UFOCapture Night Sky Observation Guide V2.0

2.3 UFOCapture setup

Step 5 Installation of UFOCapture

Step 5-1 Create directory

Create 4 directories below.

• UFO Program directory
  • A directory which contains program files of UFOseries
  • 15MB will be needed to contain UFO2,UFOA, and UFOOrbit.
  • ex. C:\program files\UFO\
• Capture target directory
  • A directory which contains captured movies, still images, log files.
  • You should always keep more than 40GB of free area (assuming maximum number of clips in one night is 1000 )
  • Recommended to have 100GB or larger for continuous use.
  • In general, 50GB will be sufficient for one month meteor observation except trash.
  • This directory must be in fast inner volume. You should optimize the volume once in a month.
  • You can use volume root directory as target directory such as D:\
  • ex. D:\UFO\
• Analyze output directory
  • A directory which contains output of UFOAnalyzer.
  • 500MB will be sufficient for a few years.
  • You are recommended to make year and month sub directories.
  • ex. D:\UFO\DB\2005\Dec\
• CSV data base directory
  • A directory which contains results from many sites.
  • 10MB will be sufficient for a few years.
  • You are recommended to make year and month sub directories.
  • ex: D:\UFO\CSV\2005\Dec\

Step 5-2 UFOCaptureV2 installation

• There is no special installation procedure, just expand and place it.
  • Download latest UFO2 package such as "UFO205.zip" from http://sonotaco.com/soft/e_index.html.
  • Expand the package by some decompression tool to appropriate directory.
    • Windows Xp naively have un-zip function.
  • Confirm that you got UFO2 directory and UFO2.exe in it.
    • When UFO2.exe was not expanded, you should de-block security option of windows Xp.
      • Open property page of the package and push de-block button before expanding.
  • Move UFO2 directory as a sub directory of UFO program directory.
• In case of changing the directory of UFO2 directory.
  • Run UFO2.exe.
  • Open Operation sheet, and push re-install ax button.
  • This operation notice the directory to your system, and is needed once when execution directory has been changed.
• In case of version up, you are recommended to overwrite UFO2 directory, then you can maintain all of your settings.
  • All latest settings are kept as a file "Settings.ufi" which is not included in the package.
• Registration
  • When you want to register your licence key, do steps below.
  • Run UFO2.exe
  • Open Operation sheet
  • Push Registration button
  • Fill V2 Serial Code and V2 Licence key
  • When using upgrade key, check Upgrade Registration ON, and fill V1 User Name and V1 License Key also.
  • Push Register button and you will get "registration succeeded" message.
• DB directory assign
  • Run UFO2.exe
  • Open DB sheet.
  • Push "..." button of DB dir line
  • Select your capture target directory as DB dir.

Step 6 Confirmation of the capture driver.

• Stop other applications, get ready your video equipments, then Run UFO2.exe .
• Confirm or select your capture hardware driver at the Video drop down list box in Input sheet.
• 

• The name of the driver may differ a little from the official name of the hardware.
• If you use IEEE1394(DV) as capture device, select "Microsoft DV Camera and VCR"
• The driver names appear only when they are ready and not in use.

Step 7 Previewing test.

• Set resolution of video(Xi, Yi) and frame rate(Fps) which are supported by your driver.
  • 
  • Example of general settings..

    Input Signal	Videoformat	Safety Setting	High load Setting
    analog	NTSC	Xi=320,Yi=240,Fps=29.97	Xi=640,Yi=480,Fps=29.97
    	PAL	Xi=352,Yi=288,Fps=25.0	Xi=704,Yi=528,Fps=25.0
    IEEE1394(DV)	NTSC	Xi=360,Yi=240,Fps=29.97	Xi=720,Yi=480,Fps=29.97
    	PAL	Xi=352,Yi=288,Fps=25.0	Xi=720,Yi=576,Fps=25.0

• Push Preview button in Live sheet, and confirm input video signal is shown in live windowB
  • 
  • When your capture hardware has multiple inputs, select prefer input pin in the combo box below during previewing.
  • 
  • When you get error message, please refer here.

Step 8 Manual recording test.

• Push Rec button in Live sheet, then recording will start.
• Push RecOff button (same position as Rec button), and recording will stop after a few seconds ( time shifted ).
• 
• Click Replay tab to go to Replay sheet, DB sheet will be shown in right area.
• Click clip name(Mxxxxxxxx_xxxx*) shown in the list area, snap shot still image will appear in replay window.
• Click ">" button in Replay sheet, recorded clip will be replayed.
• 

Step 9 Detection test.

• Go back to Live sheet and push Detect button.
• Let input video have some change(ex. move hands before camera), then recording will start automatically and stop when the change is seized.
• Replay and confirm the results. If you got appropriate video clips and still images, all test was passed.

Step 10 Basic setting

• Go to Operation sheet.
• Push Read Settings button and select appropriate default setting.
  • NTSC analog input -> NF640x480N.ufi
  • NTSC IEEE1394 -> NF720x480N.ufi
  • PAL -> PF640x480N.ufi or PF720x576.ufi
• Confirm device name, DB dir and Xi,Yi,Fps settings.
• Do Detection test again, and confirm you can get appropriate results of high resolution.
  • Please check CPU load by Task Manager of your system during the test, and confirm the load is below 90%.

Step 11 Profile setting

• Profile information is used for sun raise/set time calculation, super impose and logging. You should set all information properly.
• ex:
• 

Here, you have finished necessary settings.

Step 12,13,14 are optional. You can use default parameters.

Step 12 Super impose setting

• Set appropriate super impose format.
• ex:
• 
• Size M
  • 
• Size S
  • 
• You can use "%t" instead of "%T" to get "dd/mon/yyyy" date format.
• When you want to use UTC instead of local time, check UTC check box.

Step 13 Dark object mask setting

• 
• Dark object mask is not to detect dark movement of dark objects.
• This function is not perfect, but reduces most of detection of birds or insects in night sky.
• Check DarkObjMask check box, set 0 as DOlevel. Normally, there is no need to change it.
• You can set 1 or 2 as DOlevel, this will reduce more, but do not set DOlevel above MinL-N, or you may lose some bright objects.

Step 14 Slow object mask setting

• 
• Slow object mask function tracks the objects that move slowly and mask the area around it in real time.
• Once some object is detected, this function observe it for 3 seconds, calculate its moving speed, and mask it when it is continuous slow moving object
• Set this option ON to avoid the capture of airplanes, OFF to capture all events including airplanes or satellites.

.

• Slow Object Mask area is shown in white rectangle in view area. While gray rectangle is the mark of observing stage.
• Pixel/s : Highest speed of which should be masked.
  • Normally 15 is recommended for wide lens. 40 is recommended for narrow lens.
• SOsize : Size of mask pattern (pixel length of the edge of mask rectangle)
  • Normally 15 is recommended for wide lens to avoid the effect of the flash lights of air plane.
• This function is very useful to reduce the capture of airplanes.
• There is no need to change this setting unless you change your lens.