MAY 4 2026: APP 2.0.0-beta44 has been released !
New improved internal memory controls should now work on all computers
May 1 2026: APP 2.0.0-beta43 has been released !
Improved internal memory controls (much more stable and faster on big datasets), fixed CPU image viewer, fixed Narrowband extraction demosaic algortihms.
Apr 29 2026 APP 2.0.0-beta42 has been released !
New improved Normalization engine, Fixed random crashes in integration, fixed RGB Combine & Calibrate Star Colors, fixed Narrowband extraction algorithms, new development platform with performance gains, bug fixes in the tools, etc...
Apr 14 2026: Google Pay, Apple Pay & WeChat Pay added as payment options
Update on the 2.0.0 release & the full manual
We are getting close to the 2.0.0 stable release and the full manual. The manual will soon become available on the website and also in PDF format. Both versions will be identical and once released, will start to follow the APP release cycle and thus will stay up-to-date to the latest APP version.
Once 2.0.0 is released, the price for APP will increase. Owner's license holders will not need to pay an upgrade fee to use 2.0.0, neither do Renter's license holders.
Started my 30 day trail for APP recently and so I've been playing around with a bunch of different features. One feature I like in particular is the Bad Pixel Map. Thinking through the process though is there any reason that the camera needs to be attached to its optics? I tried just using a white computer screen and placed my DSLR up against the screen to capture the flats. Seems like the generated bad pixel map is working, but I was just curious if there's something I'm missing as to why taking the flats (for the purpose of a bad pixel map) would need the optics since its just looking for hot and cold pixels.
Side question, about how long of an exposure would you recommend for dark frames? Tried 30s and it seems okay but not apposed to making a new make using longer exposures.
Thanks!
Hi Blair
Your darks must be the same iso, time(seconds - minutes), temperature, as the lights. At least you can do these while packing up your gear for the night.
Flats are to see dust bunnies, vignetting and other imperfections in the complete optical train. Must be done at same focus as lights right after imaging and before darks especialy on a DSLR as you might move the focus accidentaly when you cover the lens for the darks.
https://www.astropixelprocessor.com/how-to-create-a-bad-pixel-map-bpm-by-sara-wager/
Regards
teve
@solo05 Thanks for the response. Yes for calibrating my lights I'm aware the darks need to have the same settings and for flats to calibrate lights they of course need to be with the same optics, focus, etc.
I'm specifically interested for only generating a Bad Pixel Map, not in calibrating Lights. If you're only trying to find the bad pixels why would the optics matter?
It wouldn’t indeed. Unless you have cold pixels, those show up in flats, but modern sensors don’t seem to have those a lot anymore. So purely for the BPM you can use a long dark (longer is noisier and better for that).
