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.
So I captured some raw subs last night using Sharpcap. I'm wanting to process those through APP. I didn't use Sharpcap to capture my flats, darks, or dark flats. I use Astro Photography Tool to capture those. After I load everything into APP I hit "calibrate" and everything runs along normally. When its done I see I have a master flat, dark, and dark flat at the bottom of the window as normal.
However, after the calibration if I choose one of my lights and hit the dropdown at the top that goes from linear to l-calibrated, I get this error message:Â
Flat field calibration is not possible. The masterflat and the light frames aren't compatible. The masterflat has 1 channel and the light frame has 3 channel.
I'm not sure why this is. Looking at the CFA column of APP, the lights are showing up as RGB while the flats, darks, and dark flats are showing as "NO".
I just checked Astro Photography Tool and its showing the output as RAW16 which is exactly the same setting Sharpcap was using. Why is it showing as only 1 channel for flats and other calibration frame?
Hi @biggen,
You will need to create those Master Frames with the correct CFA pattern and this is very crucial.
Different capture programs can work differently on how the sensor is read and how the data is stored in the FITS file, and which Bayer Pattern needs to be used then...
Furthermore, if you mix your light frames and calibration frames using different capture software, you will run into all sorts of trouble, especially with OSC/color sensors, but also with mono sensors. Sometimes the gain and offset values don't match or are incorrectly reported. An important rule in data calibration is that you will need to shoot your calibration data with the same capture software as your lights. If you don't, trouble will occur sooner or later...if it does not, you will be very lucky 😉
I know for a fact that SharpCap and APT are NOT fully compatible here as well when it comes to Bayer CFA sensors.
If you create your masters, before doing so, in 0) RAW/FITS, enable force CFA for the APT calibration frames ( APT does not store metadata to indicate it's Bayer CFA data, so you will need to tell APP) and set the correct Bayer Pattern for your sensor. You need to be very careful here, chances are big that you need to use a different Bayer Pattern here compared to the pattern for your SharpCap data.
Kind regards,
Mabula
Â
Hi @biggen,
You will need to create those Master Frames with the correct CFA pattern and this is very crucial.
Different capture programs can work differently on how the sensor is read and how the data is stored in the FITS file, and which Bayer Pattern needs to be used then...
Furthermore, if you mix your light frames and calibration frames using different capture software, you will run into all sorts of trouble, especially with OSC/color sensors, but also with mono sensors. Sometimes the gain and offset values don't match or are incorrectly reported. An important rule in data calibration is that you will need to shoot your calibration data with the same capture software as your lights. If you don't, trouble will occur sooner or later...if it does not, you will be very lucky 😉
I know for a fact that SharpCap and APT are NOT fully compatible here as well when it comes to Bayer CFA sensors.
If you create your masters, before doing so, in 0) RAW/FITS, enable force CFA for the APT calibration frames ( APT does not store metadata to indicate it's Bayer CFA data, so you will need to tell APP) and set the correct Bayer Pattern for your sensor. You need to be very careful here, chances are big that you need to use a different Bayer Pattern here compared to the pattern for your SharpCap data.
Kind regards,
Mabula
Â
Thanks Mabula. Yeah, I figured it out this morning. APT isn't storing metadata like you said. I need for force the CFA RGGB Bayer pattern in APP. That gave color to my lights.
I did get another calibration warning after I started over. I'm using Flats, Darks, and Dark Flats. My Dark Flats and Flats were taken at the exact gain and exposure length. I made sure of this when I took them. APP even shows them with matching gain/exposure numbers in the columns when loaded into APP. However, when APP got to calibrating them, I got an error popping up saying that the Flats/Dark Flats were mismatched (I don't remember exactly how it was worded).
Can this also be attributed to APT not storing all the correct metadata for in the .fits file?
Here is an example dark flat:
Dropbox File (Private or Invalid)
Here is an example flat:
Dropbox File (Private or Invalid)
Â
Well I just ran the calibration again, and I didn't get the error message so perhaps I assigned the wrong calibration file when I loaded them.
It seems there are compatibility issues between the packages, unfortunately not all software follows the fits standard correctly or uses unique names for some commonly used labels. My advice would be to use a different package to take the data... might be a bit extreme maybe, but it would likely solve all issues you're having.
