XmCCD
-----

The programs provided here offer a Linux graphical user interface to
astronomical and scientific CCD cameras.  Now primarily for Apogee cameras,
XmCCD was developed initially for SBIG cameras and legacy support for them
is still included in this version.

SBIG
====

SBIG has provided the library used here.  It is the latest one they offer
and the files included allow support for Android and Mac OS X. 

This distribution of XmCCD includes source code to utilize the SBIG shared
library libsbigudrv.so with a Motif-based graphical user interface. Please note
that these  SBIG library materials are subject to their copyright.

XmCCD has been tested with several SBIG cameras that we have at our
observatories, but not the very latest ones. It is expected that all 
but the newest designs will work with this software. 

At the time of this release (September 2019) SBIG has newer cameras that are not
supported by the older library.  When new library support is offered we will
incorporate those cameras into XmCCD.


Apogee
======

Apogee was purchased by Andor which discontinued most of their product line
except the Apogee Alta.  The library here will support Alta and Aspen cameras
that were manufactured before 2018.  It may support future cameras using the "F"
series electronics, but this is dependent on the open source code developed by
Dave Mills, The Random Factory,  http://www.randomfactory.com .  Please see the
directory libapogeedrv for notes on the changes needed to the source
distribution in order to use it with XmCCD.

The SDK for other Andor cameras is not open source and we will not be able to
provide support, even for the cameras we have.



Other cameras
=============


It is our intent to provide at least basic support (that may be customized by
the users) for Fingerlakes Instruments and Zwo cameras.  Both companies offer
libraries that we can use and distribute.  That support will be introduced in
this development cycle.  It is not yet in version 6.6.0.


Additionally, we may include support for other hardware we have found useful. 
Two that are under consideration are the Allied Vision Technologies Ethernet
interfaced machine vision cameras, which are very good for high speed and near
IR imaging, and the Sony Alpha 7 III, which has an exceptionally sensitive large
sensor that at least is useful for color imaging.  For both of these, the best
display inteface will be AstroImageJ.  Currently, XmCCD uses only ds9 through
the xpa protocol.  AstroImageJ may be used for time series imaging, and we may
add a hook to enable to display the most recent images in the same fashion that
we use ds9 now.

With that change, this development cycle will also include Python variants that
will not require the Motif interface and can be connected to scripted, remote,
and web-based operation.  

Lastly, we are considering introducing a version of INDI back into XmCCD in
order to support those who use it also for software such as Stellarium.  We
currently use XEphem as the preferred sky software tool, but there are no links
between XEphem's version of INDI and XmCCD at this time.

The most recent version of XmCCD is available from
http://www.astro.louisville.edu/software and you are encouraged to check 
there for the latest release, sources for other software needed to compile 
and run XmCCD, and supporting utilities.

XmCCD software is offered under the GNU Public License.  
Please see the files  LICENSE and COPYRIGHT for more information.

SBIG and APOGEE describe how to build and install XmCCD. It does require other
programs to compile and run, some of which are not usually present in Linux
distributions.  Before building and running XmCCD, you will need to install the
following if they are not already on your system:

Motif development libraries and headers
fxload

Motif development libraries and the firmware loader fxload are not installed  by
default in OpenSuse,  but are available from software repositories. 

The XmCCD source package includes source code for:

xpa
cfitsio

which you should install and compile first if it is not already on your system.
The source code for each of these libraries is in a separate named directory in
the package that includes installation instructions if needed.

SAOimage ds9 is the primary image display for XmCCD. A binary that works in
a recent Opensuse release is included.  Other binaries and source code are
available on github from the ds9 developers.


The software is designed to work in parallel with AstroImageJ (AIJ) for data
processing.  Typically we use ds9 to monitor the image acquisition, and AIJ
to process photometric data in real time.  Imaging data for other uses may be
processed using our Alsvid package. 
 
XPA is a communication protocol used by ds9. It enables xmccd to notify the
display when a new image is available, and to accept coordinates from ds9 
to select regions of interest.  XPA should be installed system-wide with
the source code included here. Earlier versions will work if the library and
include files are in /usr/local/lib/ and /usr/local/include/.

The cfitsio library package provides standard FITS library support for 
the image file format in xmccd. A recent version is included in the XmCCD
source code, and should be used if possible. Earlier versions should work as
well.  If you use a different version, the fits library and header files are
expected in /usr/local/lib and /usr/local/include/.  

  
Links to sources for AstroImagej, AstroCC, and Alsvid are  on the web site 

                         www.astro.louisville.edu/software
                         



John Kielkopf
2019 September 20



