MPO Canopus - Blinking Images
Canopus allows you to blink two or more images, i.e., to alternately display overlapped
images; this helps spotting an asteroid or other object by its motion since the stars in
the image stay in one position while the object jumps from one place in the frame to
another.
Using the blinker is very simple: as you open each image, click on a star that appears
in all the images to be blinked. This aligns the images so that the stars do not move as
the images are cycled through. Once you have done that, click the Start button. The images
are minimized and a new form appears on the Blinker page that shows the images, in
ascending date/time order, one at at time. You can adjust the amount of time each image
appears. The effect is that the stars stay in one place (because the images are aligned)
and anything that moves appears to jump across the screen. By using three or more images,
you can have more confidence that the moving object is real and not just
"fuzzballs" because the motion is linear and in proportion to the time between
the images.
