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 everyone 🙂 This is my first forum post since joining the APP family. I had started AP last March and I mainly use trackers (Skyguider Pro and SWSA) with an Ha modified Z6II and L-extreme/L-enhance/Ha/OIII filters.
Now I had some North American Nebula Data shot with an L-enhance filter with a stock D850 and on another night some data shot with an Astronomik OIII filter with the Z6II. Can I integrate both these data sets together? and if so which demosaic algorithm should I use?
I have extracted separate Ha and OIII channels using both Ha/OIII extract algorithms before but thought this way I can get both data from different sensors registered and scaled into one integration instead of doing it manually in PS!
cheers
@darknebula It isn't possible yet to load RGB and dual band data and then to have the RGB data integrated as RGB and the dual band data integrated with extracting Ha and OIII at the same time.This will be added to a future version of APP though.
In the mean time, you need to process the RGB data separately from the dual band data and extract Ha and OIII as you have done before. When done you can load the RGB, Ha and OIII integration results as lights in tab 1 (don't load any calibration data) and then go to tab 4 and register the three files against each other. Then still in tab 4 you can save the registered frames. Those registered frames you can then load into Combine RGB in tab 9 or an external tool to combine them as you see fit.
Thank you for clearing that up.
CheersÂ
@darknebula I used to run in to the mono vs color problem when extracting Ha and OIII (mono integrations) and trying to integrate with my OSc camera data in the beginning. If the end result is a color image, you can ignore the need to extract Ha and OIII and also use the standard adaptive airy disc debayering algroithm and integrate all subs together. I did this when the main goal was the OSC color image, but with added Ha and some OIII detail from the filter, and the RGB star color remained. In some cases with filter data only, the Ha-OIII color debayering was a little better, but often not much that is easy to discern in my case. the alternative is to split the integrated R, G, and B channels, register with the Ha and OIII extracted masters, and using the combine tool to get you RGB-HOO or whatver palette you wish.
It is worth trying the all-in-one option if you want the color image, to mix all subs in a single integration, use AAD algorithm and benefit from the raw color subs, and the dual band filtered color subs all together. It works quite well or at least an interesting thing to compare to other ways or merging the data.
Clear skies
Hi
That is what happened to me this time both Ha and OIII extracted integrations turned up color when the initial algorithm was Ha-OIII Color instead of AAD which I had used previously and gotten mono extracted Ha and OIII integrations. I do usually separate the channels in PS but Thought APP would do a better job, I usually also do both 🙂 and see which turns up better!Â
thank you Â
@darknebula APP mixes just fine. Note that Ha-OIII is a single color frame integration. Extract Ha and extract OIII are mono integrations and done separately. AAD cannot give you mono integrations if the lights are Bayer OSC data, so you have done something unusual I think.
You can use AAD on the color frames, then split the channels. Separately reload the filtered lights and run extract Ha and then extract OIII and then you should have 5 separate (R, G, B Ha, OIII) integrations to register, normalise and combine as you want.
There is a good tutorial video on the app site about osc data and channel mixing, it might make things clearer.Â
