be run before using SD stacking or Drizzle. - Fine Focus tool now shows star profile as well - Canon EDSDK 2.0 used. Vista now supported and cleaner support for all cams (mode-shifting issues should be fixed once and for all). - QHY8 uses 2x2 bin + HighSpeed in Frame/Focus - Script docs updated to list ordering of all cameras - Script now can be controlled externally via commands placed on the clipboard. "Listen 1" command in a script will enter this mode. Returning is done via "Listen 0". All commands on clipboard must be prefixed by "/NEB". For example, "/NEB Listen 0" on the clipboard will return processing to the script file. - Fixed bug when using Bad Pixel Maps on .CR2 files whereby extension would not be .fit (OS X) - FineFocus will now always come up at 100% zoom - Initial support for OpticStar DS-335 cameras - "Beta" dialog removed for SXV cams - Cleaned up cleaning up of display background - Unit in FITS header for time now seconds, not msec. - Crosshair cursor added in alignment routine in OS X (already in Win) - Fixes to Canon DSLR code (for new EDSDK) - Update to CFISTIO 3.0.4 library. Currently, a bug in the library prevents the use of compressed FITS format for 16-bit saves. - Documentation updated including new Pre-processing How-To 1.5.1 (4/23/07) - QHY8: Fixed logic for amplifier control and other issues - Fixed memory leak in TIFF, PNG, BMP, JPEG loads - Fixed bug in scripts that disabled changes to color mode - Re-enabled B and W sliders during captures - Fixed bug in pixel sizes on DSIs - Fixed but in image manipulation sliders that could cause them to respond to mouse movements during processing 1.5.0 (3/25/07) Cameras: - Fishcamp Starfish support added (Windows + OS X) - SBIG support added (Windows + OS X) - Starlight XPress SXV/SXVF support added (Windows + OS X). Much thanks to Terry Platt, Jeff Terry, and especially Dave Schmenk. - CCD Labs Q8-HR Features: - Focusing made easier with enhanced Fine Focus tool. Easy to read display of current focus stats and a graph of the stats for the last 100 captures to let you see how sharp your focus is now relative to where you've had it - Resize routine added with 6 algorithms: Box, Bilinear, B-Spline, Bicubic (Mitchell & Netravali), Catmull-Rom spline, & Lanczos sinc - Image Preview tool with easy rename/delete feature - Preference added for ideal TEC temp (if camera supports programmable TEC temp). - Option for "Clock" to display the current TEC temperature (set in the clock Preference entry.) - Two more sharpen tools added (standard and Laplacian shapen) - LRGB color synthesis tool added. Can do RGB and two forms of LRGB. All images must be aligned first (use Align/Combine and save each individual for your 3-4 color layers first). Can also use either separate R, G, and B frames or color data from a single RGB frame. - Save Color Components tool added. Will save a color image as separate red, green, and blue FITS files. - Standard deviation based stacking routine added. All images must be aligned first (use Align/Combine and save each individual frame). This "SD" stacking mode can result in lower-noise stacks - Camera simulator improved Bug fixes: - Fixed bug in Align & Combine when saving each frame and BW images used. - Fixed issue where focus quality measures would be overwritten duing Fine Focus on DSLRs - Pre-process dialog cleaned up - Can now use monochrome, non-FITS files for Bad Pixel Maps 1.4.9 (1/14/07) - Support for CRW files added. As with CR2, the RAW Bayer matrix is extracted so that images from these cameras (e.g. Canon 300D) can be processed in their purest form. - DSLR White Balance Preference now has a "Straight Color Scale" option that will do a typical color scaling after debayer. The existing white balance methods can have errors for very saturated areas (e.g. pink galaxy cores). This method avoids this artifact. - DSLR white balance preference now has an option for the 300D. - Canon DSLRs now stretch their 12-bit data into 16-bit data during capture. This makes the histogram more useful during capture and parallels the 8-bit cameras' support. - CR2 and CRW files scaled to 16-bit on load. Any data in 12-bit format (e.g. from a previous FITS file) is still scaled to 16-bit on demosaic. - Bug in auto-scaling of darks on the PC fixed - Fixed bug on PC version in which interactive processing tool's sliders could still respond to mouse movements after the release. - Fixed bug that was limiting portions of pre-processing to use of FITS files rather than any file format. - Better handing of window size / position saving and restoring. 1.4.8 (12/20/06) - Mouse-over of Directory button now shows you the current save directory for your series capture - Canon DSLRs will be kept awake while connected regardless of internal auto-shutoff setting - All alignment/stacking menus collapsed into one with a dialog to control the method of aligning, stacking, etc. - Ability to save each file as-aligned during stacking rather than the final stack added - Translation + Rotation + Scale alignment mode added - Fixed bug in making Bad Pixel Map - Fixed bug in USB-only mode for Canon DSLRs that would limit exposures to 3s not 30s 1.4.7 (11/30/06) - Fixed bug whereby if closed when minimized, screen position / size would be invalid - New Preferences entry to control the chimes given during Capture Series. Can have it at the end (default), silent, or at the end and a beep after each capture. - Fixed bug in Bad Pixel Mapping whereby adjacent bad pixels could lead to an incomplete fix. - Fixed bug in using ROIs on Levels tool - BW DSI imagers now do not auto-square if capture mode set to RAW. - Capture modes renamed (RGB: Optimize -> Recon (RGB/square)) - Focus measures no longer overwritten on in the Status bar for Canon DSLRs. - Pixel squareness maintained during undo/redo - DSI II pixel size reported correctly 1.4.6 (11/22/06) - Fixed bug that could occur when skipping the first file during stacking - Supports selecting from any one of multiple DSIs connected - Supports use of one DSI in PHD (v 1.2) and another in Nebulosity - .fts files now appear in open / save dialogs - Proper recognition of camera model for images created with Meade's Envisage during demosaic / pixel squaring, etc. - Reports "Unknown" in Image Info Creator field if really unknown 1.4.5 (11/19/2006) - Basic support for all 4 Meade DSIs added (Windows and OS X) with more advanced support coming (temp sensor logging, multiple DSIs, etc.) - Generic "Open File" replaces separate ones for various file types. - Preprocess routines and alignment routines now let you use any supported format (not limited to FITS) excpet for Bad Pixel Mapping as this requires monochrome/RAW images (and other formats are color). - COM5-8 added for LE adapter on DSLRs (Windows) - Serial port LE adapter support for Canon DSLRs added to OS X - Translation and Translation + Rotation alignment now let you use images of different size - ROI-preview during Levels tool (draw an ROI with the mouse first and you'll preview the change there - much faster). - Levels tool behavior changed. If auto-scale on when you enter the tool, it is turned off and the main sliders set to full range to better show what is really in the data. - Image rotation and mirroring tools added - Big Status display during series capture will now stay on top so users will know the status even while using other programs. - OSX now plays the default system alert sound at end of Capture Series - Fixed bug in filename-clash routine (Capture Series) - Fixed bug in defining crops / ROIs at 33% zoom - Fixed bug in aborting series capture for Canon DSLRs - Work-around for a toolkit bug in licensing OS X versions - Better handling of screen fonts when user has monitor DPI altered in Windows to change screen appearance. - Fixed bug in serial port LE control of DSLRs - Fixed appearence of Preprocess dialog on OS X 1.4.4 (10/22/2006) - Beta-level capture support for Canon DLSRs based on the DIGIC II chipset (EOS 1D/1Ds Mk II/Mk IIN, 1Ds Mk II, 20D/20Da, 350D / Rebel XT, 5D, 30D, 400D / Rebel XTi) on both Windows and OSX. Captures are to FITS files with pure Bayer-matrix data extracted on the fly. Full support of Frame/Focus and Fine Focus modes included. - Long-exposure support for the Canon DSLRs via USB (30s limit, Win & OSX), ShoeString DSUSB (Win & OSX), parallel, or serial ports using a parallel or serial to bulb-adapter (Win, e.g. Hap Griffen) - DSLR Long Exposure Adapter entry added to Preferences. Use to select how (or if) you wish to control the "bulb" exposure. - Fixed bug in Frame and Focus whereby crosshairs wouldn't remain centered if zoomed < 100% - OSX: Associated with FITS files on OSX and drag files to icon now works on OSX - Moving the main window smoothed - Alignment routines now semi-automated. After the first image a circle will appear around where Nebulosity thinks the star is. Ctrl-click to keep guess (normal click to move, shift-click to skip frame as before). - Fixed bug in Polaris Hour Angle clock - Fixed bug that had crept in with Batch FITS -> TIFF - Changed demo mode. Now, saves are allowed, but image is degraded with diagonal lines. 1.4.3 (10/1/2006) - Fixed bug in Levels / Power stretch on images with max values well-above 65535 (would crash) - Main window position (in addition to size) now remembered across sessions - Verified working with EOS 5D CR2 files. Color balance tweaked - CR2 files not auto-scaled on load to 16-bit but scaled during white balance (prior to debayer) to 16-bit - White balance settings on Canon DSLRs provided for stock 350D, 20D, and 5D and for 20Da and other extended IR cameras (e.g. Baader modified cameras) - see Preferences - Preferences menu removed and all Preferences set under a single new dialog (Files menu on Windows, main app menu on OS X) - Fixed GUI bug: Pop-up image adjust dialogs would leave copies of themselves on the dark grey background when moved. 1.4.2 (9/8/2006) - Grade Image Quality routine added. Will calculate how sharp each image in a set is relative to the others and either rename or copy the input image to "Q##_" indicate how sharp the frame is. ## is a score from 0-100 where the mean quality across the set will always be 50. - Quality measure added to Pixel Stats and Status Bar during Fine focus (this in rather arbitrary units, but is useful for focus). - Series naming bug fixed. When automatically creating a filename to avoid overwriting an image during capture, appended series number would not remain constant across the whole series if more frames captured in this series than last. - Canon .CR2 RAW file import added to load the actual Bayer matrix data. No EXIF data loaded / saved as yet. - Debayering for Canon 350D (Rebel XT) and D20 cameras added and tuned. Others in this format added but untested (sample images needed). - GUI routines sped up to deal with zoomed-out views of large images - Concentric circle targets added to Frame and Focus - One-shot color w/Line filter routines now pop up dialog if they don't know what camera it came from (to get X and Y offsets) (1.4.1 internal version only) 1.4.0 (8/21/2006) - Basic support for Atik 16 series (16C, HR, and HRC) / Artemis cameras at capture and for processing. Will only capture in RAW until a few details worked out with 16HC (285-color). This should be considered beta-level support as details of integration with Artemis Capture's files are not fully in place. - Color tuned for StarShoot a bit more - Colors in Motion generalized for any camera - All (rather than just some) file dialogs remember previous location - Batch Demosaic menu item renamed to Batch Demosaic + Square (functionality has not changed) but output files now named "recon_XXX" rather than "color_XXX" (it always performed both the demosaic and the pixel squaring at once.) - Batch Square B&W menu item added to reconstruct data from black and white imagers with non-square pixels. Output is "recon_XXX" - Likewise, demosaic entries in Image menu renamed and squaring of pixels from a B&W image added. - Preferences automatically saved on exit (and Save Preferences removed from menu) - Cropping now done using a standard selection box (dragging with the left mouse button down) rather than with the markers. - Screen fonts remain fixed regardless of monitor settings but are now larger than before by default. - Help controller switched to an HTML version - CHM version having issues on program exit. - Fixed bug in scripting leaving exposure durations in msec 1.3.3 (7/26/2006) - Fixed bug in Colors in Motion for SAC10 - No longer asks for 2nd star if frame already marked as bad - Big Status Display now shows a small window with gauges rather than superimposing text on the main image. - When aligning images, the list of images is now sorted to present them in order. To facilitate this, file names now have 3 digits for the frame number (e.g. 002). 1.3.2 (7/22/06) - Fixed bug in pixel squaring routine 1.3.1 (7/20/2006) - Fixed bug in processing StarShoot images that were captured in Essentials (would not always automatically debayer preprocessed images). - Turned the "Bias Protect" off by default on the SAC10 - Altered the normalization routine for flat fields to better maintain image intensity during pre-processing. 1.3.0 (6/27/2006) - Align & Combine Translation + Rotation added. Subpixel stacking of images that have both drift and rotation across frames. - Support for SAC7 / SC webcams' parallel port long-exposure mode - Help docs moved to built-in help rather than PDF - StarShoot: BigStatus mode altered to avoid updating screen during download to avoid inducing noise in image. - Bug fixed: If you attempted to redo the Bad Pixel tool without deleting files first, UI would remain disabled. - Bug fixed: With revised zoom display, markers showed up incorrectly when < 100%. - SAC10: Work-around to eliminate artifact in Bias Protect mode (1 pixel-tall horizontal line near top of image and fine vertical line about 1/4 from left of image) 1.2.5 (6/5/2006) - Display routine updated to fix artifacts when viewed at <100%. Screen update slowed but many users found this artifact annoying - Automatic handling of de-mosaic on images from the StarShoot captured in Essentials - "Bias protect" added as default setting for SAC10 1.2.4 (5/30/2006) - Fixed bug in batch converting 16-bit greyscale TIFF/PNGs to FITS - Fixed bug in aborting Drizzle alignments causing next Drizzle alignment to show an error screen - Fixed bug in Drizzle that would cause the alignment to fail under certain circumstances, usually involving lots of field rotation. 1.2.3 (4/27/2006) - Fixed bug in cropping B&W images - Preference added to allow saves in full 32-bit floating point format instead of 16-bit integer format - Can now abort alignments gracefully with Abort button - Generic one-shot color camera reconstruction from any FITS file. Allows other one-shot cameras to be de-mosaic'ed, color balanced / mixed, and have the pixels squared on the fly. - Bug that had crept in on 1.2.2 with JPEG saves fixed 1.2.2 (4/24/2006) - Details of stacking (align.txt) improved - Fixed bug in stacking without alignment of black and white images 1.2.1 (3/12/2006) - Batch convert FITS to TIFF added - JPG output added - Bug fixed: If batch demosaic failed, app appeared to hang (UI disabled) - Improved accuracy of alignment during stacking 1.2.0 (3/6/2006) - Suite of tools for reconstucting RAW one-shot color frames taken through line filters added including: - Generic: will work for any line filter on any camera better than debayer + L extraction - CMYG->Ha: Optimized for H-alpha on CMYG arrays - CMYH->OIII: Optimized for O-III on CMYG arrays (StarShoot balanced) - 3-color histograms display again on opening color adjust tools - B and W sliders adjustments disabled during captures (could lead to instability when adjusted during capture). - Power Stretch tool turned into full Levels tool, complete with pre- and post- histogram display - Many keyboard accelerators added - Image manipulation dialogs cleaned up - Color Offset tool now shows result of default values when dialog appears. - Now reads more of Essentials' info from the FITS header - JPG file output 1.1.5 (2/20/06) - Fixed problem with Undo when running multiple copies of Nebulosity at the same time - Fixed problem loading 8-bit greyscale JPGs and other low bpp image formats - StarShoot now has a Fine Focus mode - Fine Focus now reports both max pixel value and mean of top 3 pixel values to aid in focus 1.1.4 (2/6/06) - Tuned color rendition on StarShoot - Fixed bug with very small images and histograms - Made a mono-recon be the default for binned StarShoot images - Updated SAC10.dll to fix an issue with using the fast debayer post-hoc - Colors in Motion now works with CMYG arrays like the StarShoot 1.1.3 (1/31/06) - Check Web Update tool now works well with more browsers - Default strength of Star Tighten tool reduced - Crop tool added (set corners w/right-click markers) - Big Status no longer flickers - Control panel cleaned up - If in msec-time mode, time lapse now uses msec rather than sec. - Auto-offset mode created to automatically set the camera's offset value 1.1.2 (1/24/06) - Fixed numerous bugs. Most noticable was crashing after offset tool used following DDP processing. - # of frames during alignment no longer reported as "zu" on Windows - Window size now accurately saved on Save Preferences and restored on startup 1.1.1 (1/23/06) - "Check web for updates" tool added to Help menu - Window can now be made substantially smaller and Control Panel will get a scroll bar as needed - Offsets available for Demosaic tool (set in Preferences menu) - Fixed minor bug which would mistakenly put up warning on over-ranging data after Drizzle alignment (and a few other places). 1.1.0 (1/17/06) - Fixed bug in Offset tool that would cause hang with very dark borders on image. - New look -- control panel moved to right edge. - Basis of Mac OSX port (beta) 1.0.9 (12/30/05) - Undo / Redo added: All Image commands now have undo/redo support. By default, this is a 3-step undo, but the Preferences menu lets you select no undo support and unlimited support as options as well. - Bug fix: If msec mode the saved default, now displays up properly on startup - SAC7 / long-exposure "SC1.5" / Atik camera support via ShoeString LXUSB. Only USB support provided via the ShoeString adapter. Normal parallel port connection not provided, but this gives an ALL USB solution for these cameras. 1.0.8 (12/22/05) - Flat field pre-processing of RAW images improved - Blur tool added (1-3 pixels) - Default behavior is now to auto-scale to full-range after combines (can be disabled via preference), except for the fixed combine. This can be viewed as an adaptive technique that gets you the best features of adding and of averaging your data. 1.0.7 (12/14/05) - 2x2 binning (post-processing) added: sum, average, and adaptive 1.0.6 (12/13/05) - Big Status display now clears off screen at end of series capture - All image adjustment dialogs widened to give better precision on sliders - 3-color histograms added to color adjustment dialogs. This way you can see exactly how much offset and scaling should be done to the image to color balance. - 1.0.6a: Minor bug fix in Offset tool 1.0.5 (12/11/05) - Fixed bug that made it difficult to break out of Fine Focus during the exposure duration itself - Fixed bug that made Drizzle sometimes leave pixels a fraction above 65535.0 (leading to over-range warning message on save) - Auto-ranging of display improved - Preference added for Big Status display during series capture (big red text showing status in main screen) - Display of Max value during fine-focus cleaned up. - Adjust Color Offset tool now starts with automatically determined default values based on the background of the image. - Batch convert from PNG, JPG, BMP, TIFF to FITS (e.g., to import files for processing in Nebulosity) 1.0.4 (11/26/05) - # of frames in stack now reported during 2'nd star in alignment - # of frames in stack now reported in Save dialog after alignment - Window size is saved in Save Prefs and restored on startup - Added logging of info during alignment (align.txt) - Removed extra safety factor of 2 pixels in Translation alignment (black border on right and bottom). - Fixed bug in Drizzle. If you'd skipped the first or last frame, it would shift the output image partially out of frame leaving black borders and removing part of your image. 1.0.3 (11/16/05) - Can now use Nebulosity to open not only FITS, but PNG, TIFF, JPG, and BMP files with double-click or "open with" in Windows. Can also be done on a command line with "nebulosity foo.fit" if in path. - Can execute scripts on startup as well. Either by double-click or as a command-line argument ("nebulosity script.neb") - Connect (connect to camera) and Exit (quit program) commands added to script language. - MeasureDistance dialog cleaned up 1.0.2 (11/14/05) - Clock set to fixed 2-digits per (HH:MM:SS) - Memory leak in preprocess fixed - Bad Pixel Map tool added - Batch convert from FITS (BW or color) to 16/48 bit PNG 1.0.1 - Clock tool added for showing local time, GMT, sidereal, polaris RA, etc. 1.0.0 - Initial release - Color abort now possible - Incorporates several changes in SAC10 DLL