Memory Error

[Mark Salisbury]

Hi

I have been using AIJ for a short while now and have just started looking at reducing data from a different telescope.  The camera on this telescope produces 32Mb image files.  When I started running the DP module I got the following message;

   Out of memory.  All available memory (567MB) has been used.

The memory value actually varies a bit each time I tried it.  I have 16Gb installed so have tried following the installation instructions increasing the memory available to both 2Gb and 4Gb but I still get the same error.  After checking on these forums for answers I have checked the amount of memory allocated and the version of Java by clicking on the bottom of the AIJ window.  It shows the following

   ImageJ 1.47i; java1.7.0_71(64bit); 141MB of 2000Mb(7%)

This looks as it should to me but for some reason I still get the memory errors at around 570MB.  I am running AIJ3.2.0 on a Windows10 PC.

Any ideas how to resolve this would be much appreciated.

Also, while I am asking, is AIJ DP able to reduce image sets where the calibration frames are a different binning (1x1) from the science frames (2x2) as this is actually what I was trying to test?

Many thanks

Mark.

[karenacollins]

Hi Mark,

Where is AIJ installed on your machine? Windows 10 has locked down the
"Program Files" and "Program Files (x86)" directories and made it
difficult for 3rd party programs (or at least AIJ) to write to those
directories. It can be set up to work, but you must go to the AIJ
installation directory and give read/write access to the directories and
sub-directories. It is much easier to just install AIJ in your user
directory or even more specifically in the Documents directory, which is
usually more well know to most users. Also, after you change the memory
setting, close AIJ and reopen it to make sure the new settings are still
there by clicking at the bottom of the AIJ toolbar as you reported
below. If you have 16 GB of memory, I would set the AIJ to memory to ~
12000Mb. The memory is not actually used unless AIJ needs it.

Regarding your last question, AIJ DP requires the same binning for
calibration and science images. The bottom line is that the calibration
images and science images must have the same pixel dimensions for DP to
process the files.

If the above info regarding your memory issue does not solve you
problem, let me know and we can go from there.

Karen

[Mark Salisbury]

Many thanks Karen

AIJ is installed in the program files(x86) directory which I think was the default option when I installed.  AIJ is reporting that it has 2000MB of memory available when I check the help/about AstroImageJ menu option but I still get the memory error notice at ~550MB.  This appears to be similar to an issue with the observatories.txt file and changing the file permissions solved the issue then but not this time.

If I uninstall/reinstall in my user directory I presume I'll lose my configuration settings.  Are these details held in a particular file (like the observatories.txt file) that I can simply copy back into the new installation directory?

Thanks

Mark

[karenacollins]

Hi Mark,

Those settings should be maintained no matter where you install AIJ
(unlike the observatories.txt and memory config file), since they are
keep in your users directory. In any event, in case you want to make a
copy, the preferences settings are in the file:

Users/<username>/.astroimagej/AIJ_Prefs.txt

To replace them, over-write that file if needed for some reason (with
AIJ closed), and then start AIJ. AIJ overwrites that file every time it
is closed, so make sure AIJ is not running before you over-write it (but
I don't think you need to do that).

Karen