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'm hoping I can get some help on a RGB processing issue. I used the RGB combine tab for an LRGBHa image of M51. The result was a horrible red and blue hued image (see below). What did I do wrong? I realize the list could be long but a nudge in the right direction would be helpful. I'm new to APP mono processing so I'm a little lost on next steps. Thanks!
Paul
@tsa120man Hi Paul, since i asked you to create a new post, I split off your comment from the tutorial post. It looks like the Ha data are dominating the image. Do you get this red hue as well if you only process the LRGB data?
Hi Wouter - yes, I do. The red and blue colors disappear when I drop Lum and Ha and only combine RGB, which really seems strange to me.
Paul
@tsa120man Hi Paul, what data are you combining exactly? LRGBHa obviously but what are the exposure times? And do you use bias, dark, darkflat, flat? What camera are you using? Are you sure that the temperature, gain and offset (or ISO) of the calibration frames are the same as for the lights? Are you processing on an internal drive or an external one? What version of APP are you on and what OS? I may have more questions but please answer these first 🙂
Hi Wouter -
To answer your questions, I'm using a QHY600M with Astrodon filters; all LRGB subs taken at 180 secs at the same gain/offset and the Ha subs taken at 300 sec with same G/Off. Calibration frames used: 25 flats, 25 Darks, 50 Bias, all at the same G/Off. Temperatures of cal frames were -10C but the subs shot at -20C. However, I don't believe that the difference in temperature should make all that much difference given the very low dark current for this camera. I store all my data on an external hard drive and process on a laptop using the latest APP version 1.082. Whew!
I played around with the RGB combine tool a little and was able to improve the original image (below) but it's still lousy. I was able to remove the red and blue hue and get to this result by using "add scale" with "LHaRGB1" in the RGB combine tool and calibrate the background and star color on the combined image. However, the blue arms and Ha red regions are still very weak in both color and detail.
I appreciate your help!
@tsa120man Hi Paul, thanks for the extensive reply. Does this also happen if you process the data directly on the laptop?
I’m not sure what you mean, Wouter. As I said, I process everything on my laptop.
Paul
@tsa120man Sorry, what I meant is to copy all data to the internal laptop HD and then run APP from the internal HD. We have experienced problems when running from external disks if they are not solid state disks.
Oh, I get it now. That's very interesting. My external drive is HDD, not SSD so I'll give it a try and let you know. Thanks!
Paul
