UPDATE FROM MABULA
I have had a very rough 2 months unfortunately health wise. I was struck 3x in a row with bacterial infections. The second infection occurred  after a routine hospital checkup and I became very sick. I had to rest and take a lot of antibiotics. Once I was recovering and restarting work 1 month ago, I again became sick. The infection was not yet gone, so even more antibiotics and rest was needed. Needless to say, it took a lot of my energy and I needed a lot of rest.
Finally, the infection is really gone and my energy is coming back step-by-step now and I have started work again. I am terribly sorry to have kept you waiting for support. I will address all outstanding questions and e-mails step-by step and will be on the forum daily from today.
APP 2.0.0-beta47 will come soon as well, a lot of work was already completed before I became very ill, so the release is also nearly ready for you. Beta47 will be much faster actually. Many workflows will be more than 2x faster, mosaics can even be 10x faster than before because registration really received a major boost... all compared to beta46. Â Before I release it, I will make sure that everything is working properly and then I will release it.
Most stacking software I've used have several modes - Average, Median, Sum etc. How does APP handle this?
Gary
Hi Gary,
APP currently has 2 stacking modes, average and median. (sum would give the same result as average).
In 2)CALIBRATE, it's the integrate setting
In 6)INTEGRATE, it's also the integrate setting.
Some application have the possibility to use maximum as stacking mode, I will add this to my priorities list.
Let me know if you or someone else needs another integration mode 😉
Mabula
Hi Mabula,
I found the integrate modes the next day but I let the question stand to address Sum stacking. This may be a semantics issue.Â
One of my cameras is a Mallincam DS15c uncooled CMOS Long exposures in summer weather cause a huge number of warm pixels as well as amp glow. These effects multiply as exposure time is increased. One way to fight this is to add add signals from several short exposure frames. If there is a high camera s/n the signal will increase much faster than noise.  Averaging the resultant frames will remove noise. Often DSLRs, especially on Alt/Az mounts, will use 15-30 sec exposures to simulate long exposures - video cameras use the term integration for adding the pixel signal values. I think that maybe my Sum is your Maximum.  🙂
While on the subject,
I use a Mallincam Xterminator. The capture software has a feature to apply darks on the fly. It removes noise and warm/hot pixels and replaces them with color from adjacent pixels. You can appreciate what this means with 9 micron pixels. Could this be incorporated into your application?
Finally, for those who use Alt/Az, does APP handle field rotation?
Gary
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Finally, for those who use Alt/Az, does APP handle field rotation?
Yep, I dont use alt az I just shoot from a camera tripod only and registration and mosaic registration is no problem handling all the drift and rotation I have.
steve
Hi Mabula,
I found the integrate modes the next day but I let the question stand to address Sum stacking. This may be a semantics issue.Â
One of my cameras is a Mallincam DS15c uncooled CMOS Long exposures in summer weather cause a huge number of warm pixels as well as amp glow. These effects multiply as exposure time is increased. One way to fight this is to add add signals from several short exposure frames. If there is a high camera s/n the signal will increase much faster than noise.  Averaging the resultant frames will remove noise. Often DSLRs, especially on Alt/Az mounts, will use 15-30 sec exposures to simulate long exposures - video cameras use the term integration for adding the pixel signal values. I think that maybe my Sum is your Maximum.  🙂
Hi Gary,
Maximum integration is only usefull to see maximum outliers in the dataset. It's main purpose is testing. So I don't think this is the same as what you call sum integration.
I would think your sum integration actually is the same as average integration. Since all pixels in the stack are all divided by the amount of frames after having summed all pixelstacks. Whether this division occurs or not, only has the purpose of keeping the data in a controlled data-range. It will not do anything to how the data actually is integrated.
If you want to mix frames with different exposure times and integrate them, you can do so easily with APP. Only make sure all frames are properly calibrated 😉
While on the subject,
I use a Mallincam Xterminator. The capture software has a feature to apply darks on the fly. It removes noise and warm/hot pixels and replaces them with color from adjacent pixels. You can appreciate what this means with 9 micron pixels. Could this be incorporated into your application?
I think APP can do this as well already. APP will dynamically calibrate your data if you have loaded master calibration frames. You don't need to save the calibrated frames first. So if you load a masterdark of the right exposure time and iso/gain value and a Bad Pixel Map (created with darks and flats) APP will do exactly what you refer to I think. The Bad Pixel Map will remove hot pixels, hot columns, defect columns and the values are interpolated from the surrounding pixels like you indicate 😉
Finally, for those who use Alt/Az, does APP handle field rotation?
Gary
If you refer to strong field rotation that has caused severly elongated stars in the corners of your exposures due to significant rotation during a single exposure, then APP currently won't correct this. This would need a smart derotate feature.
But on the other hand. If the field rotation per exposure is small, then APP will easily integrate all frames, because APP's registration engine has no problem with rotations between the images. No problem with different imaging scales as well.
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Finally, for those who use Alt/Az, does APP handle field rotation?
Yep, I dont use alt az I just shoot from a camera tripod only and registration and mosaic registration is no problem handling all the drift and rotation I have.
steve
Indeed, APP should be able to handle that properly.
Hi Mabula
Mabula: I would think your sum integration actually is the same as average integration. Since all pixels in the stack are all divided by the amount of frames after having summed all pixelstacks. Whether this division occurs or not, only has the purpose of keeping the data in a controlled data-range. It will not do anything to how the data actually is integrated.
I'll send you a couple of images of a single exposure and a 2 frame live Sum Stack when the clouds leave.
Mabula: I think APP can do this as well already. APP will dynamically calibrate your data if you have loaded master calibration frames. You don't need to save the calibrated frames first. So if you load a masterdark of the right exposure time and iso/gain value and a Bad Pixel Map (created with darks and flats) APP will do exactly what you refer to I think. The Bad Pixel Map will remove hot pixels, hot columns, defect columns and the values are interpolated from the surrounding pixels like you indicate
Fantastic! When the clouds go away I will try it out on the DS16c.
Mabula:But on the other hand. If the field rotation per exposure is small, then APP will easily integrate all frames, because APP's registration engine has no problem with rotations between the images. No problem with different imaging scales as well
Thank you, I have friends that use Dobs and Fork mounts. Myself, I've never used one. Born and raised on GEMs. It is interesting, I am uncomfortable with Alt/Az, my friends don't want to use GEMs. You go with what you know, I guess.
Thanks Steve, for your input.
Thank you
Gary
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You're welcome Gary,
Send the images to support@astropixelprocessor.com when you have them 😉
Cheers,
Mabula
