Index: /branches/eam_branches/ipp-20230313/psModules/src/camera/pmFPAMaskWeight.c
===================================================================
--- /branches/eam_branches/ipp-20230313/psModules/src/camera/pmFPAMaskWeight.c	(revision 42687)
+++ /branches/eam_branches/ipp-20230313/psModules/src/camera/pmFPAMaskWeight.c	(revision 42688)
@@ -364,4 +364,6 @@
 
 
+// NOTE: this function attempts to modify the variance to ensure the sky pixels
+// have a signal-to-noise distribution consistent with 1.0
 bool pmReadoutVarianceRenormalise(const pmReadout *readout, psImageMaskType maskVal,
                                   int sample, float minValid, float maxValid)
@@ -415,4 +417,9 @@
 
                 signoise->data.F32[index] = image->data.F32[y][x] / sqrtf(variance->data.F32[y][x]);
+
+		// a high S/N pixel is not likely to be part of the sky
+		// consider skipping them
+		// if (signoise->data.F32[index] > 10) continue;
+
                 index++;
             }
@@ -434,4 +441,8 @@
 
             signoise->data.F32[index] = image->data.F32[y][x] / sqrtf(variance->data.F32[y][x]);
+
+	    // a high S/N pixel is not likely to be part of the sky
+	    // consider skipping them
+	    // if (signoise->data.F32[index] > 10) continue;
             index++;
         }