59 replies to this topic

[Yong54321]

I can not find this the AppStore.

 

Any plans to make it available there?

Hello Jeff

 

The link is here 

 

https://apps.apple.c...1446490348?ls=1

 

Thank you

[Yong54321]

Same issue on my LG V30 running Android 8

 

Hello Vanguard

 

Thank you for your feedback post. 

 

I am working on the distortion issue at the moment. Will look at android crash and provide an update you soon. 

 

Best regards

[Yong54321]

About Tracking Stars in SpiralCam

 

Recently with the help of Binoculator, I have make some updates to SpiralCam. I thought of posting here the things that we have done before I move on to android crash issue. 

 

SpiralCam works on small manual (or Goto) telescope and binocular. It can image distant galaxies. It find stars and track them. It aligns and stacks the images based on these tracking stars.

 

To use SpiralCam 

1. Attach iPhone to telescope

2. Adjust scope focus

3. Press start. SpiralCam will automatic detect stars for tracking. 

Picture below shows SpiralCam in landscape mode version 2.8. There are 4 small squares. These squares show where the tracking stars are.

 

 

To change the tracking stars

Method 1:

1. Press Pause

2. Tap the stars on the screen that you want to use as tracking stars.

3. Press Pause again to continue stacking.

Note: It means that half way through your imaging, you could actually tap Pause and change the tracking stars. 

 

Method 2:

1. Before press start, you can select stars for tracking. 

2. Press start. 

Note: Usually you want the tracking stars to surround your object of interest e.g. a galaxy. So that the galaxy and its surrounding will be sharp. 

 

To change the number of tracking stars

1. Adjust the Star slider. It ranges from 2 stars to 10 stars. 

2. Press start. 

Note: You can only change the number of tracking star before you press start. 

 

Tracking stars issues

- If you select e.g. 4 stars in the Star slider but SpiralCam can only find 3 or less stars, then you can tap Pause and manually select more tracking stars on the screen. I think this issue only apply to Singapore because most of the time,  I hardly see more than one or two stars in the sky.

- As the number of tracking stars increase, the images align better with less distortion. But it will takes longer time to stack.

 

Below image is a 10 min stacking of Andromeda M31 using 3 tracking stars by Binoculator. He uses a 5x20 binocular with iPhone XR on his DIY star tracker. SpiralCam latest improvements are inspired by his work. 

 

 

Enjoy!

Edited by Yong54321, 24 August 2019 - 08:02 AM.

[Yong54321]

Adding Wavelet Filtering to SaturnCam

 

For past few days, I am adding 3 layers of wavelet sharpening to SaturnCam (design to image planet). Wavelet is popular in Registax 6 and is a necessity for detail image of planet. I have do a quick test (without telescope) on the moon using my iPhone 6 at my arm length. 

 

The first photo shows moon in original iPhone stacked of video frames. About 2 seconds at 30 frames per second. ISO is about 100. There is some haze that blurs the moon.

 

The second photo is a result of mild wavelet filter. It is a little clearer. 

 

The third is an image of the moon using 3 layers of wavelet. 

 

SaturnCam is available free at https://apps.apple.c...am/id1459244951

Edited by Yong54321, 10 September 2019 - 04:51 PM.

[Yong54321]

Hi all

 

Before a quick update of spiralcam, photo of my past imaging. I am surprise of the color of the stars. There are some bright orange and subtle blue stars. And I find them beautiful. At the centre is galaxy ngc4945 using 114mm reflector scope on manual dobsonian mount. The exposure time is about 10min. 

 

 

SpiralCam version 2.93

- It has bin slider. 4x4 binning means faster image result but at slower resolution. 1x1 binning means highest resolution (based on your iPhone model) at slower image result. Bin slider is available only in landscape mode. 

 

- If you select 9 tracking stars in the star slider, the app will uniformly distribute the tracking stars in a 3x3 grid format. If you select 8 and below stars, the app will automatically assign tracking stars base on brightness. If you select 1 star tracking, it will be in star trail mode. You can still change the tracking stars by tapping the Pause button and then tap the stars you want to use for tracking. 

 

- You can control the app start and pause button using the ear piece volume button. It avoids vibration on screen touch. 

 

I will be debugging SpiralCam android version now. The update will be available soon.  

 

Best regards

Edited by Yong54321, 28 September 2019 - 11:12 AM.

[Yong54321]

Release of sprialCam Android ver 1.5

 

I have looked at the crash report for spiralCam android. There are not much information why it crashes but I have manage to found one bug. I have upload version 1.5 to google play. Please goto to download 

 

https://play.google....pspot.spiralcam

 

Please keep me updated so that I make further improvement. Thank you.

[Joey44]

On my LG G6 the new version will ask for permission to take pics and videos, than after saying yes a black screen appears with save, start, and pause at the bottom. Camera does not activate when pressing any of the options, screen remains black.

[Yong54321]

Hi Sputnik

 

Thank you for your post. I have uploaded version 1.7 to fix the camera and set the text to red color. Have fun!

 

Here is a simple instruction to use

1. Attach phone to telescope and aim at a star.

2. Adjust focus on your telescope

3. Tap Start. It will display stack result every 5 seconds. Otherwise it show live preview. 

4. Tap Pause to adjust the brightness slider. It will reveal more details. 

5. Tap Continue to resume. 

6. When the star reaches the edge or goes out of the eyepiece view,  move the telescope slightly to center the star. SpiralCam will find the stars, track and stack them again. If you have goto scope,  you can skip this step. 

7. Repeat step 6.  

 

Please post feedback on your usage. I am on it now. Thanks!

Edited by Yong54321, 30 September 2019 - 02:25 AM.

[Skywatchr]

Release of sprialCam Android ver 1.5

 

I have looked at the crash report for spiralCam android. There are not much information why it crashes but I have manage to found one bug. I have upload version 1.5 to google play. Please goto to download 

 

https://play.google....pspot.spiralcam

 

Please keep me updated so that I make further improvement. Thank you.

V1.5 Crashes instantly on an LG VS880 with Android 5.1.1.  All I get is a notice that says "spiralcam has stopped" before anything happens. Not even a splash screen.

[Yong54321]

Hi Skywatchr

 

There is a bug in v1.5 that is fixed in ver 1.7. I have just do a testing on emulator running android 5.1 sdk. It seems to be running good. Please download v1.7 at google play (just upload to google play yesterday). Here is the link 

 

https://play.google....pspot.spiralcam

 

Do not hesitate to contact me again. Thank you.

Edited by Yong54321, 01 October 2019 - 01:56 AM.

[Skywatchr]

Hi Skywatchr

 

There is a bug in v1.5 that is fixed in ver 1.7. I have just do a testing on emulator running android 5.1 sdk. It seems to be running good. Please download v1.7 at google play (just upload to google play yesterday). Here is the link 

 

https://play.google....pspot.spiralcam

 

Do not hesitate to contact me again. Thank you.

I uninstalled 1.5, then reinstalled this new one and the same thing, not working.

[Yong54321]

Out of Memory Crash

 

Just receive a crash report for out of memory. SpiralCam uses lot of memory as it does camera video processing. I have upload a new update. It will use highest resolution. If fails due to out of memory, it will try middle resolution and then try low resolution. 

 

The update is version 1.8 and google play. 

 

Please keep me updated. If you managed to capture any images, please post here too. Thanks.

 

1. Do try to close all apps before running spiralCam if you encounter crashes. 

Edited by Yong54321, 02 October 2019 - 04:06 AM.

[Skywatchr]

Out of Memory Crash

 

Just receive a crash report for out of memory. SpiralCam uses lot of memory as it does camera video processing. I have upload a new update. It will use highest resolution. If fails due to out of memory, it will try middle resolution and then try low resolution. 

 

The update is version 1.8 and google play. 

 

Please keep me updated. If you managed to capture any images, please post here too. Thanks.

 

1. Do try to close all apps before running spiralCam if you encounter crashes. 

I always close everything I can, but Verizon disallows shutting down certain memory-hogging apps. And I haven't found a successful way to root this phone either to get around that limitation.  Perhaps it is time for a new device.

Thank you for being on top of this!  I'll try the v1.8 today and let you know.  A suggestion, is it possible to have a "settings" dialog come up before it fully loads to make choices for resolution?

[Skywatchr]

Out of Memory Crash

 

Just receive a crash report for out of memory. SpiralCam uses lot of memory as it does camera video processing. I have upload a new update. It will use highest resolution. If fails due to out of memory, it will try middle resolution and then try low resolution. 

 

The update is version 1.8 and google play. 

 

Please keep me updated. If you managed to capture any images, please post here too. Thanks.

 

1. Do try to close all apps before running spiralCam if you encounter crashes. 

I tried v1.8 after shutting down and uninstalling what I could, but still the same. I sent the crash report. This LG phone was always a bit of a bugger since new, but has at least been very reliable as a phone anyways.

[Yong54321]

Hi Skywatchr

 

Thanks for sending the crash report. In it, there is another code where memory crash happens so it is not the issue of LG phone . I have fix it in version 1.9 and upload to google. In addition, I have add a resolution slider before stacking. You can change the resolution by sliding right of the slider. It will indicate out of memory if the resolution is too high. You can choose another lower resolution. 

 

Restarting the phone also give more available memory. 

 

Hopefully it will work this time. But do not hesitate to contact me again!

 

Best regards

[Skywatchr]

Hi Skywatchr

 

Thanks for sending the crash report. In it, there is another code where memory crash happens so it is not the issue of LG phone . I have fix it in version 1.9 and upload to google. In addition, I have add a resolution slider before stacking. You can change the resolution by sliding right of the slider. It will indicate out of memory if the resolution is too high. You can choose another lower resolution. 

 

Restarting the phone also give more available memory. 

 

Hopefully it will work this time. But do not hesitate to contact me again!

 

Best regards

Still the same. Crash report sent. So it doesn't rule out the phone yet.   I also rebooted before trying it, but nothing helped so far. Thank you!

I have 897 MB of free RAM. How much does it need?

Edited by Skywatchr, 03 October 2019 - 08:35 AM.

[Roger Bull]

Hi, I had exactly the same problems as Skywtchr, but after I turned off redundant apps, it worked. My phone is a Sony Xperia Z5, Android 7.1.1 with 2,7 GB of RAM.

1,1 GB is now free RAM and SpiralCam runs in "Mid Resolution" mode (288x352p). 

I don't have a telscope, but will try it with my 15x56 binos once the weather clears.

Thank you very much for making the app available for Android, and I'm really looking forward to testing it out.

 

Roger

[Yong54321]

Hello Roger

 

Thanks for sharing! You have given me some critical info. 

 

And Hi Skywatchr

 

I have yet to receive the crash report on google play for version 1.9. I will look at it soon. My phone is OPPO A77 running android 6.0. But It has 4 GB of RAM. And when I run spiralCam it has 2GB of available memory. Let me go back to the drawing board and see where I can reduce the memory requirement. Look like I need to reduce it by half. There should be a better way to code this. 

 

Best regards

[Yong54321]

Version 2.0 SpiralCam Android

Manage to create a new version and test run on 800 MB of free RAM. It is already on google play. Below is a quick 15 seconds imaging of Sirius using APPO A77 with hand holding. Should have no problem running on phone with 1GB of RAM. It is cloudy here.



Please keep me updated.

Some tips
1. It is best to use highest resolution. It is recommended to have phone with 4K video to see galaxy spiral arm like M83. I think 2K video is still able to see Orion Nebula structure and Andromeda. Choose 1080x1920 if possible.
2. Use pause and adjust the brightness slider to see more faint details.
3. Please post here any feedback right now as the coding is still with me. Will be working on combining Orion Nebula with different exposure time and with wavelet processing soon on iOS.
4. The above image is actually 15 shots stacking insteads of 15 seconds. Most android phone does not open up control for ISO and exposure. Even Huawei P30 pro does not open its camera sdk. I think only google pixel phone does. Not sure of samsung.

Edited by Yong54321, 03 October 2019 - 04:37 PM.

[Roger Bull]

Hi again, just got the latest version installed, and the memory issue is gone.

Yong, you are a champ!!

 

 

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[Skywatchr]

Version 2.0 SpiralCam Android

Manage to create a new version and test run on 800 MB of free RAM. It is already on google play. Below is a quick 15 seconds imaging of Sirius using APPO A77 with hand holding. Should have no problem running on phone with 1GB of RAM. It is cloudy here.

Screenshot_2019-10-04-04-10-08-01.png

Please keep me updated.

Some tips
1. It is best to use highest resolution. It is recommended to have phone with 4K video to see galaxy spiral arm like M83. I think 2K video is still able to see Orion Nebula structure and Andromeda. Choose 1080x1920 if possible.
2. Use pause and adjust the brightness slider to see more faint details.
3. Please post here any feedback right now as the coding is still with me. Will be working on combining Orion Nebula with different exposure time and with wavelet processing soon on iOS.
4. The above image is actually 15 shots stacking insteads of 15 seconds. Most android phone does not open up control for ISO and exposure. Even Huawei P30 pro does not open its camera sdk. I think only google pixel phone does. Not sure of samsung.

You got it! Installed 2.0 and it fires right up. Now I just need some clear skies to try it out. Thank you!!

[Yong54321]

M42 using SpiralCam and Celestron FirstScope Cometron

Manage to image Orion Nebula using SpiralCam on Celestron FirstScope Cometron (76mm aperture) which is also my first telescope. Can see some color of M42 and a little bit of the wing. There are still some improvements that I need to work on for SpiralCam. Will be adding gamma stretch which is important for M42 image. Correct me if I am wrong. Using 10mm eyepiece and 30X as the FirstScope has 300mm focal length.



Will try SpiralCam android tomorrow but do not expect much result (no control of camera iso and exposure for most android phone).

Edited by Yong54321, 07 October 2019 - 08:13 PM.

[Yong54321]

Hi

 

Just upload version spiralCam 3.0 to fix the iOS 13 bug. It has some new features.

 

- slider sky is to calculate skyglow every selected minute. Select sky 0 to remove skyglow calculation. It is best for bright nebula like M42. Default is every 5 min, it will recalculate skyglow. And it should be good enough for imaging galaxy. 

- slider dark control black in level.
- slider bright control white in level.
- slider gamma control middle in level.

 

On portrait mode, it uses full camera screen. On the other hand, in landscape mode, it has a square view, it assume you are using star tracker or goto scope, so the eyepiece view does not really moves.

 

I am trying to image M31 since I already have M42 using small telescope. 

 

Have fun! 

[Yong54321]

SpiralCam for Android

 

Manage to further develop SpiralCam Android. The existing version does not cut it. I am surprise that the long exposure image turns out to be as good as my iPhone. I am using android 6 Oppo A77 and iPhone 6. It means that android phone under $100 is able to capture galaxies and nebulae. 

 

There are still some issues 

 

1. Android phone camera parameter is not standardised. Different manaufacters use different parameter name. If the to-be-released version does not work well for your phone, you may have to copy the phone parameter and message to me. SpiralCam will generate your phone parameter names for you to copy/email me.

 

2. It seems that to see galaxy spiral structure (in a city with clear sky and skyglow), you will need about 5 min of exposure on a 80mm telescope or 1 min on a 8" scope. 5 min of exposure will needs about 25 min of imaging on the android phone because the phone takes time to capture each image. iPhone is able to do it much faster. Anyway, this will open up galaxy imaging for everyone with a phone and a manual telescope or a binocular.

 

Will post some images when weather permits soon.

 

Best regards 

Edited by Yong54321, 22 October 2019 - 09:44 AM.

[Yong54321]

Hello...

 

Still couldn't get any clear sky. Have been raining on and off for 2 days. So I use faraway ships for some practice. See video below. 

 

https://youtu.be/kVGWAFsEXfU

 

 

Enjoy!

Edited by Yong54321, 24 October 2019 - 12:11 PM.