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 looking to get SHO results with a one shot camera.
I have the Ha and OIII data with my Optolong L Extreme. Â I have the SII data from a Baader SII filter.
I played around with getting Bi-color by running the L Extreme data through 2 separate calculations (One extracted OIII and the other extracted Ha).
I just don't know what to do with the SII data to integrate this all together.
My intention was to combine all 3 files in the RGB tool but I'm lost on what to do to get the full integration.
Would I need to somehow add the SII data into the L Extreme data and calculate these together and integrate them all as one? Â Since the SII data is exclusively SII I just don't want to lose that separation.
Any idea in how to accomplish this?
@paul-from-northern-mi Hi Paul. If you have the Ha and OIII extracted from the L-eXtreme filter then you can combine the SII by loading all 3 images in tab 1 as lights and register them against each other. When done, go to the Combine RGB tool and select the SHO (Hubble) 1 or SHO (Hubble) 2 algorithm and load the three images assigning them to the correct channels. Then press calculate.
@paul-from-northern-mi Hi Paul. If you have the Ha and OIII extracted from the L-eXtreme filter then you can combine the SII by loading all 3 images in tab 1 as lights and register them against each other. When done, go to the Combine RGB tool and select the SHO (Hubble) 1 or SHO (Hubble) 2 algorithm and load the three images assigning them to the correct channels. Then press calculate.
Wouter: Â I tried to register the 1 SII with the 2 L Extreme Lights using the default settings. Â The Registration went through without any error out.
However when I do the re-calculate with the RGB frames I get the message that the images aren't compatible with each other.
Not sure what is going wrong; could it be
1) When loading the RGB I am pulling together the same 3 Fits files that I initially pulled which are outside of the active directory.
2) My SII data was about 10 degrees out of rotation from the other 2 frames.Â
3) Possibly the incompatibility is that the SII final image was from a compilation of 3 minute exposures whereas the Ha and OIII would have been from 2 minute images
I'm going to see if it is possible to load the 3 local FITs, if not I might be stuck.
Â
@paul-from-northern-mi My bad. I forgot to mention that you need to save the registered frames in tab 4 once registration completes and that you need to load the registered frames in Combine RGB.
