SuperScan Automation Application

Overview

SuperScan is a Windows-compatible application whose purpose is to automate the search for supernova suspects using the TheSkyX™ Professional astro-imaging platform.

Each night that SuperScan is run, a fresh set of images is taken of all available galaxies that fit a set of user-stipulated criteria. Each galactic image is compared against the most recent equivalent image from a prior SuperScan run. If any new light sources appear within the boundaries of the imaged galaxy, their location is derived and flagged. Upon completion of a scan, the images that contain flagged suspects are displayed for visual analysis and any follow up work a user might want to prove the source real.

As options, SuperScan supports variable exposure length, autofocus, delayed start, execution of pre-scan and post-scan automation scripts, minimum altitude limit, and filter selection. Additional constraints on the galaxy selection can be made by modifications to the SuperScan database search query.

See SuperScanDescription.docx in SuperScan folder for detailed information.