Version info & compatibilitySneak preview releaseThe actual version is a prerelease in a functional, but not yet complete state. WIP is not VIP ! It rather means 'work in progress'. Since the first prerelease in Dec. 2023, now a few things have been corrected and consolidated, but there's still some way to go before reaching an official 1.0 version state.So, be prepared for anything. Images may not look as nice as expected, strange error messages may pop-up, your computer might explode, an asteroid might crash into your house, whatever. Good luck ! FireCapture compatibilityThe plugin was developed for FireCapture 2.6.08. The new, FC 2.7.x branch brought some significant changes in the debayering policy. To overcome this compatibility break, now two different plugin versions are provided. For mono recordings, there is no difference, but for working in RGB color, make sure that you have installed the right plugin version for your FC installation.Some general aspects
HistoryI started with planetary imaging around 2016, but did not make much noteworthy progress in the first few years. During the virus related lockdowns in spring 2020, there was a long phase with extremely clear skies and a perfect Venus observation period with the planet high in the sky, and I tried my first UV filter recordings. I experienced the problem that the stream preview looked like the typical 'blizzard' screen which I remember from former times when TV program broadcast stopped for the night. Yeah, younger ones probably won't believe it, but there once was a time when there was no TV program during nighttime hours :-).Finding the focus in these conditions was merely impossible. So I thought of ways of analysing the frame pixels in order to provide some quantitative values which might be helpful for that task. This was the origin of the first 'ImageInfo' plugin, and, as a side effect, it also meant my first steps in Java programming. It took some time to get at least a bit aquainted with the amazing complexity and feature richness provided by the Java framework. Step by step I replaced the first crude plugin attempt with a new version which employs more and more Java GUI components and features. In turn, also the central idea behind the module emerged from a pure focusing help towards a live stacking and processing plugin for planetary imaging. Further development happened in the usual on-off mode, with sometimes more, sometimes less resp. no time for working on the plugin, and soon several years have passed, actually 4 of them, until reaching the current state. And still the thing is not fully ready. But I am using it successfully here already for more than a year, so I decided to publish this prerelease despite its yet unfinished state. (c) March 2024 Carsten Bauer |