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 am testing out the software on a 9 panel mosaic but came across a problem I cannot resolve. I tried a number of methods which did not work finally I found a method which did work. Here is what I did:
1. Stack each mosaic panel in the normal way using APP.
2. Align the individual panels using settings like this:Â Analyze stars (kappa 3 auto min and auto max with slider at min 1000, max 2600), Register (pentagons, scale start 2, scale stop 15, use dynamic distortion correction, uncheck same camera, tried various distortion margin settings but none were much different then default), Integrate (4th degree LNC, 3 iterations, enabled MBB true at 5%, no rejection, the rest defaults).
3. Integration succeeds with above settings but there is a bad seam between panel 4 and panel 7. The stars do not line up properly though they do on every other seam. I can send some images of this and screen shots of whatever is needed but I do not see a way to do this under add topic. Â
Has anyone else seen this happen where registration succeeds but some of the panels have alignment issues? I have tried tweaking every setting I can think of and the result is always the same. Â
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I must admit that I haven't come across this problem myself but I did have great success stitching a 20 panel Ha mosaic taken with a 135mm lens. This in spite that the fact that I had some severe distortion in one corner. You might want to try increasing the minimum amount of stars, the tool tip recommends 2,500 for Mosaics. The rest of your settings seem similar to mine but I found that I had better results with LNC set to the 2nd degree with 10 iterations. How much do your frames overlap? If it's more than 5% you should try increasing it to 10%. It that still doesn't work I remember Mabula recommending to use 1 degree LNC with 3 iterations and MBB set at 5% when you integrate the individual panels.
I hope this helps,
Marc
