Required software
- Linux OS, or similar (OS-X works, but I have not tried under Windows)
- Cfits, with module image_format installed. Cfits is available here. Cfits is used for all custom processing of the frames.
- dcraw (to read raw camera files).
- package mjpegtools (to convert jpegs into a movie)
From raw files to movies
RAW files are first selected and converted into raw PGM files using dcraw. Cfits then converts the raw PGM files into 3 color images in FITS format (3 individual FITS files per frame), and does all of the custom data processing (such as non-linear convolution). Cfits then creates BMP files which are converted in jpeg images. The jpeg images are assembled into a video using mjpegtools.
Step by step instructions
- Create a working directory, for example 2010-12-10_TLwork
- OPTIONAL: copy flat field in directory, name flat.fits [FITS format, floating point values]
- OPTIONAL: copy bias in working directory, name bias.fits [FITS format, floating point values]. On most camera, the bias can simply be an image of constant value. If you don't have a proper bias, enter the bias value in the cr2tojpegconf.txt as the minimum level (1024 for Canon 450D and 500D, 2048 for Canon 550D).
- OPTIONAL: copy dark in working directory, name dark.fits [FITS format, floating point values]
- OPTIONAL: copy bad pixel map in working directory, name badpix.fits [FITS format, floating point values]
- Copy in the working directory the cr2tojpeg script. This script will process the series or raw images (CR2 format) and create a series of jpeg files.
- Copy in the working directory the cr2tojpegconf.txt configuration file, which is used by the cr2tojpeg script.
- Edit the cr2tojpegconf.txt.
- Copy in the directory the mkmov script
- Edit the mkmov script as required (follow instructions in the mkmov file)
- run mkmov
Important notes
The flat field should be color-neutral.
If a bias map is used, set MINLEVEL to 0 in cr2tojpegconf.txt