CCDOPS for Windows

Version 5.50 Build 23

March 11, 2010

This document describes the changes made to CCDOPS for Windows Version 5 software since it was released.

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: _

If you're about to use an SBIG USB camera for the first time on any computer please follow the directions in the "Installing USB" App Note on you CD-ROM or on our web site <www.sbig.com>.

Also anytime you upgrade your CCDOps you should also upgrade your Drivers using the SBIG Driver Checker utility as follows:

If you have previously installed the Driver Checker and have an Internet connection on this machine:

1) Run the driver checker.

2) Click the Download button to download the latest drivers.

3) Click the Update button to update your System.

If you haven’t installed the Driver Checker do this:

1) Download the Driver checker from our web site.

2) Run the Driver Checker.

3) Click the Update button to update your System.

_

Revision History

Changes made through 5.50 Build 23

· Added ability to configure STL-11K for Color CCD in Camera Config Dialog off Advanced menu.

· Added additional of STX test code.

Changes made through 5.50 Build 11

· Added tons of STX test code.

· Added the CFW Analysis button to the CFW Exerciser dialog.

· Update the Temperature Status when waiting for the exposure to finish.

· In Self Guide mode we now wait for the shutter to fully open before resuming guiding after starting the imaging ccd exposure.

· Added the CFW Diagnostics button to the CFW Setup dialog.

· Improved the accuracy of setting the temperature setpoints on the STX.

· Added new Temperature Shutdown dialog that gives you several options including waiting for the cooling to go off.

· Added the ability to get to the Advanced menu through the Preferences dialog.

· Added the STX sub-menu to the Misc menu for user control of STX nonvolatile parameters.

Changes made through 5.49 Build 4

· Renamed bit 7 in STX Flash parameters “Enable TE Scaling”.

Changes made through 5.49 Build 3

· Fixed a bug where the capabilities of an ST-402 could be shown incorrectly in the Camera Info command in the Camera menu.

Changes made through 5.49 Build 2

· Additional STX development support.

· Added the Fix Vertical Bars command to the Filter sub-menu of the Utility menu that removes residual low-level uniform vertical bar patterns from images taken with STL-11K cameras.

· Updated the Help file.

Changes made through 5.48 Build 17

· Fixed a bug that caused the Auto Log Scale command to gork the image if the Histogram dialog wasn’t open.

· Fixed a bug that would cause the File Open Dialog to switch between bogus values for the File Filter, like asking you to Open TIFF images after Flat Fielding against a FITs image.

· Additional STX Software Development.

· Added the Image Trailer to the Acquire TDI Image command that at the end of a TDI image that is not as high as the full CCD it digitizes and appends the remaining rows in the array.

· Fixed a bug that stopped detection of multiple USB cameras when Establishing a link and would just link to the first camera that was attached to the computer.

Changes made through 5.48 Build 14

· Improved the reliability of the Offset routine used in Production for setting the retained offset.

· More STX development code dealing with internal memory structures.

Changes made through 5.48 Build 13

· Added the ability to Pulse a Relay between Auto Grab images per a user request.

· Fixed a bug that could misrepresent the RMS in the Histogram dialog.

· Fixed a bug that caused the Offset written to the Camera EEPROM to be wrong.

· Cleaned up some STX debug code dealing with STX Options.

Changes made through 5.48 Build 10

· Bundle the new MySQL library DLL for SBIG builds.

· Added the ability to copy the Crop size to the % settings for the partial frame Grab mode.

· Fixed a bug in the Offset routines that could hang on some cameras.

· Added additional support for the upcoming STX family of cameras (incomplete).

· Added the ST-4K and STX cameras to the Filed of View Calculator.

· Added the CFW Exerciser command to the Filter menu.

Changes made through 5.48

· Added the ability to take Square and Partial Frames based on a percentage of the Full Frame in the Grab, Track and Accumulate and Self Guide commands.

· Added the Calculate Bias Image command to the Utility menu.

· Allows a Huge Track box at 64 x 64 pixels in the AO commands.

· Added support for the CFW-1603.

Changes made through 5.47 Build 8

· Fixed bug where Shutter in External Guide Head was not closing for dark frames in the AO Self Guide and Dual CCD View commands.

Changes made through 5.47 Build 7

· Added the ability to Calibrate and AO Self Guide using the External Tracking CCD for use with the MOAG.

Changes made through 5.47 Build 6

· Allows Fixed a bug where Auto-Rotated ST-4K images had the X and Y pixel sizes swapped.

· Added the ability to extract SRGB from Single Shot Color images.

· Fixed a bug where were being shown as rotated from pixel height/width standpoint instead of only ST-4K images.

· Added burst mode to the TDI command that allows you to dwell for a period of time after so many rows. This allows you to use the TDI command to take full width variable height snapshot sequences for measuring seeing.

Changes made through 5.47 Build 2

· Allows delays of up to 999 seconds (instead of 99) in the Focus and Auto Grab modes.

· Fixed a bug in the Self Guide command where when you selected Guide To Cursor on subsequent images the Guide To position would be incorrectly displayed.

Changes made through 5.47

· With establishing a link to the camera, if an AO-8 is detected the software gives you the ability to use default Calibration Vectors bypassing the need for calibrating the AO-8.

Changes made through 5.46 Build 3

· With the ST-4K cameras, rotate the imaging CCD image clockwise so it matches the orientation of the tracking CCD.

Changes made through 5.46 Build 2

· Fixed a bug that would stop the CFW-6A from calibrating.

Changes made through 5.46 Build 1

· Added support for the ST-4K.

Changes made through 5.45 Build 8

· Added the ability to Filter Warm Pixels from the Focus mode and Auto Grab modes.

· Added internal SBIG test code for cooling the cameras upon establishing a link.

Changes made through 5.45 Build 7

· When centering the AO at the end of various commands use the driver’s Center command instead of just making a move.

· Position the Calibration Results dialog at the center-bottom of screen so you can see the calibration happening.

· Added nudge controls to the Auto Guide Mode dialog allow nudging the guide-to position.

· Added Launch Alt CCDOps item to the File menu

Changes made through 5.45 Build 3

· Added additional support for the ST Motor Focuser.

Changes made through 5.45 Build 2

· Added support for the ST Motor Focuser.

Changes made through 5.45

· Added support for Custom Biorad version of TDI.

Changes made through 5.44 Build 4

· Added the ability to Auto Grab JPEG images and JPEG images without an index.

· Cleaned up some of the production CFW testing code.

Changes made through 5.44 Build 2

· Fixed a bug that every time you established a link to an STL it would set the CFW type to CFW-L.

Changes made through 5.44

· Updated production test software.

· Added support for the new I2C based CFW-9, CFW-L8 and CFW-L8G color filter wheels.

· Added “*.fits” to the types of files that show up in the FITS listing of the Open dialog.

Changes made through 5.41 Build 7

· Added production support for the new KAI-11002 based STL-11K cameras.

Changes made through 5.41 Build 6

· Added setting the ST-402 motor phase in the Advanced Camera Config dialog.

Changes made through 5.41 Build 4

· Added support for TDI (Time Delay Integration) with Interline CCD cameras like the ST-2000, STL-11000 and STL-4020. Note this requires updating your drivers and rebooting the camera.

Changes made through 5.41 Build 3

· Added support for the remote tracking head with the ST-7 series of cameras.

Changes made through 5.41

· Implemented a single level of Undo and Redo to commands in the Utility menu through the Edit menu’s Undo command.

Changes made through 5.40 Build 12

· Added internal test routines.

· Added support for the Impact Camera.

Changes made through 5.40 Build 9

· Added support for the User EEPROM version for Centice.

· Added the sRGB and sRGB with Gamma color combines to the Single Shot Color Processing dialog.

Changes made through 5.40 Build 6

· Fixed a bug in the Display menu’s Slideshow command that stopped Slide Shows from working.

Changes made through 5.40 Build 5

· Sending an Alt-V to the Contrast Window when it is active will now activate the Main Frame.

Changes made through 5.40 Build 4

· Fixed a transmission timeout error with the CFW-6A.

· We now disable the AO-7 if the CFW-6A is selected since they are incompatible with one another.

· Added some AO-L debug code for SBIG internal testing.

· Fixed an error in the AO Track Log file where the X DAC position was being reported twice instead of DAC X and DAC Y.

· Set the max AO move while guiding to 2.5 pixel max when activating the relays.

· At end of each exposure only correct system clock for loss of time due to parallel port camera driver if not running under NT/2000/XP.

Changes made through 5.40

· Fixed a memory leak in the FITSIN.DLL that would cause memory to increase by 4 bytes per pixel for each FITS file read.

· Fixed a bug in the Track menu’s Calibrate command that could overwrite the Resolution settings for the Imaging and Tracking CCDs when the command completed.

· Fixed a bug in the Turbo Focus mode where the fan would always come on even if disabled in the Camera Setup command.

· Updated the help files.

· Removed the “Disable AO Completely” option in the AO Setup command to simplify the program.

· Fixed a bug in the Track and Accumulate command that was ignoring the setting of the Reuse Dark Frames item in the Camera Setup command.

Changes made through 5.39 Build 9

· Released OpsAG version 1.03 where fixed a bug that would case a CFW Error to be reported.

· Added keyboard shortcuts for filter positions 7 through 10 (Ctrl-7 through Ctrl-0) for use with the CFW-10.

· Checks for the following drivers and warns if older ones found:
Universal Driver Library (SBIGUDRV.DLL) Version 4.44
ST-402 Firmware (SBIGFLDR.SYS) Version 2.09
ST-7/8/9 Firmware (SBIGULDR.SYS) Version 2.41
STL Firmware (SBIGLLDR.SYS) Version 2.10.

· Fixed a bug that was not forcing full frames in Track Calibrate if the Grab command had last taken a Half or Quarter frame image.

· Fixed a bug in the Track Calibrate command that could cause the Autoguide command to not make corrections on a single CCD camera (like the ST-402) if you had previously calibrated the Tracking CCD of a Dual CCD camera.

· The Track Calibrate command now only overwrites a previous calibration result if the new calibration is valid.

· Fixed a bug in the Track Calibrate command where if you were only calibrating one axis (by setting the calibration time of the other axis to zero) you would be warned that the uncalibrated axis failed.

Changes made through 5.39 Build 6

· Fixed a bug in the Image While Exercising command in the AO menu that would cause exposures to e 10X longer than asked for.

· Added SBIG internal test routines for the AO-L.

Changes made through 5.39 Build 4

· Fixed a bug with the Autoguide command when used in conjunction with the OpsAG Autonomous Guider and an E2P where OpsAG would always report Server Not Found.

· Added the DSS Marker for marking the position of the Slit on the DSS-7.

· Fixed a bug in reading FITS files where the Aperture Area was set to the Diameter.

· Added Testing Support for the AO-L

· Modified the Make Slide Show command to allow showing the Slideshow too.

· Allow showing the Filename in the Slideshow command.

Changes made through 5.39

· Added the Show Horizontal Profile and Show Vertical profile commands to the Display menu for making plots of Pixel Intensity vs Position when used in conjunction with the Crosshair.

· Renamed and expanded the DSS Mode command to allow acquiring data as well.

Changes made through 5.38B2

· Included version 1.01 of the OpsAg autonomous guider.

· Fixed the items in the pop-up menu that comes up when you right-click in a color image with the Crosshairs closed.

Changes made through 5.38

· Added the new OpsAG – Autonomous Guider utility program for background guiding. See the OpsAG Book in the Help File’s Table of Contents.

· Rewrote the low-level Relay based Telescope Correction routine for Autoguiding with the following improvements:

· You can now enable or disable each relay individually rather than in groups with the Autoguide Parameters command. This allows you to disable one Y relay for example to only correct for drift in Declination which completely eliminates the Dec backlash problem.

· It no longer requires that the CCD be oriented with Declination vertically in order to correct for loss of RA motion with varying declination. Now you tell it the Dec when you calibrate and the Dec when you autoguide and it applies the proper factor to the Y relays.

· The X Direction item in the Autoguide Parameters dialog now applies to the X Relays not the X direction of the CCD.

· Fixed a bug with the CFW-10 code where if you shutdown when connected to a Serial CFW-10 it would leave the COM port open.

· Fixed a bug in the Track Log Report where the Y Chatter was including data from the X axis.

· Now the Relay Threshold setting in the AO Setup command is allowed to go to 100 which when set to that effectively disables any relay corrections by the AO.

· When making Slide Show scripts you can now add multiple images per pass.

· Added a Crop TDI command to the Utility menu which places a crop rectangle in the image to eliminate the startup region at the top of the image.

· For some unknown reason CCDOps would sometimes stop updating the display of the CCD temperature in the lower-right hand corner of the main window. If this happens running the Establish Com Link command in the Camera menu will restart the background display.

Changes made through 5.37B9

· If when establishing a link to a USB camera we find multiple cameras ask the user which one he wants to use.

· If given the “/altinf” command line option uses alternate set of settings in the Registry. This allows you to use 2 instances of CCDOps to talk to 2 cameras.

· Modified the Flat Field command to be color neutral for Single Shot color images. This happens when either image (the image or the flat field) are detected as single shot color.

· Fixed a few bugs in the Track Log report generated by the Convert Track Log file command.

Changes made through 5.37B7

· Improved detection of Single Shot Color images by adding to the Headers history and User_2 fields.

Changes made through 5.37B6

· Added the TDI Position dialog for help in acquiring TDI images.

Changes made through 5.37B5

· Fixed a bug reading some CCDOps images where if the Note was too long it wouldn’t open the image. Now limits note to 70 characters.

· Added Time Delay Integration (TDI) command to Camera menu that allows you to take unguided TDI images.

· Fixed a bug in the Flatten TDI utility that would cause the utility to have no effect on images with backgrounds above 4096 counts.

Changes made through 5.37

· Added the Remove Image Gradient command to the Utility menu that allows you to set three points in the image and then flattens the image to those three points.

Changes made through 5.36B25

· Changes to SBIG test routines only.

Changes made through 5.36B24

· Fixed a bug that caused the Autoguide Parameters dialog to crash the program.

Changes made through 5.36B22

· Added support for Single Shot Color images to the Smooth, Sharpen, Column/Row Repair and Warm/Cool Pixel Removal functions in the Utility menu.

Changes made through 5.36B21

· Added support for the CFW-10 in both I2C and Serial interfaces.

Changes made through 5.36B18

· Made the RGB Combine dialog modeless so you could Zoom the image and use the Crosshairs on the color image.

Changes made through 5.36B17

· Apply the Autoguide Setup filters (Median, Lowpass) to Track Calibrate images as well.

Changes made through 5.36B15

· Added the Rotate 180° command to the Utility Menu for rotating images 180°.

· Asks that you have version 4.41 of the SBIGUDRV.DLL file for compatibility with the STL-1301.

Changes made through 5.36B14

· Added the ability through the Preferences command to set the default File type used when saving new images. You can now select to save new images by default as SBIG Compressed, SBIG Uncompressed or FITS format. You can always override the defaults on an image-by-image basis in the Save As dialog before the image is saved.

· Updated the Help File.

Changes made through 5.36B13

· Added internal SBIG test software.

· Fixed a bug in the Crop mode that would allow the left edge of the crop rectangle to go to pixel 0 when moving the center of the box. This would give a column of 0 ADU pixels in the first column of the cropped image.

· Added the DSS menu for the upcoming Deep Sky Spectrograph.

Changes made through 5.36B10

· Now refers to the ST-402 by it’s proper name.

· Added icons to the Icon bar for Establishing a Link and Camera Shutdown.

· Right-clicking the mouse in Single Shot Color Raw or Color images when the Crosshairs are open now allows you to select a “Set White Balance” option that sets the relative rations of Red, Green and Blue based upon balancing the signals in the 11x11 pixel area under the Crosshair.

Changes made through 5.36B8

· Added internal SBIG Test code.

· Added ability to activate/deactivate individual Relays in the Autoguide Parameters dialog.

· Added ability to numerically set R/G/B factors in the Single Shot Color Processing dialog.

· Now looks for version 4.39 of the SBIGUDRV.DLL and version 1.40 of the SBIGULDR.SYS USB Camera firmware.

Changes made through 5.36B4

· Added support for the high gain versions of the ST-2K.

Changes made through 5.36B3

· Disabled the Back/Range items in the Save As TIFF dialog when 16 bit mode selected.

· Whan saving Raw images from Single Shot Color cameras as TIFF normalize the background level in the Red, Green and Blue channels so it comes out grey (equal amounts of R, G and B).

· Fixed a newly introduced bug in Track and Accumulate that would limit the maximum snapshot exposure to 36 seconds.

· Fixed a bug in the Flat Field command that could cause data to overflow on Track and Accumulate images where many images had been accumulated with bright background.

· Modified the Track and Accumulate command to work with Single Shot Color cameras like the ST‑2000XCM so the color information is not lost when Accumulating the images.

· Fixed a bug in the Track and Accumulate mode that would cause the Guide Star preview window to slide down the screen.

Changes made through 5.36

· Added the ability to save Single Shot Color images as three-channel RGB TIFF files (8 or 16 bits).

· Desensitized the control in the Single Shot Color Processing command.

· Fixed the PgUp/PgDn and ArrowUp/ArrowDn keys in the Single Shot Color Processing command so they move the controls the right direction.

Changes made through 5.35B10

· Fixed a bug where when you would establish a link to an ST-F it would warn you about out-of-date firmware.

· Added internal testing routines.

Changes made through 5.35B8

· Renamed the Fix TDI utility command to Flatten TDI Background, sped it up considerably for large images and added the ability to compensate for changes in sky background as well.

· Added support for millisecond (0.001 second) exposures with the ST-2K and STL-11K cameras.

· In Color Grab it now warns you if you use a name for the sequence that already exists.

· Added support back in for the CFW-6A motorized filter wheel. This was broken in a previous version when we switched over to using the SBIG Universal Driver for CFW support.

· When establishing a link to a camera warn if the SBIG Universal Driver or the Camera Loaders are out of date.

· Removed the warning when starting CCDOps about "This is a newer version of CCDOps and you should update your drivers".

Changes made through 5.35B7

· Fixed a bug that could cause the program to bomb when opening very old images that had errors in the image header.

· Added the Median Combine 3 Images command to the utility menu. This is handy for removing the effects of Cosmic Rays from a three-image series of dark frames.

Changes made through 5.35B3

· Fixed a bug in the crosshairs would close if they were open when you performed a rotate.

· Added trigger out if run from the command line with the “/trigger” command line option.

Changes made through 5.35B2

· Fixed a bug in the installer that wasn’t setting the Working Directory of the shortcuts created in the Start menu which had the affect that the Tips and Help files didn’t work.

Changes made through 5.35

· CCDOps now warns you to update your drivers whenever it detects a new version of CCDOps is being run.

· Added support for Single Shot Color cameras like the ST-2000XCM.

· Added the Single Shot Color Process command to the Utility menu where you make color images from Single Shot Color cameras.

· Added the Extract Color Channel(s) command to the Utility menu which allows splitting a Single Shot Color image into Red, Green, Blue and Luminance images.

· Fixed a bug where the program would bomb if the SBIGUDRV.DLL didn't load when you tried to establish a link to the camera. It now warns you the DLL didn't load.

Changes made through 5.31 Build 4

· Fixed a bug that could cause problems opening STV images.

· Added internal testing routines.

Changes made through 5.30 Build 4

· Fixed a bug that could cause the program to bomb in the Average Images utility if the images were already open.

· Added internal testing routines.

· Fixed a recently introduced bug where couldn't select Manual or None in CFW Setup dialog.

· Allow selecting the CFW-L type filter wheel on all USB cameras.

Changes made through 5.30

· Made changes to SBIG Internal testing routines

Changes made through 5.25 Build 29/30

· Made changes to SBIG Internal testing routines

· Now allows up to 6 filters on the CFW-8 for compatibility with 3rd party CFWs.

· Fixed a bug that would report "Unknown Error" for some CFW errors.

Changes made through 5.25 Build 28

· Switched to the Version 4 Installer

· Fixed a bug in the Plot Single Axis Move command where it would not plot data taken with the Relays set to None.

Changes made through 5.25 Build 27

· Added internal SBIG testing routines

· Now includes the EthServ software for serving parallel and USB based cameras over Ethernet. See the Help File for further details.

Changes made through 5.25 Build 26

· In Planet Master mode the Auto Grab Figure of Merit threshold is now shown in the dialog.

· Added the Plot Single Axis Results command to the Track menu that allows plotting previously captured Single Axis Mount Dynamics results.

Changes made through 5.25 Build 24

· Now reads and writes FITS images in compliance with the SBFITSEXT Standard version 1.0

· Modified the Telescope Setup dialog to include a description of the telescope and the diameter.

· Modified the Edit Parameters dialog to remove entries that really shouldn't be edited like the exposure time and date/time the image was acquired.

· Fixed a bug that wouldn't allow exposures shorter that 0.12 seconds with an ST-5C/237.

· Modified the Save FITS Dialog. No longer gives the option to write 8 bit FITS files.

· The time logged in the image header is now always GMT. The Preference item to enable this has been removed.

· Added a new preference item to allow entering telescope date in Inches or Millimeters.

Changes made through 5.25 Build 23

· Fixed a bug in the Self Guide and AO Self Guide command when used with Interline CCDs (like the ST-2K) that could cause hot pixels in these images, especially when used with long Track Exposures

Changes made through 5.25 Build 22

· Added a button the Planet Master mode dialog that when clicked sets the Auto Grab Threshold to the current Figure of Merit.

· Changed some default Preferences for new installs: Doesn't blank screen, Enables Auto-Zoo and defaults to USB for the Comm Port.

· Added the Single Axis Move Dynamics command to the Track Menu for measuring Mount Moves.

· Register all SBIG image file types so then have the CCDOps Document Icon and you can double click on an image to open it with CCDOps.

· Fixed bug where would ask you to discard focus planet mode images even if you had it disabled in the Preferences.

· Fixed a recently introduced bug that wouldn't allow Dual CCD View.

· Added a Maximum Deflection item to the AO Setup command that allows you to restrict the movement of the AO.

· Fixed a bug in the RGB combine dialog where clicking the Advanced Items section could hide some buttons on some graphics cards.

Changes made through 5.25 Build 19

· Modified the way new camera models are handled to make it easier for future camera models.

· Added support for a future replacement for the ST-5C/237.

· The Crosshairs now keep track of whether they were open or not when you close and image and if they were open they get automatically opened next time you open an image.

· Added additional internal SBIG code for shutter testing.

Changes made through 5.25 Build 18

· Fixed bug in the Column/Row repair where would not allow you to specify rows beyond 1530 and wouldn’t check for bounds.

· Modified the Auto Contrast to not push the Range below 200e-.

· After CFW move error set CFW status in status bar to unknown.

· Added the remove image wedge command to the Utility Menu.

· Grouped several pixel commands in Pixel Utilities sub menu.

· Fixed a bug that would cause AO Calibrate to crash in Release code.

· Fixed bug where would get warned about set value between 1 and 20 when you tried to adjust the Aggressiveness in AO Self Guide mode.

· Added adaptive gain to the AO Self Guide command.

· Fixed a bug in the AO Self Guide that could guide on noise if a dim guide star dimmed further.

Changes made in 5.25

Significant New Features

· Added support for ST-L Large Format Camera

· Significantly sped up the following routines:

· Auto Contrast and Apply in the Contrast Dialog making redisplay of images much faster, especially if the Histogram dialog is not open.

· Reading and Writing of SBIG Compressed format images

· The Histogram dialog

· Added the Dual CCD View command to the Camera menu, which shows a composite image of the Imaging and Tracking CCDs simultaneously.

Minor New Features

· Added some SBIG diagnostic code.

· Updated the Help File.

· Changed the ST-7/8/9/... Camera Setup Dialog:

· Added Imaging CCD Section and rearranged items into there.

· Added Tracking CCD Section and rearranged items into there.

· Have separate settings for the Resolution of the Imaging and Tracking CCDs.

· Moved the Active CD Select into its own section.

· Added the ability to log Track and Autoguide Calibration images and now shows the images while Calibrating.

· Modified the Calibration Results Dialog:

· Calibration Results are now shown with a speed and angle.

· Includes a plot of the Calibration Vectors.

· Modified the Autoguide Parameters Dialog:

· Added two buttons for Internal and External CCD Cal Vectors.

· Rearranged order of items.

· Added the ability to Noise Reduce tracking images with Low-Pass and Median filters.

· Modified the AO Setup Dialog:

· Added a button to show the AO Calibration Vectors.

· Added the ability to Noise Reduce AO tracking images with Low-Pass and Median filters.

· Added a new Calibration Vectors dialog where you edit the speed and direction.

· Modified the Autoguide and Selfguide commands in the Guide-to-Centroid option to guide to the corner of a pixel.

· Added a Full-High mode to the Focus mode, which shows the Full Frame image in High Res mode and renamed Dim Mode Full-Low as it shows a full frame image in Low Res mode.

· Added an item to the Preferences command regarding Dark Subtracting images where you can get it to ask or always use the Standard or Adaptive routines.

· Added the following items to the Autoguide Dialog which is shown in the Autoguide and Selfguide commands:

· Added an Aggressiveness control.

· Added a detailed tracking statistics section showing instantaneous and average errors, integrated star brightness and Rep Rate.

· Added a graph of the tracking error over time with a control to set the vertical scale.

Bug Fixes

· Fixed a bug in the CCD Dual View command that could cause exceptions with an ST-9/237 Guider camera.

· Fixed a recently introduced bug where Autoguiding would use generated test data for the centroids and thus never guide.

· Fixed a bug where the LED on the ST-7/8/... would go off every time you used the Camera Setup command.

· When dark-subtracting images now it doesn't dark-subtract saturated pixels but leaves them saturated so you know they were bad to begin with.

· Fixed a bug where when you had "Don’t use auto contrast on new images" turned on in the Preferences it would get bogus back and range values.

· Fixed a bug in the Planet Master command where an Exception was generated if you quite before the first image appeared.

· When autoguiding use the integrated star brightness not the peak pixel value for deciding when to not guide due to a drop in star brightness.

· Fixed a bug where the tracking corrections weren't being adjusted for the binning mode you were guiding in.

Changes made in 5.24

· No user accessible changes. Added SBIG internal testing routines.

Changes made in 5.23

· Added support for 3x3 binning on TC237 guider based cameras.

· The AutoGuiding functions (Track, Self-Guide and AO Self-Guide) now allow you to set the resolution of the guiding CCD in the Camera Setup dialog from the Camera menu. The software used to use default resolutions and not it lets you choose.

Changes made in 5.22 Build 1

· Fixed a bug in the Fix Blooming Streaks filter that could cause a crash.

Changes made in 5.22

· When saving JPEG images you now have a choice of 3 quality settings. High gives best quality and approximately 5:1 compression, Medium is 10:1 and Low is 40:1.

· Added the Fix Blooming Streaks command to the Utility menu that removes the Blooming Streaks above and below bright stars in images take with Non-ABG type CCDs.

· Added the ability to Auto Grab images in the Planet Master command that are above a certain Threshold in terms of Figure of Merit.

· Added the Fix ME Spikes command to the Utility menu to remove the artifacts above and below bright stars on images taken with ME (microlens) based CCD cameras.

Changes made in 5.21

· Added the ability to take 0.01 second exposures in Grab and Focus modes with the ST-2K Imaging CCD which also required updated drivers as follows:

SBIGUDRV.DLL - Version 4.24

SBIGULDR.SYS - Version 1.0 Build 26

Changes made in 5.20 Build 3/4

· Added ability to guide to the cursor position in the Autoguide and Self Guide commands. Also Shows the Guide to coordinates in the Self Guide dialog and allows you to move the cursor with the Arrow Keys when the Image Windows is active

Changes made in 5.20 Build 2

· Added the ability to Completely Disable the AO-7 in the AO Setup command.

Changes made in 5.20

· Changed the Planet Master Image Acquisition mode to show the center portion of the current and best images like the STV and the stand-alone Planet Master software.

Changes made in 5.14 Build 3 & 4 & 5

· Fixed a bug at startup that could bomb if run without all the sub programs and DLLs in the directory.

· Added Fix Uncooled TDI Image command to the Utility menu.

· Fix yet another bug in the Upload Dark Frame command for ST-4X/5/6.

· Added "Use GMT" checkbox to Preferences command that uses GMT in image headers when checked and local time when not checked.

· Rearranged the Utility menu with sub-menus and added the Grade Image for Sharpness command that allows you to select multiple images and then grades them for best sharpness.

· Fixed a bug in the Upload Dark Frame command that would cause ST-6 not to reuse the dark frames uploaded in subsequent images.

· Fixed a bug where you could not upload dark frames to the old ST-5 and ST-4X.

· Added the "Enable Ethernet" checkbox to the preferences command that allows disabling Ethernet on systems that don't support it, and would cause the Graphics/Comm Setup command to not display.

· Added the Planet Master command to the Camera menu that takes the sharpest or brightest image from a sequence of images.

· Fixed a bug under XP that would cause the first display of images to include scrollbars.

· Fixed bugs where several menu items weren't disable in Focus, Track and Accumulate and Autograb modes.

Changes made in 5.14

· Allow the AO Exercise up to 3000ms.

· Fixed a bug in the Camera Info dialog where the whole string for the driver version wasn't getting displayed.

· Updated drivers.

Changes made in 5.13-2

· Bundled with SBIGDriverChecker version 1.03 Build 3 that fixes a bug under NT/2000/XP where some drivers were installed in the wrong directory.

· Updated some drivers to current versions:

SBIGULDR.SYS - Version 1.0 Build 23

SBIGUSBE.SYS - Version 1.0

SBIGUDRV.DLL - Version 4.21 Build 3

SBIGUDRV.VXD - Version 4.04 from 5/30/02

SBIGUDRV.SYS - Version 4.04

· No changes to CCDOps

Changes made in 5.13

· Added the Image while Exercising command to the AO menu as a diagnostic for people having problems with their AO.

· Fixed a bug in the AO Calibrate when Calibrating from the Corner that could cause the AO to under correct when guiding.

· Added 2 buttons to the Calibration Results dialog:

Show Vectors - This graphs the calibration vectors so you can much more easily detect the reason for calibration failures.

Copy to Clipboard - Clicking on this button copies the contents of the Calibration Results dialog to the Clipboard where they can be pasted into an Email for sending to SBIG in order to help track down Calibration issues.

· Updated the Help file with the AO Image while Exercising command

Changes made in 5.12

· Added a 3 second delay after AO moves in the AO Calibrate command to let the AO fully settle.

Changes made in 5.11

· Added option to the Preferences dialog to allow disabling Screen Blanking on Grab.

· Fixed minor bug in AO Self Guide where in some cases only one relay move would be made, not two.

Changes made in 5.10

· Improved precision of floating point entries in FITS headers.

· Changed the HISTORY keyword in the FITS headers to SBIGHIST.

· Updated FITSIN.DLL to read SBIGHIST keyword.

· Fixed a bug where the ST-6 ABG rate was not recorded correctly in the image header.

· Fixed a bug that stopped serial port cameras from using Track and Accumulate.

· Fixed a bug where dark subtraction of ST-6 images was not recorded in the modifications field.

· Fixed a bug in the SBIGUDRV.DLL where ST-237s and ST-237As were sometime misidentified when establishing a link.

· Added display of the ABG capabilities of the camera to the Camera Info command.

· Added the SBIGDriverChecker application to the archive.

· Fixed a bug where turning on AO Calibration Logging would bomb the program.

· Added an option to the AO Calibrate command to calibrate from the corner.

· Replaced InstDrv.EXE with SBIGDriverChecker.exe to update all drivers at once.

· Fixed a bug where turning on Track Logging would bomb.

· Major improvements to Help files, incorporating HTMLHelp.

· Expanded the scale of the histogram dialog to go down to a minimum span of 256 ADU vs. 4096.

· Fixed a Self Guiding bug where the relays could make the wrong corrections when the AO got to the Relay Kick-In threshold.

· Fixed a bug where the most recently used file list in the File menu would not have the file extension.

· Added a check box to the Focus Mode Setup dialog that allows you to control whether dark frames are used or not.

· Removed the warning when use the Manual Offset command.

· Fixed a bug where some ST-237A Readout Modes had no names in the Camera Info command.

· With Autograb sequences the index (001, 002) will no be put before the extension and the extension will be .ST7, etc. if you don't specify an extension in the Autograb name.

· Fixed a bug where switching from one camera to another with various readout modes selected could cause bogus image data until you used the Camera Setup command.

· Fixed a bug the when selecting the tracking CCD the Camera Setup command you could select invalid Readout modes.

· Now allows turning of the Fan on ST-7/8/9/10/1K cameras in the Camera Setup dialog.

· Reordered and neatened up the items in the ST-7 Camera Setup dialog.

· Fixed a bug that when established a link to an ST-1K and had been using the Tracking CCD would say "Invalid Parameter" until you manually selected the Imaging CCD.

· Allow processing of wider images (up to 20,000 pixels).

· SBIG Image Note is now under the FITS keyword NOTE vs. previously COMMENT.

· Modified the FITS Import to include the NOTE and OBSERVER fields.

· Now uses a single Crosshairs and Histogram Window for all open images, updated when different images are activated.

· The Histogram window is now always auto scaled to the data.

· Fixed a bug where image header could show exposure times shorter that the minimum for ST-7 type cameras (0.12).

· Included new builds of the low level drivers with the following:

SBIGUDRV.DLL=4.03 Build 2 - Minor internal changes

SBIGUDRV.VXD,.SYS=4.03 Build 2 - Fixed a bug with parallel cameras where the top few lines of images were corrupted with dark or light values

SBIGULDR.SYS=1.0 Build 12 - General development

SBIGUSBE.SYS=1.0 (Build 1) - No changes

· Added Rotate CW and Rotate CCW commands to the Utility menu.

· Fixed a bug where could try to set the Saturation level of Color TIFF images.

· Fixed a bug where hitting the 'T' key or changing the box size in the crosshairs would not always update the pixel factors in the Crosshairs window.

· Fixed a memory leak in the File Save/Save As command.

· Allow reading FITS file now but warn that header may not have been fully initialized.

· Allow turning off FITS warnings in the Preferences dialog.

· Added the Note to the FITS header when writing FITS files.

· Now allows having multiple images open at one time with the File Open command.

Changes made in 5.03

· Added DDP command to Utility menu.

· Major revisions to USB support routines in driver.

· Blackouts the screen for the Grab command.

· Added the Ultra-Low readout mode to the ST-7, etc with 9x9 binning for faster framing in focus mode.

· Fixed a bug where the File Save dialog would not change the file extension when you would change the file type (.JPG, .GIF, etc.).

Changes made in 5.02

· Added the Set Pixel Saturation command and don't force ST-237 saturation in the driver.

Changes made in 5.01

· Don't auto establish a link at startup since Ethernet can take a long time.

Changes made to Version 5

· Fixed a bug where total exposure was not accumulated when co-adding images.

· Made it so the software won't automatically try to establish a link at startup due to the time it takes to establish a link under Ethernet if no camera is attached.

· Revised the various dialogs to no longer show the number of pixels in the resolution pop-ups since some of these were incorrect.

· Updated the Help files.

· Allows you to enter 0 for the exposure time and will fill in the minimum for you rather than give you an error message.

· Added the Image Note to the File Save dialog.

· Added support for the ST-1K.

· Fixed a file header compatibility bug with DOS.

· Show the most recently used 8 images in the File menu.

· Made the icon bar dockable

· Added a "turbo" mode to the Focus mode for ST/7/8/... cameras that allows 0.01 sec exposures by simply leaving the shutter open all the time.

· Added sharpen option to the Contrast window.

· Added crosshairs preview mode.

· With "Click To Position Crosshairs" option in the Preferences dialog you can now use mouse clicks to position the XHair and then use the arrow keys to move the XHairs. Also, right clicking the mouse in image gives menu with Astrometry/Photometry options in this mode.

· Remembers the crosshairs position so when you place them, close crosshairs the reshow crosshairs they are in the same place.

· Added support for USB cameras

· Added support for Ethernet cameras