Process; Undo; Calibrate; Merge - Meade Autostar Software Manual

6.Process

The Processing section allows you to modify the actual image a number of ways using advanced image
processing commands. Since the commands change the actual image data, this menu section features
an UNDO command that will allow you to restore the image data to the its state prior to the previous
command.
To access the Process commands you can either click on Process on the Menu Bar with the mouse, use
the Alt key and the appropriate underlined letter from the keyboard, or, when available, click on the
appropriate button from the Tool Bar.
Many of the image processing functions also allow for a preview so that you have the option to choose a
different variation of the function , choose OK, or to Cancel the function. The functions that offer the
Preview option are: Merge, Convolution Filters, Unsharp Masking, and RGB merge.
Descriptions of the Processing commands from the Menu Bar appear below. The icon from the
appropriate button from the Tool Bar also appears next to the description for your reference.

Undo

Resets the image variables to its previous values and re-displays the image. You can only 'Undo' the last
operation that affected the image data.

Calibrate

Select Bias Frames, Dark Frames, or Flat Field Frames for calibrating the image that is currently loaded
and displayed. Each of the three calibration types can be used singly or in combination.

Merge

The Merge Image command allows y you to select an image from the Merge File to perform a Merge
Function. You can select; Add, Subtract, Average, Median Combine, Multiply, Divide, And, Or, and
Exclusive Or functions. There is also the option to select x/y offsets, and Scale Factors of the Image File
and Merge File. (For a straight add or subtract both of these Scale Factor values should be set to 1.0.)

Correct Column Defect

Perfect solid state image sensors are difficult to make. Often units are produced that have one or more
columns that do not work correctly. These engineering grade sensors are often used in commercial CCD
cameras. The processing command allows you to replace a defective imager column with the average of
the two adjacent columns. When the command is selected a dialog box will prompt you to enter the
number of the defective column. Once this is done and confirmed, the column is replaced.

Flip Image

The currently displayed image may be flipped either vertically or horizontally. This allows the image to be
shown in its actual orientation if the telescope or camera system causes the image to appear inverted.
The Vertical and Horizontal flipping function may also be used in combination.

Rotate Image

The currently displayed image can be rotated in steps of either +90 degrees (counter-clockwise) or -90
degrees (clockwise) using the Rotate Image command.
Rotate Image must physically move the image data from one axis to the other. This changes the
orientation of the image in memory, therefore, subsequent buffer functions, such as merging, may not
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