Mar 28 2026 APP 2.0.0-beta40 will be released in 7 days.
It did take a long time to have the work finished on this and it will have a major performance boost of 30-50% over 2.0.0-beta39 from calibration to integration. We extensively optimized many critical parts of APP. All has been tested to guarantee correct optimizations. Drizzle and image resampling is much faster for instance, those modules have been completely rewritten. Much less memory usage. LNC 2.0 will be released which works much better and faster than LNC in it's current state. And more, all will be added to the release notes in the coming weeks...
Update on the 2.0.0 release & the full manual
We are getting close to the 2.0.0 stable release and the full manual. The manual will soon become available on the website and also in PDF format. Both versions will be identical and once released, will start to follow the APP release cycle and thus will stay up-to-date to the latest APP version.
Once 2.0.0 is released, the price for APP will increase. Owner's license holders will not need to pay an upgrade fee to use 2.0.0, neither do Renter's license holders.
In my astronomy club we do mosaics and collaborations. I'm in charge of stacking the data from all the individuals and the main reason I'm in charge is because I use APP and it's the best program for stacking. Many times we select a common target and the effort will involve different telescopes and cameras. Also there can be a large difference between the total integration time each participant can contribute (some can be more noisy vs others). Is it best to stack all together in one run with sessions for each person or stack each person and then stack the 6 or so "masters"? Would I have to be concerned with the noise from 1 or 2 getting into the final stack? Now take that idea and switch over to a mosaic. The example here is that I decide to work on a very large supernova remnant in an area that i have other data from other targets. Should I stack all the subs in a region and the create the final mosaics from all the regions? Thank you for your thoughts on this topic.
Hi Tim @tstevens83,
Thank you very much for your question.
I would definitely advice you to first try the full mosaic by
1) per person's data, make the Integration of their data with MBB on and LNC 1st degree. That will give you good mosaic panels with the least stacking artefacts per person.
2) Clear APP and then load the mosaic panels per persion as lights and then register those as a mosaic.
Normally, this is by far the best and most robust method to correct all data well for optical distortion.
If that result has problems in terms of higher noise in some mosaic panels compared to other mosaic panels. I would advise you and your fellow astrophotographers to all shoot data in those panels to make them better in terms of noise.
The example here is that I decide to work on a very large supernova remnant in an area that i have other data from other targets. Should I stack all the subs in a region and the create the final mosaics from all the regions?
Yes, definitely stack all the subs per region and then create the final mosaic from all the regions 😉
Let me know how it works out and if you need assistance. APP 2.0.0-beta39 is so much more robust now with mosaic, that if the mosaic does not work, i really want to see it and solve it for you.
Mabula
Hi Mabula @mabula-admin)
(Good to have you back 👍)
I jump in here with a related question(s):
- I am doing a „mosaic“ of IC1805, consisting of subs with 500mm and 350mm, the 500mm being completely inside the frame of the 350mm subs. So not a real mosaic.
Do I stack these in one run or in two separate runs for each focal length? - I do dualband (HaO3 and S2O3). If separate runs for the mosaic - do I need to stack the final mosaic in separate runs for each of the 2x4 dualband (HaO3 RGB, HaO3 mono, Ha, O3, plus the 4 from the S2O3 filter). Or is there a more elegant (= time saving) solution.
- And last: I deleted months ago the HaO3 mono. Thought I will never need it - but want to use it now as Luminance.
—> Any chance to reconstruct it from the HaO3 RGB and/or the two Ha and O3 mono files?
Thank you and best regards.
Michael
Michael ... I'm going to add to your question. I also shoot HaO3 and S2O3. Before the new Multi NB processing options I would process Multi NB color and Multi NB H-a from the HaO3 data and the obtain the S2 image from the S2O3 data using Multi NB H-a algorithm. But to obtain the O3 image I would combine the HaO3 with the S2O3 data and use the Multi NB extract O3 algorithm. I would then have to register the resultant images so I could post process together. Does the new NB processing options allow for this situation? It seems you could by loading all the data and use the filter id to separate the data. What is your option Mabula @mabul-admin ?
@michaelacg Hi Michael,
Thanks !
1) You can actually stack that in one run and you do not need the mosaic regisration mode, set the mode to normal 😉 Maybe you want to be specific about which focal length data should provide the reference, so you can check that.
2) Best way, make sure that you first create the 4 Ha + O3 + S2 + O3 integrations. Then clear the frame list with the clear button in 1) Load. Load the 4 stacks as lights, register them as a mosaic. That is by far the best workflow I think. It is robust and fastest I think.
3) Best way I think is to simply make a composite of Ha and O3 mono files in the RGB Combine Tool. Simplhy load the 2 mono stacks. Assign both equally to R + G + B so they contribute the same to R+G+B. Calculate. The result should look monochrome. If you save it in the tool, you will have a 3-channel RGB image that looks monochrome. Split the channels and simply take 1 of the channels. That will be your Ha+O3 mono. Let me know if you can solve this and how it works.
Mabula
Hi Tim @tstevens83,
Actually that should be possible yes i think.
I assume that you mean that you would load all data, so that is the HaO3 subs and the S2O3 subs. Set the debayer algo to Mutti-NB Ha+O3 ( Or Multi-NB SII+O3, it is technically the same).
Make sure that you load the Ha03 subs in session with name HaO3 for your convenience. And use session name S2O3 when you load the S2O3 subs.
Now the key is to have stacks per session and not of all sessions combined. So in 6) Integrate at the top, change the setting Multi-Session options to integrate per session.
You should end up with 4 stacks, the Ha of session S2O3 is actually your SII data then.
I must double check myself now. I think 2.0.0-beta39 will not correctly do this at the moment, so I will test and if not, I will make sure beta40 can do this 😉
Mabula
