I need help to test my astrophotography application/project!

[larrylart]

Hi,


You can check a preview of my project at: http://larryo.org/work/information/unimap/index.html







I started this project back in 2004 as I realize that more and more people get into astrophotography but most will go no further then framing nice pictures. So I thought that it will be good to have a simple to use tool to allow amateur astronomers to do plate-solving(detect and match your image against star catalogs), so they can explore and learn more about these marvelous images so I started to develop this project. Now after literally tens of thousands of development hours you can just load your astrophoto and in a few clicks learn almost everything is known about your image, what are the stars, galaxies, nebulas, radio sources, x-ray/gamma bursts, supernovas, extra solar planets or asteroids, comets and even artificial earth satellites passing through. Also, you can get more advanced information like various measurements available (including spectral) and links to articles/abstracts talking about objects and/in that area in the sky.

On top of that I added several tool to help amateur astronomer to better plan his observing session like an on click collection of environmental/weather data, instruments management/control and also an online collaboration interface to allow amateur astronomers to easily exchange/review the data.

There is something else I want to add… the project is written in c++/wxwidgets (cross platform gui library) and that means it can be compiled on other platforms such as linux/mac/etc. Most functionality will work except for the digital cameras interface (and for Mac I am not sure about the video interface either) which is for the moment is windows only. So if people are interested please let me know and I will be looking in the future to release it for Linux or Mac osX as well.

Also, my future plans with this project is to release it free and opensource (for windows, linux and perhaps macosx)… if all goes well, I mean if people show interest in it and it’s workable and from there I might be looking for sponsorship at some point to support a big central database though which amateur astronomers from all over the world can share image resolved with astrometry data etc. So maybe now you can also understand what am I doing here as well …

Anyone interested to help me test it and/or feedback will be appreciated!

Larry

[larrylart]

I am also working now to convert to unicode so that it will support various translations and if someone here whishes to help me with the translation as well that will be great!

Larry

[Hedinari]

Hi Larry,

your project looks very promising - I really would like to test it I also can offer you assistance with translation to german.

Hans

[larrylart]

I apologize for the delay as my life got slightly complicated lately.
You can download and test the very first pre-alpha release from here:

http://larryo.org/work/information/unim ... p_pa_0.exe

I know there are still bugs and room for of improvements, optimization, etc. "Unfortunately" I have built this application so big and I got so little time lately that I should probably focus on getting the core functionality working right and here any suggestions and ideas will really help.

It is compiled on XP. On windows 7 you might encounter crashes (mostly due to file/io permissions) – I will get them fixed as soon as I will get some time.

Larry

[Hedinari]

Hi Larry,

I tried the last version on Windows 7 and I am really impressed - works like a charm There are so many features to explore that IMHO a "Idiots Guide to UniMap" would be a good thing. The examples on the website seem to cover a older version of unimap nad some things have changed a lot.
Anyway - it's a great programm and I will surely use it.

Thanks a lot

Hans

[larrylart]

Thank you Hans!

You are right! I need to better document it and improve the user interface as well - there are indeed hundreds of settings (I want it to be highly customisable) - but on top of that I want to improve the easy to use GUI as well.
Please any suggestions are welcome!

Larry

[tommy_nawratil]

dear Larry,

just gave your app a try - works great om my WinXP. Many hits on tyc and pgc catalogues. Met DrWatson twice when fetching data. Where can I input date and time of picture to search for asteroids?

congratulations, baby is born!

Tommy

[larrylart]

To set image date/time and also location go in menu->image->properties
and there is everything under Obeserver. You could also set the pressure and temperature under conditions tab (you can try the integrated weather underground service) that is also used to compensate the refraction index.

This part I test it less since I didn't had enough plates with know exact location and date/time. If you encounter problems let me know and also send me the images with the details to debug.

Many Thank!

Larry

[larrylart]

A new update has been released with:

- updated the star common names list with a better one
- added extension files one and two to tycho2
- added map for common names with tycho2
- fixed 2mass catalog names display error
- fixed show/hide all objects from menu->view objects
- fixed search in spiral - which is now set default as it's faster (instead of swipe)
- added a simple method to check/notify on updates
- some other minor bug fixes

Also, note that now there is a forum on the site to discuss more in depth the technical problems.


Larry

[larrylart]

I am wondering if people here find this application useful? At the concept level what do you think I should change/add to improve it?

[larrylart]

Version 0.0.2 pre-alpha is now available for download from:

http://larryo.org/work/information/unimap/download.html

Larry

[tommy_nawratil]

hi Larry,

thanks for your work, I'm using the program mainly to check what is on my pics. Will try the new version, couldn't load deeper catalogues into the old one. I am eager to see how it works now and give you feedback.

regards, Tommy

[larrylart]

Thanks Tommy!

Please let me know if you still have problems with catalogues - it should work.

Larry

[larrylart]

Version 0.0.3 pre-alpha is now available for download from:

http://larryo.org/work/information/unimap/download.html

Larry

[tommy_nawratil]

hi Larry,

doesn't work on my system (WinXP SP3), after starting the exe there is a popup asking for the proper app to open a file called "file".

I'm using your program constantly to check what is on my pics, great work!

Tommy

[larrylart]

Thanks Tommy,

Does it always do that or just from time to time?

Larry

[tommy_nawratil]

hi Larry,

the older version works well and I enjoy it, only the new version cannot be installed on my system. But let me try once more later on after a reboot, just now too many things are running. That possibly solves the issue.

Tommy

[Daniel_Guetl]

Hi larry,

to verify i installed it on my system (Win XP SP3 too!). It works fine! So must be Tommys computer.

regards

Daniel

[larrylart]

Hi Daniel/Tommy,

This could be just one side of the story - the other could be that I am still having a bug to fix somewhere - i just need more info in order to be able to replicate the problem.

I have also added two small video tutorials (basic) here:

http://larryo.org/work/information/unimap/support.html

I am not sure if this format is ok, feedback will help before I go on to make better tutorials.

Larry

[tommy_nawratil]

hi Larry,

the problem solved itself by rebooting, as I suspected. I think there was a pending virus update asking for a reboot some days ago, which I refused at that time ...

Unimap has been installed, opened, a picture loaded and matched. There is an error message "couldn't retrieve information about list control item Nr.6" coming, and by clicking ok it vanishes, but comes again after some operation.

Also, the cursor marker frequently hops into the dropdown list for the different pictures. And, could it be possible to make the folter for opening the pictures sticky? It always hops back into the Unimap folder.

...nice piece of work!

kind regards, Tommy

[larrylart]

There is an error message "couldn't retrieve information about list control item Nr.6" coming, and by clicking ok it vanishes, but comes again after some operation.

Do you get this error at any specific task ?

Also, the cursor marker frequently hops into the dropdown list for the different pictures. And, could it be possible to make the folter for opening the pictures sticky? It always hops back into the Unimap folder.

I know about this I will make it a priority to fix as it's annoying me as well

Thanks for the feedback Tommy!

[tommy_nawratil]

hi Larry,

the error message has gone today, comes no more.

In the previous version there was limited info on detected objects given, by right-clicking on an object a histo of the region could be shown and a pic from NASA could be displayed. Now this has gone, all info is about the pic as a whole.

Would it be possible to get infos on objects again, I mean if the catalogue name is displayed, could we get other catalogue entries displayed as well, like brightness of the particular object and so on?

Now, I can get object names displayed but nothing more to check how deep my picture is going. One can google for Hyperleda object names, but usually there is no info available on the net.

Tommy