Will EigenFrame read my data?
EigenFrame catalogs two formats today: monochrome XISF and monochrome FITS (.xisf, .fits, .fit, .fts). Extension matching is case-insensitive. The file’s actual content, not its extension, decides which reader handles it, so a .fit file that is really XISF (or the reverse) still parses correctly.
Two formats fall outside that: one-shot-colour or Bayer-matrix data, and camera raw (CR2, NEF, ARW, DNG and similar vendor formats). In practice, captures straight off an ASIAIR or a DSLR are not served today.
Colour data is caught rather than misread. A FITS file that declares a BAYERPAT keyword, or whose NAXIS3 is greater than 1, is set aside during the scan with the reason attached and shows up as Unclassified, so it is never decoded as luminance. See troubleshooting for what to do next.
Screenshot: An Unclassified row showing the color-FITS refusal reason.
Header fields EigenFrame reads
Section titled “Header fields EigenFrame reads”For FITS and XISF frames, EigenFrame reads a set of header keywords to identify the rig that produced a frame and to drive calibration assignment: camera and instrument identity, telescope, gain, offset, readout mode, binning, exposure time, set-temp, filter, object name, and capture date, along with observer location and a range of secondary fields (focuser position, rotator angle, pier side, airmass, and others). These fields are what let a scan group frames into rigs, sessions, and targets, and what let a calibration assignment find the right master for a given light.
Imported masters lose most of this
Section titled “Imported masters lose most of this”An integrated master does not carry the same header a raw frame does. Gain, offset, readout mode, set-temp and exposure time are commonly absent, and the pixel data has usually been rescaled, since integration produces a new image rather than a copy of any one input.
If you import a master built outside EigenFrame, its filename and the folder it lives in are often the only place those values still exist. When a calibration assignment can’t match the master automatically, you may need to assert gain, offset, readout mode, set-temp, or exposure yourself so matching has something to work with.