Version 8.050 (August 2020)

This major new release adds “immediate” mode dialogs for nearly 60 commands. These simplified versions of long-standing commands work with images in the top-most Image Window. The prior "global" command dialogs remain available for “batch-mode” processing of images based on more complex selection criteria using folders, file templates, and header keyword matches, as well as images and image sets opened in Image Windows. Global commands have been moved to a command menu opened from the [P] ("processing") button on the main toolbar. As an example of the new capability, the pictures below show the immediate mode dialog (left) and the global mode dialog (right) for the Rotational Gradient Filter.

Mira Immediate Mode Dialog	Mira Global Mode Dialog

[Removed all update descriptions for 2 years]

Details of feature changes going back 2 years are included in the "Readme" document installed with updates and new installations.

Version 8.022 (2018)

New, robust photometric background estimation method for Mira Pro x64.

• A new Adaptive Estimator option for Mira Pro x64 solves a vexing problem in aperture photometry for estimating the background level when stars and artifacts (e.g., cosmic ray events) contaminate the background ring around the source. This new estimator can return an accurate background estimate even when the background sample contains artifacts significantly brighter than the target object. One development goal for this estimator was to return an empirical error, determined from the contaminated background sample in the image data, approaching the theoretical error calculated from internal sources (photon shot noise, readout noise, pixel response non-uniformity, and digitization noise). This target was achieved and the empirical error calculated from a contaminated background sample now approaches a Gaussian Normal noise distribution with skewness near 0. This new estimator adds to previous options including the mean, median, and mode.

Version 8.021 (2018)

Version 8.023 released for all 64-bit Mira platforms.

• New Statistics Properties dialog for choosing advanced statistics to be interactively measured using the image cursor for one image or the image set.

• New keystroke commands for Image Windows work with the image cursor as accelerators for menu and toolbar commands that measure a single image or image set:

  a (align image set on centroid position), c (centroid coordinates), f (FWHM), h (horizontal plot), i (pixel value histogram), p (pixel value table), r (radial profile plot), s (statistics; see "Statistics Properties" item above), v (vertical plot). These supplement longstanding set of image window keystrokes, the arrow keys for moving the image cursor and Tab/Alt+Tab for stepping forward or backward through an image set.

• Additional, detailed processing messages logged by the image calibration pipeline functions.

• New "Set Output Pixel Type" method added to the Express Image Calibration pipeline.

• Fixes to a few minor bugs.

Changes from version 8.022 back through version 8.003 are listed in the README document included in the installation.

Version 8.020 (2017)

Major update version 8.020 released for the 64-bit platforms Mira MX x64, Mira Pro x64, and Mira Pro.

This significant update includes many improvements and new features, as shown in this Mira Pro x64 Screenshot. Here are a few:

• Enhancements to the 6 pipelined image calibration commands, including Create Master Bias, Create Master Dark, Create Master Flat, Create Illumination Flat, Create Pixel Flat, and Express Image Calibration. The master correction creation tools and Express Calibration include options for 3 different bias methods and several sub methods, 3 dark methods, 3 flat field types, 3 cosmetic corrections, filtered flat libraries, and application of multiple illumination flats.

• New Chart module for presentation graphics: The new chart window type takes data from measurements and other tabulated data in table and view windows and panes. Charts may also be printed and copied as a bitmap to the Windows clipboard for insertion into other documents. Initially supported features include a variety of plot marker types and properties, data grouping, legends, etc. The separate Plot Window functionality continues to be available.

• New Create Image Keyword List command: This new tool generates a table of images and values of their specified keywords. From the data table, image sets may be created and column data may be plotted for analytical purposes.

• Speed improvements of tabulating photometry measurements for large data sets.

• Fixes to numerous small bugs present in minor versions prior to this major release.

Changes from version 8.020 back through version 8.003 are listed in the README document included in the installation.

September 4, 2017

Release of 64-bit editions for Mira Pro and Mira AL.

A native 64-bit version is now available for Mira Pro and Mira AL, in addition to continuation of the 32-bit versions for both. The 64-bit editions provide increased speed and virtually unlimited 64-bit memory space for working with huge images, huge image sets, and huge image sets of huge images. The 64-bit editions require 64-bit Windows. The 32-bit editions remain available for users who don't need 64-bit capability or must install on 32-bit Windows. Otherwise, the 64-bit and 32-bit editions have mostly similar features; see the detailed feature comparison.

January 16, 2017

New Mirametrics Store goes live.

The new online store provides an enhanced shopping experience with a more intuitive layout, easy product comparisons, keyword searches, and a better checkout. You can view the secure Mirametrics Store here.