For the purpose of this mini-tutorial, a DFK 21AF04.AS camera will be used to generate the AVI file. The resulting file will be imported into RegiStax 4, in which the color calculation will take place.

Step #1: Setup the DFK 21AF04.AS in IC Capture

Start IC Capture.AS and open the camera, as described in the documentation. Set the video format to Y800, as illustrated in the following screenshot:

Step #2: Get Ready For AVI Capture

First of all, a filename and the AVI format must be specified. The AVI file format must be uncompressed Y800. This can be set up by opening the Record Video File dialog, which is activated by clicking on the button marked in the following screenshot:

The following dialog box should open. Proceed by clicking on the indicated button:

The following dialog should appear:

Check the radio button next to Uncompressed and select Y800 from the selection list. You can also specify further properties, such as the filename and number of frames to be captured.

To proceed, click the OK button. The dialog box will close.

Step #3: Capture The AVI File

The Record Video File dialog box should now look as follows:

You can start AVI capture by clicking on the red record button The black pause and stop buttons pause and stop AVI capture respectively.

Once you have finished capturing, you can close IC Capture.AS.

Step #4: Import Into RegiStax

Now start RegiStax and import the AVI file, which you have just captured. Then, click on Additional Options, as shown in the following screenshot:

Proceed, by clicking on Use Debayer and select G8 from the radio buttons:

And that is all there is to it - the image is now colored.

If you need any help with this mini-tutorial, please do not hesitate to contact our Support Department. Please do not forget, when you purchase an astronomy cameras, manufactured by The Imaging Source, you are not only getting the hardware, but an all-encompassing support package as well. All customers can contact the Support Department by telephone, e-mail and fax.

This year, my colleague and author of the French astronomy cameras blog, Aurélie Le Fort and I will be attending ATT in Essen, Germany.

The event, which is being organized by Walter-Hohmann-Sternwarte, will take place on May 31, 2008. It is one of the more important astronomy related events in Germany.

If you would like to meet up with us, please drop us an e-mail, with “ATT 2008 Meet Up” in the subject. We still have a few time slots free.

See you there!

USB 2.0:

• DMK 31AU03.AS
• DFK 31AU03.AS
• DBK 31AU03.AS

FireWire:

• DMK 31AF03.AS
• DFK 31AF03.AS
• DBK 31AF03.AS

Please take a look at the updated price table for details of the new prices.

If you have any questions concerning this reduction in price, or indeed, about any matters related to astronomy cameras, please do not hesitate to contact us.

A great thanks goes out to Didier for his participation in The Imaging Source astronomy cameras community.

He discusses the following three techniques:

Case A: Debayer’ing is done at hardware level, and so the data coming from the camera is already in full color. [...]

Case B: By choosing Y800 for the device codec, the hardware sends original data which is not yet debayer’ed, that saves some Firewire bandwidth, and then the debayer’ing is done at software level by IC capture. [...]

Case C: We have chosen Y800 for the device as above, so the data coming from the camera is still not yet debayer’ed, and therefore, it uses less Firewire bandwidth. And Debayer’ing is also disabled in IC Capture, meaning that Debayer’ing is not done on-the-fly as well, and so it requires less CPU cycle.

He has published a screenshot for each technique, one of which that illustrates the third technique, is below:

You can read the full article, in Oldfield’s blog.

A great thanks goes out to Oldfield for sharing this information with The Imaging Source astronomy cameras community.

In addition, the author has published the following screenshots of IC Capture.AS in action:

Read the full article at:
http://astromercure8.free.fr/?p=152

Read it online and subscribe today:
http://www.TheImagingSourceBlog.com

Below is a screenshot of the new industrial image processing blog:

I am delighted to announce that unicap 0.2.22 has just been released.

It now ships with the following improvements:

• Better support for The Imaging Source USB 2.0 astronomy and industrial cameras
  (download the uvcvideo driver)
• Added and fixed some color conversion routines
• GTK+ apps can register their own color format conversion callback
• Some minor fixes in the unicapGTK library
• Support for recent uvcvideo drivers
• French translation (thanks to Kiki Novak!)
• Packages for Ubuntu Hardy

You can download the source code package from the unicap web site:
http://www.unicap-imaging.org/download.htm

Packages for Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty), Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy) and Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy) are in the repositories:
http://www.unicap-imaging.org/using_repositories.htm

The capture program for Linux is called ucview, which deploys the unicap library.

I am delighted to announce to better support the Linux astronomy cameras community, a set of unicap forums have been launched:

• http://www.unicap-imaging.org/forums/

If you have any matter related to running The Imaging Source astronomy cameras on Linux with ucview and unicap, please do not hesitate to post your questions into the above forum.

The forum is maintained by the program’s chief developer, Arne Caspari.

With the schedule packed with enthusiasts from Solar, Stellar, and Planetary imaging, I found it difficult to attend all of the wonderful talks. “The little DMK” seemed to be quite a hot topic in many of the presentations this year, as well as, the social discussions (and quarrels) that followed.

As a fairly new player on the astronomy imaging scene, The Imaging Source astronomy cameras did quite well taken to its paces by so very many imaging experts!

Six of our fine resellers from “The Americas” attended the event, three of which stayed throughout the weekend selling our products. OPT, Adirondak, and Woodland Hills all ran purchasing specials on The Imaging Source cameras for both NEAIC and for the subsequent NorthEast Astronomy Forum.

Here I am in the middle of the imaging mob with John and Jim from Adirondack Astronomy.

Of the most impressive presentations, below are a couple photos from a presentation by Robert Reeves, the author of Introduction to Webcam Astrophotography. In this talk, Mr. Reeves shows the audience why the DMK 41AF02.AS is his pick for high quality, low noise, and low cost astrophotography solutions:

If this is an indication of the coming year’s success for The Imaging Source cameras in the astronomy imaging market, I look forward to seeing all of our customers and dealers at this year’s RTMC in Big Bear!

Clear Skies

profjohn