Mask over exposed pixels =On during darks

[DrBobAZ]

Greetings

I recently acquired a few more hot pixels, so I wanted to generate a new dark frame.

Much to my surprise, when I was done, I got MORE hot pixels (!)

I scratched my head for a bit, a few dead ends, but finally realized that while darks and flats and background subtraction were automatically removed by sharpcap during dark capture, masking overexposed pixels were not.

Once I turned it off manually, all was well. I guess it rated all the hotpixels as overexposed and masked them. No masking means no ability to cancel them in the lights.

So my request would be to remove this masking operation during dark capture.

Thanks a bunch

Bob

[admin]

Hi Bob,

yes, that makes a *lot* of sense - I guess I didn't think about the dark/flat capture procedures when adding the mask overexposed option.

Out of interest, what was the situation that led you to have that switched on during dark capture? I was expecting that to be primarily used for masking the solar disc when capturing the chromosphere/prominences.

cheers,

Robin

[DrBobAZ]

Hi Robin

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I use that mask in an unconventional way I guess. I can see why you hadn't thought to disable it during dark capture.

I have blown out stars in my EAA captures. I invoke masking overexposed pixels to take out the central core of the star.

I think it helps with the star situation. It does not reduce the bloat, but I think it reduces the core brightness.

Bob

[admin]

Hi Bob,

fair enough - I am aware that the stars tend to get blown out by the stretch that is applied to bring out the faint stuff - it's on my list of things to investigate somewhere down the line... If I can reliably separate the stars from the rest of the image then I can process each part separately and try to avoid the star bloat/blow out.

cheers,

Robin

[DrBobAZ]

thanks. But please realize I was not being critical of my blown out stars.

I just thought of a way to reduce the effect a bit.

No need to do the AP-ish separation of stars and low contrast content. The images we all generate with your EAA tool are wonderful.

Bob

[admin]

Hi,

no worries - it was a thing I was aware of already and am personally not 100% satisfied with...

cheers,

Robin