Flats for new Horizon with Infinity a must!

[Astrogate]

Hi Chris

After watching Dave Hudson's excellent video demonstrating his new Atik Horizon camera in particular with the Infinity software I would say that 80 to 90% of us with exceptions of those fortunate to have the money for those very expensive astrograph dedicated scopes will be now having issues with vignetting unlike with the much smaller ICX825 sensor in the Infinity camera. Most of us would buy this camera for it's unique live observing properties in conjunction with the Infinity software and not with the Artemis software. Like Sharpcap is now offering in their new release software they incorporated a flat and dark field on the fly subtraction. I think we can live without the dark subtraction due to the excellent algorithm written in the Infinity software but, the flat is a big must since adjusting the background properly without losing faint details in impossible. Chris please consider building live flat subtraction into the Infinity software now that we will be working with larger APS + CMOS sensors.

Thank you

Chris Appleton
Astrogate 

[ChrisGolden]

Hi Chris,

Sorry for the slow reply on this, things have been pretty busy here as you can imagine. Adding flats to the infinity software has been mentioned before and we have it on our list of improvements. However, it'll take some time to work out the best way to do this and to make sure the software still runs smoothly. I've spent a good amount of time improving the performance of the software, so I'm pretty sure it can handle the extra calculation. But my main concern is how we integrate this feature into the rest of the software, including obtaining the flats in the first place. Unfortunately, it's unlikely I'll be able to investigate it for a while. But I'll keep you updated with any progress I make.

Chris.

[Astrogate]

Hi Chris

Thank you very much for the information and I fully understand how busy you must be with the soon to be released Horizon. Please let me know if I can be a help to you and the Atik staff regarding the Infinity software testing/improvements with flats etc. I use both a mono and colour Infinity camera and have my eye on a new Horizon.

Cheers,

Chris Appleton

[bwa]

Hi Chris,

Sorry for the slow reply on this, things have been pretty busy here as you can imagine. Adding flats to the infinity software has been mentioned before and we have it on our list of improvements. However, it'll take some time to work out the best way to do this and to make sure the software still runs smoothly. I've spent a good amount of time improving the performance of the software, so I'm pretty sure it can handle the extra calculation. But my main concern is how we integrate this feature into the rest of the software, including obtaining the flats in the first place. Unfortunately, it's unlikely I'll be able to investigate it for a while. But I'll keep you updated with any progress I make.

Chris.

I too am taking a serious look at acquiring the Horizon but don't plan to use it as an EAA camera.  I view the Horizon as a true astro-imaging camera and currently use both my mono and color Infinity cameras in this capacity.  Under this scenario I can either use Flats in preprocessing or flatten the final image in postprocessing.

I can, however, understand the need for Flat subtraction for EAA usage, particularly if using fast scopes/lenses with 1.25" filters.

bwa

[Cliff Halliwell]

I also think that, looking well ahead, flats will be a very desirable feature for the Infinity software.  Why?  Not so much for being able to do traditional astrophotography calibration.  Instead, because more and more of us are flirting dangerously with vignetting.  We are pushing the boundaries with bigger chips and more focal reduction for faster imaging.  The net result is more and more light fall off at edges.  This likely becomes problematic for auto adjustment of histograms and perhaps for stacking when using alt-az mounts, where subsequent subs have some field rotation.   That said, I will momentarily post what I now think is a more important suggestion: better histogram adjustment. 

Cliff Halliwell