Astro IIDC" is an astronomy, microscopy, high speed imaging, machine vision and scientifically oriented OS X application developed from the ground up to make IIDC FireWire and USB camera imaging easier on the Mac.
Major Features:
Simple and easy to use interface in a single camera control window as shown in the screen snap shot to the right. All camera control adjustments are done with a full size scrollable live preview image so there is none of this modal QuickTime tiny 160x120 pixel image approximations nonsense, pure WYSIWYG.
Utilizes ASC's industrial strength, preemptively multi threaded, Altivec / SSE3 enhanced IIDC/DCAM framework code, with no dependency on QuickTime or other FireWire / USB 2 drivers for camera control. "Astro IIDC" directly accesses the IIDC camera and extracts the raw bayer or monochrome CCD data. No YUV color aliasing as we decode the bayer color data using our own custom 2x2, 3x3 and 5x5 kernels.
For inexpensive FireWire cameras provides extended CCD exposure times from as fast as 1/3000th of a second down to 1.029 seconds, without any hardware modifications. That is 31 times more light gathering capability than anyone else's software and adds a new dimension for lower light imaging.
For high end FireWire or USB 2 cameras, provides CCD exposure times from 1/10000 of a second to 60 minutes (depending on the camera model), Region Of Interest and records movies in excess of 240 frames per second.
Supports user definable Average and Spot Color Balance, allowing you to balance against any color you want, not just white.
Single click to Grab a frame, Grab a user defined burst of frames and average them (for noise reduction) or Grab a burst of frames and sum them (for enhancing low light imaging). Supports frame grabs in TIFF (Mono8, Mono16, RGB24 or RGB48), PNG (8 or 16 bit), BMP, PhotoShop, PICT, JPEG and FITS (Mono8 or Mono16 bit) file formats.
Provides Auto Guiding on stars, planets, lunar craters and solar sunspots utilizing TripLite's USB to Serial Port converter, Shoestring Astronomy's GPUSB ST4 converter and directly from Point Grey Research Cameras with the "GPIO to ST4" converter box. Supported mounts include Meade compatible (including LXD55, LXD75, ETX90, ETX125, LX200, RX400, SkySensor 2000 PC etc.), Losmady, Celestron, Meade, Temma, Vixen, SkyWatcher and other mounts that have a ST4 type Auto Guider port and hacked hand controllers (Orion EQ2/3, CGE5 etc.).
Supports Altivec / SSE3 enhanced Flat Frame division and Dark Frame subtraction to provide for real time removal of optical imperfections (i.e. dust, hairs, vignetting etc.) and to reduce CCD noise.
Provides live Sharpness estimators using pixel edge detection or FWHM / HFD for a focussing aid and can also be used to exclude air turbulence blurred images from being grabbed as frames or recorded in a movie.
Logs all your camera settings for every frame grabbed or movie recorded to a text file, so that you can easily recall exactly what settings (including temperature) were used when each image image was captured. Also allows you to enter user notes notes for each frame grabbed or movie recorded.
Records QuickTime Movies at frame rates excess of 240 frames per second down to as slow as 1 frame per minute, user selectable. All movies are recorded with a Greenwich Mean Time relative Time Code track, so that the time for each recorded frame can be determined within 1 frame duration.
Provides a 16 bit LRGB64 bit Altivec and SSE3 optimized real time Image Processing Module, featuring multi radii spatially dependent sharpening, log square root curve stretching, RGB level adjustments, RGB gain adjustments, RGB Saturation, R and B color channel spatial offsets for atmospheric correction, multiple noise reduction algorithms and zoom.
Provides multi - threaded real time automated alignment and stacking of video, both for live image capture and post with recorded 8 or 16 bit per pixel movies. All Altivec and SSE3 enhanced stacking, sharpening, aligning and processing is done at a full 32 bits per color channel (Mono32 or RGB96) so that no image data is lost or compromised.
Allows you to automatically or manually select which frames are included for stacking and alignment. Provides up to 500 user selectable areas of interest for Multiple Area Processing (MAP).
Supports display and capture in color, monochrome, binned 2x2 color, binned 2x2 monochrome, binned 4x4 monochrome and individual red, green or blue color channels modes.
Support external hardware trigger modes 0 and 14, which allows you to externally trigger frame delivery (on GPIO0 or GPIO3 inputs) to the monitor, for frame grabs and recording movies.
Saves and restores up to 10 user definable camera settings, so you can apply camera specific parameters at a key stroke or via an AppleScript.
Allows you to measure differential or absolute Photometric magnitudes and generate sub arc second Astrometric positional measurements on stellar objects from imported images or over time from movies. Now you can measure variables star brightness changes, identify positional changes of asteroids or comets and search for extra solar planets on your Mac.
Provides support for Digital SLR camera users to create RGB48 bit movies from their images, do dark frame subtraction, apply flat frame correction, stack and align your 16 bit movies or do Photometric or Astrometric measurements from them.
Apple Script support for starting or stopping Video Play, starting or stopping Movie Recording, Grabbing Frames, Dark Frames, Flat Frames, Average Frames and to programatically change settings.
Downloads and Installation:
Download the English Astro IIDC Installer(version 4.08.00, 5.1 Megabytes released May 16, 2012) disk image, double click on it and then follow the "Read Me First" instructions. Version 4.08.00 is a Universal Binary for PowerPC (G4 / G5) or x86 Macs and is Tiger (10.4.11) , Leopard (10.5.08), Snow Leopard (to 10.6.8) and Lion (to 10.7.4) compatible.
Version 4.08.00 is 1.3.2 IIDC Camera compliant, adds support for 12 bit Monochrome and 12 bit Bayer video, has re-written stacking code to use up to 16 CPU cores concurrently for super speed 8 or 16 bit stacking, has additional Altivec and SSE3/4 Optimizations for frame sharpness estimation, increased number of camera pre set settings to 20, provides more Apple Script examples, has an updated 114 page manual and addresses a few bugs.
Version 4.08.00 is a recommended free update for all Astro IIDC 4.x customers, the 12th major free update since the initial March 10, 2008 release of Astro IIDC 4.0x.
Note that until you purchase an unlock key(s) the "Astro IIDC" application will run in "Demo Mode" which disables some features. This allows you ensure your camera works properly with the software before making a purchase. If your camera does not work in "Demo Mode", then it won't work in the Full version either.
Purchasing:
You can purchase unlock keys for $110 USD each from our Secure Online PayPal hosted store.
To take advantage of our reduced price second copy Astro IIDC 4.x offer for $40 USD via PayPal, please review this information.
To upgrade from version 1.x, 2.x of Astro IIDC to Version 4.x for $60 USD via PayPal, please follow these instructions.
To upgrade from version 3.x of Astro IIDC to Version 4.x for $35 USD via PayPal, please follow these instructions.
To meet the needs of the majority of our customers, the unlock keys must be specified for a particular IIDC Camera or for a particular Mac when you order them.
If you purchase an unlock key for a camera then you can use that camera on multiple Macs, simply by copying the unlock key to those other Macs. This is intended for a Lab situation where you have many Macs with one or a few shared camera. Please note that the Astro IIDC application will need this camera attached to the Mac each time the application is launched to verify the unlock key. Once it's verified, you can unplug the camera and continue using all of Astro IIDC's non camera features until you Quit the application.
If you purchase an unlock key for a Mac then you can use any of the supported IIDC cameras with it. This is intended for people that have access to multiple IIDC cameras and want to use any of them with a specific Mac, such as a work station situation.
NOTE: We no longer are using Kagi for payment processing.
Support and Contacting Us:
If you have a general question on Astro IIDC, the FAQ section below probably has your answer and is the first place to look. After that, please look through the extensive indexed 114 page zipped PDF manual (2.8 megabyte download).
After that, if you still have questions, find any bugs or observe behavior that does not seem correct in Astro IIDC 4, please contact us via e-mail here:
We can't fix bugs that we don't know about, so your feedback helps make this a better product. Please include information on the Mac model
(i.e. Single CPU G4 733), amount of Ram, OS version (i.e. OS X 10.4.11), what Camera model this applies to (i.e. Unibrain Fire-i color) and detailed description of the problem will help us diagnose and correct it in far fewer e-mails than if you omit it.
If it's a crash, please include the "xxx.log" for the "xxx" application that crashed. Crash logs can be found in ~/Users/yourcomputernamehere/Logs/CrashReporter/. For Astro IIDC specific crashes, the crash log file is named AstroIIDC.crash.log.
Also please check out the Astro IIDC Yahoo Group where users can ask general questions, post comments, share tips and show off their own images taken with Astro IIDC. For registration, support or specific problems, please use the support e-mail address above.
FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions:
I just downloaded it and the Grab frame, Record Movie buttons and other options are disabled. Why??
Until you purchase an unlock key(s) the "Astro IIDC" application will run in "Demo Mode" which disables all disk related features (grabbing frames, recording movies, tracking, scope control etc.). This allows you to try the basic functions before purchasing it and to ensure your camera works with the software. You can purchase unlock keys from our PayPal Hosted Secure Online Store fronts.
Why are you not supporting The Imaging Source USB Cameras?
We have asked TIS multiple times (the most recent was in April 2011) if they will provide us with the low level details of how to control their cameras. They have either said "we will get back to you" (and never do) or simply ignored our e-mails. We frankly do not recommend their cameras anymore and you will get a much more capable and cheaper camera by going with Point Grey Research's USB 2 or FireWire cameras.
Does Astro IIDC work with the DFG/1394-1 converter or USB Cameras from The Imaging Source, Lumenera and other Astronomy, Microscopy or Machine Vision companies?
No. Astro IIDC only works with IIDC Cameras, which follow the open IIDC camera protocol. By following this robust industrial certified standard, Astro IIDC can support dozens of manufacturers and hundreds if not thousands of compliant cameras. Almost all higher end USB cameras use manufacturer specific proprietary non standard protocols for camera control. This means we would need to have the company provide us with low level technical information (which most will not do like The Imaging Source) and then write specific code for each manufacturer and in some cases each camera. The Mac market place is simply too tiny to make it cost effective to support all these non standard proprietary USB cameras. Note that the IIDC camera protocol can be carried over other delivery systems, which is why we now support the Point Grey Research Chameleon and FireFly MV USB 2 cameras and we can likely support the new USB 3 Flea 3 cameras when they become available.
My Intel Mac only has a FireWire 800 port, can I use the FireWire 400 cameras with it OR I have a FireWire 400 port on my Mac, can I use a FireWire 800 camera with it?
Yes. You can purchase a FireWire 800 to FireWire 400 (known as a Bilingual 9 pin to 6 pin) cable or purchase a FireWire 800 to 400 adapter like these. These also work if you wish to use a FireWire 800 camera with a FireWire 400 Mac too, although you will not get the through put benefits of FireWire 800 performance.
My Intel Mac has no FireWire ports and is a non expandable "iToaster", is there anything I can do?
The only USB 2 cameras supported are the FireFly MV and Chameleon from Point Grey Research, which follow the IIDC Protocol. If you want lots of camera choices, you need FireWire. You should avoid Macs that either lack FireWire ports or are non expandable and lack a PC34 expansion slot. If you only purchase Macs that have FireWire, then Apple will get the message that FireWire is an essential feature. This will effect sales of future Macs and they will be forced to add it back in, so Vote with your Wallet. You can also tell Apple they are going down the wrong path here.
I want to use the "Registration Options..." under "Astro IIDC" Menu for registering the application, but it is disabled. Why??
You need to close (click in the red gumdrop on the left side of the window's title bar) the "Camera Controls" window first before the "Registration Options..." will be enabled. The Registration module may need to access a camera for registration purposes and it can not do so if you have it already open. Once you have closed it, the "Registration Options..." item will be enabled.
I just recorded a color movie and when I try and play the movie in QuickTime Player or stack and align it, I get a warning about a codec being missing and it does not play. Why??
You may not have installed our Bayer Codec to play back or process the color movies your recorded. Locate the "Astro IIDC Installer" disk image and double click on it to mount it. Now locate the "BayerInstaller" package on the disk image, double click on it and let it walk you through the install. No re-start is required after the codec is installed either.
I need to use multiple cameras on multiple Macs, but I don't want to have to manually register the cameras on each Mac. Is there an easy way of doing this?
Yes. You simply use the "Register Options.." in "Astro IIDC" with all your purchased camera unlock keys on one Mac and then copy the "ASTRO_IIDC_REG" file (located at "/Library/Application Support/") from this Mac into the "/Library/Application Support/" on each Mac that may be running the "Astro IIDC" application on. Then all those Macs will registered to use any of those cameras.
How do I connect a IIDC camera to a Telescope or Microscope??
The vast majority of IIDC cameras have a C Mount or CS Mount interface to attach optics or adapters too. Use your favorite search engine with the key words "C Mount Adapter Astronomy" or "C Mount Adapter Microscope" and you will find a lot of companies that make and sell them.
Are their any example images taken with the "Astro IIDC" software??
Some of our better images (taken with an Orion MAK 127 mm aperture, Celestron 8 SCT 201 mm aperture telescope or Astro Tech 8 Ritchey-Chrétien astrograph) include:
A 1062 x 900 pixel collage showing the changes of the sunspot morphology over a 4 hour period, taking with an 8 bit UniBrain FireWire camera.
A large color enhanced 1156 x 2936 pixel composite of the first quarter Moon, taking with a 16 bit per pixel Color Flea FireWire camera.
A 1384x1036 DSO image of NGC6946 the FireWorks Galaxy , taken with a 16 bit per pixel Monochrome Grasshopper FireWire camera and AstroDon LRGB Filters.
A QuickTime movie showing the changes across Mars during 2005 close approach to earth taken with a Fles 2 color camera and a MAK 127 mm telescope at 4 meter focal lengths. The movie chronicles the changes to Mars during October and November 2005, including the dust storm of October 21st, 22nd and 23rd.
Information on these images and movies can be found at here and images taken by users can be found in the Astro IIDC Yahoo User Group Files section.
System Requirements, Compatibility and Limitations:
Requires a PowerPC (G5 or at least G4 500 mhz) Mac or x86 MacIntel FireWire or USB 2 equipped desk top, Mini, eMac, iMac, iBook or Power Book, MacBook, MacBook Pro or Mac Pro models with a minimum of 128 megabytes of Ram. Astro IIDC 4 is a Universal Binary and runs natively on both PowerPC Macs or x86 MacIntels..
Requires Tiger OS X 10.4.x or higher (up to and including Lion OSX 10.7.4) and QuickTime 7.x or higher.
Supports the following inexpensive low end 640x480 IIDC / DCAM FireWire cameras, listed by manufacturer and camera model:
NOTE: If your Low End camera is not on the list above, it will not be recognized and is not currently supported. Apple's FireWire iSight will never be supported as it lacks IIDC modes we need and is not capable of doing extended CCD exposure times. Lastly image quality with any of the above cameras that uses the Texas Instruments TSB15LV01 image processing chip will be of poorer quality due to bugs in the chip, especially monochrome cameras. We recommend you look at the Point Grey research "Fire Fly MV" or "Chameleon" USB 2 and "Fire Fly MV" FireWire cameras which are much better products.
Works with any compliant IIDC DCAM camera (including IIDC 1.3.2) that support one or more of Format 0 (Modes 5 and 6), Format 1 (Modes 2, 5, 6, or 7), Format 2 (Modes 2, 5, 6, or 7) and Format 7 (monochrome or Bayer color modes). Veriosn 4.08.00 adds support for 12 bit Monochrome and 12 bit Bayer cameras. For best usability, the camera should support the absolute shutter register. A non exhaustive list of cameras includes:
DAGE-MTI Excelv (640x480 Color or Monochrome 8/16 bit, exposures to 60 minutes per frame, Trigger, Kodak Sensors) DAGE-MTI Excelv(640x480 Color or Monochrome 8/16 bit, exposures to 60 minutes per frame, Trigger, Kodak Sensors) DAGE-MTI Excelm(2048x2048 Color or Monochrome 8/16 bit, exposures to 60 minutes per frame, Trigger, Kodak Sensors)
Optronics MacroFire (640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x960, 1600x1200, 2000x2000 Monochrome 8 bit only, exposures to 20 minutes per frame) Optronics MicroFire (640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x960, 1600x1200, 2000x2000, Color 8 bit only, exposures to 20 minutes per frame) Optronics QuantiFire (640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x960, 1600x1200, 2000x2000 Monochrome 8 bit only, exposures to 20 minutes per frame, Cooled)
NOTE: We likely will be able to support the Point Grey Research Flea 3 USB 3 cameras, but we have to run some tests to see if they will run properly at USB 2 speeds on standard Macs. Likely the main stumbling block is power draw and USB 2 simply does not provide enough power for most devices. Point Grey Research FireFly MV FireWire (640x480 Color or Monochrome, 8/16 bit, maximum exposures 0.833 seconds per frame, Trigger) Point Grey Research FireFly MV USB 2 (640x480 to 1328x1048 Color or Monochrome, 8/16 bit, maximum exposures 8 seconds per frame, Trigger) Point Grey Research Chameleon USB 2 (1280x960 Color or Monochrome 8/16 bit EXViewHAD, exposure to 60 minutes per frame, Trigger) Point Grey Research DragonFly (640x480 or 1024x768 Color or Monochrome 8/16 bit, exposure to 60 minutes per frame, Trigger) Point Grey Research DragonFly 2 (648x488, 1036x776, or 1296x964 Color or Monochrome, 8/16 bit, exposure to 60 minutes per frame, Trigger) Point Grey Research DragonFly Express (640x480 Color or Monochrome 8/16 bit, exposure to 60 minutes per frame, FireWire 800, up 200 fps, Trigger) Point Grey Research Flea (640x480 or 1024x768 Color or Monochrome, 8/16 bit, exposure to 60 minutes per frame, Trigger) Point Grey Research Flea 2 (648x488 to 1392x1032 Color or Monochrome, 8/16 bit, exposure to 60 minutes per frame, Trigger, FireWire 800) Point Grey Research Flea 2G (648x488 to 1392x1032 Color or Monochrome, 8/16 bit, exposure to 60 minutes per frame, Trigger, FireWire 800) Point Grey Research Flea 3 (648x488 to 1624x1224 Color or Monochrome, 8/16 bit, exposure to 60 minutes per frame, Trigger, FireWire 800) Point Grey Research Scorpion (640x488 to 1600x1200 Color or Monochrome, 8/16 bit, exposure to 60 minutes per frame, Trigger) Point Grey Research GrassHopper (640x480 to 2448x2048 Color or Monochrome, 8/16 bit, exposure to 60 minutes per frame, Trigger, FireWire 800 - Sony + Kodak CCDs) Point Grey Research GrassHopper2 (1384x1036 Color or Monochrome, 8/16 bit, exposure to 60 minutes per frame, Trigger, FireWire 800 - EXHAD CCD) Point Grey Research GrassHopper Express (1024x1024 to 3736x2192 Color or Monochrome, 8/16 bit, exposure to 60 minutes per frame, Trigger, FireWire 800 - Sony + Kodak CCDs)
Sony XCD-SX710CR (640x480, 800x600, 1024x768 Color 8/16 bit, exposures to 17 seconds per frame)
Sony XCD-SX710 (640x480, 800x600, 1024x768 Monochrome 8/16 bit, exposures to 17 seconds per frame)
Sony XCD-SX910CR (640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x960 Color 8/16 bit, exposures to 17 seconds per frame)
Sony XCD-SX910 (640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x960 Monochrome 8/16 bit, exposures to 17 seconds per frame)
Sony XCD-SX910UV (640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x960 Ultraviolet 8/16 bit, exposures to 17 seconds per frame)
Sony XCD-V60CR (640x480, Color 8/16 Bit, exposures to 16 seconds, FW800, Trigger)
Sony XCD-SX90CR (1280x960, Color 8/16 Bit, exposures to 16 seconds, FW800, Trigger)
Sony XCD-U100CR(1600x1200, Color 8/16 Bit, exposures to 16 seconds, FW800, Trigger)
Sony XCD-V60 (640x480, Monochrome 8/16 Bit, exposures to 16 seconds, FW800, Trigger)
Sony XCD-SX90 (1280x960, Monochrome 8/16 Bit, exposures to 16 seconds, FW800, Trigger)
Sony XCD-U100(1600x1200, Monochrome 8/16 Bit, exposures to 16 seconds, FW800, Trigger)
Unibrain Fire- I 520B (640x480, Monochrome 7.4 micron pixels, 8/16 bit max 65 seconds, trigger) Unibrain Fire- I 521B (640x480, Monochrome 9.9 micron pixels, 8/16 bit max 65 seconds, trigger) Unibrain Fire- I 620B (1024x768, Monochrome 4.65 micron pixels, 8/16 bit max 65 seconds, trigger) Unibrain Fire- I 720B (1600x1200, Monochrome 6.45 micron pixels , 8/16 bit max 65 seconds, trigger) Unibrain Fire- I 820B (1600x1200, Monochrome 4.6 micron pixels , 8/16 bit max 65 seconds, trigger) Unibrain Fire- I 520C (640x480, Color 7.4 micron pixels, 8/16 bit max 65 seconds, trigger) Unibrain Fire- I 521C (640x480, Color 9.9 micron pixels, 8/16 bit max 65 seconds, trigger) Unibrain Fire- I 620C (1024x768, Color 4.65 micron pixels, 8/16 bit max 65 seconds, trigger) Unibrain Fire- I 720C (1600x1200, Color 6.45 micron pixels , 8/16 bit max 65 seconds, trigger) Unibrain Fire- I 820C (1600x1200, Color 4.6 micron pixels , 8/16 bit max 65 seconds, trigger)
Astro IIDC in the News:
Astro IIDC was featured in a review I wrote covering the Point Grey Research Grasshopper 2 camera. If your looking for a great general purpose DSO, Solar, Lunar, Planetary camera that can also be used for Astrometry and Photometry, then read the review.
