Introducing the Astronomical Digital Video System (ADVS) Tony Barry, Dave Gault, and Hristo Pavlov WSAAG and IOTA Presented to International Occultation Timing Association 2012 AGM Friday, 19th October 2012 (US) Saturday, 20th October 2012 (AU)

The Working Group on Scientific Video Astronomy Tony Barry, Dave Gault and Hristo Pavlov First meeting Easter Monday, 25th April 2011

ADVS Overview

Video Signal Paths Conventional (interlaced) The tortured signal path

ADVS features at a glance Astronomical Digital Video System; is all digital has only one CCD read noise per image is progressive scan image start, mid. and end times to +/-0.001 seconds UT exposure range 30 frames per second to 8 seconds per frame requires no Instrument Delay compensation video easily converted to FITS, complete with metadata time OSD not embedded on the image, not blocking FOV (eventually) remote/automated controllable has complete control over gain, gamma and offset means you don't have to deal with codecs uses new .adv file format .adv file can be repaired if not closed properly has a choice of 3 cameras @ 3 price ranges developers are very nice guys, and modest too... :-)

ADV File Format and Considerations FITS ADV STREAM1 (IMAGES/BAND1) STREAM2 (STATUS DATA/BAND2) IMAGE (BAND1) IMAGE (BAND1) IMAGE (BAND1) FRAME1 FRAME1 IMAGE (BAND3) IMAGE (BAND1) FRAME2 IMAGE (BAND3) FRAME2 IMAGE (BAND2) IMAGE (BAND2) FRAME3 IMAGE (BAND1) IMAGE (BAND3) FRAME3 IMAGE (BAND1) IMAGE (BAND3) IMAGE (BAND3) FRAME4 FRAME4 IMAGE (BAND3) FRAME N IMAGE (BAND1) FRAME N IMAGE (BAND3) Minimize file size as possible Power-off tolerant Data corruption tolerant + allow recovery Extensible Allow user data storage Open format -Timestamps saved separately. -Saved gamma/gain/exposure with each frame. -Influenced by FITS. –Recovery from power-off -Lossless Compression METADATA METADATA METADATA METADATA METADATA INDEX (FAST ACCESS) Astro Digital Video (ADV) File Structure HEADER DATA SECTIONS DEFINITION SYSTEM METADATA TABLE DATA BLOCKS INDEX TABLE USER METADATA TABLE http://www.astrodigitalvideo.com.au/CurrentADVFileFormat.pdf

ADV Status Stream 1. GAIN 2. GAMMA 3. OFFSET (BRIGHTNESS) 4. SYSTEM TIME 5. ADVR SYSTEM MESSAGES 6. TIMESTAMP 7. EXPOSURE 8. TRACKED SATELLITES 9. GPS FIX STATUS

ADVR and Software Considerations Able to tolerate random OS slowness Optimized for performance (speed) Robust Easy to use

Adv2Fits Windows Mac OS X Linux Solaris -Running on Windows, Mac, Linux and Unix - Export all selected frames as FITS files Windows Mac OS X Linux Solaris

Tangra 2

Point Grey Cameras Flea3 03S1 = US $ 565 Flea3 03S3 = US $ 845 G-HopperEx = US $1995

QA Testing

Introducing SEXTA VEXA and EXTA by Gerhard Dangl

QA - Timing Testing

http://www.astrodigitalvideo.com.au Thank You! – Questions? ADVS price list (to be confirmed) ADVS-HTCC --------- $289 Hirose Cable ------ $60 ADVR (Ubuntu) ----- $100 (Includes 2 free service tickets) Service tickets ---- $20 Thank You! – Questions? http://www.astrodigitalvideo.com.au