New SAC 4.2 imaging software

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Chraig Stark of Stark-Labs and the SAC yahoo group has just released a new bit of software for SAC 4.2 users which looks like being a boon to us planetary avi groupies.

Up until now if you wanted to take an avi with the SAC 4.2 you were limited to using Astrovid with a maximum frame rate of about 3 fps. It was also not a very intuitive process. I've wanted to try the SAC more often but just found it too much of a hassle for planetary imaging.

Chris' new software, at first play looks great. It's very simple and intuitive and has a couple of fantastic features.

1. it capture in pure RAW, no compression and does the bayer interpolation in the computer and not in the camera, this allows much quicker camera to computer download times, plus the bonus of no compression so you get pure data
2. ROI, and what a ROI, you are not restricted to a square, it can be rectangular with sides of any size and to set it you just right click on two diagonal spots in the image where you want it.
3. Using ROI frame rates of up to 50 fps are claimed. I've only been able to achieve 15 atm, still working on that.


I must admit though in camera colour balancing is a bit of a challenge but I'll get there

The following photos were taken tonight through a 76 mm copyscope (made with a photocopier lens) and no real effort was made to get focus spot on, though I was pleasantly surprised

The first image is non square ROI
The second is the apparent minimum ROI (gotta check that)
The third is a practice at getting the colour balance right. It's not too bad, though a bit greenish and reddish. The tiles are 25x25mm white and black and the paint is a pale tan/bone/pastel pinkish sorta
The fourth is a full uncropped image at 800ms exposure and 50%gain and again there seems to be considerable pink in the shadows. I wonder if an IR filter might be useful here.

All images taken under fluro light, to the right of the images.

None of the images has been resized.


ps the scope was set up about 8 meters away from the objects. And make sure you click the icon at the bottom right of the last image to check out the field size of this sucker

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Here's another image using the same setup as last night, only shooting up the backyard this afternoon. This is a section of palm trunk with Lichen growing on it. I'm getting the red balance better, but I'm still having trouble with the green. To the right there is a banana tree trunk which is getting close to correct colour but the leaf in the background isn't getting there, and the two lichens (shield and moss types) are way out in colour. The palm trunk is not too bad but still not right.

Full image, 8 fps, 100 stacked in registax with light waveletting with numbers 6 and 5.