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 thought i had a handle on this but now i'm not so sure.
I have the asi294mc pro + hyperstar v3 + efw with filters (ha 31mm and L-enhance 1.25 basically) and a target i did Ha for and also L-enhance Lum. (roughly 4x the data for Ha per what most said should be done for useful ha on osc).
I've integrated the Ha frames by setting the load tab to be Hydrogen alpha. The resultant integration is Ha that is listed as grayscale. I assumed this was good to go. (i initially tried to do both ha and lum in the same working session and it would throw an index error on normalization).
Then i also did the integration separately for the lum/rgb in another APP session, setting the load parameter to check off CFA and RGGB (for color extraction). I got that integration.
Then i opened a whole new App session and add both frames after first setting CFA again.
I tried to skip the normalization (it was mentioned that this part wasnt needed) and instead tried to just do a registration and "save registration files".. this time (if cfa is checked) it then throws an index error or similar.
If i dont have cfa checked then it succeeds but when i go to #9 and do combined rgb it says the two file sets are incompatible.
At least i think i have this outline of events correct so far.
Any ideas what the proper method might be here? And in the end, is it necessary to play with the HA files sliders to get the correct boost (of red) for the final image?
Thanks in advance
Ok i've found some success, listing the steps here (i think they are correct, though OSC ha comes in gray and only one channel for me when it works):
Step1: Do the Ha integration procedure per normal using all subs:
Check off force CFA on tab 0 (also select ha in the pull down not auto), then go through integration, fine tuning, cleanup, perfecting, save that image (ends up a 32bit grayscale image)
Step2: Do the OSC regular color procedure per normal:
Check off force CFA on tab 0, then go through integration, fine tuning, cleanup, perfecting, save that image (ends up a 32bit RGB image)
Step3:
Bring the results of step1 and step2 (two files) into a new session, do NOT check off force CFA this time, uncheck autodetect masters
Open up Registration, click register, then click save registered files.
Step 4:
Open combine RGB
Open each of the files from Step3 that are ending in -reg
The color one should open 3 times, each for red green blue.
The Ha one should be set to either custom or Ha and only prompt one time (one channel) if this is correct.
Step 5:
Take the red slider on ha to 50% and the Xx top slider on Ha up a bit to increase the red hue’s in the image.
EDIT: while the above does work, i'm not so sure its "correct", the end result was only marginally better than just rgb by itself without adding in Ha
I think a decent user manual would have saved you (and us) days of headache, trial-and-error and would give us the possibility to do things right. Period.
I wonder when that comes.
