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.
I'm new to APP so bear with me....Â
I have a bunch of RGB images of M42 that stack fine in APP. (Lets call them M42 Normal)
I also have a bunch of RGB images where I used an Ha filter to shoot ( enhance ) the Ha that were shot at a different time.
I want to stack the Ha images separately so that they align with the ' M42 Normal ' stack. In DSS you can deselect the reference frame during a stack and it will still be used as the alignment frame but not included in the stack.
Ultimately in Photoshop I want to create an HaRGB image, which I know how to do, but I have to manually manipulate the images using Photoshop to get them to align.
How can I stack the Ha images in APP using a reference frame from the ' M42 Normal ' stack?
In other words, when I stack my Ha lights, how do I get them to align with a 'reference light' that I don't want to include in the integration?
I have tried to stack the ' M42 Normal ' lights and then unchecked all of them. Then checked all the Ha lights, hoping the reference 'M42 Normal ' reference light would still be used but I get an error message when I try to integrate the Ha checked images.
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Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated...
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Ted
@tmitrou Hi Ted, in APP there are several ways to do this. One way is to load the RGB images in one session and the Ha in a second session. Then do an integration over both and APP will align the frames in both sessions. A second way is to process the RGB images and then to process the Ha images separately. You can then load the RGB integration result and the Ha integration result as lights without loading calibration data and perform a star analysis and registration. Then you can save the registered frames which you then can load into Photoshop. Note that you can also combine all frames in APP in the Tools tab.
@wvreeven First of all, thank you for your very quick reply.
My goodness, its easy when you know how to do it. I tried both of your methods and was instantly successful with both. I wish I had asked you before spending an hour or more trying to figure this out myself.
Thanks again and i'm sure I will tap you again in the future with other questions once the weather improves..
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Ted
