This is an update on the recent PSS developments. There is good news and bad news.
Let me begin with the good news: Meanwhile I implemented and tested the dark / flat frame calibration. I added a menu "Calibration" where you will find all the necessary functions.
I also improved the RAM management. At the beginning of each job PSS checks if there is sufficient RAM available. If that is not the case, there is an error message, and PSS continues with the next job. If the protocol level is set to the highest value, PSS even recommends a different buffering level for which the RAM should be sufficient. Using the first prototype several users reported problems with program crashes when they tried PSS on long video files. I suspect that most of those crashes were due to an incompatibility of the selected buffering level and the available RAM.
I encapsulated all video import functions in the single class "VideoReader". My friend Michal Powalko has taken responsibility for its serious implementation. When that is done, PSS should work with all kinds of AVI and SER files, color and monochrome. At that point I will produce the next release of the software. So far, you can access the current version as source code on the "development branch" on Github only. There you will find also the updated User Guide.
So much for the good news. And now the bad one: While PSS so far successfully passed all tests on the moon and the sun, it recently failed on a Jupiter video. Cyril Richard (developer of SIRIL) had tested PSS on a Jupiter video produced by Jean-Luc Dauvergne. The video was strongly affected by seeing, but AutoStakkert!3 nevertheless produced a quite acceptable result:
PSS, with comparable parametrization produced this image:
Obviously, the AS!3 result is clearly superior. I would have assumed that stacking a Jupiter video is a similar task as stacking a lunar mare with little structure. This does not seem to be true. (By the way: Don't worry about the artifact in the PSS image of the neighboring moon. I could have avoided that by setting a proper alignment point on the moon manually.)
This setback on planetary videos was a sad experience. I have no idea yet as to the reason for the bad PSS performance, and I almost felt like stopping work on PSS alltogether. Worst of all, I do not have any idea what is the reason for the diverging results on the sun/moon as compared to Jupiter. I hope to find a way out of this bad situation sometime.
All the best,
Rolf