                              JIMSDEMO

            Astronomical Image Processing by James M. Roe
                  Copyright 1997 by James M. Roe


JIMSAIP is a DOS program for  processing the images of popular CCD cameras.
It will run in a DOS window of Windows 3.1. This demonstration program will
permit you to preview all of  the functions available in JIMSAIP before you
buy.  See the file ORDER.TXT for ordering and pricing information.

Minimum requirements  are 450k of conventional  memory, an XMS v2.0 memory
manager,  XMS  memory  above  the  1  Meg  level,  and a VGA video adapter.
HIMEM.SYS that comes with DOS 5.0 and later will suffice, and I use QEMM386
v.  6.0  as  well.  The  XMS  requirement  probably  means a 80286 or later
machine, but I have  not tested it on a 80286. It  does run on 80386, 80486
and Pentium  machines. A co-processor  is desirable but  not necessary. The
program  will run  with a  VGA video  card, but  a card  that supports VESA
&h101 (640x480),  &h103 (800x600), and/or &h105  (1024x768) modes is HIGHLY
desirable. If your machine does not  have the XMS manager or VGA installed,
the program  will abort its load.  In general, the faster  your machine and
the more  RAM it has,  the happier  you  will be with  the program. Smaller
images process quite rapidly, but if  you are working with the larger sizes
things can slow down a bit.

Maximum  image sizes  are set  by the  amount of  XMS memory  available and
maximum  image display  sizes are  set by  the video  card. The table below
shows a range of possibilities.

Max Image Size         Video                 XMS Memory Required
(Cols x Rows)                                     (kB)

192 x 165            VGA  - 320x200                448 k

375 x 244            VESA - 640x480               1655 k

765 x 510            VESA - 800x600               4508 k

In general, the amount of XMS memory needed is given by

XMS needed = 3*(VideoRows*VideoCols) + 8*(MaxImageCols*MaxImageRows)
(actually a bit more because the XMS memory manager allocates XMS memory in
chunks of 1024k).

Be  sure  that  your  XMS  driver  is  properly  installed according to the
directions  that came  with it.  The  following  lines at  the start  of my
config.sys file work for me.

Device=C:\HIMEM.SYS
Device=C:\EMM386.EXE
DOS HIGH, UMB

OR

DEVICE=C:\QEMM386.SYS

You can  check the amount  of memory available  for running the  program by
typing at the DOS prompt something like the following.

C:>(path)MEM  <Enter>

This function  will tell you how  much memory is available  for running the
program and  how much XMS memory  is available. If you  don't have at least
450 k available in conventional memory, you will have to remove some of the
devices,  etc.  loaded  by   your  config.sys  and/or  autoexec.bat  files.
Alternatively, you can disable the online help by removing the reference to
HR.EXE in the GO.BAT file (see below). (You could set up the Help system in
a separate DOS window of Windows 3.1 if you wanted.)

To run JIMSDEMO in a DOS window of Windows 3.1, you  should create it's own
.PIF  file.  Find  the  PIFEditor  in  Windows  and  create a .PIF file for
JIMSDEMO. Be  sure to tell Windows that JIMSDEMO requires the amount of XMS
memory  you decided  from your  configuration status.  If you  swap out  of
JIMSDEMO to another  Windows application  while an  image is displayed, the
image will be trashed upon return to JIMSDEMO. Just rescale the image (with
the 'R' hotkey) and the image will be re-drawn.

It is suggested  that you install JIMSDEMO to it's  own directory and allow
at least two  subdirectories: HLP and SAMPLES. Put  all files beginnng with
the letters HLP  in the HLP sub-directory where  the online manual facility
can find them (it can find them if they are in the main JIMSDEMO directory,
but  a  lot  of  clutter  can  be  saved  by  putting  them  in  their  own
sub-directory).  Likewise, the  sample image  files (with  extensions .ST7,
.FTS,  or  .G12)  should  be   placed  in  the  SAMPLES  sub-directory  for
convenience  later on.  If you  are installing  from the JIMSDEMO.ZIP file,
just unzip from the main directory with the -d option (pkunzip -d jimsdemo)
and  PKUNZIP  will  create  the  necessary  sub-directories  and  fill them
properly.

The  only  files  needed  in  the main  directory are GO.BAT, JIMSDEMO.EXE,
HR.EXE, START.TXT, CONFIG.AIP, HELP.TXT, and MEASURE.AIP.

To be able to use the online hypertext help system the TSR file HR.EXE must
be loaded  before JIMSDEMO.EXE. Also,  if you want to use a  mouse with the
menus, the mouse driver  must be loaded as well. An easy  way to do that is
to use  the provided GO.BAT which  contains the needed commands.  Edit this
file to match your requirements and directory names.

When you launch  JIMSDEMO, you will be presented with  the Main Menu screen
if you passed the  XMS manager and Video tests. Any time  you are in any of
the menus, you may access the  online hypertext manual by pressing <Alt> H.
Follow the hypertext  links to get the information you  want. Exit the Help
function by pressing  <Esc>. The next time you access  <Alt> H, you will be
put back at  the spot you escaped from previously.  The Help function has a
Help facility as  well to help you with the  hypertext commands. Press <F1>
when you  need it from  the Help  facility.  To remove the  TSR HR.EXE from
memory when  you are finished with  JIMSDEMO for the day,  press <Alt> H to
activate,  then, while  it is  active, press  <Alt> T.  If you  exit from a
Windows 3.1 window, Windows will automatically remove the TSR.

The first  thing you will need  to do is configure JIMSDEMO for your system
and  needs. To  do this,  find the  Configure option  in the FILE pull-down
menu. Accessing  this command presents you  with a vertical menu  of items.

The default CONFIG.AIP that came with  the system selected the VESA 800x600
video mode and a maximum image size  of 765x510. If JIMSDEMO found the VESA
mode available, fine  and well. You may change it  if you wish. If JIMSDEMO
did not find the  VESA mode, it will have defaulted to  VGA 320x200. (If it
didn't find  the VGA mode,  you wouldn't be  looking at the  Main Menu.) If
JIMSAIP did not find enough XMS memory to allocate all the buffers it needs
you would have seen various error messages.

You may enter/edit  any of the items shown in  the vertical menu. The Video
Mode and Maximum Image sizes are  required, the rest are optional. However,
the  aperture and  response values  are used  to calculate  magnitudes. The
response number is the number of ADUs your camera would register per second
from a 0  Mag star through 1 sq  mm of aperture. You should  be able to get
this number from your camera manufacturer (you may have to convert it if it
is  not in  those units).  If they  are not  correct, neither  will be your
magnitude estimates. Other items are  useful to store (semi) permanently if
you will  be using the  same basic setup  most of the  time. Some of  these
items are stored  in the header to your saved  image files to help identify
them.  Be sure to Save your changes when you exit the Configure menu.

With these preliminary preparations, you should be ready to run JIMSDEMO to
see for  yourself its powerful features.  Try the online tutorial  with the
sample  images to  get a  feel for   the power  and ease  of use.  A little
practice with the hot keys in the Examine Mode will soon have you analyzing
and tweaking  images to your heart's  content. JIMSDEMO will only  run with
selected images.  Smaller images were  provided in the  ZIP file containing
JIMSDEMO,   but    other,   larger   images   may    be   downloaded   from
http://www.jamesroe.com/astro/starhome.htm/.

It is  with gratitude that I  acknowledge the permission of  Roy Minnich to
use his CB211 image of the moon in the samples package.

Good luck and thank you for trying JIMSDEMO.

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