Software

WinOccult 3.6 – This is the current fully-operational suite of freeware 
software created by Australian author Dave Herald for the prediction and 
reduction of lunar and asteroidal occultations. It is written for Windows OS.

VirtualDub – This freeware program is for capturing and pre-processing .avi 
video files. Many use this program to create a uncompressed video file compatible 
with Registax and LiMovie.

Avisynth -- AviSynth is a very very powerful freeware tool for video post-production. 
It provides almost unlimited ways of editing and processing videos. AviSynth works 
as a frameserver, providing instant and very fast editing without the need for 
temporary files. Many are using Avisynth as a scripting tool and preprocessor for 
use in LiMovie.

LiMovie – The outstanding freeware program written by Kazuhisa Myashita is used to 
obtain photometric data from occultation videos. It can determine the photometry for 
up to 3 different stars simultaneously. There is a graphing function that includes a 
Fresnel Diffraction based occultation timing function for both lunar grazes, lunar 
total occultations, and asteroidal occulations.

Registax – Another outstanding and indispensable freeware program, written by Cor 
Berrevoets for the advance processing of video and multiple images. The software stacks 
and processes video and multiple single images to achieve unparalleled sharpness and 
resolution. For occultations, Registax provides a “pre-registration” function that aligns 
the many frames in a video image to compensate for windy conditions when individual frames 
are dancing in the video frames so violently that LiMovie cannot attain proper photometric 
results. Even more useful, Registax provides an “integration” function that will integrate 
multiple frames in the video in a ‘running average’ format, which preserves the frame-by-frame 
timing of the video, but enhances faint stars and suppresses noise. The integration function 
can increase the sensitivity of the CCD video camera while preserving the 1/60 or 1/30 second 
time resolution.

Occular – A new program released at the 2007 IOTA North America Conference. The program was 
written and co-authored by Bob Anderson and co-authored by Tony George. It provides a new 
methodology for analyzing LiMovie .csv output file to determine the time of disappearance, 
reappearance, and duration of asteroid occultations in a semi-automated routine. Occular is 
extremely adept at finding very weak or very short occultation signals in videos that would 
otherwise be very difficult to process manually or visually.

Occult C# -- A program under development and nearly ready for release. It will replace WinOccult 3.6. 
This program provides all of the functionality of WinOccult 3.6 in a completely new GUI and 
lightening fast implementation in C# program language. It also adds the new functionality of 
mapping compatible with Google Earth and Google maps, a new lunar graze reporting form, and 
new lunar graze historical database. The asteroid occultation prediction routine automatically 
downloads and unzips the massive MPCOrb and Astorb databases. Stay tuned for the upcoming release!