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.
What is the recommended workflow for a modified (monochrome) Sony a6300 camera?
(The camera has the stock sensor, but the Bayer color filter array has been removed. This is only a mechanical modification to the sensor. Electronics and firmware are not altered.)
Initially I will only take wide-band images with this monochrome sensor, so think of it as a black and white/panchromatic camera. (But the internal electronics will create a RAW file with the three RGB channels)
Do I open the RAW files using the 'no interpolation' algorithm? Do I then need to combine the three channels of image data to make a single channel/monochrome image?
If I want to bin the images 2x2, would it be a good idea to first open the RAW files with the super pixel algorithm?
(Eventually I will probably do some tri-color imaging using wide-bandpass filters, but for now I want to start with simpler monochrome images.)
Thank you in advance,
Tom
@tomkrajci Tom, that is a very interesting question!
Choosing "no interpolation" will for sure process your data without trying to debayer it. APP will regard the data as monochrome data and there will be no need to combine channels because as far as APP is concerned there will be no channels.
Regarding 2x2 binning, no, don't use the super pixels algorithm. That will assume that your data needs debayering and that is not the case!
So "no interpolation" will work best and is all you need.
@wvreeven thank you for the info.
There will be times when I want to bin these monochrome images 2x2. If I should not use super pixel algorithm, how else can I bin 2x2?
Tom
@tomkrajci Tom, will you bin 2x2 the images while shooting or simply reduce the size of the resulting stack? If the former, you'll need raw calibration files that are binned 2x2 as well and then process normally. If the latter, simply scale down to 50% the resulting integration.Â
@wvreeven the Sony a6300 consumer APS-C camera has no option to bin on camera.
I want to bin to increase sensitivity as much as possible. (Yes, on-camera binning would be better because read noise is not included in the binning process.)
I get the feeling that rescaling to 50% merely resamples the image, it does not bin/add/combine pixels to boost sensitivity.
If I open an image using super pixel, it does bin the image, but also creates three color channels.
During integration is there an option to add all channels together into one?
That sounds like a bit of an awkward work flow, but it may improve my sensitivity compared to merely rescaling to 50%.
Or is there a super pixel algorithm that keeps things monochrome?
@tomkrajci Tom, since you are not processing color data you should not use any other algorithm than "no interpolation" as explained before. There is no other way to do software binning in APP at the moment than rescaling the integration result. Mabula is working on a 2x2 software binning algorithm which will be part of the next release. Until then please just stick with "no interpolation".
Mabula is working on a 2x2 software binning algorithm which will be part of the next release
This sounds like good news, thank you!
