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.
There seems to be a banding issue, or perhaps I am missing a setting, in 2.0.0-beta6 that was not present in 1.083 when processing mosaics.
Using the exact same FITS files and the exact same settings, the beta version presents banding in the final image.
Using the previous version, the image is perfectly smooth and has no defects.
Is there a setting I am missing to prevent this?
Hi David @david,
Thank you very much for reporting this, another user also see this problem, see something is off indeed. Can you share the data on which this occurs so I can test it a.s.a.p. ?
Which settings are you using in 5)Normalize, and which settings for LNC and MBB?
Please upload it here:
https://upload.astropixelprocessor.com/
username: upload
password: upload
Please make a folder with your name and issue description like: David-square-artefactand upload your data there and let me know once done so I can test quickly.
Mabula
The files are in david-schneider-square-artifact
5) Normalize is: mode regular, method multiply-scale, scale BWMV, neutralize background is checked, scale is 1.0, interpolation method is lanczos-3, apply registration to frames is checked
LNC is LNC Degree: off, LNC iterations: 3
MBB is 25%
I hope this helps!
Hi David @david,
I think that there is no problem here. I get the same results with the old and stable 1.083 versus 2.0.0-beta6 with the same settings in normalization + MBB + LNC.
If I process the mosaic with regular normalization and MBB 10% and LNC 2nd degree I get this when combining the data with RGBSHO in the RGB Combine Tool:
So those banding artefacts are gone then.
Enabling LNC will correct the normalization issue that you see in the mosaic overlap areas. You have the bright nebula in the overlap area and this makes things difficult for normalization as it is in APP. LNC is there to further improve things 🙂
Mabula
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Hello, @mabula-admin !
Thank you for the investigation, and yes, this completely solves the banding!
Thank you again!
