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 tried a simple two panel mosaic on Christmas Eve of M45 in LRGB. I'm following Mabula's sticky'd multi-part mosaic tutorial. One obvious difference is that I am working in monochrome whereas the tutorial data is OSC.
I've spent a bunch of time using light pollution tool on my first integration panel (luminance). Now I'm wondering whether I should be combining data before running the light pollution tool??
Background calibration doesn't work on monochrome data, right?
@tbar23 As for light pollution reduction, it really depends on your data. If one mono channel shows a lot more light pollution than the others, you may want to apply it only to that channel. If your data are really nice, you may not need to apply it at all.Â
Thanks both. @Wouter-Moderator - that makes sense. If, for instance, my luminance data was all taken in the hour or so following sunset then, perhaps, it would require more light correction to another channel if taken later at night pointed in a direction with less (or different) light pollution.
In my case, my composite image showed a bit of odd coloration, and I suspect that could be due to individually correcting each filter differently. I may try combining the data into RGB before LPC (and also look without any).
Thanks.
