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.
Hi,
I've been using APP for some time now and really like it. So thanks for developing such a great piece of software.
I have ordered the following filters.
Altair Ha Sii Oiii DualBand ULTRA 6nm Filter COMBO
Exactly how would I process the resultant images in APP so that I would end up with 3 separate images: Ha, OIII and SII?
Regards,
Brian
Hi Brian,
I am still on Beta 38 so some menus may have changed but this is how I would process these photos. Lets imagine you use each filter for one night so you will have two night's worth of photos. Load all your photos from the Ha/OIII filter and choose algorithm "Ha-OIII extract Ha". Once done with that, process the same batch but choose "Ha-OIII extract OIII". There is probably an easy way to do this but I clear everything and start over loading everything. You will now have a monochrome Ha and OIII photo. Now do the same two extractions with the SII/OIII filter. When you choose extract Ha it will extract the SII because it is just extracting the red channel and that's what you've captured with the SII/OIII filter. I believe that is why there isn't an "extract SII" algorithm. Just remember it is SII because I think it will be tagged as Ha. This will give you a monochrome SII and OIII photo. I think you can now load the two OIII photos as lights and stack them together-no need for calibration frames. You should now have a monochrome Ha, OIII and SII photo that you can load into RGB combine to make a SHO photo. Been a while since I've done this so let me know if I can clarify anything.
Tom
Hi Brian @smerral & Tom @tfergu01,
Tom, thank you very much for your assistance here 😉
Brian, like Tom indicates, that is in principal the workflow. Since 2.0.0-beta39 we have new algorithms for dual-band filters. They are called Multi-NB (for NarrowBand) and these algorithms are found in 0) Color Settings under the Bayer/X-Trans CFA algorithms.
- Multi-NB color
- Multi-NB mono
- Multi-NB Ha extract
- Multi-NB H-b extract
- Multi-NB NII extract
- Multi-NB O3 extract
- Multi-NB SII extract
and we also have new and special algorithms:
- Multi-NB H-a + O3
- and all the combination of Ha, Hb-Nii, O3, SII
These last algorithms will create 4 stacks automatically, a color stack, a mono stack, a Ha stack and O3 stack in case of the Multi-NB Ha+03 algorithm.
Let us know if you need more assistance 😉
Mabula
Thanks Tom and Mabula for the quick response! I will read and digest what's been said here.
Regards,
Brian
Can someone help me? When I use a OSC camera and a Duoband (Ha/O3) filter, I always extract the Ha and O3 signals as separate mono images, with absolutely no difficulty. Now I have upgraded to the latest version of APP, this no longer works. When the final Ha or O3 images are integrated, they produce an image of blurred the lines across the image, with absolutely no signs of the nebula or galaxy.
I am wishing that I had not updated APP.
Can anyone please offer a solution. (I am using a silicon MacBook Pro with M3 processor and 96 Giga bytes of ram.)
Dear Allen @allenr-lloyd,
Thank you very much for reporting this. Yes, beta41 and 42 both had 2 bugs related to DuoBand filter processing unfortunately, the bugs were regressions from the new resample and drizzle engines in beta41. These engines are faster and completely rewritten. I have fixed these bugs last night and I am releasing 2.0.0-beta43 with the fixes. Beta43 will be available from the downloads page later today, so please try it once available and let me know if all is okay now 😉
Mabula
@mabula-admin Thanks Mabula, I was about to post with the same problem!
@mabula-admin Thankyou very much. I’ve been pulling my hair out!
Well I don't yet have any dual band data to test with yet but I just did some old Quadband subs and the Beta 43 appears to be working just fine. Of course the Ha and sulphur; and the Hb and oxygen produce the same image in this case as would be expected.
Regards,
Brian
@smerral Mabulla replied above. There was a problem with the beta version. He is releasing a new beta version, to correct the issue.
Hi @smerral and @allenr-lloyd,
APP 2.0.0-beta43 has the fixes for all the narrowband processing issues that were in beta40,41 and 42 😉
Please let me know if all is okay now 😉
Mabula
@mabula-admin Yes I tried with some old Quadband data and it seems to be working fine. 🙂
