Stellinator

Stellinator is a tool for copying files generated by Stellina on a thumb drive. It is based on the observation that Stellina only outputs .jpeg and .tiff files on good frames (exposures that were not rejected by Stellina's algorithms). Therefore, when presented with a file list like this:

img-0001.fits
img-0001-output.jpeg
img-0002.fits
img-0003.fits
img-0004.fits
img-0004-output.jpeg

The images sequenced with 0002 and 0003 were rejected by Stellina. To save time with processing, I filter those out. The tool also renames the files to ensure they are unique.

By default, the tool maps the files based on the observation object and date. Consider a starting folder that looks like this:

Stellina-38a323
    281
        2021-04-21_04-23-30-observation-IC443
            04-24-43-capture-initial
                img-0001.fits
                img-0001-output.jpeg
                img-0002.fits
                img-0003.fits
                img-0004.fits
                img-0004-output.jpeg
                img-0004.tif
            04-38-50-capture-adjust-focus
                img-0001.fits
                img-0001-output.jpeg
                img-0002.fits
                img-0003.fits
                img-0004.fits
                img-0004-output.jpeg
                img-0004.tif
    283
        2021-04-27_04-35-11-observation-IC443
            04-36-21-capture-initial
                img-0001.fits
                img-0001-output.jpeg
                img-0002.fits
                img-0003.fits
                img-0004.fits
                img-0004-output.jpeg
                img-0004.tif

By default, the tool will copy it to a structure like this:

IC443
    2021-04-21
        Accepted
            8d8f787e4a80f4-0001.fits
            8d8f787e4a80f4-0002.fits
            8d8f787e4a80f4-0003.fits
            8d8f787e4a80f4-0004.fits
        Rejected
            img-0002.fits
            img-0002(01).fits
            img-0003.fits
            img-0003(01).fits
        Processed
            img-0001-output.jpeg
            img-0001-output(01).jpeg
            img-0004-output.jpeg
            img-0004-output(01).jpeg
            img-0004.tif
    2021-04-27
        Accepted
            9d8f777e4b80f5-0001.fits
            9d8f777e4b80f5-0002.fits
        Rejected
            img-0002.fits
            img-0003.fits
        Processed
            img-0001-output.jpeg
            img-0004-output.jpeg
            img-0004.tif

Getting started

Check out our releases to download the latest. Install wherever you like, and make sure that directory is in your path when you run it.

NOTE be sure to run using the -s flag to see how your filesystem will be impacted without making changes!

Options

The following options are available with Stellinator.

Short	Long	Default	Description
-d	--directory-only	false	Only scans a single directory; does not recurse subdirectories.
-q	--quiet-mode	false	Suppress verbose updates.
-s	--scan-only	false	Scan only; show logic but do not copy files.
-c	--include-scope	false	Include Stellina name as directory in output.
-i	--ignore	Nothing	Choose to ignore files. Combine multiple options by separating them with a comma. Options are: Nothing Rejection will process rejected files as if they are accepted. Rejected will ignore and not copy rejected files. Jpeg Tiff AllButLast will only copy the most recent .jpeg and .tif from Stellina.
-g	--group-strategy	Date	Choose how to group images together. Will create directories based on: Observation folder per object Date folder per object per date Capture folder per capture
-t	--target-filename-strategy	TicksHex	Choose the strategy to rename target images. Valid values: Original preserves filenames New uses a prefix you provide Ticks uses numeric timestamp TicksHex uses hexadecimal timestamp
-n	--new-filename		Set the name of target files when using target filename strategy New.
	--help		Display thE help screen.
	--version		Display version information.

You must also pass the source directory which should include Stellina in the path name, and the root of the target directory to place files in. Stellinator is smart enough to embed into existing directories if they exist.