Photoshop FITS or PIC question

[sheeny (Al)]

I've just had my first play with my Staranalyser. VisualSpec requires the spectra in either FITS or PIC format - neither of which seems to be available standard in PS CS3.

What plugins do I need to get, or is there a simpler way?

Just for interest I've attached my first spectra images of Antares and Achernar.

Al.

[sheeny (Al)]

Hmmm... I have a little work around going at the moment, but I'd be happy if anyone can suggest a better way...

What I'm currently doing is this:

• Capture the spectra using K3ccdtools, etc
• Stack in Registax
• Rotate, crop, desaturate and save as a BMP in PS CS3 (because the spectrum is too wide for the Toucam so it has to fit diagonally, and rotate in Registax loses the star image)
• Open BMP in Registax and save as FITS
• Open image (one channel only as they are all the same) in VSpec

Al.

[RB (Andrew)]

EddieT has written 'fitsplug', is that the plugin you need to do your work Al in PS?

He talks about it in this post.
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...7&postcount=24

[Dennis]

Hi Al

Here is a free FITS plug in from ESA/NASA.

ESA/ESO/NASA Photoshop FITS Liberator

Cheers

Dennis

[sheeny (Al)]

Thanks Andrew and Dennis! I'll give FITS Liberator a whirl... if not then FITSplug

Al.

[Dennis]

Hi Al

That’s good news – let me know how you get on, as I have a query. When I first installed the FitsLiberator, I just executed the downloaded file and accepted all the defaults and everything worked just fine.

When I previously double-clicked a FITs file in Adobe Bridge, it then opened a very useful FITs dialogue where you could adjust several parameters before opening the FITs file in CS3.

However, something has now changed and when I double-click a FITs file, it now opens directly in CS3 and I don’t get the intermediate FITs dialogue panel. The only changes I made were to install the latest version of Adobe Camera Raw and an Astra Image Plug In?

Cheers

Dennis

[RB (Andrew)]

Maybe try changing the association for the FITS files Dennis to point to A.Bridge instead of CS3.
Is that possible?

[Dennis]

Originally Posted by RB

Maybe try changing the association for the FITS files Dennis to point to A.Bridge instead of CS3.
Is that possible?

Hi Andrew

I had a look at the file associations in Adobe Bridge (Edit; Preferences) and couldn’t see an entry for FITs, so maybe that’s the problem?

I’ll have another poke around and see if I can add a file association entry in there.

Thanks

Dennis

[sheeny (Al)]

Originally Posted by Dennis

Hi Andrew

I had a look at the file associations in Adobe Bridge (Edit; Preferences) and couldn’t see an entry for FITs, so maybe that’s the problem?

I’ll have another poke around and see if I can add a file association entry in there.

Thanks

Dennis

I think RB is talking about the file associations in windows, Dennis. That's where I'd look...

Al.

[Dennis]

Thanks Al.

I just guessing here, but think that the problem started when I installed the Astra Image Plug-ins in CS3. In the Filters Folder, they appear above the FITS Liberator entry and so may have muscled in on the old process?

Whilst I did experiment with the FITS Liberator dialogue when it used to open, I stopped using it in favour of the native dialogues in e.g. MAXIM so its more of a niggling issue that a true loss of functionality.

Cheers

Dennis

[sheeny (Al)]

Should FITS Liberator allow you to save FITS files from PS CS3?

I've just installed it, and it allows me to open a FITS file, but FITS doesn't appear in the file type list in Save As...

Al.

[sheeny (Al)]

Originally Posted by sheeny

Should FITS Liberator allow you to save FITS files from PS CS3?

I've just installed it, and it allows me to open a FITS file, but FITS doesn't appear in the file type list in Save As...

Al.

Ahhh... don't worry guys... I just read Eddie's post about FITSplug... it's all clear now.

Al.

[Dennis]

Hi Al

In CS3 I have the option to Save as FITS, although it then seems that this may have resulted from installing the Astra Image CS3 plug ins (?), which I installed after I installed FITS Liberator.

Cheers

Dennis