How It Works > Overview

Acquisition and Processing Workflows

Please have a look at the following schematic, its important to note that even though the acquisition and image processing parts of the application can be run independent of each other they really go hand in hand. The biggest take-away statement here is that: The image acquisition folder (i.e. the folder that the created images are initially saved to) is only a temporary storage place for the images! The image processing part of the app will work its way through all the images in the folder (oldest to newest) and DELETE each image once it is processed (you have of course the option to copy the original images to an archive folder before deletion). In practice the acquisition and processing functions should always be run simultaneously and the processing routines will pick up and process each image once it has been created. The only exception to this would be if you would like to process already existing fits images (from a previous imaging session). In this case you would only run the processing function.

Acquisition Workflow:

•	Check acquisition is required e.g. based on sunset/sunrise times and user location

•	(if not required i.e. daytime then pause and check again)

•	Calculate exposure time based on settings e.g. adjust to achieve set image median value

•	Expose image and read data from camera

•	If required subtract dark frame / apply bad pixel map repairs

•	If required create preview image in image preview tab (clip/stretch as required)

•	If required create 'latest image' jpg file and save to folder location and/or transfer via FTP

•	Fetches weather data (if available)

•	Create FITS header keywords and save FITS image to 'Acquisition Folder'

Processing Workflow:

•	Check 'Folder to Process i.e. 'Acquisition Folder' and discover all FITS images within folder

•	Sort images in reverse date order and start processing oldest image

•	If required run image conversion i.e. convert image to png or jpg image and save to image conversion folder

•	If required run line detection and save created detection images to detection folder. FTP detection images if required.

•	If required copy original FITS image to Archive folder

•	DELETE processed FITS image from 'Acquisition Folder' i.e. if settings do not tell the app to copy the FITS file to the archive folder the original FITS file is now gone!

Processing End Of Session Tasks:

At the end of an imaging session i.e. image acquisition has finished for the night and all created images have been processed (the acquisition folder is empty) the application will run 'end of session tasks'. Currently this includes:

•	Create video file from converted images

•	FTP transfer created video

•	Log line detection results to log file

Folder Size Manager:

The folder size manager regularly checks the managed folders and deletes the oldest images if a specified size has been exceeded or if an image has reached a certain age (as required by settings). The following folders can be managed:

•	Image Conversion Output Folder

•	Originals Archive Folder

•	Detection Output Folder

Folder Structure

If all functionality is selected the following folders will be required:

•	Image Acquisition Folder: The folder the created images are saved in. This usually is also the 'Folder to Process' i.e. the folder the image processing part searches for files to process

•	Latest Image Save Folder: The folder the latest image is saved to in jpg format (if required by settings)

•	Folder To Process: The folder the image processing part searches for files to process. This should be the same folder as the 'Acquisition Folder'!

•	Image Conversion Output Folder: The folder the converted jpg or png images are saved to. The created videos will also be created within this folder.

•	Detection Output Folder: The folder the detection images are saved to. Settings can also be set to copy the original FITS file to the folder as well if one or more line features were detected in an image.

•	Originals Archive Folder: The folder the original FITS files are saved to (if required by settings)

•	Logging Folder: The folder the log files are written to

The folders must be created by the user and can be located anywhere accessible to the application.

Sample Folder Structure