Hi all,
I am very happy to announce a new collaboration between PixInsight and the absolute best image hosting solution for astrophotography: AstroBin.
Salvatore Iovene and I have been working hard since January to design and implement an exciting new feature for AstroBin: Automatic generation of astrometric solutions and image annotations. We are proud of this collaboration and glad with the results we have achieved, which we hope all of you will like and regard as a valuable contribution to the astrophotography community.
Here are a few nice examples:
How It Works
The PixInsight core application (version 1.8.8-6) is running permanently on AstroBin's Amazon EC2 servers under Ubuntu Linux. When an AstroBin user uploads a new image, AstroBin's website software performs a request to Astrometry.net to obtain approximate values of the scale of the image (arcseconds per pixel) and its central equatorial coordinates. These approximate values, along with a number of configuration parameters and an URL to the image, are sent to PixInsight using a dedicated network protocol. When it detects a new pending task, PixInsight computes an accurate astrometric solution, including correction of arbitrary field distortions, and generates an annotation drawing as an SVG document. When the SVG annotation document is ready, PixInsight sends it back to AstroBin, which makes it available as an overlay on the user's image.
Astrometric solutions and image annotations are being generated, respectively, with the latest versions of our ImageSolver and AnnotateImage scripts. As everybody here surely knows, these scripts have been written and maintained by Spanish software developer and PTeam member Andrés del Pozo; this project wouldn't have been possible without his contributions. We have been updating these scripts and implementing new features, such as the new label placement optimization algorithm and other improvements, in order to support this collaboration with AstroBin.
The SVG annotations and astrometric solutions we have implemented, besides invaluable from the aesthetic and informative points of view, are also adding interactivity to images on AstroBin. They allow you to get accurate readouts of equatorial, ecliptic and galactic coordinates by moving the mouse cursor over the image. We have planned additional interactive features, which we'll be implementing from now on in successive updates. See this document on AstroBin's website for additional information.
The automatic plate solving and annotation features are now available to all users of the AstroBin Ultimate subscription plan.
____________
Please stay safe and take care of yourself and your families.
Thank you for your attention.
I am very happy to announce a new collaboration between PixInsight and the absolute best image hosting solution for astrophotography: AstroBin.
Salvatore Iovene and I have been working hard since January to design and implement an exciting new feature for AstroBin: Automatic generation of astrometric solutions and image annotations. We are proud of this collaboration and glad with the results we have achieved, which we hope all of you will like and regard as a valuable contribution to the astrophotography community.
Here are a few nice examples:
Flying Bat and Squid - Sh2-129 and OU4 - Bicolor Narrowband
An astrophotograph by Nico Carver on AstroBin
www.astrobin.com
Pleiades and Hyades (2ghouls) - Full resolution | AstroBin
Community for astrophotographers
www.astrobin.com
Comet C/1995 O1 Hale Bopp near M34 (Albert_van_Duin) - Full resolution | AstroBin
Community for astrophotographers
www.astrobin.com
Perseus Area Widefield (Snjór) - Full resolution | AstroBin
Community for astrophotographers
www.astrobin.com
NGC3945 (Albert_van_Duin) - Full resolution | AstroBin
Community for astrophotographers
www.astrobin.com
How It Works
The PixInsight core application (version 1.8.8-6) is running permanently on AstroBin's Amazon EC2 servers under Ubuntu Linux. When an AstroBin user uploads a new image, AstroBin's website software performs a request to Astrometry.net to obtain approximate values of the scale of the image (arcseconds per pixel) and its central equatorial coordinates. These approximate values, along with a number of configuration parameters and an URL to the image, are sent to PixInsight using a dedicated network protocol. When it detects a new pending task, PixInsight computes an accurate astrometric solution, including correction of arbitrary field distortions, and generates an annotation drawing as an SVG document. When the SVG annotation document is ready, PixInsight sends it back to AstroBin, which makes it available as an overlay on the user's image.
Astrometric solutions and image annotations are being generated, respectively, with the latest versions of our ImageSolver and AnnotateImage scripts. As everybody here surely knows, these scripts have been written and maintained by Spanish software developer and PTeam member Andrés del Pozo; this project wouldn't have been possible without his contributions. We have been updating these scripts and implementing new features, such as the new label placement optimization algorithm and other improvements, in order to support this collaboration with AstroBin.
The SVG annotations and astrometric solutions we have implemented, besides invaluable from the aesthetic and informative points of view, are also adding interactivity to images on AstroBin. They allow you to get accurate readouts of equatorial, ecliptic and galactic coordinates by moving the mouse cursor over the image. We have planned additional interactive features, which we'll be implementing from now on in successive updates. See this document on AstroBin's website for additional information.
The automatic plate solving and annotation features are now available to all users of the AstroBin Ultimate subscription plan.
____________
Please stay safe and take care of yourself and your families.
Thank you for your attention.