Anyone here willing to help me test my project?

[larrylart]

Hi,

You can check a preview of my project at: http://larryo.org/work/information/unimap/index.html







I started this project back in 2004 as I realize that more and more people get into astrophotography but most will go no further then framing nice pictures. So I thought that it will be good to have a simple to use tool to allow amateur astronomers to do plate-solving(detect and match your image against star catalogs), so they can explore and learn more about these marvelous images so I started to develop this project. Now after literally tens of thousands of development hours you can just load your astrophoto and in a few clicks learn almost everything is known about your image, what are the stars, galaxies, nebulas, radio sources, x-ray/gamma bursts, supernovas, extra solar planets or asteroids, comets and even artificial earth satellites passing through. Also, you can get more advanced information like various measurements available (including spectral) and links to articles/abstracts talking about objects and/in that area in the sky.

On top of that I added several tool to help amateur astronomer to better plan his observing session like an on click collection of environmental/weather data, instruments management/control and also an online collaboration interface to allow amateur astronomers to easily exchange/review the data.

Anyone interested to help me test it and/or feedback will be appreciated!

Larry

[crandf]

Waaaaahhhh......! That looks very impressive, good job! Pity I'm qualified to be a tester though, I dun even have my own scope yet

[larrylart]

There is something else I want to add… the project is written in c++/wxwidgets (cross platform gui library) and that means it can be compiled on other platforms such as linux/mac/etc. Most functionality will work except for the digital cameras interface (and for Mac I am not sure about the video interface either) which is for the moment is windows only. So if people are interested I will be looking in the future to release it for Linux or Mac osX as well.

And, also to clarify … my future plans with this project is to release it free and opensource (for windows, linux and perhaps macosx)… if all goes well, I mean if people show interest in it and it’s workable and from there I might be looking for sponsorship at some point to support a big central database though which amateur astronomers from all over the world can share image resolved with astrometry data etc. So maybe now you can also understand what am I doing here as well …

Larry

[larrylart]

I apologize for the delay as my life got slightly complicated lately.
You can download and test the very first pre-alpha release from here:

http://larryo.org/work/information/unim ... p_pa_0.exe

I know there are still bugs and room for of improvements, optimization, etc. "Unfortunately" I have built this application so big and I got so little time lately that I should probably focus on getting the core functionality working right and here any suggestions and ideas will really help.

It is compiled on XP. On windows 7 you might encounter crashes (mostly due to file/io permissions) – I will get them fixed as soon as I will get some time.

Larry

[larrylart]

A new version has been released with:

- updated the star common names list with a better one
- added extension files one and two to tycho2
- added map for common names with tycho2
- fixed 2mass catalog names display error
- fixed show/hide all objects from menu->view objects
- fixed search in spiral - which is now set default as it's faster (instead of swipe)
- added a simple method to check/notify on updates
- some minor bug fixes

Also, note that now there is a forum on the site to discuss more in depth the technical problems.

Anyone here tried the application yet?

Larry

[Chris]

Hi Larry,

I forwarded the link to the guys in my school astro club and will give you feedbacks if any, but am unable to do these few weeks due to tests and other school junk.

That is a very innovative idea you have.

[Airconvent]

Its a nice and worthwhile project Larry
Thanks for sharing!

[larrylart]

Thank you! Feedback to improve it will be highly appreciated!

[larrylart]

I am wondering if people here find this application useful? At the concept level what do you think I should change/add to improve it?