Anyone here willing to help me test my project?

[larrylart]

Hi,

I started this project back in 2004 as I realize that more and more people get into astrophotography but most will go no further then framing nice pictures. So I thought that it will be good to have a simple to use tool to allow amateur astronomers to do plate-solving(detect and match your image against star catalogs), so they can explore and learn more about these marvelous images so I started to develop this project. Now after literally tens of thousands of development hours you can just load your astrophoto and in a few clicks learn almost everything is known about your image, what are the stars, galaxies, nebulas, radio sources, x-ray/gamma bursts, supernovas, extra solar planets or asteroids, comets and even artificial earth satellites passing through. Also, you can get more advanced information like various measurements available (including spectral) and links to articles/abstracts talking about objects and/in that area in the sky.

On top of that I added several tool to help amateur astronomer to better plan his observing session like an on click collection of environmental/weather data, instruments management/control and also an online collaboration interface to allow amateur astronomers to easily exchange/review the data.

You can check a preview of my project at: http://larryo.org/work/information/unimap/index.html

Anyone interested to help me test it and/or feedback will be appreciated!

Larry

[supernova1965]

Sounds interesting will it work on windows 7

[bartman]

Hi Larry,
I'd be very happy to help test your project!!!
I'm a beginner in astrophotography and would love to use the info and programs you have in the project.
What info do you need from me?
would you like me to contact you through your website?
Thanks
Bartman

[troypiggo]

Wow. Looks like a lot of work has gone into that project. I'll download and have a look.

[allan gould]

Same here, looks excellent

[telecasterguru]

Most exciting. Will watch with interest.

[higginsdj]

Looks interesting. I've a rather large repository of asteroid/comet/variable star images from my astrometry/photometry work I can use to do some testing.

Cheers

David

[netwolf]

Looks awesome whish i had images of my own now to test it with. I like the weather and sky clock integration this would be very usefull.

[larrylart]

I haven’t tried on win7 – but for most functionality it should work – I reckon if there are problems these will be with the camera control same as in vista. However if it’s doesn’t work I will fix it and it will :)



That will be great! I had some trouble in finding more images which also had precise information about the location or time on the web to better test this part.

Larry

[bojan]

Count me in :-)

[larrylart]

I am sorry I got a bit delayed with the holidays season … I found little time to work on finishing the docs and fixing the memory leaking bugs. Meanwhile, I did manage to convert the project to Unicode (which caused an excess of 3000+ errors which I mostly fixed :)) I am working on the user and testing guide/plan… where I must specify that some functionality has been little tested or at all and other half way implemented (well I got tons of ideas and little time). Once all this is done I will provide a download link for the test version.

There is something else I forgot to add… the project is written in c++/wxwidgets (cross platform gui library) and that means it can be compiled on other platforms such as linux/mac/etc. Most functionality will work except for the digital cameras interface (and for Mac I am not sure about the video interface either) which is for the moment is windows only. So if people are interested I will be looking in the future to release it for Linux or Mac osX as well.

And, also to clarify … my future plans with this project is to release it free and opensource (for windows, linux and perhaps macosx)… if all goes well, I mean if people show interest in it and it’s workable and from there I might be looking for sponsorship at some point to support a big central database though which amateur astronomers from all over the world can share image resolved with astrometry data etc.

Larry

[Hagar]

Sounds like a very interesting concept and would be very happy to trial it if posssible.

[trent_julie]

We would like to test it, when the time comes

[larrylart]

I apologize for the delay as my life got slightly complicated lately. To make it worst my pc crashed last week - I think the cpu is screwed (it will power off as soon as it gets even a little load) and the only way around it was to under-clock it to 1ghz and 0.7v and now I will have to install everything.

You can download and test the very first pre-alpha release from here:

http://larryo.org/work/information/unimap/test0/unimap_setup_pa_0.exe

I know there are still bugs and room for of improvements, optimization, etc. "Unfortunately" I have built this application so big and I got so little time lately that I should probably focus on getting the core functionality working right and here any suggestions and ideas will really help.

It is compiled on XP. On windows 7 you might encounter crashes (mostly due to file/io permissions) – I will get them fixed as soon as I will get some time.

Larry

[michaellxv]

It doesn't like Vista.:shrug:

I have it running on XP, now to work out what it does.

[larrylart]

Try to start it again from the desktop... someone else had the same problem when the setup tried to start the application (something to do with vista/win7 permisions - I will figure it out once I will have a vista and 7 setup).
If not you might want to try to install/run the application as administrator - for now all the data is hold under the program files and vista/7 is very restrctive on that matter.

Larry

[michaellxv]

:thumbsup: i still get the 'An unidentified program wants to access your computer' message, but it runs now. I guess Vista wants a bit more from the installation process.

[OICURMT]

w00t! wxWidgets...

When are you going to release the source? I've got a Linux Box ready to roll...

[OICURMT]

Installed your program onto my old WinXP box (had to blow the dust off first). No issues with installation.

Borrowed Phil Hart's Rho Ophiuchi Mosaic ( http://philhart.com/gallery/Astrophotography/Nebulae/RhoOphMosaic_rz.jpg.html ), gave the program only M4 as a hint...

The program did crash on occasion when using the HIP catalog. It successfully scanned after four attempts. No issues with the SAO catalog. I just installed SP3 (Running WinXP Media Edition), don't know if it's an issue with the version I have or not.

Results are per enclosed image. Have to admit, didn't think it would be quite so accurate or fast with a crowded field, but hey, I guess your algorithm is pretty solid. I'll try some more rugged tests tonight.

OIC!

[OICURMT]

Well, my son was looking over my shoulder and said that he took a photo of the sky during his going away party back in January (we recently moved from Adelaide to Perth).

Any-hoo, using my wife's Sony a350, 18mm, f3.5, ISO1600, 30sec, my son managed to capture a good shot of a basketball hoop, a tree and some stars... and a lens artifact from a nearby street light.

This was solved by UniMap in just under 4 seconds using Rigel as a hint.

I would recommend a way to control the font size when exporting the image. I also noted that image resizing does not seem to work when using "File/Save Image" and resetting a new size.

I think "Beyond Impressed" may be a little of an understatement now... next stop Hubble images? :rofl:

OIC!

[larrylart]

> The program did crash on occasion when using the HIP catalog.


Yes, I know – on the last re-vamping I think I did something stupid somewhere and that causes memory corruption which sometimes will screw the plate-solving as well. This is still work in progress any images you find that they don’t match please send them to me so I can figure out why and improve the app. There is still additional work to be done on the algorithm (fix some bugs I know already).

> I would recommend a way to control the font size when exporting the image


Yes I know that one … I must find a way around it as well as organizing the labels in a “smart” way so they don’t overlap.


> I also noted that image resizing does not seem to work when using "File/Save Image" and resetting a new size.

Is down as bug … and I will look in this :)

Larry

[OICURMT]

Discovered that if you delete an image from a group, the name of the image above it (i-1) is eliminated and not the image you deleted.

For example, I included RhoOphMosaic_rz.jpg in the default list, then delete it. The image name for taurus is deleted from the list and not RhoOphMosaic_rz. Note that if you click on RhoOphMosaic_rz, you get taurus.

If you close the program and restart it, then the name taurus appears again with RhoOphMosaic_rz now gone.


OIC!

[Hagar]

Unfortunately I only have machines running 7 64 bit now so will have to wait until you can get a w7 version to work.

[larrylart]

Ah! I know exactly where the bug is. I will easily fix it by the end of next week. Now I am a bit busy as my first baby girl (Patricia) was born last night :)

Larry

[OICURMT]

Congrats! Dad... :)

I've got 3 kids... all boys.

[larrylart]

A new version is up. I have made some adjutments to the installer and now it should work ok on windows 7 as well. Also fixed some other bugs include the one bellow.

Larry

[OICURMT]

Downloaded. Will install and test, but I have a question first.

Are all the DLL's self contained within the installation directory? (i.e. can I install multiple version to track features/bugs from one version to the next).

I didn't notice any registry entries (other than the arpcache, which would be handled by the OS anyway).

I've been having problems getting the program to match unless you get within a certain tolerance with respect to "hinting" the overall FOV.

It may be good to include a method of "hinting" by pointing at a specific star or two...

Food for thought.
OIC!

[mithrandir]

Will it install correctly over the previous version or should I uninstall that first?

A minor nit pick, but different versions of the installer should have different names to make it easier to tell them apart.

[larrylart]

Best to install first and then install the new one.



Good point, from now on I will release versions numbered.



Yes, the setup build is very simple for the moment. I use inno setup basic to make the build. I wil refine that in the future as time allows.



Usually the best will be to set the field of view large(ie a sligtly smaller focal leght) - this way the search will take a bit longer but it will be more tollerant to the hint position. And I think I have there a bug as well (i introduced with the darn unicode port) - before i had a method to search in spiral wich worked way better the swiping. I look into this as well asap.
In any case if you have difficulties solving certain images please email them to me allong with the settings (catalog/hint).



That is a good idea - I will add it to the todo list.

Larry

[OICURMT]

It may be better to start testing and PM results back and forth or for you to setup a forum on your website (noticed a placeholder link).

Don't think everyone on this forum is going to want to troll through results of Alpha testing...:question:

Anyone object to using this thread for the time being?

I'm borrowing images from these forums for testing.

so far, I've used the following, with varying results (mainly intermittent crashes, but I eventually succeed by setting a reasonable hint with respect to FoV)...
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=62604
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=62456
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=61808

[larrylart]

You right! And it's done - I mean the forum ... is up on the site just now.

Larry

[mithrandir]

I've tried all of those. I got no crashes, but Phil's was the only one I could get to solve with the SAO catalog. Steven and Alex's images are widefield. The Tycho catalog takes ages to load even at mag 12, and doesn't solve them either. Tandum's images in

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=62615

all solved with a hint and FOV guess, as did Malcolm's

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=62704

It would really help to be able to click on an object and tell unimap what it is so it could estimate the image centre. Allow a few and it could also guess the FOV.

[OICURMT]

I'm thinking it would be good to keep this forum updated on occasion as to the progress of this program...

Hopefully, inertia will be overcome and some sort of momentum maintained...
http://unimap.larryo.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=2#2 is where the action is...

[larrylart]

I will most certainly post updates on new releases here as well ... as in this case I found/fixed several problems:
- I updated the star common names list with a better one - which will include Mimosa as well :)
- I also found that Mimosa won't get matched with tycho2 and after some investigation I found that in was not in the base file of the catalog in extension 1 ot it. That's fixed as well
- Fixed show/hide all objects from menu->view objects
- fixed sign error in hint declination box
- fixed search in spiral - which is now set default as it's faster (instead of swipe)

All has been uploaded under the same version - in 1-2 weeks time I will move to version .0.0.2

Larry

[OICURMT]

Forum Update: Unimap

Latest test.
IIS: http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=63183
Unimap: http://unimap.larryo.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=16#16

[larrylart]

I am wondering if people here find this application useful? At the concept level what do you think I should change/add to improve it?

[mithrandir]

Very useful. I like the way it shows you where all the really deep sky objects are in your images.

For the moment I can't think of much except the couple of suggestions in the forum.
- allow the UCAC3 catalog
- click a star and specify its name or ra+dec
- repeat for one or two other stars and have unimap work out the FOV (very handy for images you didn't shoot or have been cropped)

[luigi]

Thanks a lot for this, I saw it used in another thread and got here. I will try it and let you know. It seems terrific!
thank you!

[luigi]

I sent an email, in my installation detect doesn't work. I did a clean install loaded a sample image and do image->detect, all the labels were cleared and nothing was detected. I don't know if I need to change the detection parameters and I couldn't find documentation about them.

[larrylart]

Try the check mark button from toolbar instead. The matching process has serveral steps and in the menu these are broken down - the detection of light sources is the first step in the process. then you have to set the hint, select catalog and then do image->match - by using the toolbar button it will run all at once.

Larry

[luigi]

That's it, thank you!

[luigi]

I don't know how this works :)
I'm having problems with this image from flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lrargerich/4799460650/
It worked fine with the astrometry group on flickr but can't solve it with UniMap.

If you can solve it can you let me know what you did? Thanks!!

[luigi]

Not sure why but I can't solve any photo using the tick mark from the menu bar (or any other method) can someone take a look at one of those images I posted and let me know what I'm doing wron?

Thanks!!

[larrylart]

Hi Luis, I will check this next week - my desktop died on me a week ago (the motherboard seems fried) so I ordered new hardware which I should have setup in place early next week. then I will check on the images and see what goes wrong.

Larry

[larrylart]

Version 0.0.2 pre-alpha is now available for download from:

http://larryo.org/work/information/unimap/download.html

Larry

[larrylart]

Version 0.0.3 pre-alpha is now available for download from:

http://larryo.org/work/information/unimap/download.html (http://larryo.org/work/information/unimap/download.html)

Larry

[mithrandir]

Larry, I've been having trouble with 0.0.2 and now 0.0.3 not reading my local catalog copies - SAO and Tycho. If I try to use them, it says insufficient stars. If I enable download from Vizier, it solves.
Andrew

[larrylart]

Hi Andrew,

Can you email me one of the images is causing this problem along with the matching settings you are trying to use? It could be down to a uninstall/cleanup of unimap folder from program files and re-install the latest version.

Thanks,

Larry

[larrylart]

I have also added two small video tutorials (basic) here:

http://larryo.org/work/information/unimap/support.html (http://larryo.org/work/information/unimap/support.html)

I am not sure if this format is ok, feedback will help before I go on to make better tutorials.

Larry

[mithrandir]

Larry, I had just done a complete reinstall after CCleanering the registry. After the install I had "Download"ed the Tycho and HyperLeda catalogs from Vizier.

Try Mario's image in this posting (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showpost.php?p=726879&postcount=5). NGC4593 is in frame. There are enough stars in the Tycho catalog to solve it, but it would not work with my local copy. It worked with either Tycho or USNO-B1.0 if I ticked the "Load from Remote Location" box. Image is about 67x45 arcmin.

On a related topic, it might be helpful when if you don't know where in the sky an image is, but you do know the size, uniMap would let you use the size hint without a position hint.

Is it normal when you "View" Tycho you only get about 64000 stars? There are supposed to be about 2.5e6. Similarly HyperLeda "View"s about 3e5 out of 2.9e6.

Andrew