Michael,

I like that idea. I hope it makes it into VMA.

--- In virtualmoon@yahoogroups.com, "michaelcharlesmorris"
<michaelmorris4@...> wrote:
>
> Firstly, can I say what an absolutely amazing piece of software you
> have written, well done, and thank so much for sharing it with us.
>
> I have a couple feature requests relating to imaging the Moon for
> the next version of VMA.
>
> Like many other people, I have started trying to capture mosaics of
> the Moon.
>
> http://annmarie.tamaris.org.uk/astronomy/a-lunar-mosaic-440
> http://www.digitalsky.org.uk/lunar/2005-06-17-mosaic.jpg
> http://geogdata.csun.edu/~voltaire/roland/m_mosaic.html
> http://www.robertreeves.com/webcam.htm
>
> Such mosiacs are typically made of anything between 10 and 40 images
> captured on a Toucam Pro II webcam.
>
> One of the problems I have is making sure that I don't miss small
> parts of the Moon out (very easily done) or have inadequate overlap
> to allow programs such a Panaorama Plus or Autostitch to
> automatically stitch the mosaic together. I am also keen to
> minimize the number of captures needed. Processing each AVI may
> take up to 2 hours and I do not want to have to do these
> unnecessarily.
>
> So here are my feature requests.
> 1) There are user-defined eyepiece views of the Moon. Would it be
> possible to have similar user-defined CCD/webcam views. These would
> be different from how VMA handles eyepiece views. Rather than
> zooming in and putting a circular mask around the view, The
> CCD/webcam views would project a coloured lined rectangle on to the
> existing Moon view in a similar way to Cartes du Ceil. This would
> help with planning single feature imaging sessions.
>
> 2) There would be a Mosaic Planner feature that would allow the
> user to define:
> a) The relevent image size as in 1) above,
> b) The amount of overlap between images (expressed as a percentage).
>
> The software would then allow the user place any number of frames on
> the Moon map. The desired overlap area could be indicated by a
> shaded or hatched area inside the outer line of each rectangle. The
> user could then place any number of these frames on the Moon map to
> help them plan the mosiac. The program would automatically number
> each frame, working either north to south, south to north, west to
> east, east to west or combinations of these numbering systems,
> depending upon the user's preference. The mosaic plans would be
> saveable so that mosaics can be planned many nights in advance.
> This system would make planning and executing Lunar mosaics very
> much easier.
>
> During an imaging session the user could simply bring up the mosaic
> plan, compare the VMA view with that in the webcam and adjust the
> webcam view to match that shown in the mosaic plan - the result,
> perfectly executed mosaics.
>
> Regards
>