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.
Greetings,
I have a problem where my flats seem to be over-applied in the calibrated images. I have two very bad spots on my sensor, so they show up as almost black spots on the flat. When they are applied to the Light though, they end up being lighter spots than the rest of the picture. I have uploaded the created master flat and one of the Lights here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B4I8UcuosfBHcXhGUjdWYklBQ28 . If more frames are helpful, let me know. I have tried re-generating the master flat about 4 different times now with different settings.
Thanks!
This is just a guess. However, when you generate masters for flats and dark flats together it will create both masters. However, the dark flat will be applied to the regular flat. So, when you calibrate your lights, you should NOT include the master dark flat as it has already been applied to the master flat. I am not sure what this would do but its an easy mistake to make so maybe worth checking.
Thank you. I come from the DSS flow, so that is indeed different.
Hi xsnrg,
To have correct flat-field calirbation you need to make sure that both flats and lights are calibrated with a master dark or a master bias, so the bias pedestal is removed from both the flats and the lights.
Check this tutorial with extensive information:
And these 2 videos:
https://www.astropixelprocessor.com/a-dslr-data-calibration-workflow/
https://www.astropixelprocessor.com/data-calibration-and-integration-the-pelican-nebula/
If you still have trouble with getting accurate flat-field calibration, send me a couple of your frames and I'll help you. I would need 5 frames of each type, that should be enough 😉
Kind regards,
Mabula
Thank you for the links. Time to learn more.
Hi xsnrg,
I had a typo in my previous post. It's corrected now.
But I wrote:
"To have correct flat-field calirbation you need to make sure that both flats and lights are calibrated with a master dark or a master bias, so the bias pedestal is removed from both the flats and the darks."
and it should be:
"To have correct flat-field calirbation you need to make sure that both flats and lights are calibrated with a master dark or a master bias, so the bias pedestal is removed from both the flats and the lights."
Kind regards,
Mabula
Thanks Mabula,
Following the steps to calibrate and clearing everything out seems to make a difference or at least helped in my keeping track of what files needed to be used next. I wonder if I was getting some double application by leaving all the files in the list and checked. I wonder though, it does seem the flow would always be the same for getting proper calibration masters created. Would it be possible to have APP just perform the steps it needs to using the files it needs? That is, if a person were to load everything they have into APP at once, load all the darks, lights, bias, flats, and BPM if available -- then hit calibrate. APP would then know to create a BPM if it was not available (maybe an option to create it), then APP just follows the flow starting with using only the bias frames to create a master bias if the master bias does not exist... continue down the flow?
This would save great time in the calibration process, instead of the clearing and loading steps along the way. If "auto calibration" could become a thing, then another checkbox might be to pause between steps for inspection if desired.
Thanks Mabula,
Following the steps to calibrate and clearing everything out seems to make a difference or at least helped in my keeping track of what files needed to be used next. I wonder if I was getting some double application by leaving all the files in the list and checked. I wonder though, it does seem the flow would always be the same for getting proper calibration masters created. Would it be possible to have APP just perform the steps it needs to using the files it needs? That is, if a person were to load everything they have into APP at once, load all the darks, lights, bias, flats, and BPM if available -- then hit calibrate. APP would then know to create a BPM if it was not available (maybe an option to create it), then APP just follows the flow starting with using only the bias frames to create a master bias if the master bias does not exist... continue down the flow?
This would save great time in the calibration process, instead of the clearing and loading steps along the way. If "auto calibration" could become a thing, then another checkbox might be to pause between steps for inspection if desired.
Hi xsnrg,
Yes, the calibration engine of APP will be rebuilt to make it much smarter (including dark frame scaling). More or less along the lines that you propose 😉 It's on my priorities list.
A user would load in his calirbation frames, and APP would then propose the possible calibration paths using these frames along with pros/cons of the paths, so the user can choose between paths and actually see the differences 😉
Kind regards,
Mabula
