File Naming and Folder Structure

updated: 2025-10-15

NEW: [DATE]_[OBJECT]_[CAMERA]_[OBSERVATION-ID]-{VARIANT#}.[EXT]

OLD: [DATE]-{TIME_}_[OBJECT_][CAMERA]_{ PICTURE #}{-VARIANT#}.[EXT]

Examples:

Item	Format	Mandatory	Description
DATE	YYYYMMDD_	YES	YYYY – year, MM - month, DD - day like 20210815 = 08/15/2021 or 15.08.2021
TIME	hhmmss_	NO	hh – hour, mm – minute, ss - second like 201600 = 21h16m00s
OBJECT	xxxx_	YES	Name of the object, like NGC2174 or Sun
DEVICE / CAMERA	xxxxnnn_	YES	Camera or scanner (brand + model) see table Camera Keywords like: ZWOASI194 or FUXT3
observation ID	nnnn	YES	like 0137, replaces old PICTURE# (source: StarlustDB)
PICTURE#	nnnn_	YES	Picture number (4 digits)
VARIANT#	nn_	NO	Picture version number , typically 2-digits like 02, depicts a version derived from an original, e.g. xxx0003_02 is the second variant from picture 0003
WM	WM	NO	Image with StarLust logo watermark
EXT	.xxx	YES	All known picture or video formats like JPG, JPEG, RAW, TIF, GIF, MOV, AVI, XISF, FIT, …

used in PixInsight Fast or Weighted Batch Preprocessing (FBPP or WBPP)

used in PixInsight

Important:

At the very least, the flat frames should be taken immediately before or after the light frames so that any contamination of the sensor can be taken into account during calibration.
In addition, at least the flat frames should be stored together with the light frames in the same folder structure associated with the observation in the “Calibration” subdirectory to facilitate later post-processing.

Calibration File Naming Convention in this project:

Sections are separated by a underscore sign "_"

{IMAGETYPE}_Stack{COUNT} _{EXPOSURE}_{BINNING}_{CAMERA}_gain{GAIN}_FILTER{Filter}_{Config}_{Date}_{Temperature}

{IMAGETYPE} (recognized by PI): must be one of: {Masterbias | Masterdark | Masterflat | Masterlight}
{COUNT} (not recognized by PI): number of used subframes, e.g. COUNT-20, COUNT-100
{EXPOSURE} (recognized by PI): exposure time in seconds, e.g. EXPOSURE-0.001 or EXPOSURE-200
{BINNING} (recognized by PI): one of {BIN1 | BIN2 | BIN3 | BIN4}
{CAMERA}: automatically set by AI camera, e.g. 6200MM
{GAIN} (recognized by PI): e.g. gain100
{FILTER} (recognized by PI): examples: FILTER-NoFilter, FILTER-OLeN, FILTER-UHC2. Must be set manually if no filter wheel is used.
{CONFIG} (not recognized by PI): optical configuration used, e.g. TS1624sAS294rt, TS1624cASI2600CAA etc. Must be set manually.
{DATE} (not recognized by PI): a date string like 20231116
{TEMP} (not recognized by PI): camera temperature during subframe capture, e.g. TEMP-10, TEMP20

{ImageType}_Binning_Count_Filter_Exposure_Config_CamTemperature_Date

Calibration Master File Naming Examples:

Master Dark Calibration Frames

MasterFlat_Stack20_50.0ms_Bin1_2600MC_filter-NoFilter_gain100_20250221_1.6C.xisf
MasterFlat_Stack20_1.4s_Bin1_2600MC_filter-OLeN_gain100_20250824-203328_22.2C
MasterFlat_Stack20_30s_Bin1_FUXT3-16-55_filter-NoFilter_ISO3200_20251015.xisf

The master file names must at least contain the word "master" in order to be accepted by PixInsight.

Important: Flat

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