From: YAM <yamasiro@sap-cc.go.jp>

Date: June 26, 2007 3:48:25 PM MDT

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] Astro IIDC 4 Feature List

Hi Milton,

I have been on tiptoe with expectation for your announcement of the Astro IIDC 4.

Thank you very much!

Katsushige Yamashiro

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Katsushige Yamashiro, MD, PhD

Pathologist & Cytopathologist

Hokkaido Cancer Center, Sapporo, JAPAN

http://web.mac.com/sapporoyam/

On 2007/06/27, at 4:50, Milton Aupperle wrote:

Hi folks;

I'm working away at the Astro IIDC 4 and have been seeding Alpha

copies of it to a select group of Astro IIDC users for feedback.

I thought I would give everyone a quick run down of the main new

features that are planned for Astro IIDC Version 4.0:

- Will be a Universal Binary for PowerPC Macs / x86 MacIntels. This

means it now requires OSX 10.4.x or higher and will probably exclude

G3 PowerMac owners.

- Added Full Width Half Max (FWHM) and Half Flux Diameter (HFD) real

time estimates with "sharpness rings" as an aid for focussing with a

single star.

- The "Image Processing Module" (IMP) was re-written so the image is

displayed in a re-sizable scrollable window with the Image Controls in

separate floating palette windows. You can also scale the image down

to as small as 10% size and as high as 500%.

- Added Astrometry measurements of IMP images so that given three

control stars, it can then determine high precision RA/Dec positions

for other objects such as asteroids, moons of planets, unknown stars,

nebula edges, comets or other features etc.

- Added Photometric measurements for Luma, Red, Green and Blue color

channels of IMP images to determine relative or absolute magnitude of

stars and star like objects. So you can now measure comet core

brightnesses, variable stars, novas or other stellar objects and

produce reports on them.

- Allows you to import separate Luma, Red, Green and Blue (or just

Red, Green and Blue) stacked images, align them manually and then

process them in the IMP as LRGB.

- Added optional FWHM estimator for "turbulence" suppression while

guiding, which filters out the bad stars for tracking.

- Allows you to manipulate your Stacking Selection Areas by deleting

or moving the areas individually.

- Added our own 2x to 4x scalar code for stacking scaled 16 bit

movies, as Apple does not offer that ability.

- Animation Alignment Tools.

- More and Better FITs file support.

- Tons of minor tweaks and performance enhancements.

Anticipated availability is late fourth quarter 2007, hopefully in

time for Mars opposition. Pricing and upgrade costs are still to be

determined.

TTYL..

Milton Aupperle