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 have trouble getting my Mosaic right.
Version: Beta46
DDC on
Mode: Mosaic.
Look at my screenshot.
What goes wrong?
Thanks!
Paul.
Have you tried without DDC?
Yes, but the programm will not allow it. Before start the is a popup saying i have to enable DDC.
It must be a bug, Mubla is not reacting to my question.
I getting frustrated. I want to finnish my project M31 that i am working on for one year. 🙂
Hope this is not a too stupid question, I just registered for APP and am new to this forum.
From your screenshot, I can't see what is going wrong. You don't mean the irregular (not perfectly rectangular) shape, do you?
PS: Started working on a mosaic myself in APP (30-day trial): NGC 6946 (Fireworks Galaxy) + NGC 6939 cluster.
Frank (@f_rankie)
Not a stupid question. If you look closely at the overlaps you can see that some of the stars are blurred or doubled. The mosaic registration has not worked well, and Paul (@paulcolenbrander) is right to be concerned about it.
By way of background, mosaic registration is mathematically complex. Lenses/telescopes do not produce a flat image and the sky isn't flat either. APP has to calculate the curvature of the image (which varies depending on the optics) and the curvature of the sky (which depends on the FOV and also refraction if the FOV is close to the horizon). The images have to be mapped to a common projective model and then registered based on images that may not all overlap if there are a lot of panels.
APP is known to be the best tool for mosaic registration but has clearly struggled in this case.
JC
The strange thing is that i did this last year too, with the same dataset and then it was no problem.
Over the year I made more session and work them all seperate.
When this one is sucesfully I plan to combine all sessions.
Frank: It is correct that the middle is not allignd and blurry.
The next settings I would check are:
-
Analyse Stars: inspect the detected-star map, especially where the panels overlap. If few real stars are detected there and your current target is low, try 2,500, then rerun Analyse Stars and Register. 2500 is more than is usually needed ofcourse, but to test it may be interesting.
-
Registration: if every panel overlaps one chosen reference panel, select that reference and try normal instead of mosaic registration. This also applies to two overlapping panels. If some panels have no overlap with the main reference, keep it on Mosaic.
Try these comparisons separately, checking the overlap stars after each run.
It must be a setting in APP, i did a test in PixInsight with a good result.
Also the new version of APP was not working.
Hi Paul @paulcolenbrander,
Perhaps you can upload the data set so I can have a look ?
How many panels are this, it looks like only 2? In that case, the mosaic mode is not even needed.
If you turn on mosaic mode, APP will advise to use DDC, but you can say no, to run it without DDC, unless you use the calibrated projective mode. Then DDC is always needed.
Can you upload the mosaic panels here Paul? Please accept my apologies for the delay in my response, I have not been well for quite some time and I am now back on my feet again.
https://upload.astropixelprocessor.com/
username: uploadData
password: uploadTestData
Please make a folder with your name and issue like Paul-M31-mosaic-issue
and upload the data there and let me know once done.
Mabula
Hi Mabula,
Good to hear that you are feeling better now.
I did a new try without the mosaic setting, and processed them normal.
The error is gone, i will go from here, if there are still problems i will upload the files.
2 questions remains:
- In the older version there was an item called "same optics and camera". Is it gone in the new version?
- Is it possible to give the possibility to pause the process?
I can cancel a job, and then it stops right away. I would like to see that I can choose what to do: Cancel or Proceed.
APP uses so much power, that sometimes it is nice to stop for a short period.
Hi Paul @paulcolenbrander,
Can yo try the mosaic mode in 2.0.0-beta48, there are many improvement in the registration engine that should make this work robustly. If it does not work somehow on your data, I need to test your data I think to understand why it is failing.
1) Yes that option is gone, APP can decide that internally now.
2) A pause option has been added to our ToDo list, so I will try to add that as well.
Mabula
Hi Mabula,
I just ran a new try on beta47 and thats looking good (no mosaic mode selected)
Now i want to do the same on beta48.
I can't find a option to save a project or file list, is it somewere hidden? I read on the forum that it should be in V2.0
I read on the forum that this is under construction.
I would be happy if i can save the file list with all my selected files.
Now i have to select all the files again, with a multiple session project it cost a lot of time.
Hi Paul, @paulcolenbrander
That feature to save/load a whole project is not yet delivered I am afraid. But we are working on it. Because APP really streamlines the whole process form loading images to integrating, the amount of metadata that needs to be stored is very substantial and thus that feature is not easy to implement without creating a lot of possible issues it turns out.
Please try also the mosaic registration mode on your data. It will be good to know if it works now in your case.
Mabula
