MISAO Project

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August 4, 2001

    Create image gallery using the PIXY System 2    

MISAO Project Announce Mail (August 4, 2001)

Hello. I am Seiichi Yoshida working on the MISAO project.

The latest version of the PIXY System 2, 2001 July 31 version, is released. In this version, a function to create an image gallery is added.

This function is basically the one to convert the format of images at one time. When the JIMI (Java Image Management Interface) is installed, it can read images in the following formats:

FITS, unsigned 16-bit FITS, SBIG, PPM, JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP

and can save images into the following formats:

JPEG, PNG, BMP, PPM, 8-bit raw

In addition, it can generate a HTML file to show all images. When you save the images in JPEG or PNG format, open the HTML file using a WWW browser and you can look the images all over at one time. For example, this is useful to find good images or images where clouds or satellites passing over, among many images.

The main advantage of the image conversion using the PIXY System 2 is that the image brightness is adjusted automatically and properly.

When you open a FITS image using a popular software, the black window often appears. That is because the brightness of stars is much fainter than the total range of an image file. Some popular softwares have a function to adjust the brightness automatically by cutting of the brightest and faintest pixels, the percentage to cut off is specified by the user. However, the best percentage depends on various conditions, the number of stars, S/N ratio, blooming stars, etc. So it is hard to adjust any kinds of images properly. As a result, people often need to adjust the brightness of images one by one, even when there are so many images.

Many images in many conditions have been offered to the MISAO Project from many people. I developed the algorithm to adjust the image brightness so that it works properly for most of the offered images, and embedded in the PIXY System 2. For example, when you open an image by the PIXY System 2, it appears in proper brightness by default in most cases.

The algorithm is also used in the function to create an image gallery. So the brightness of the images in the gallery are usually adjusted properly. Therefore, it becomes possible to check images generated by the automated imaging system in short time, or to generate thumbnail images of them to open in the public at you WWW site automatically.

The following page in the MISAO Project Home Page illustrates the steps to create an image gallery using the PIXY System 2.

http://www.aerith.net/misao/pixy/tutorial/gallery.html

P.S.
The past MISAO project announce mails are available at:

http://www.aerith.net/misao/

--
Seiichi Yoshida
comet@aerith.net
http://www.aerith.net/

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