2026-10-09 APP 2.0.0-beta48 has been released !
This is mainly a bug fix release for the reported bugs in beta47. In addition it has a significant User Interface performance improvement noticable when you need to process 1000s of images in APP.
2026-10-03 APP 2.0.0-beta47 has been released !
This is a very big release... many code optimizations/rewrites, many parts of APP are much faster and more precise, especially star analysis and registration are much faster ! Big mosaics will go much faster 🙂
And we introduce a new preview filter, which includes the new Adaptive Deep Sky Stretch and a General Levels Stretch, this has been long over due. The old preview filter (the panel on the right side to stretch and preview your data) has not been updated for a couple of years and it is a critical part of any APP session.
Adaptive Deep Sky Stretch or ADSS is a much more intuitive stretch algorithm. It is also color preserving (which is a great new addition in itself ! ) which means that the highlights are no longer bleached, color is maintained from the linear data while stretching. You can simply stretch your data using the sky background level and signal width sliders which work much easier and more intuitive. You no longer need to fiddle with the old complicated sliders with zoom buttons. All the zoom buttons for the sliders are made redundant. And you can enter slider values in the slider value fields yourself. I will make a youtube video in the coming days to explain and fully introduce ADSS. Once the video is ready, it will be highlighted on the forum.
RGB Combine upgrade !. The RGB Combine Tool has been rewritten mostly. The tool is faster and easier to use and most importantly, the Luminance slider to inject a luminance channel or channels into the RGB composite is now working correctly. It no longer bleaches the RGB colors. Combined with the new ADSS preview, you will get much better and easier great composites with great color! I will also explain this in a new youtube video.
Good Morning,
Recently, I had a fine 3-day stretch of clear weather, and after an investment of 6.5 hours, I have this nice narrowband image of M27 in 7nm Ha and OIII. I like APP's HOO2 palette because I like the colors, but more importantly, it does a fine job of preserving star colors.
A friend introduced me to LRGBHOO, but after capturing only 1.5 hours of LRGB, I was disappointed but not surprised. I lost the faint, delicate narrowband nebulosity in the outer shell. I need more broadband integration time, but I think that I may never be able to capture enough. Here is my reasoning. (If anyone sees a flaw in my logic, please speak up.)
Narrowband is great, particularly for those suffering from high light pollution. The "magic" happens because my filter passes through only 7nm of light pollution. Now compare that to a standard red filter that lets in 100nm of light pollution. In essence, the narrowband filter transports me from my so-so Bortle 5 skies to a Bortle 2 or 3 remote site. But with regular LRGB, I am stuck with the full Bortle 5 light pollution. The only way to overcome all of that noise from light pollution is to stack and stack some more.
Do you see the problem? Even after investing lots of time into LRGB, I may still lose that faint narrowband nebulosity. I would be happy to discover that I've committed an error in my logic. If not, are there other techniques I can use?
Thank you,
Brian
Yes I do see your problem with that, I must say I don't have too much experience with those palettes. I do think that it'll always be a compromise, because you always need to end up in the RGB space. Being able to combine very nice RGB stars with narrowband usually then requires a bit more processing than APP currently has I think. Luminance will also subdue colors, Mabula is going to look at that specifically to see if he can improve on that, for Luminance I would reduce that mix to about 50% or less, you can experiment a bit to your liking.
Regarding the bortle 5 issue, yes that unfortunately can't really be dealt with unless you want to go full photoshop trickery. 🙂 A darker site or way more data is likely the only way then.
