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  #1  
Old 06-07-2007, 07:17 PM
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sheeny (Al)
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Als Reticle (for your PC)

I was searching for StarTarg on the web and found an old IIS thread where Joe Smith had written a couple of cross hair applications for the PC screen. One of the requests in the thread was for a double cross hair reticle, so I thought I'd have a go and write one...

and here it is!

It displays a red double cross hair reticle that you can position anywhere on the screen and it should stay on top. Brightness is adjustable, and it includes the date and local time.

I did have a button on it to make the border disappear like I made AlsAstroClock do, but the cross hairs move when the border disappears, and the transparent window takes the underlying image with it (but probably only until it is updated!).

Feel free to try it out...

Enjoy,

Al.
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  #2  
Old 06-07-2007, 07:23 PM
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PS. This is written in and for the .NET framework for windows so if you don't have the .NET framework you may need to install it via windows updates.

Al.
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  #3  
Old 06-07-2007, 11:13 PM
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Hey Al, thanks again for your very useful utility.
I have added it to our Yahoo Groups web site, along with your clocks.
Mucho cracias.
L.
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  #4  
Old 07-07-2007, 02:57 AM
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Thats pretty good Al What I was thinkin was a way to load up the crosshair patten from a bitmap that way people could just make the design they want in paint ect. and load it in. All you need now is a rotation feature
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  #5  
Old 07-07-2007, 05:55 AM
Shawn
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The Rotation feature for me was the ideal , What I did was drew up a red double crosshair on a black background in Corel Draw. downloaded the Eusing windows Comander software, "freeware".. Made the Corel Draw window 50% transparent and sit that on top of the imaging window..and there you have it, ffully custimizable movable and rotatatable crosshairs, you can put a couple of little circles on the reticle too, for field rotation . Works quite well , Unfortunately I cant post a screenshot because my screen capture software can see a partially transparent window...

Any software that can rotate an image arbitrarily will do the job, there are many that do...
S
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  #6  
Old 07-07-2007, 01:28 PM
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sheeny (Al)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by joe_smith View Post
Thats pretty good Al What I was thinkin was a way to load up the crosshair patten from a bitmap that way people could just make the design they want in paint ect. and load it in. All you need now is a rotation feature
Yeah I Know!

I haven't worked out how to do that (rotate the image) in VB.NET yet... I also wanted to make the image zoom in the window so the spacing of the cross hairs could be adjustable. Lots of little challenges to solve...

Al.

Last edited by sheeny; 07-07-2007 at 01:49 PM.
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  #7  
Old 07-07-2007, 01:44 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RAJAH235 View Post
Hey Al, thanks again for your very useful utility.
I have added it to our Yahoo Groups web site, along with your clocks.
Mucho cracias.
L.
No worries. Glad you've found them useful.

Al.
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  #8  
Old 07-07-2007, 01:47 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Shawn View Post
The Rotation feature for me was the ideal , What I did was drew up a red double crosshair on a black background in Corel Draw. downloaded the Eusing windows Comander software, "freeware".. Made the Corel Draw window 50% transparent and sit that on top of the imaging window..and there you have it, ffully custimizable movable and rotatatable crosshairs, you can put a couple of little circles on the reticle too, for field rotation . Works quite well , Unfortunately I cant post a screenshot because my screen capture software can see a partially transparent window...

Any software that can rotate an image arbitrarily will do the job, there are many that do...
S
Sounds interesting, Shawn. Maybe you should write a little "how to " guide? I can understand what you're doing just not exactly how... I'm interested in learning if you'd care to share some more details.

Al.
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  #9  
Old 09-07-2007, 11:38 AM
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Heres the reticle Al , rotated some arbitary angle, this window would be 50% transparent and placed on top of the imaging window , reticle moved and rotated to suit via constraint handles that you can see here, Eusings Windows manager is free and deals tith transparant windows very well, Unfortnately I cannot screen capture a partially transparent window It doesnt show up at all If I try... But its very versatile the crosshai widths are easily adusted and the entire retical can be resized by dragging the constraint handles... Its a compromise of course....

S
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  #10  
Old 13-07-2007, 07:22 PM
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Al's Reticle V1.1 - Now it rotates!

Version 1.1 of AlsReticle now rotates as well as has adjustable brightness.

Visual Basic never ceases to amaze me... it looks so complex compared to the old Basic, Fortran, Pascal and Assembler that I used to program with 20 years ago. But when you cut through the apparent complexity of choices, and the convoluted examples that are all over the web, the final solution is sooooo simple! Ya just gotta laugh at the incredibly difficult problems you can create for yourself while teaching yourself a programming language... in the end it was so simple I was sure wit wouldn't work that way! But it did!

BTW this is my 3rd program in VB.

Al.
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Click for full-size image (AlsReticleScreenShot.jpg)
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File Type: zip AlsReticleV1.1.zip (227.8 KB, 1105 views)

Last edited by sheeny; 13-07-2007 at 07:47 PM. Reason: Add a Screenshot... and then again to replace the zip file...
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  #11  
Old 13-07-2007, 07:23 PM
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iceman (Mike)
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Fantastic Al, thanks! I'll use it!
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  #12  
Old 13-07-2007, 07:50 PM
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Mike, if you've already downloaded the zip file you might like to replace it...

I uploaded a screen shot and then realised I hadn't made the text on the rotate control red.Fixed now and the zip file is replaced with the corrected one!

Al.
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  #13  
Old 13-07-2007, 07:52 PM
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Just tried it out, beaut bit of programing there Al, is there a way to make it resizable, like full page?
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  #14  
Old 13-07-2007, 08:06 PM
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Just tried it out, beaut bit of programing there Al, is there a way to make it resizable, like full page?
whoooaaarrr!!!!!!...

I dunno...

Last week I didn't know how to make it rotate, so we'll see. I'll have to think about it. I think the .gif file I'm using for the reticle would have to be full size (say 1280x1280) because if you resized a little one up it would end up pretty chunky and ugly.

I hadn't considered that a larger one was needed, in fact, I toyed with the idea of making it smaller. Why would you want it bigger?

Al.
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Old 13-07-2007, 08:13 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Shawn View Post
Heres the reticle Al , rotated some arbitary angle, this window would be 50% transparent and placed on top of the imaging window , reticle moved and rotated to suit via constraint handles that you can see here, Eusings Windows manager is free and deals tith transparant windows very well, Unfortnately I cannot screen capture a partially transparent window It doesnt show up at all If I try... But its very versatile the crosshai widths are easily adusted and the entire retical can be resized by dragging the constraint handles... Its a compromise of course....

S
Thanks Shawn!

I had a quick look at some of the Eusing software... looks pretty interesting! I'll have to download and try some of it. Thanks,

Al.
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  #16  
Old 13-07-2007, 08:31 PM
Doug
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Nice program Al, (gee I dunno, give a bloke something for free and he still winges! )
How hard would it be to run up a utility that would place a pair of diagonals across a sensor image. What you have produced is great for a square image, but it wouldn't allow a star/object alignment on center chip too well. A set of crosshairs that would go from corner to corner of a rectangular imager display, DSI, 350D etc. would really hit the spot for many people I should think.
Still great effort and thanks.
cheers,
Doug
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  #17  
Old 13-07-2007, 08:46 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug View Post
Nice program Al, (gee I dunno, give a bloke something for free and he still winges! )
How hard would it be to run up a utility that would place a pair of diagonals across a sensor image. What you have produced is great for a square image, but it wouldn't allow a star/object alignment on center chip too well. A set of crosshairs that would go from corner to corner of a rectangular imager display, DSI, 350D etc. would really hit the spot for many people I should think.
Still great effort and thanks.
cheers,
Doug
I use K3 and it's got cross hairs to help you find the centre. In the capture software you are using I'm guessing that you don't have a border around the actual captured image to drag the overlay to? So, you would probably need to enter the frame size in pixels and them move it roughly over where you think the image is... correct? Maybe you can post a screen shot so I can see the problem?

mmm... another interesting little project, perhaps...

Al.
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  #18  
Old 13-07-2007, 09:33 PM
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Thanks for the interest Al. K3ccd tools and Guide Dog etc can place cross hairs on an image, but only a webcam or maybe DSI.
What I use is MaxDslr (and I suppose Images plus is similar) and a 350D.
The attached image is a screen shot using one of the light frames from the TV Libra animation I did. The image shown is not calibrated and is displayed as it comes from the Dslr, but at 20% of full size. It could be reduced further, but I think this will illustrate what I'm thinking off.
Actually since 2 instances of your reticule program can run simultainiosly, a single rotatable line x2 but long enough to cover most image displays would work wonders. If the bright star off to the upper right was an alignment star and I could get it cross haied to the center, it would improve pointing accuracy. As is I use an external taped on affair to show me the center.
cheers,
Doug
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  #19  
Old 14-07-2007, 07:29 AM
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I think I'm a bit more confused after your second post, Doug.

I have 2 ideas in mind:

One is a resizeable version of AlsReticle - maybe not full screen but as large as I can accurately draw the reticle .gif.

The other idea is a resizable window with some lines to aid image composition - say centre lines, diagonals, 1/3 grid. These would not be rotatable, they would just resize with the window. This doesn't require a .gif as the lines could be calculated and drawn (based on what I've read so far!). I haven't done this yet so no doubt it will be a little learning adventure!

Am I getting close to what you want?

Al.
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  #20  
Old 14-07-2007, 07:43 AM
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Hi Al

Wow - I must have missed this one first time through. Thanks heaps for another one of Al's Amazing Astronomy Applications. I really appreciate the effort you put into producing these - thanks!

Cheers

Dennis
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