Image processing

RTS2 offers versatile image processing capabilities. Images can be stored at paths which are described by pattern with expanding character. Paths are configured in rts2.ini file. This section describes how are images handled, shifted among different paths.

Please note that from RTS2 release 0.8.0, image paths are recorded in database with image name, so you are really free to choose path which suits your needs. And if you will move image using rts2-image binary, the image path in database will be changed as well.

RTS2 sort images in following sets:

• queue images
• archive images
• trash images
• acqusition images
• sky-flats
• dark frames

You are free to configure paths according to your preferences in rts2.ini configuration file. If you do so, please reload RTS2 by issuing /etc/init.d/rts2 reload command (or even better is restart - /etc/init.d/rts2 restart - as reload is still not fully implemented for some modules).

You will see that images will be moving during processing. That is expected, so please don't be confused by this. Following list describes life of an image, created by EXECutor:

1. image is created in que_path entry. Originally it has 0 lenght
2. image is filled with header (lenght is few kbs) and data (lenght jumps to few MBs)
3. image stays in que_path as long as it is not processed
4. even during processing image stays in que_path
5. image is picked by IMGP - image processor. If you will examine IMGP in monitor, you will see different numbers. Most important is que_size - it shows how many images are in que waiting to be processed
6. if image is (please note that from version 0.8.0 up, those calibrations frames are not stored in database - version prior to 0.8.0 stored flats and darks in special database table)
   • sky flat, it is moved to flat_path
   • dark, it is moved to dark_path
7. otherwise image_processor script is run. Faith of the image then depends on standard output produced by image_processors script:
   • if it contains coordinates, printed out to standard output as id ra dec (ra_err,dec_err) format, image is renamed to archive_path
   • otherwise it is renamed to trash_path

Please note that:

• if you would like to reprocess image(s), just move them to queue directory. On rightly configured system they will processed by IMGprocessor on morning
• IMGproc prevents system overloading from running plate solving and processing for multiple images (if processing time will be greater then image acquisition time, system can be congested with multiple processing scripts running)
• if you would like to process two or more images in parallel, just start more rts2-imgproc with different names specified with -d argument. It should work..
• standard output of past/jibero package is to print out coordinates which will be understood by RTS2. You are welcome to customize your plate solving script to produce this output, or change output parsing (sscanf) method processLine in rts2/src/plan/connimgprocess.cpp:

void
ConnImgProcess::processLine ()
{
        int ret;
        ret = sscanf (getCommand (),
                "%li %lf %lf (%lf,%lf)",
                &id, &ra, &dec, &ra_err, &dec_err);
 
        if (ret == 5)
        {
                astrometryStat = GET;
                // inform others..
        }
        logStream (MESSAGE_DEBUG) << "received: " << getCommand () << " sscanf: "
                << ret << sendLog;
        return;
}