CSERIO

#include <stdio.h>
#include "cserio.h"

/* this example omits error checking */
int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
    int status = 0;
    serfile* ser_capture;

    ser_open_file(
        &ser_capture,
        "/path/mars_capture.ser",
        READONLY, 
        &status
    );

    unsigned long frame_size = 0;
    ser_get_frame_byte_size(ser_capture, &frame_size, &status);

    char* frame_buff = malloc(frame_size);
    ser_read_frame(ser_capture, frame_buff, 0, &status);

    /* do stuff with frame data */

    ser_close_file(ser_capture, &status);
    free(frame_buff);

    return 0;
}

I built CSERIO because I noticed a lack of any real library that provided an interface to interact with SER format image captures.

SER files are essentially like raw video captures but were designed primarily for use in astrophotography in capturing videos of things like planets and sometimes deep sky objects.

It’s a fairly well supported image format within the space and uses a fairly simple architecture. It has a fixed width heading followed by image data and ending with an optional footer.

If you’re unfamiliar, standard image captures in both astrophotography and oftentimes the professional astronomy space utilize fit/fits format image captures. This format already has a well built and documented library interface called CFITSIO, hence the name for this project.

Provided that fit/fits format images are fairly complicated in construction, supporting variable width headers and multidimensional layering, the need for an interface to the relatively simplistic SER format image capture is understandably less.

Still, I’ve built the library and it’s still undergoing development. While it may only see use in personal projects since I’d like to develop some software for the astrophtography space, it’s still a nice endeavor in developing and documenting my own libraries.