November 2009 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

Re: [Utah-astronomy] GIMP
by Daniel Holmes 25 Nov '09

25 Nov '09

There is a plugin to Photoshop-ify gimp. Basically makes the commands and menus more what adobe users are used to. I'm not in front of my computer, so I don't remember what it is called, but a couple google searches should find it. Dan ------Original Message------ From: Ray Druian Sender: utah-astronomy-bounces(a)mailman.xmission.com To: Utah-astronomy Astronomy ReplyTo: Utah-astronomy Astronomy Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] GIMP Sent: Nov 25, 2009 4:47 PM The problem with GIMP isn't a matter of performance but one of compatibility with those who are experienced with photo programs. Most everyone is using some flavor of Photoshop, and that's particularly true of professionals and semi-professionals. These are the people to speak with when one wants help or information about working with photographs. It's a bit difficult to translate Photoshop commands to other formats. Thus most everyone buys Photoshop rather than use cheaper or free alternatives. I'll bet that's a big part of why Linux hasn't become even more popular than it already is. I'd bet that if Adobe were to port Photoshop over to Linux, a whole lot of folks would switch to that system, which is cheaper (free) and more stable than Windows . Thanx, B.Ray _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com Sent from my BlackBerry. Please excuse any mispelings or typos.

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] GIMP
by Ray Druian 25 Nov '09

25 Nov '09

The problem with GIMP isn't a matter of performance but one of compatibility with those who are experienced with photo programs. Most everyone is using some flavor of Photoshop, and that's particularly true of professionals and semi-professionals. These are the people to speak with when one wants help or information about working with photographs. It's a bit difficult to translate Photoshop commands to other formats. Thus most everyone buys Photoshop rather than use cheaper or free alternatives. I'll bet that's a big part of why Linux hasn't become even more popular than it already is. I'd bet that if Adobe were to port Photoshop over to Linux, a whole lot of folks would switch to that system, which is cheaper (free) and more stable than Windows . Thanx, B.Ray

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Star party presentations - Sharing the Universe videos
by Canopus56 25 Nov '09

25 Nov '09

Joe wrote: > Hi Kurt, I couldn't get the link to work. Thanks, Joe Astro Soc of the Pac Sharing the Universe Series http://www.astrosociety.org/SharingTheUniverse/download.html Joe, Works on my box at 4:30pm MST. In the 2010 RASC Handbook, there is also an opening section on "Outreach". I haven't looked into the quality of the materials. The Night Sky Network also has some useable outreach handouts that are referenced in the "Sharing" videos. http://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/download-list.cfm The "Discovery Guides" appear to the best in the series in terms of pre-prepped handouts. To the group: A good Thanksgiving to everyone. Clear Skies - Kurt

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Global Warming... Climate Change...
by stormcrow60＠xmission.com 25 Nov '09

25 Nov '09

Robert Taylor said: "It's very simple. In some places it is melting and others it is not. For example the ice in the Himalayas is growing and inland Greenland (not the coast so much) it is thinning some what. We hear a lot about Greenland and nothing about the Himalayas, why is that?" Robert, the ice and glaciers in the Himalayas are shrinking and melting quite rapidly. I just saw pictures from around the base of Mt. Everest taken from I believe 1929 0r 1930 and then very recently. The contrast in the receding of the glaciers is alarming. The impact to roughly 2 billion people who will not have fresh water to drink when the glaciers can no longer feed the huge Asian rivers that nourish these people will be tremendous. I do not know where you get the information stating that the ice in the Himalayas is not melting. This is a false statement. Again... in my mind set, the debate for or against global warming... climate change... whatever you want to call it, is based on a very simple axiom. The folks claiming global warming is true are American and global scientists. The folks claiming global warming is false is mainly... by and large, the fossil fuel industry. One side has nothing to gain by promoting their interpretation of their scientific data. It is their data, compiled from their instruments and testing procedures. However, the other side has hundreds of billions, if not trillions of dollars to lose if legislation is passed to reduce CO2 and other greenhouse gases. Why should I believe the fossil fuel industry? They do not serve my interests... or any body else's interests other than their own. Besides, there is a whole economy based on renewable energy sources and tampering the affects of global warming. This nation needs to stop hindering progress and be on the forefront of sorely needed changes in the way we ive our lives, do business locally, nationally and globally. Just my two or three cents. Jon

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Global Warming... Climate Change...
by stormcrow60＠xmission.com 25 Nov '09

25 Nov '09

Robert said: "These people don't want progress Jon, they want control, Global warming is just a tool to get control." I really do not think that members of Green Peace, risking their lives fighting whalers are looking for global power. I do not believe that people preserving old growth forests by living in trees are going to find their way to the top of the power pinnacle. I do not fancy that environmentalists chaining themselves to bulldozers and standing in front of logging trucks are going to get millions (billions?) in kickbacks, set themselves up in cozy corporate jobs or have ambitions for controlling global affairs. If Al Gore really, truly wanted some kind of power on a global scale, he would have fought tooth and nail against the election that Bush stole from him. But he did not... he meekly conceded his chance at being the most powerful person in the world. Yes, the fossil fuel industry provides us with oil and gasoline... that is their business... and they make obscene profits and receive billions of our taxes in running this business. They also stand in the way of developing renewable energy sources. As fossil fuels become more scarce the fossil fuel industry will make a killing... literally, laughing all the way to the bank, at yours and my expense. Jon

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Star party presentations - Sharing the Universe videos
by Canopus56 25 Nov '09

25 Nov '09

I wanted to recommend the following video series on tips for star party presenting that can be viewed online or by downloading the mp4 files to your desktp. Although very corny, they have some good tips on how to handle common star party presentation problems, i.e. - - what do to when I don't know the answer to the question - dealing with children - dealing with difficult people (MUFOs, ETs and Apollo conspiracy TFHs) - keeping it interesting Since its cold out and probably will get cloudy, it may be a useful winter activity. - Clear Skies Kurt Astro Soc of the Pac Sharing the Universe Series http://www.astrosociety.org/SharingTheUniverse/download.html

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Iridium flare following lunar transit
by Patrick Wiggins 24 Nov '09

24 Nov '09

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9SFzwlzQvE patrick :)

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Gimp - an open source alternative to Photoshop
by Canopus56 24 Nov '09

24 Nov '09

Gimp homepage http://www.gimp.org/ Gimp for windows download http://www.gimp.org/windows/ Gimp screenshots http://www.gimp.org/screenshots/ This weekend I installed and configured a Linux laptop and was reminded of and installed Gimp - a freeware program that duplicates the functionality of Photoshop (e.g. layers and masking). Although I had always understood Gimp to be a unix program, I found that it has also been ported to Windows XP and Vista. So, if you do not have Photoshop because of the bucks involved, Gimp is a good free open source alternative to look at. Clear Skies - Kurt

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ISS overpass fish-eye video - test image
by Canopus56 24 Nov '09

24 Nov '09

Here is a link to a Youtube video link of my test capture of part of a -3.8v ISS-Shuttle overpass from an urban light polluted setting (ZLM v3.5-4.0) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR09ZxsNumo&feature=player_embedded SLC will have a couple of good overpasses this week, although on Thursday at 6pm I plan to be looking down at a plate loaded with turkey and not up at the sky: ISS Wed Nov 25/05:48 PM 5 46 10 above NW 11 above ESE ISS Thu Nov 26/06:10 PM 5 49 10 above WNW 11 above SE ISS Sat Nov 28/05:21 PM 5 52 16 above WNW 11 above SE Clear Skies - Kurt

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AllSky meteor camera homebrew tests - notes on
by Canopus56 24 Nov '09

24 Nov '09

I have an interest in portable allsky meteor cams and the following are my setup experiments based on the prior camera setups of Chris Peterson at Cloudbait Obs: Chris Peterson AllSky Mark II - http://www.cloudbait.com/projects/allskycamera.html Chris Peterson AllSky Mark I - http://www.cloudbait.com/projects/allskycamera1.html While Chris's permanent installation designs are superior in performance, I wanted something that would be more suitable for portable and causal shower imaging and that relied on equipment that I already had. Hopefully, the following examples will inspire other amateurs to engage in causal allsky meteor imaging. Both the examples can capture down to 1 mag meteors in urban or suburban settings. I believe they will both reach mag 2.0 in rural suburban settings but have not successfully tested them to that magnitude. There are two major design considerations for homebrew portable digital meteor cameras - adapting a lens with a high TFOV and external storage for larger video files. Timestamping is a third issue. 1.0 Setup experiments with 75 deg to 160 deg TFOVs 1.1 Reflecting Setup - Mark I With respect to the first design consideration, I made a quick 80 deg TFOV "Mark I" meteor camera based on adapting an DMK 31AU03.AS ImageSource camera to a simple reflector model after Chris's Mark I setup - (All images discussed here are in directory - http://fisherka.csolutionshosting.net/astronote/atm/AllSkyMeteorSetups/ ) Mark I quick reflector setup with automotive convex mirror 80 TFOV - zenith set up http://fisherka.csolutionshosting.net/astronote/atm/AllSkyMeteorSetups/05Al… http://fisherka.csolutionshosting.net/astronote/atm/AllSkyMeteorSetups/07Al… http://fisherka.csolutionshosting.net/astronote/atm/AllSkyMeteorSetups/08Al… http://fisherka.csolutionshosting.net/astronote/atm/AllSkyMeteorSetups/09Al… Mark I - off zenith 80 TFOV configuration http://fisherka.csolutionshosting.net/astronote/atm/AllSkyMeteorSetups/11Al… Mark I test images - Leonids 2009 http://fisherka.csolutionshosting.net/astronote/atm/AllSkyMeteorSetups/10Al… http://fisherka.csolutionshosting.net/astronote/atm/AllSkyMeteorSetups/02Le… http://fisherka.csolutionshosting.net/astronote/atm/AllSkyMeteorSetups/04Le… 1.2 Refracting Setup - Mark II Last night, I performed a first quick test of my Mark II allsky meteor that has a 160 deg TFOV - a refracting setup that follows Chris's Mark II design. The test target was an ISS-Shuttle overpass. Mark II refracting version setup images Mark II refracting version with 160 TFOV http://fisherka.csolutionshosting.net/astronote/atm/AllSkyMeteorSetups/12Me… Mark II version DMK31 on tripod with 160 deg TFOV micro lens. http://fisherka.csolutionshosting.net/astronote/atm/AllSkyMeteorSetups/13Me… Close up Mark II - DMK31 with Edmund Micro Video Lens 1.68mm fl http://fisherka.csolutionshosting.net/astronote/atm/AllSkyMeteorSetups/14Me… Youtube video link to test capture of -3.8v ISS-Shuttle overpass from urban light polluted setting (ZLM v3.5-4.0) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR09ZxsNumo&feature=player_embedded In the test video, CalSky reports a computed magnitude of -3.8 for the ISS and Shuttle The three brightest stars at the top (west) of the image (plus a hot pixel) are Vega 0.0, Altair 0.8, and Deneb 1.3. The small triangle of stars at the bottom of the screen (northeast) are the brightest stars in the head of Cas: alf Cas 2.2v, bet Cas 2.3v, gam Cas 2.5v. In the southeast quadrant of the video (lower right), three of brightest stars in the Pegasus square are visible. Moon and Jupiter (ephemeris -2.3v) are the two bright objects to the west (right center). A second test was immediately run after the ISS overpass. A mag 4.0 satellite was passing north-south along the meridian. It did not register on the captured digital video. The Mark II refracting setup has the advantage that it can easily be mounted on a tracking tripod. A collection of tracked radiant images, as opposed to fixed zenith image collections, can be made. This Mark II refracting allsky camera is based on an Edmund Micro Video Lens 1.68mm fl with M12 threads that is adapted to the DMK31 that has a "C" thread. Micro Video Lens 1.68mm FL Edmund NT59-776 160 deg TFOV $39 http://www.edmundoptics.com/onlinecatalog/displayproduct.cfm?productID=2196… C-Mount to µ-Video Lens Adapter w/O ring Edmund NT59-241 $25 http://www.edmundoptics.com/onlinecatalog/displayproduct.cfm?productID=3188… M12 Lock Nut for Micro-Video Lenses (Optional Edmund NT64-102 $7.5 http://www.edmundoptics.com/onlinecatalog/displayproduct.cfm?productID=3188… The focus distance between the back of the Edmund 1.6mm fl lens and the chip is about 8mm to 10mm. 1.3 Alternative gear and setups Other allsky options to adapt the Edmund Micro Video Lens 1.68mm fl to almost any 1/4" or 1/3" CCD chip format astronomy camera are as follows: Male T-Mount to Female C-Mount Adapter (Needed local machine shop work to turn out interior metal space to get Edmund NT59-241 closer to the focus point) Edmund NT58-753 $39 http://www.edmundoptics.com/onlinecatalog/displayproduct.cfm?productID=1316 Alternative to Edmund NT58-753 Scopestuff #T2CA - C-Mount to T-Thread Adapter, With Spacer Washer $24.00 #T2CW - Extra .062" thick T to C Spacer Washer $5.00 http://www.scopestuff.com/ss_t2ca.htm Pre-built option: Scope Stuff C-Mount to T-Thread Adapter for Meade DSI #T2CF - DSI SkyCam Kit - #DSIF Faceplate, 2.8mm CS Lens, C2CA Adapter, Spacer and End 75 deg TFOV $79.00 http://www.scopestuff.com/ss_t2ca.htm Straight DSLR option: Canon EOS Rebel XSi Digital Rebel with/EF-S18-55mm 75 deg TFOV Price Point $650 with lens http://www.ritzcamera.com/product/541162194.htm Canon lens with 74 deg TFOV $200 but is included in EOS Rebel http://www.ritzcamera.com/product/EP25196680.htm 2.0 Digital storage capacity and storage rate With respect to the second design consideration - storage capacity - digital video storage presents a barrier in some capture modes. The Mark I reflecting test was done at 3.4 second integration times, 3.5 frames per second capture and 4 second storage intervals to an AVI file. This capture format has little or no storage issues. A one hour recording stores to about 1 meg. Recording overnight for 6 hours presents no problems for the available free space on most disk drives. . This integration and storage combination also has a review advantage. Captured uncompressed AVI files are inherently replayed at compressed speeds. One hour plays back in between one or two minutes. This makes it easy to visual find the brightest bollides by timestamp for later frame extraction using Registax. The Mark II refracting test integrated and stored at 1 fps. 1 minute of video resulted in 0.2Gigs (200mb) in stored an AVI file. That translates into 12 Gigs per hour or 72 Gigs over 6 hours. Recent price and technology improvements provide economical solutions for high capacity scenarios. USB 2.0 and Firewire pocket drives are now widely available at $125 for 500Gigs, e.g. - WD Passport Portable Drive 0.5Tb $120 USD http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=701 These are small, portable, rugged drives. I have one that I carry and store all my astronomy related hobby work on and routinely carry it in a brief case. The drive is temperature rated down to 0 C and "non-operating" at -4 C, although I have used one outside for an hour at -2C without difficulty. However, such drives only support USB 2.0 and I have not tested mine for frame dropping in continuous frame capture storage 1 fps mode. While in theory, a USB 2.0 and Firewire connection transfer data at 400 to 800 mbs, in practice, I have found they have problems transfering small individual files at anywhere near the published rates. They may not support continuous 1 fps capture. The WD Passport is NTFS formated. Some portable and external drives are FAT32 formatted - which means the largest supported file size is 4Gigs - a barrier for continuous 1 fps digital recording. For 1 fps recording, external desktop 1.5Tb (terabyte) eSATA drives are now down to less than $200. External eSATA drives can transfer video capture data at 3.0Gigs per second - sufficient to reliabily support 1 fps digital recording. For laptops, SIIG makes an eSata Card in the ExpressCard/54 format. SIIG eSATA II Express Card $85 USD http://www.amazon.com/SIIG-SC-SAE612-S1-Esata-Expresscard-Raid/dp/B000EMAXQA An eSATA laptop card that plugs into a PCMICA port will not work at SATA speeds. The PCMICA port has a limited data transfer rate. The practical impact of an eSATA verses Fireware connection is that when backing up 20Gigs of files, Fireware can take a hour half. eSata is done in two or three minutes. Conversely, an external eSATA drive, unlike the Passport pocket drive, is not something I would want to take to a remote observing site. A 1.5Tb external drive might be transportable if it was stored in a custom foam hard camera case. For a high speed digital recording setup, I purchased and am testing the following gear: SIIG eSATAII Express Card $65 to $85 USD (above) Seagate 1.5Tb FreeAgent Xtreme drive $160 USD http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/external/freeagent/freeagent_xtre… Many of the 1Tb and 1.5Tb external drives now being brought to market come in two flavors - one that only has USB 2.0 and Firewire connection ports and those that also have an eSata port. Check the box and make sure you are buying one with an eSata port. Some security camera software comes with image change capture options (an image is stored only when the image changes) but I have not had any success in finding anything cheap or freeware that can be cross-purposed for this astronomy task. I understand MeteorRec referenced on Chris Peterson's website to be a low-light video feed program recorder. http://www.metrec.org/#3 As the wesite of the program's author (Sirko Molau) notes "MetRec neither works with TV cards or any frame grabber from a different vendor, nor is it able to read AVI or other video files." 3.0 Timestamping The final design consideration is timestamping. The individual maker of the $500 OSI video time stamper (for tradional low-light video signals) has retired from making those units. Alternative market hardware costs $1500 USD. For the DMK series, ImageSource provides the option to record to an AVI output stream or to individual bmp or jpg files that are date and time stamped in the file name to a minimum interval of 1 second. Registax can be used to gather individual bmp or jpg files in groups of about 1000 frames and review them using Registax's Goto frame button. (Click and hold the frame down button is get a movie-like experience.) I have not found any good solutions or freeware solutions for digital software timestamping an AVI file, including confirming whether ImageSouce captured DV AVI places a frame timestamp in the file. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. Presumably, streamed digital video from a Canon Rebel or EOS would have the DV AVI timestamp encoded in frames. Again, hopefully the above discussion will inspire other amateurs to adapt their existing astronomy CCD and CMOS camera gear into allsky or large TFOV capture for meteor observing. The Edmund 1.6mm lens with an M12 to C and-or a C to T adapter provides a low-cost fisheye lens solution for 1/4 inch and 1/3 inch class chips. Clear Skies - Kurt

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