Using AviStack to Create a Lunar Landscape - Part 1

Introduction

In the February 2010 issue of "Sky and Telescope" Sean Walker reviews the freeware program AviStack (by Michael Theusner) in his article entitled "Lunar Landscapes with AviStack".  Since I was just getting started with some lunar imaging of my own I decided to give AviStack a try.

When an astronomer looks at an object through a telescope, they are looking through a thick layer of atmosphere.  There are constant fluctuations of density in that atmosphere (from wind turbulance, rising heated air, etc), each eddy of which acts like a lens to blur, distort - and occasionally sharpen - the image that the astronomer (or camera) sees through the telescope. AviStack (and a similar product called RegiStack) are products that attempt to process streams of video images (or sequences of still images) in order to remove or compensate for the detrimental effects of "bad seeing", and to exploit those few images where, by luck, the focus has been sharpened either across the entire image or in regions of the image.  

Installing the AviStack Software

The software install sequence was the following:

1. Go to the AviStack Homepage, where you can download and install AviStack Version 1.81 (29 January 2010).  I downloaded the Windows Stand-Alone version.
2. AviStack reads input video in ".avi" format (naturally!), and uses a couple of software library modules called KRSgrAVI.dll and KRSgrAVI.dlm (written by Ronn Kling of Kilvarock) to find and make the AVI codecs that you already have installed on the computer available to AviStack.  However, this library needs to be downloaded separately from AviStack and the .zip file containing it is found here.  Unzip the file and copy the KRSgrAVI.dll and KRSgrAVI.dlm files into the AviStack program directory.
3. AviStack should now run, and it did for me.

Making .avi Files for AviStack from Canon T1i .mov Files

The next step is to provide an input video file for AviStack to work on.  For me, this proved to be a lot harder than expected.

The input video I decided to use for this test was High-Definition 1280x720 @ 30 fps Video created by the HD video mode of the Canon EOS Rebel T1i DSLR.  This video is in the Quicktime .mov format.  The AviStack page says that if you install the AviSynth Frame Server then the KRSgrAVI.dll will ensure that most .mov and .mpeg files will be read into AviStack correctly.  Unfortunately, this did not work for me. Instead, the .mov files were misread as 1136x366 8-bit RGB of codec *MOV and looked like this:

 

If you look closely you can see that the movies generated an IDL  "Unspecified Error" (Idl.mpg.avs, line 1)., so it seems that something has gone wrong.  Presumably I could learn IDL and sort things out; however, I didn't feel like doing it at that moment.  So on to plan B.

Since AviStack was having trouble reading in my Canon T1i .mov files, I decided to see if I could give it an .avi instead.  After all, that is what it was made to accept!  Unfortunately, the rudimentary program that shipped with my Canon camera (ZoomBrowser EX/ImageBrowser) - in addition to being basically pointless in every other way - did not provide a format conversion capability.  Fortunately (or so it seemed), a quick google suggested that there were many free (and cheap) video format converters to turn a .mov into a .avi file.

First up was "Convert MOV to AVI". What could be simpler?  Unfortunately, none of the .avi files that it created  from my Canon .mov videos were  readable by AviStack.  I tried MPEG4, Xvid, and DivX,  (as well as trying out the NTSC DVD and VCD formats, just for fun).  All of these created files were readable by other software, but not AviStack. Turns out that the .mp4, .divx, and .vob extensions are not even seen by the AviStack "Open Movie" dialog, and the xvid codec is not supported.  It was worth a try...

Next up was Avidemux.  On loading one of my Canon T1i .mov files it immediately warned me that it had detected H.264, and that if the file was using B-frames as a reference that it could lead to a crash or stuttering. Did I want to use that mode, or a different safe mode? It turned out that it did not matter; using either the "unsafe" mode or the "safe" mode it read in the file as Codec 4CC: H264 with a correct image size of 1280x720 @ 30.001 fps.Unfortunately, I could not make Avidemux output .avi files that AviStack would accept.  Maybe it was just me.  Anyway, the codec AviStack wanted just did not seem to be available from the Avidemux...

To make a long and painful story shorter, after experimenting with a few more programs I found a couple that worked; these programs were not free (I hate it when that happens!) but they were not silly expensive either.

It turns out that AviStack likes .avi files created with the ancient video codec "Cinepak by Radius" (last updated to the publicly available version 1.10.0.11 in 1995).  I was able to create a source file in this format, which shows up as codec *cvid in the AviStack Open Movie window, using AVS Video Convertor and VideoZilla.  VideoZilla created this format using its .mov to .avi converter by default; I had to go deeper into AVS Video Convertor to create a custom profile to make it work.  (Go to the "Edit Profile" dialog, then to the "Video Codec" pick box to select "Cinepak by Radius".)  The biggest problem with using this very old codec is that it takes a very long time to process a segment of video; for example 722 frames took 17:22 minutes to process.

As an experiment, I tried doing the same thing with the Intel Indeo Video 4.1 codec.  Success!  This file was also readable by AviStack, with a codec of *IV41.  Again, the conversion took just short of forever: 518 frames in 15:12 minutes.  Next I tried Intel Indeo 5.0 Wavelet codec, which did a bit better: 518 frames in 6:36 minutes.  And it was readable, reporting a codec of *IV50.  I could live with this.  

So I bought the software from AVS4YOU, $41.35 Cdn for one year access to all of their offerings.

Using the batch functionality in AVS Video Converter I converted my six test .mov files into .avi, and copied them into a working directory to play with them in AviStack.  Finally, I was ready to get started!

Next post - AviStack Noob

My First Prime Focus Astrophotograph of the Moon

 

Click for a larger view

This image shows a waxing gibbous moon at 91% of full, taken at about 2000h on 25 February 2010. This is the first astrophotograph that I have taken with my Celestron CGEM 800 telescope (ever!), using a Canon EOS Rebel T1i 15.1 MPixel camera.  I used the "Prime Focus" technique, where the camera is coupled directly to the telescope using a T-Ring for Canon AF plus the Celestron T-Adaptor-SC #93633-A.  This is a mosaic constructed from two images, each taken at ISO 100 at 1/200s on the Manual monochrome setting.  I used the Hugin software package to stitch and blend the images using 9 manually entered correspondence points.

Bogner Family History - John Hau -1967

Click to go to Download Page

Chronology of Events of John Baptist Bogner and his Wife Eva Barbara (Foerster) Bogner Compiled by John Michael Hau. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 1967

In 1967 John Hau published a Bogner Family History book describing the early history of the John Baptist and Eva Barbara (Foerster) Bogner family, who immigrated to the United States in 1885 from Trockau, Oberfranken, Bavaria, Germany.  The earlier immigrant family (1839) of Christoph "Chris" and Margaretha (Zielman) Bogner is also mentioned. For the benefit of those who may not be lucky enough to have access to a copy of this wonderful book, I have scanned it into a .pdf file which can be downloaded from my Microsoft Live Skydrive site at the public link above.

The Terry Surname

“Terry” is a surname of pre 5th Century Gallic origin - derived from the personal name “Thierri”, in turn derived from the ancient Germanic “Theodoric”, a compound of “theudo” meaning “people or race” and “ric” meaning “of power”.

Before the Norman Conquest of Britain (1066) people in England did not use hereditary surnames. Within their small communities, they could easily be identified by a personal name or a nickname. However, as the size of communities increased it became necessary to differentiate between people with similar names, leading to names such as Henry the weaver, Joan of the meadow, Roger the short, Samuel son of Richard, and so on. After 1066 the Norman barons introduced surnames into England, and the practice gradually spread until by 1400 most English families had adopted their use. Initially surnames were changed or dropped at will, but eventually they became fixed and hereditary. The origin of most surnames is found in trades, locations of origin, and a father’s personal name or nickname (which is thought to be the case for Terry).

In the absence of definite rules of spelling, and under the combined influences of Latin, French, German, Celtic, and Old and Middle English the spelling variations of names were extreme. In the middle ages scribes generally spelled words by how they sounded, and it was the rule rather than the exception that the same person would be referred to by different spellings in different documents – and even occasionally within the same document! The “Terry” surname has been recorded in over one hundred variations in English, Irish, Scottish, French, and German. From the variant “Thierry” arising out of the Rhine Valley in France, in Britain the name has transitioned through Tedric, Tericus, Terrick, and Terye until finally becoming more or less standardized as Terry or Terrey by about 1700. English language variations which have been recorded in documents that have survived to the present day include Terry, Terrye, Terrey, Tarry, Torry, Tyrry, and of course all of their homonyms ending in both “i” and “ie”.

The name first entered England during the Norman Conquest of 1066. The variations Theodricus, Tedricus, and Teodericus appear as (Latinized) personal names (hereditary surnames not being in use at the time) in the Domesday Book of 1088. The name also makes an early appearance in Kent, where in 1138 Thierry, son of Deorman of London was granted lands by Gilbert, Earl of Pembroke, and persisted in tenancy under Richard FitzGilbert of Clare. In 1166, a certain Terri Vsuarius is mentioned in the Pipe Roles of Norfolk, and the name is first recorded as a family surname in 1199 when Ralph Teri is entered into the “Register of the Freemen of the City of Leicester” in the final year of the reign of King Richard 1st of England. Other early examples include John Terry of Warwickshire (1221), Thomas Therry of Somerset (1243), and Hugo Tyry of Befordshire (1250). From military records we also have: William Terry, Man-at-Arms to Geoffrey Sterling (1374); Roger Terry, Esquire Man-at-Arms to Thomas de Mowbray Earl of Nottingham (1388); John Terry, Yeoman Archer under Michael de la Pole Earl of Suffolk (1399); Piers Terry, Archer under Sir Thomas Erpingham with Henry V in an expedition to France (1415). In 1408 Thomas Terry, Canon of Wells, made his will within which he names his brother John Terry together with his brothers wife and two daughters.

The name entered Ireland with the family Terri as a consequence of the Anglo-Norman invasion of 1169-1170, and the families of Tyrry, Tirry, and Therry have been closely associated with the regions of Cork and Kilkenny from that time, while the families of Torrie and Torry have been associated with the region of Waterford. In Scotland, the first instance of the Terry surname occurs with a record regarding a Johannes Terry in the register of the abbey of Arbroath in 1475.

Etching Presented by Bogner Family to Village of Trockau in September 2007

In September 2007 Stephen and Audrey (Reyda) Bogner, traveling with Graham and Barbara (Schlenker) Skjenna, visited the old world home of the Bogner family in Trockau, Oberfranken, Bavaria, Germany.  On the occasion of this visit, Stephen was able to present a commemorative etching to the village of Trockau. 

"Presented by the Bogner Families of Canada and the United States, 

in remembrance of our ancestor Christopher Bogner, 

who left Trockau in 1839 for the American frontier. 

15 September 2007"

This etching is now held by the village library in Trockau.

At the same time, Stephen and Graham were honored to receive gifts of  beer steins from some of their new friends in Trockau and Buchanbach, the steins now being displayed prominently in their homes.

Stephen Bogner Birth Announcement (February 1960)

Here is a little gem from my past, which I thought it would be fun to share on the occasion of my 50th birthday!

First, I need to tell the story of how this item came into my possession.  I went to the "Terry Family Reunion" at Evergreen Campgrounds, near Havre, Montana in July 2009.  With the passage of almost all of my grandfather Lowell Terry's generation, this reunion has now become more about my mother's cousins getting together. Someone brought in a box of old cards and photographs to distribute to some of the cousins at the reunion, and in this box they found the following:

 

 

So here we have the original announcement of my birth, 50 years later!  How cool is that!

The card and envelope is in the handwriting of my mother,  Frances (Terry) Bogner.  Interestingly, it is postmarked in Fort Benton, Montana (postage due!), instead of in Rocky Mountain House, Alberta where I was born and where mom and dad were living at the time.  When I asked mom about this, she said that she had prepared the announcement cards, and then sent them with my Uncle Donald Bogner since he was going back to Fort Benton, and at that time it would be cheaper for stamps to mail them in the US, rather than Canada.

Johann Georg "George" Bogner (b.c. 1685)

In my research up to February 2010 the earliest Bogner ancestor whom I have been able to trace with confidence is George Bogner (b.c. 1685).

George Bogner was probably actually called Johann Georg Bogner, consistent with the tradition at the time. It is likely that he was born about 1685 +/- 5 years, making him between 17 and 27 years old at his marriage to Anna Schrüfer in 1707. He was almost certainly born in the Oberfranken region of Bavaria, most probably in or near the village of Kottweinsdorf, Bavaria where his son Johann (?) Bogner was born in 1709.

Kottweinsdorf is situated in Bayreuth, Oberfranken, Bayern, Germany, its geographical coordinates are 49° 49' 0" North, 11° 19' 0" East and its original name (with diacritics) is Köttweinsdorf. It is about 15 km W of Trockau - the village from which Christoph Bogner immigrated to America in 1839 and Baptist Bogner immigrated to America in 1885 - and about 6 km NNW of Gossweinstein - where some of the present day Bogner relatives still reside.

The Schrüfer family remains a very large and prominent family in the region, and traces its roots to the villages of Tuchersfeld (about 3km NE of Gossweinstein) and Hollfeld (about 17km NW of Trochau). Without knowing the significance of the village in the family history, I took this photograph when I drove through Tuchersfeld in September 2007:


A Christoph Schrüfer settled in the village of Gosseldorf by about 1600. Gosseldorf is only about 2km NW of Kottweinsdorf.

Anna Schrüfer was probably born about 1687 +/- 5 years, probably in or near Gosseldorf, making her 15 to 25 years of age at her marriage in 1707.

I suspect, but have not yet been able to confirm, that Anna Schrüfer was the daughter of Albert Schrüfer (b. 17 July 1653 Gosseldorf, Oberfranken, Bavaria, Germany; baptism 17 July 1653 Waischenfeld Church; m. Anna Sebald 05 July 1683 Waischenfeld Church; owned a sizable farm "Kastenlehn" at Gosseldorf which was sold by his widow Anna to her son Johann/Hans Georg Schrüfer after 1712; d. July 1712 in Gosseldorf; buried 23 July 1712 at Waischenfeld Church.) and Anna Sebald (b.c. 1660 at Etzdorf, Oberfranken, Bavaria, Germany; birthplace within the community of Leutzdorf, Pegnitz, Bayern, Germany and within the juristiction of the Gossweinstein parish and court; d. July 1723; buried 24 July 1723 at Waischenfeld Church)

If this is the case, then Anna Schrüfer was the grandaughter of Johann/Hans Schrüfer (b.c. 1610 Gosseldorf, Oberfranken, Bavaria Germany; d. October 1698 in Gosseldorf; buried 30 October 1698 at Waischenfeld Church) and Anna Beyer (b.c. 1630 in Behringersmuhle, Oberfranken, Bavaria, Germany; d. 17 September 1660 in Gosseldorf; buried September 1660 in Nankendorf, Oberfranken, Bavaria, Germany) who were married 18 November 1652 in Waischenfeld Church. Consequently, Anna Schrüfer would have been the great-granddaughter of Christoph Schrüfer who was born about 1585, probably in either Tuchersfeld or Hollfeld, and who died after 1644 in Gosseldorf.

A further study of the Schrüfer ancestors, and their connections to the Bogner family is certainly warranted. It has been reported that the local authority on the Schrüfer / Schruefer family history is Dr. Werner Schruefer (St.-Kassians-Platz 7a, 93047 Regensburg Phone 0049 941 566415). Apparently he has published a book on the family, unfortunatley only available in German, and it is said that it does not reference the Gosseldorf Schrüfer family.