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 have read that using narrow band filters makes the Adaptive Black Body model problematic.
So would it be possible to get create integrations: One LRGB, one with the NB filter(s), then combine them in the RGB Combine tool after the Star Color Correction has been done?
The correction tool is indeed for broadband data. What does work often is to combine narrowband with RGB, then do the color correction. But also in that case it won't be perfect, closer though.
With the Good News of Beta 3 being imminent, I have paused processing data except one experiment on Sh 2-101 data. Basically, processed my h-a and LRGB data in parallel and separately as follows:
1) Batch Rotate all integrations;
2) Batch Crop all integrations;
3) Use RBG Combine tool on LRGB integrations;
4) Do Light Pollution Correction on H-a integration;
5) Do Light Pollution Correction on LRGB combined file;
6) Do Star Color Correction on LRGB combined file using Adaptive Black Body model; and
7) Bring the H-a and LRGB files back together using the RGB combine tool. Interestingly, there was no more Luminance channel present.
Unfortunately, the "cure" was worse than disease. All the stars were badly discolored green!
Do you need to do all the rotation and cropping? APP can automatically register all of that together usually. You have a split R, G and B and narrowband data and register them together. Then normalize them and save the normalized frames, which can then be combined. After that I would crop and then try a color correction.
Yes, cropping needs to be done early because I use an alt-az TTS Panther with an optical tube rotator. The device has limited travel and needs to be reset periodically.
During each reset of the rotator, there is some field rotation that creeps into the next set of subs. And of course, sessions over several nights and filter sequences has potential to add more. So I end up with a pretty wide "spread" of angles centered on my target (see attached screen shot for an extreme example). I suppose this could be countered with a manual adjustment of the camera after resets, but I prefer my sleep so I just let it run all night unattended.
The Batch Rotation is just to get the most favorable angle for cropping given that the Selection Tool is draws horizontal and vertical lines.
Looking forward to seeing Beta 3, will keep your revised procedure in mind for that. To be fair, I have gotten decent results with the current Star Color Correction module using a "light touch", my idea was just to "optimize" it by bringing in the narrow band(s) at a later stage. I just started imaging this summer and I am very much a novice. Especially with the processing!
Ah I get it, don't know about that device myself, I'll look it up. Alt-Az is a bit of a challenge indeed when doing photography, but it looks like you're managing nicely!
Yes, if you want me to have a look at some of your new final integrations and the color correction on that, no problem, I might see better what a good workflow would be in your case.
Mm, when I look up the mount it says the rotator would allow for equatorial tracking, wouldn't that imply that there shouldn't be much rotation? Or is it that the tube rotates for the guiding to work, but the object then still rotates around... tricky one for me. 🙂
