Post by Dragon Man on Jan 10, 2014 4:02:00 GMT
Last night was my first experience using Miloslick Video Astronomy software for Mallincam cameras (and some functions for other brand cameras).
I must say, I am impressed.
2 days ago I sat in my house playing with the newly downloaded software just to make sure the registration code unlocked the software for use.
I had no camera connected and had to go out not long after starting learning the settings so I really didn't get to learn much about it.
So last nights Live broadcast on Night Skies Network was really the first time I used it.
At first I was dissappointed with the views. But that could have been the fact that during the day I dropped my home-made Focal Reducer and had to re-glue the lens back on (again).
In my rush to get it done I used too much super glue which left a coating of glue Vapours on the inside of the lens (think of Forensic fingerprint search here).
In my attempt to clean the vapours off I went overboard with the cleaning process and stripped off a lot of the UHC coatings
Inspecting the lens showed a smeary frosted look to it!
The other problem confronting me was a very hot night (26c degrees) and I had the Peltier cooler set too low, so the whole view was full of hot pixels.
Fortunately, after turning the cooling up to Full the hot pixels dissappeared with minutes.
So half the problem was solved There was nothing I could do about the focal reducer.
Anyway, back to the software now that the Hot pixels were solved.
Previously I had been using the free "Mallincam Control' software written by Stefan Lalond which is very good (and free).
But Miloslick was like a breathe of fresh air.
Not only did I have control over Brightness, Contrast, Hue, Saturation, Sharpness, camera settings like AGC, White balance, and cooling (all in Stefan's Free software), but I also now had control over Hot Pixel removal, Histogram, smoothing, stacking, and a whole lot of other goodies able to be done to the incoming Video stream 'on-the-fly'.
Slowly I was able to pull out detail that I couldn't before using other software. It did take me a couple of hours, and suggestions and tips by viewers, to understand the settings and what does what.
Eventually (as the chip cooling did its job and much fiddling with the settings) I could see an improvement in the final view, even with the foggy Focal Reducer.
But the real surprise came when I used the Live Stacking feature.
I was stacking 3 frames on-the-fly and when the 3rd frames finished its countown the view just popped! A smooth background sky and more detail in the object itself.
Here are the first three of the screen grabs from my Live broadcast in Night Skies Network. I used no Autoguiding or filters.
- M83 Southern Pinwheel Galaxy
- NGC 4945 Great Edgwise Spiral in Centaurus
- Omega Centauri
I must say, I am impressed.
2 days ago I sat in my house playing with the newly downloaded software just to make sure the registration code unlocked the software for use.
I had no camera connected and had to go out not long after starting learning the settings so I really didn't get to learn much about it.
So last nights Live broadcast on Night Skies Network was really the first time I used it.
At first I was dissappointed with the views. But that could have been the fact that during the day I dropped my home-made Focal Reducer and had to re-glue the lens back on (again).
In my rush to get it done I used too much super glue which left a coating of glue Vapours on the inside of the lens (think of Forensic fingerprint search here).
In my attempt to clean the vapours off I went overboard with the cleaning process and stripped off a lot of the UHC coatings
Inspecting the lens showed a smeary frosted look to it!
The other problem confronting me was a very hot night (26c degrees) and I had the Peltier cooler set too low, so the whole view was full of hot pixels.
Fortunately, after turning the cooling up to Full the hot pixels dissappeared with minutes.
So half the problem was solved There was nothing I could do about the focal reducer.
Anyway, back to the software now that the Hot pixels were solved.
Previously I had been using the free "Mallincam Control' software written by Stefan Lalond which is very good (and free).
But Miloslick was like a breathe of fresh air.
Not only did I have control over Brightness, Contrast, Hue, Saturation, Sharpness, camera settings like AGC, White balance, and cooling (all in Stefan's Free software), but I also now had control over Hot Pixel removal, Histogram, smoothing, stacking, and a whole lot of other goodies able to be done to the incoming Video stream 'on-the-fly'.
Slowly I was able to pull out detail that I couldn't before using other software. It did take me a couple of hours, and suggestions and tips by viewers, to understand the settings and what does what.
Eventually (as the chip cooling did its job and much fiddling with the settings) I could see an improvement in the final view, even with the foggy Focal Reducer.
But the real surprise came when I used the Live Stacking feature.
I was stacking 3 frames on-the-fly and when the 3rd frames finished its countown the view just popped! A smooth background sky and more detail in the object itself.
Here are the first three of the screen grabs from my Live broadcast in Night Skies Network. I used no Autoguiding or filters.
- M83 Southern Pinwheel Galaxy
- NGC 4945 Great Edgwise Spiral in Centaurus
- Omega Centauri