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 3 images that were stacked and processed (Do Ha, SII and OIII seperatley as kills my PC otherwise). When I go to RGB combine them it either works fine, works and is slightly off or just says cannot do as not aligned.
How do I just align the 3 images so I can then combine within APP? At the moment I have to go into PS and do in there manually and the back into APP.
Tom,
Load the three images as Lights in tab 1). Then go to tab 4) and click Start Registration. Once that is done, click the Save Registered Frames button in tab 4). Then use those images in RGB Combination.
HTH, Wouter
Hi,
You might also try a slightly different approach by loading all the frames initially and processing through to Registration.  Once you have decided on your Reference frame for your overall image (let's assume it is an Ha frame) you can deselect all the SII and OIII frames then stack all the Ha frames. Once these are processed, deselect the Ha frames (and if you wish remove all the Ha frames bar the reference frame). Now reselect the SII frames and stack these. Even though the reference Ha frame is not selected for Integration processing it still retains its power as the reference frame. When SII is done repeat the process with the OIII frames.
Mike
