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 have been working on a 2-panel mosaic of the Rho Ophiucus Cloud Complex using APP (version 183). I wasn't happy with the overlap and then realized my flats were not of the best quality. So I reshot my flats and then started a fresh copy of APP, so I had to reload all files and tweak the following options from the default settings.
- 1) Load
- Uncheck Multi-channel/filter processing
- Load lights for panel 1 as session 1
- Load lights for panel 2 as session 2
- Load flats for all sessions
- Load darks for all sessions
- Load biases for all sessions
- 4) Register
- Set scale stop to 10
- Enable Dynamic Distortion Correction
- Do not disable same camera/options
- Set registration mode to mosaic
- 6) Integrate
- enable 1-degree LNC, 3 iterations
- enable MBB at 10%
And then go by pressing integrate....
Initially, I was getting the stack that appears on the left (repeatedly), but after swapping out flat files, and I deleted all intermediate (master dark etc) files for a clean stacking, I got the oddly distorted stack that's on the right, repeatedly.
What am I missing, or doing wrong?
Thanks!
Â
Hi Mike,
A few suggestions: Try setting Normalize to Advanced and set Integrate mode to Normal. Increase # stars in Analyze Stars to over 3000.
A better procedure might be to integrate the 2 panels separately. Then load those integrations as light frames in a new APP run to create the mosaic.
Jeff
Â
I see the Advanced setting under the Normalize tab, but no Normal until the mode near the top of the integrate tab (there's automatic, average, median, and maximum).
I forgot to include on my steps, on 6) Integrate, I have "Integrate per sesson and all" selected. Wouldn't that be the same as integrating the 2 panels separately?
Thanks for the suggestions!
My mistake; I meant to say use Normal instead of Mosaic in the Registration tab. In an earlier post (I think by Mabula) there is a discussion that the Normal setting often works better or faster for mosaics. There was also a post that integrating the panels separately can yield better results; at least that is what I have in my APP mosaic notes. I will try to run down those posts and let you know if I find them.
Thanks for the discussion links!
