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.
Yesterday I tried making a mosaic of 2 sets of images. Â I was happy initially to see that the integration worked. Â This changed when I looked at the stars which had a strange whirling pattern.
I submitted my project using the settings recommended in the video on the APP site, (I believe by Sarah Wagner) but it is possible that I missed something.
After this I looked on the forum here and could see that others ran into this same general issue.
Wouter had a set of setting recommendations that I went back to and applied to my project.
The project became overwhelming all of a sudden. Â It ran overnight on my 2018 MacBook Pro and still is only 10% through the Registration phase.
Might there be something wrong that I am doing? Â I would ultimately like to stitch perhaps 6 to 8 images together but this wouldn't be viable.
I will wait perhaps an entire day until this finishes, but I am wondering whether there might be a better way?
@paul-from-northern-mi Hi Paul,
How many frames do you have per panel? If there are a lot then APP will try to register each of them, which takes a LONG time. In such cases you may be better off processing the individual panels first and then combining the integrated panels into a mosaic.
Wouter
Yes, I may have to consider this.
I have 200 frames being processed right now.
Would there be a drop off of quality by doing separate processing and integrating in a separate project? Â Would this be done same method as before or could you drop the need for a calibration sequence?
@paul-from-northern-mi Once the panels have been integrated, you can load them as lights without calibration files. There may be a slight drop in quality but it will be minimal and barely noticeable if at all.
Just out of curiosity; should a set of 200 images result in likely over 2 days of processing? Â Presently it is at 3000 out of 21,000 registration tasks.
Â
@paul-from-northern-mi That depends on the registration settings. When using 500 stars, it should be much faster than that. When using 2500 stars or more it may take that long. That's why I advised to split up the processing and process the individual panels first to registration goes much faster.
Yes, combining 2 already processed images in a dedicated mosaic file did a lot better than putting everything together with the processing. Â I couldn't even see the seams or difference in brightness.
I am a glutton for punishment but I would like to try adding more tiles to make a more expansive mosaic.
Thank you!
Paul
