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,
Any advice what I should change to get rid of artifacts ?
That looks kind of weird, did you use settings like LNC and MBB?
Yes I did.
LNC 1 iteration of LNC at a scale of 1 and 15% MBB.
Could you try upping MBB a bit and going for LNC 1st degree, with 3 iterations? What is the overlap in your panels?
Thanks Vincent. Your suggestions seem to have helped.
I had default SGP overlap so 15%.
That's great to hear! Thanks.
Hm, it worked in one colour channel mosaic but now I'm struggling with blue channel.
It might be lack of #stars - after I calibrated&stacked I get 36 to 79 stars in panel.
And now when I try to make mosaic of those I get this error in Register:
Encountered error in module:
MultipleViewDistortionAndCalibrationTask
Error message:
java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: 3
Cause:
3
pd.a(Unknown Source)
pd.doInBackground(Unknown Source)
javax.swing.SwingWorker$1.call(SwingWorker.java:295)
java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)
So how are you creating the mosaic exactly, are you trying to create the mosaic per channel?
Yes, now I'm trying to do blue channel of 2x2 mosaic.
I've tried first calibrate/stack individual panels ant then doing mosaic.
And I've tried loading all mosaic images and doing calibrating/stacking/etc in one go.
So, making a mosaic of each channel is not the way to go at least. * It should be possible to just make the panels first into an RGB stack, then create the mosaic with those panels. That doesn't work? If not, you may have a data issue indeed.
* Well, it is possible, but you do need proper signal in all channels, making RGB panels first is usually better. Only when you need to add H-alpha or other narrow-band data, you go the only R, only G and only B mosaic mode.
Well, it worked for R and G channels but not with B.
It might be that there is not enough signal for a mosaic, I usually set APP to detect at least 1000 stars in a mosaic, 500 should also work but more is better in this case. But you did try to make each panel into a RGB first right?
If you could upload some of the data, I could have a look as well if you want.
It could be that my problem now is too narrow view (and too few stars).
2x2 mosaic was taken with 1390mm fl , 30.9 x 24.7 arcmin fov and 0.674 arcsec/pixel.
Just processing now 4 panel RGB mosaic.
Hopefully it works better.
But I really appreciate your helping efforts.
Not that good - needs more normalizing.
Here's a link if you would like to have a go.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1n7BQnR_mRs07UxHgOkq2X1bCvEw5M-fR
Please share settings if you get decent result.
