15th Feb 2024: Astro Pixel Processor 2.0.0-beta29 released - macOS native File Chooser, macOS CMD-Q fixed, read-only Fits on network fixed and other bug fixes
7th December 2023: added payment option Alipay to purchase Astro Pixel Processor from China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and other countries where Alipay is used.
Does APP have the capability of distinguishing and generating a BPM for 2 separate cameras that are the same make and model? I have just bought my second Risingcam IMX571 and am preparing to integrate multiple sessions of the same target taken with both cameras. I then quickly realized I may have an issue when APP generates and applies a Bad Pixel Map. APP names the BPM based on the camera name in the FITS header. The camera name is the same for both. Will APP know which BPM is for which camera? Will I need to go in and modify the FITS header to name the second camera something different? If I do, that's going to be a pain in the put to modify the FITS header every time before data is stacked. Will APP generate a unique BPM for each camera, even though they have the same name?
@jasonjeremiah Hi Jason,
APP will use whatever BPM you tell it to use irrespective of the FITS header. So just simply make sure that you name the BPM in such a way that you know which camera it is for and load the correct one whenever you are processing data. Remember that you can reuse BPMs as well as master darks and master bias and that you don't need to process the raw data every time.
HTH, Wouter
@wvreeven I'm not sure I'm asking the question in the right way. How does APP know which BPM is for which session of data when you're stacking multiple sessions of data from both cameras? You don't currently have the ability to assign BPMs according to session as you do with other calibration files. I can specifically indicate this flat file is for session one and this one is for session 2. There's obviously a way that APP matches the BPM to certain data as the BPMs are only loaded once and APP doesn't ask for which sessions this BPM is pertinent. Since both cameras have the same pixel array and sensor geometry, how does APP identify which BPM is the correct one to apply that is unique to that camera and sensor and that session, while stacking multiple sessions taken with both cameras?
@jasonjeremiah Hi Jason,
OK now I get it. This indeed unfortunately is not possible at the moment. The best way to go forward with this is to integrate the data of the two setups separately. Then you can take the integration results of the two setups and load them as lights (no calibration data this time). Then you can go to tab 6 and click the "integrate" button and APP will integrate the files together.
HTH, Wouter
@wvreeven How difficult would it be to add the capability of assigning BPMs to sessions, as you do calibration files? I have a hard time believing the resulting integration from stacking "stacks" would be the best possible result. I'm also sure there's a lot of people who use multiple imaging rigs utilizing the same camera, so it would be a beneficial feature.
@jasonjeremiah BPM loading is done based on the camera name. Modifying that would be quite a large change and not something that is foreseen for now.
However, it turns out there is another way. APP 2.0.0-beta (it doesn't matter if this is 1, 2 or 3) has a "batch modify FITS metadata/CFA" tool which allows you to modify the name of the camera in one of the two data sets. Once done, you can load all frames together and APP will be able to connect the correct BPM to each data set.
