Software Software supporting Gx CCD and Cx CMOS cameras  | | While the proportion of Cx and Gx camera users on non-Windows
platforms is small, the popularity of these platforms is on the rise.
That's why we provide an overview of new native drivers for Linux and
macOS operating systems. (more...) |
 | SIPS version 3.24 | Updated: 29.12.2020 |
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 | | Continuously increasing number of SIPS users ensures a steady
flow of feedback. We of course try to sort out which of the proposed new
functions would be most useful and at the same time appreciated by most
users, and implement these features in every new SIPS version. Check
what's new in SIPS v3.24 — some of the newly added
functions could help you when observing of processing of acquired
images. (more...) |
 | | Well known auto-guiding software PHD2 now supports all types
of Moravian auto-guiders natively. While a support through the standard
ASCOM driver was always possible, using ASCOM brings quite significant
overhead. So, using native camera drivers is always faster, consumes
less memory and also user's software can use all features of particular
camera, while these features may be hidden by universal ASCOM
layer. (more...) |
 | SIPS version 3.22 | Updated: 12.10.2020 |
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 | | Majority of new features of the Scientific Image Processing
System version 3.22 are related to the word Scientific in its
name, improving astrometric and photometric processing of images taken
for research purposes. Also, the single important bug-fix of this SIPS
release concerns unreliable astrometry plate solution of arbitrary
rotated images. (more...) |
 | SIPS version 3.21 | Updated: 4.12.2020 |
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 | | The major new feature of SIPS (Scientific Image Processing
System) version 3.21 is support for C4-16000 scientific CMOS cameras and
also significantly enhanced functionality of existing Cx cameras. SIPS
is continuously evolved, new functions are added and the capabilities of
the program grows. However, continuous evolution of software sometimes
damages some existing feature and unfortunately SIPS is not immune to
this problem, despite we try to test every released version thoroughly.
This happened to SIPS version 3.20.2, when one new function under
development, not yet present in released version, caused problems in
guiding. This problem is now fixed with new version 3.21. (more...) |
 | | Very fast download speed is definitely one of the highlight
features of CMOS sensors. Despite the 1.5 MPx camera C1-1500 offered up to 60 FPS upon its introduction, the sensor itself offers
even faster digitization. Newly released firmware for all C1 cameras
effectively doubles the digitization frequency of the used sensors and
the C1-1500 camera now provides images at 120 FPS. Firmware update is fully automatic, literally
single-click action thank to newly introduced CxFirmware update
tool. (more...) |
 | | SIPS undergoes continued development and new features are
regularly added with every minor version release. This release brought
the full support for the new Cx CMOS-based astronomical cameras, but
numerous other features and enhancements were also added — for instance SIPS now understands two new types of star
catalogs. (more...) |
 | | New SIPS version brings numerous minor changes and
improvements, some of which considerably enhance user's convenience and
program reliability. Ability to automatically connect to predefined
camera, introduced in SIPS v3.7, is now extended to all devices
controlled by SIPS (telescopes, focusers, domes, ...). However, the most
important change remains invisible to the users — new SIPS redefined the telescope driver interface to make
host PC and telescope controller communication more efficient and less
bandwidth demanding. (more...) |
 | | CCD sensors are manufactured with total number of pixels
somewhat greater than useful number of pixels comprising image. By
default, camera returns only image pixels. But some users may appreciate
full image, including shielded pixels outside of the image area (called
over-scan regions). Over-scan regions may be useful for some specialized
image processing etc. despite they are always cropped from final
image. (more...) |
 | SIPS v3.8.1 | Updated: 8.11.2018 |
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 | | New minor update of the Scientific Image Processing System
software package was introduced to significantly speed up searching for
new variables in the observed fields and at the same time it fixes one
small problem in astrometry, affecting rotated images. (more...) |
 | SIPS v3.8 | Updated: 20.7.2018 |
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 | | Version 3.8 of the Scientific Image Processing System
underwent significant overhaul of the important part of the core
functionality, responsible for mutual alignment of multiple images.
Alignment is used in various SIPS tool, like image blinking, image
stacking and also in Photometry, which relies on proper image alignment
when selecting the same star on individual images belonging to
photometry series. (more...) |
 | | The Gx camera driver for the Astroart camera control software
was updated to work properly with version 6 of this software. Driver can
be downloaded form our Download page. (more...) |
 | | Previous version 3.7 of SIPS introduced completely new
mechanism of camera driver handling, allowing multiple SIPS instances to
work with multiple cameras on the same PC, reconnecting to the
predefined camera upon its arrival etc. Unfortunately these updates
caused a stability issue when SIPS handled image acquisition. So the
main purpose of v3.7.3 is to fix this problem and allow reliable camera
control. (more...) |
 | SIPS v3.7 | Updated: 31.8.2018 |
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 | | Version 3.7 of the Scientific Image Processing System enhances
camera handling interface. Internal enhancements would be appreciated
mainly by programmers implementing drivers, but there is also new
functionality available to users. New SIPS allows to define fixed
configuration of cameras, to which should SIPS automatically connect
regardless if particular cameras are online or not upon SIPS startup.
This feature will be appreciated especially by astronomers using a fixed
setup. And as usual, some problems identified in previous versions were
fixed, improving overall SIPS reliability. (more...) |
 | SIPS v3.6 released | Updated: 24.1.2018 |
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 | | Probably the most prominent new feature of SIPS version 3.6 is
its ability to switch to dark skin, which could better suit to eyes
adopted to dark. But astronomers using SIPS to process scientific data
will find numerous enhancements like possibility to switch between
magnitude and flux when processing photometric data, added infrared J-K
color index for catalogs containing J and K magnitudes, etc. Also
completely reworked is how SIPS handles EXTENDED (multipart) FITS files,
often created by software controlling cameras of large
telescopes. (more...) |
 | SIPS v3.5 released | Updated: 30.10.2017 |
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 | | New SIPS version 3.5 contains numerous bug fixes and new
features, inspired by strong feedback from users. New features are
focused mostly to practical usage of SIPS for scientific data analysis
and processing. Most important among bug fixes are the solution of the
ASCOM platform compatibility problems, solved failures caused by bugs in
used 3rd party video codecs etc. (more...) |
 | | Introduction of AMD Ryzen R7 processors with 8 cores and 16
threads for a fraction of price of corresponding 8-core Intel Core i7
counterparts (or for a similar price like 4-core Core i7) brought high
hopes for astronomers seeking faster processing of their images.
Providing the clock speed and IPC (Instructions Per Clock) are similar,
two-times the cores should bring two-times faster processing, right? But
situation is not that simple, numerous published tests indicate that
while the 8C/16T R7 sometimes outpaces the 8C/16T i7, but sometimes
trails even the 4C/4T Core i5. Obviously, the R7 performance strongly
depends on the program executed. This is why we introduced SIPS version
3.4.1, the Ryzen Update. (more...) |
 | SIPS v3.4 released | Updated: 30.6.2017 |
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 | | The single most important feature of SIPS v3.4 is the very
significant speed up of some algorithms. Still, some new tweaks make
astronomer's life more convenient, which is always welcomed — e.g. SIPS can handle yet another batch of FITS keywords
and Photometry including light curve plotting can be performed in real
time immediately after each image is read from the camera. (more...) |
 | | New version of SIPS focuses to polishing of existing
functionality, making it more robust and reliable. Astrometry with
uncertain image center coordinates, automatic aperture calculation in
Photometry, wider set of FITS keywords and ability to use known values
to calculate missing ones (pixel scale from pixel size and focal length
etc.) without user intervention, all these features make SIPS v3.3 usage
more pleasant and comfortable. (more...) |
 | | The Gx camera driver for TheSkyX was limited to the Windows
version of this popular planetarium and camera control software package.
The newly introduced driver extends the support also to Macintosh
computers running macOS version 10.7 and newer. The driver for TheSkyX
running under macOS supports USB camera as well as cameras connected
through the Gx Camera Ethernet Adapter. (more...) |
 | | Version 3.1 of the Scientific Image Processing System brought
only a few new features, but it fixed an occasional stability problem in
the implementation of multi-threaded background processing of large
amount of images at once. Although the problem could affect both 32 and
64 bit versions, it occurred more
frequently in 64 bit version, probably
because the 64 bit version is more often
used to process many large images at once. So the SIPS version 3.1 is
highly recommended update for all SIPS users. (more...) |
 | SIPS version 3 | Updated: 1.12.2016 |
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 | | There were twenty individual version releases of SIPS between
version 2 and 3 and only minor updates of version 2.4.x were released
eleven times. All these updates, enhancements and bug fixes plus a bunch
of new ones are now embraced in version 3. Still, the new visual style
of the SIPS v3 is probably the first change every user
notices. (more...) |
 | | Standardized software interfaces bring the possibility to use
various devices in many programs, providing device manufactures as well
as software developers implement particular standard. ASCOM standard for
CCD cameras and other astronomy equipment is widely used within the
Windows operating system, while a new INDILIB initiative stars to appear
as emerging standard in the world of Linux-based operating systems.
Libraries and drivers supporting this standard are now available for all
CCD cameras of the Gx series, connected through both USB and
Ethernet. (more...) |
 | | SIPS went through many incremental enhancements and introduced
new features from version 2.4.0 to current 2.4.9. It also polished these
function and fixed some problems, which surfaced as new advanced image
analysis tools like astrometry reduction and photometry light curve
analysis are used by more and more users. (more...) |
 | | SIPS version 2.4.3 adds new features as well as fixes problems
found in the previous versions. Important new feature is the inter-image
guiding, which uses images taken with a main camera and adjusts mount
position only between individual exposures. This feature is of course
usable only when the mount is capable to keep tracking during single
exposure and irregularities occur only on larger time scales, spanning
multiple exposures. (more...) |
 | | 64 bits is a new
marketing buzz-word in the world of mobile phones and tablets, but it is
rather common in the world of Personal Computers. Despite the
64 bit systems are available for many
years, especially recently number of newly installed 32 bit systems sharply declines and 64 bit systems dominate. Surprisingly, general
understanding what does it mean is very low and particularly baffling is
the fact, that 64 bit operating system is
(fortunately) perfectly capable to run 32 bit applications. The answer to the question which
driver version (32 bit or 64 bit) to install requires understanding of a few
concepts. (more...) |
 | | SIPS version 2.4 implements two most often requested
functions. The first one is dithering—the
capability to shift guiding star position among individual exposures of
the main imaging camera to be able to eliminate image artifacts (hot
pixels, bad columns) during image stacking. The second one is the
ability to save (and load) defined exposure series to files. Although
these updates look like a minor ones, it was necessary to completely
overhaul the camera user interface to implement them. The original
Camera control tool was split into Imaging Camera tool and new Guiding
Camera tool. This new tool contains all necessary guiding controls on
single place and offers more interactivity and provides better feedback
to the user, which makes guiding setup much simpler task. What's more,
all the work done on v2.4 allows adding of new features planned for
v2.5. (more...) |
 | | 64 bit version of the Scientific
Image Processing System package was tested for several months and it is
now released for free download with the minor SIPS release v2.3.3.
Software variant supporting 64 bit memory
addressing (this means not limited to 4GB) is not the only new feature.
This minor release added support for new hardware, allows much better
control of attached telescopes, broadened compatibility with FITS
standard etc. It was also significantly updated to work much better on
HI-DPI displays. (more...) |
 | | Scientific Image Processing System (SIPS) version 2.3 brings
only a few changes, compared to previous version 2.2. The main reason
for it release is the support for newly introduced G3-16000 camera.
Unifying of the Gx USB camera drivers into single driver (similarly to
the already unified Gx Camera Ethernet Adapter driver) significantly
enhanced the support for Gx cameras in the third party programs, but
SIPS user barely note any change—SIPS offers all
connected cameras and users do not need to care which driver controls
which camera. SIPS v2.3 is supplied with all Gx series of CCD cameras
and can be also downloaded from this web site for free. (more...) |
 | | Gx CCD cameras were developed evolutionary, new models with
new CCD detectors as well as new revisions of existing models were
introduced over time. Also new communication buses and protocols were
incorporated. All these changes required new drivers for both SIPS
software package and third-party programs. Introduction of the latest
CCD camera G3-16000, which uses new electronics and thus requires new
driver, initiated driver overhaul—all currently
supported cameras, connected over the USB, use single new driver 'GxUSB'
and similarly all current cameras connected over the Ethernet Adapter
use common driver 'GxETH'. This redesign affected drivers for other
camera control programs and new versions of unified drivers for ASCOM
and for TheSkyX, MaxIm DL and Astroart are
also released. (more...) |
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