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Astrophotography by Bob Franke

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BF-Astro Freeware

CCDBand-Aid

Current Version is 1.55, Aug. 3, 2020

CCDBand-Aid repairs the vertical bar pattern in images created with Kodak's KAI-11000M Series CCD.

 

Program Highlights

  • Using 32-bit floating-point data allows better repair of the vertical bars.

  • With PixInsight files, the default settings are assumed.  That is with pixel values from 0.0 to 1.0.

  • Works with full frame and sub-frame images.

  • Includes Command Line execution for use with automation control software.

  • Not converting to 16-bit allows better processing after repairing the bars.

  • CCDBand-Aid can process multiple images.

  • The user may manually enter a predetermined correction amplitude for typically noisy narrow band images.

Click here to read the documentation PDF online. (3.4 MB)

 

Complete installation

To install, just download and unzip CCDBand-Aid-1-55.zip (4.5 MB) into your desired folder and create a shortcut for ccdBandAid.exe.

Please note... You may need to turn off your virus scanner to download and install ccdBandAid.

Special instructions for narrowband images

For CCDStack users...  ccdStack_nb.pdf
For PixInsight users...  pixInsight_nb.pdf

 

 

 

 

Revision History

1.55... Aug. 3, 2020 Bug Fix... A programming oversight caused ccdBandAid to run 50% slower on Windows 10.

Improvement... Using the latest Delphi compiler gives the look and feel that Windows 10 provides. The user can decide if this is an improvement. :-)

1.50... June 3, 2020 Bug Fix... With bf-Astro.com off-line, the program would not let the user select files for processing.

Improvement... ccdBandAid now only checks for updates once a day.

1.40... Jan. 14, 2019 Bug Fix... PixInsight, version 1.8.6, introduced Astrometry Integration. By default, this appends 40K of data to plate solved images saved in the FITS format. CCDBand-Aid erroneously interpreted these as pixel data. This caused the program to incorrectly determine that some pixel values are greater than 1.0.

New Feature... Command Line execution for use with automation control software.

New Feature... sub-frame processing.

New Feature... repair of out of range pixels.

New Feature... a routine to prepare images for better use with  PixInsight.

Improvement... "FTS" is now recognized as a valid file extension for FITS images.

Improvement... modified the process for determining the band phase.  Check the documentation for special notes.

1.35... May 22, 2017 Bug Fix... If the band-phase was less the 1/2 the band-width, the program calculated a negative number for first image column.

1.25... Sept. 23, 2013 Bug Fix... The PixInsight algorithm is revised to avoid divide by zero errors.

1.2... Sept. 14, 2013 Improvement... The program now has its own routine to compute the band phase.

Improvement... CBA now works with PixInsight 32-bit floating point files. The default PI settings are assumed... pixel values from 0.0 to 1.0.

1.01... June 2, 2013 The program is now considered for use with any manufacturer's camera. The camera may use the Effective or Active pixel array. That is 4032 x 2688 or 4008 x 2672 pixels respectively.