These instructions are for Windows machines with a Firewire connection. I have a Canon ZR45mc camcorder with miniDV tape
Scott Degenhardt's IOTA'08 ppt on this subject
--Connect firewire to computer and camcorder
Run Windows MovieMaker (free with WinXP)
-- connect the firewire
-- then turn on the camcorder to the play position. If not done in this order,
WinXP and MovieMaker will not recognize the device
-- enter output filename and folder
-- choose Digital Device Format (DV-AVI) option, and
answer the obvious q's that follow
-- click the forward arrow to begin playing the tape
-- click Start Capture when you're at the point you
want, and Stop Capture, then finish
and the file will be written to your hard drive
-- close MovieMaker
Run Virtual Dub (free software off the web). Goal is to make
an .avi file which LiMovie can read. (maybe can skip this step if you use an
S-video connection above) . Or use AVIsynth
if your file is very long. Steve Preston's
instructions for AVIsynth
-- file | open | and navigate to your file
-- drag the little box on the number line below the even and odd images, drag
it to see the movie and position it to further restrict the output file
-- click the little half arrows to so that the newly restricted video begin-to-end
is light blue
-- file | save as | AVI and give file name. I like
to append a 'vd' to the end of the original file name root.
-- close Virtual Dub
Run LiMovie (there's a ton of options
I don't understand yet, but for the basic use, here goes...)
-- file | AVI file open | and your filename. You'll
see the first frame show
-- click on your target star and adjust the red circle until it encloses all
of your star and as little sky as possible
-- adjust the blue annulus to be beyond the red circle and not include any other
stars or bad pixels
-- make sure Kiwi is checked (middle right of the
screen) if you have Kiwi OSD, then LiMovie will read the time stamps
-- with just your target star visible, then click anchor
(bottom of screen)
-- if you have a second star in the field, then right-click your occulted star
which brings up a window where you click add object
-- then click on your second star and a yellow circle will appear around that
star. Make sure the Synch-APT (synchronize aperatures)
is clicked. Now you're guiding on the second star which will be really helpful
during the occultation when the target star is gone.
-- click Start and watch the video and make sure the
red circle encloses all of the star especially after it reappears.
-- Adjust red circle if necessary. Before clicking Start
again, you'll have to delete the .csv data just created by clicking DataRemove
and repositioning to the beginning by clicking on the double left arrow
-- It'll run through the vide creating a .csv output. Save it by clicking savetoCSVfile
-- click GRAPH to see the light curve
-- shift PrtScr and open Photoshop to paste in the screen and
trim to include just the light curve so you can make a .jpg for it.
Run Occular (this program has a non-intuitive procedure,
so don't ask, just do the following...)
--select file and get your file. It'll show the .csv file
-- click on the gray box left of the header line with No. next to it, immediately
above the first data line. Make sure the entire row is highlighted. This tells
Occular the headers titles
-- find the Object1 Result Measurement column and
click on the first entry data to highlight it
-- use the vertical positioner to go all the way to the last data entry in this
column and Shift left-click on it, to highlight the entire column
-- click Analyze Data and it'll warn you you need a time stamp, click yes and
you then navigate to the row 1 column 1 entry = 0.0 (which is frame number)
and double-click on it to bring up a box for you to work with
-- follow the format they suggest and enter the month/day/year/hr/min/sec in
the white space provided, and click OK
-- click Analyze Data which will bring up a box which
includes your light curve and parameter boxes.
Occular will search through a range of occultation
time lengths to search for a range which includes an obvious occultation.
-- for Event Bottom choose a lower and upper limit
which includes your occultation length of occultation in frames
-- for Wing Length choose a number of frames less
than the un-occulted time length before the first D.
-- click on Star Magnitude and fill in the available
magnitudes of the star.
-- click Use Mr as Star Magnitude and it'll bring
up a new box for you to enter the asteroid magnitude
-- and click Use Mr as Asteroid Magnitude
-- click Calculate MaxFOM to calculate the best figure of merit
from the possible occultation parameters you've entered.
-- it'll take a couple of minutes to generate the 100 trials. Then you'll see
the distribution of errors to the model, and it should look single-peaked and
roughly Gaussian. Do PrtScr and CNTRL V to cut/paste to Photoshop for the graphs
you want.
-- click final report to generate, and ignore the warning. Save a .jpg of the
by PrtScr and CNTRL V and photoshop so you can save the very cool plot!