The software package C-Munipack presents the complete system for reduction of images carried out by a CCD or DSLR camera, oriented at the observation of variable stars. The specific programs of reduction process can be called from command line or via intuitive graphical user interface.
The project is based on the previous Munipack package, the programs have the same name, but contrary to Munipack, it is coded in C/C++ language and it contains a several new functions and tools in addition. Assignment of the command-line parameters and the configuration files is similar in both projects, exceptions are described in the project documentation.
The graphical user interface, which was build upon the portable GTK+ toolkit, should be familiar for Munidos users, but it takes full advantage of graphical environment, and therefore the interface is more comfortable and enables user an improved control over reduction process in comparison with original interface of Munidos.
The following list is a short overview of some of the features that the C-Munipack software provides:
The following input formats are supported:
The project manager David Motl is also the author of the most part of the source codes. Some small pieces of the sources originate from Munipack package, coded by Filip Hroch. Algorithms for aperture photometry originate from Daophot software by P. B. Stetson. Munifind algorithm originates from Varfind tool coded by Lukas Kral. The code of the lossless JPEG decoder incorporated in the DSLR image reader originates from Dave Coffin’s dcraw utility.
The package uses the following third party software:
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 as published by the Free Software Foundation.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the LICENSE file for more details.
The project is hosted by the SourceForge. The latest version of the binaries, source codes and documentation are available on the following address:
The main goals of this version is to allow one to define and work with multiple datasets (they are called projects). In previous versions, when you wanted to start a new task, you have to remove the frames that were registered in the application while deleting all temporary files (photometry files, etc.). Now, each task (project) has its own directory and the temporary files as well as the configuration is kept in it. One can easily switch between tasks easily or even work on multiple tasks at a time.
Footnotes
[1] | Please read Processing RAW images article before using the C-Munipack software to process snapshots from a DSLR camera. |