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.
Hello,
New to APP and love it thus far. My LRGB images are a blend of 1x1 luminance and 2x2 RGBs from a mono camera. When creating the final LRGB image, there is a bit of blockiness from the 2x2 integrations that I've been playing with the interpolation methods to minimize. I have found that using the Cubic B spline interpolation method generates more pleasing round stars vs. the others but at a price of a slightly softer image. I am curious if there are other recommendations with the settings to get the best of stars and sharpness ?
Thanks
Hi @comet57,
Welcome to the APP forum! Glad you like it 😉
A blockiness with bin 2x2 data is to be expected if the stars become too small when compared to the size of the "bigger pixels".
I would recommend to simply use Lanczos-3 because it's the best data-interpolater. Cubic B-spline basically adds a gaussian blur into the data resampling, which indeed can have a nice affect like you mention. Noise is reduced, but sharpness is lost...
But since you create a LRGB integration, make the bin 1x1 L with Lanczos and don't worry about the RGB sharpness or noise levels. Since the L layer should provide both sharpness or noise levels if you make the LRGB composite. That is the essence of making an LRGB composite. The RGB data only provides the color.
If you aren't using the L layer 100% as L, then yes, you might better use Cubic-B-spline for the RGB data to get a smoother result. But only because apparantly, bin 2x2 might be too large for the resolution of your optics. So it depends on the optics what you want to do I think. (and sky conditions as well)
Kind regards,
Mabula
