[Solved] Two new warning/error messages with the new release

@umasscrew39 See this post in which Mabula explains what the popup means:

https://www.astropixelprocessor.com/community/appreleases/dark-frame-errors/

Thanks- I saw this before- not sure it helps but I will check things.

@umasscrew39 What data do you get the popup with, mono or color? Did you use a narrowband filter? What exposure time did you use?

Mono using narrowband filters at 300 sec exposures/ which is what I have been using for months 

@umasscrew39 How narrow? 7nm? 3nm? What camera do you use? At what gain, offset and temperature? I use an ASI6200MM at 0º C, gain 100 and offset 40 (I think that's what ZWO default it to) and I need to take at least 180 sec exposures with my 3 nm filters for APP to not warn me. And the quantum efficiency of the sensor of this camera is quite high which is why I "get away" with such short exposure times. You really may need to take longer exposures depending on the camera.

The reason is that the master dark has a certain median value plus fluctuations around that median. If some pixel values of the lights are lower than those fluctuations, dark corrections will clip them to zero, which is one reason that the popup warns about. This check was introduced in APP 1.083 which may be is why you didn't see it before. The fact that you have been doing this for months may mean that you have been under exposing your lights for months.

However, it is possible that something else is going on, again as the popup explains.

The ASI6200MM at -10oC gain of 100 and offset 50.  300 sec exposures with a Chroma ha filter (5nm) and OIII filter (3nm). Here is an example.  

@umasscrew39 The console window of APP should tell you why the popup is shown. If you want I can have a look at the data. Please upload, say, 5 of each light, dark, darkflat and/or bias to

https://upload.astropixelprocessor.com/

using the word upload for both username and password (your APP credentials will not work) to a folder named umasscrew39_popup and let me know when the upload is done. Thanks!

Sounds good.  Upload completed as you requested under umasscrew39_popup.  I hope you can find what it is I am doing wrong!

Thank you

@umasscrew39 Thanks for the upload. I see only lights, flats and darks. In order for APP to be able to perform a correct flat calibration, either dark flats or bias are needed. Can you upload those as well?

I believe they are in there but mislabeled as flats.  So, there should be some flats and dark flats but all labeled as flats.  I can resend just the dark flats.

@umasscrew39 If you tell me which ones are the dark flats then I can rename them myself locally.

@umasscrew39 Never mind. I figured it out. The first five are flats and the second five dark flats.

@wvreeven 

ok- I went in and renamed them- sorry about that

@umasscrew39 No problem. Like I said, I figured it out 🙂

With these 5 lights, 5 flats, 5 darks and 5 dark flats I do not get the popup. Instead, I get a beautiful pic of the Bubble Nebula. Can you try with these files yourself and see if you can reproduce my result?

@wvreeven 

sure- I will re-run it with just these files and let you know

ok- I just re-ran it and no issues.  So, any idea why I am getting these errors when I now run a full dataset? These are the same darks, flats and darkflats I have been using for any light sets I collect.  

@umasscrew39 How many lights, flats, darks and dark flats are there in the full set? And are these sets of 5 randomly chosen? Like I said, the console window of APP should tell you what's going on.

lights can range from 50 to 150 per object

25 flats

25 dark flats

20 darks

All worked fine under the last version of APP

All appear to work fine under the new version if I ignore the warnings

The warnings don't make sense to me.  One says I need the same gain setting for my flats and dark flats.  They are always at 100, including the lights and that has never changed.

If it doesn't happen in the 5 you uploaded, but does in the dataset, I think the chance is high there is 1 or so in the bulk that has an issue somehow. The console should show you were it gets this warning I think.