Mar 28 2026 APP 2.0.0-beta40 will be released in 7 days.
It did take a long time to have the work finished on this and it will have a major performance boost of 30-50% over 2.0.0-beta39 from calibration to integration. We extensively optimized many critical parts of APP. All has been tested to guarantee correct optimizations. Drizzle and image resampling is much faster for instance, those modules have been completely rewritten. Much less memory usage. LNC 2.0 will be released which works much better and faster than LNC in it's current state. And more, all will be added to the release notes in the coming weeks...
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.
It seems that data in the flatfield images is processed as if it's coming from a CFA sensor instead of monochrome sensor. Is this the expected behaviour?
Settings I use with APP 1.075:
- 0) RAW/FITS: no interpolation, I'm using an ASI1600MM
- 2) CALIBRATE: average with MAD winsor clip, I have 126 flats
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The log file reports the following while processing the calibration files:
08:06:08 - 2) CALIBRATE: writing flat 1 of 126 to flat file mapping...
08:06:08 - GENERAL IMAGE LOADER: frame /Volumes/Samsung_T5/Pictures/00_AstroPixelProcessor/Heart_nebula_ASI1600_FD400/Flats_18s/ASICAP_2019-11-11_21_28_41_106.FIT was loaded successfully
08:06:10 - 2) CALIBRATE: got analytical results of 1 of 126 flats.
08:06:10 - 2) CALIBRATE: location of flat 4.470E+04 dispersion of flat 2.750E+03
08:06:10 - 2) CALIBRATE: location of flat 4.590E+04 dispersion of flat 2.826E+03
08:06:10 - 2) CALIBRATE: location of flat 4.473E+04 dispersion of flat 2.755E+03
Also the bad pixel map assumes existence of a CFA:
08:05:25 - 2) CALIBRATE: creating Bad Pixel Map from MasterDarks...
08:05:25 - GENERAL IMAGE LOADER: loading frame /Volumes/Samsung_T5/Pictures/00_AstroPixelProcessor/Heart_nebula_ASI1600_FD400/MD-ISO_gain_300.0-exp_0.0s-657subs-notAvailable-4656x3520-MWC_3_3.0-med.fits
08:05:29 - GENERAL IMAGE LOADER: frame /Volumes/Samsung_T5/Pictures/00_AstroPixelProcessor/Heart_nebula_ASI1600_FD400/MD-ISO_gain_300.0-exp_0.0s-657subs-notAvailable-4656x3520-MWC_3_3.0-med.fits was loaded successfully
08:05:29 - 2) CALIBRATE: starting BadPixelMap creator for CFA frame...
08:05:29 - 2) CALIBRATE: BadPixelMap CFA: detecting hot pixels and bad columns from MasterDark...
08:05:29 - 2) CALIBRATE: BadPixelMap CFA : filtering masterdark Red channel 9x with a 9x9 median filter...
08:05:33 - 2) CALIBRATE: BadPixelMap: Red channel: creating a flattened MasterDark...
08:05:33 - 2) CALIBRATE: BadPixelMap: Red Channel: analysing noise in flattened MasterDark...
08:05:34 - DATA ANALYSER TOOLS: re-instantiated multi-core analytical memory blocks, size 511 MBs
08:05:34 - 2) CALIBRATE: BadPixelMap: Red channel: detecting hot pixels...
08:05:34 - 2) CALIBRATE: BadPixelMap CFA : filtering masterdark Green1 channel 9x with a 9x9 median filter...
08:05:38 - 2) CALIBRATE: BadPixelMap: Green1 channel: creating a flattened MasterDark...
08:05:38 - 2) CALIBRATE: BadPixelMap: Green1 Channel: analysing noise in flattened MasterDark...
08:05:39 - 2) CALIBRATE: BadPixelMap: Green1 channel: detecting hot pixels...
08:05:39 - 2) CALIBRATE: BadPixelMap CFA : filtering masterdark Green2 channel 9x with a 9x9 median filter...
08:05:45 - 2) CALIBRATE: BadPixelMap: Green2 channel: creating a flattened MasterDark...
08:05:45 - 2) CALIBRATE: BadPixelMap: Green2 Channel: analysing noise in flattened MasterDark...
08:05:45 - 2) CALIBRATE: BadPixelMap: Green2 channel: detecting hot pixels...
08:05:45 - 2) CALIBRATE: BadPixelMap CFA : filtering masterdark Blue channel 9x with a 9x9 median filter...
08:05:48 - 2) CALIBRATE: BadPixelMap: Blue channel: creating a flattened MasterDark...
08:05:49 - 2) CALIBRATE: BadPixelMap: Blue Channel: analysing noise in flattened MasterDark...
08:05:49 - 2) CALIBRATE: BadPixelMap: Blue channel: detecting hot pixels...
08:05:49 - 2) CALIBRATE: BadPixelMap CFA: finished detecting hot pixels from MasterDark...
08:05:49 - 2) CALIBRATE: BadPixelMap CFA: finished detecting cold/defect pixels from MasterFlat...
In the final stack of my lights I see an unexpected pattern:
In the masterflat there's a somewhat similar pattern:
In the individual flat frames the pattern is not visible, but then again there's quite a bit of noise on them.
I suspect that there is indeed a pattern but that due to the assumption of a CFA in the 2) CALIBRATE step the wrong pattern is highlighted in the masterflat. The three values for the location of flat are presumably for RGB values(?) while in this case that of course makes no sense.
Is there a way to enforce monochrome processing also in the 2) CALIBRATE step? Or any other tips to prevent the pattern in the final stack?
I've just stacked all my 126 flats without any processing to see what it looks like and there is indeed a pattern:
This is not unexpected for a CMOS sensor, I've seen it before in non-CFA sensors. And the pattern captured by the masterflat does indeed look quite similar.
Mmm, did you maybe accidentally press the "force cfa"? I personally have no experience with mono camera's, so I might miss something here.
Nope, I just double-checked and it's not activated.
In the mean time I did a straight stack without any calibration, and there's no significant difference for the stripy pattern at pixel level. I'll chalk this one up to "unusual detector artefacts", I've seen enough of them over time (the latest one is an illumination-dependent bias shift...).
