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 always avoided summer targets such as the Lagoon, Eagle, and Swan because they stay lower to the horizon in my area and the neighborhood power lines hang right through their path. I am not able to relocate my scope to a better location.
With everything APP can do, I figured I'd atleast get some data and let it do it's thing. Last night I collected a couple hours with the Eagle and Swan in the frame. I had almost the first hour with no power lines in my FOV, then almost 2 hours of them for the rest of the session.
I collected 33 subs at 300sec each on a Redcat51 with a ZWO 2600MC Pro. I also collected just as much with a 2600MM on a 2nd Redcat51 also on my mount. I haven't looked at the mono data yet. I used darks, flats, and darkflats.
I left all the settings in APP at default, on the Integrate tab, I used Average and Quality for integrate and weights. I used Adaptive Rejection for the outlier rejection filter. All other settings I didn't touch.
Once the power lines appeared in my FOV, they moved all the way across the image. Never appearing in the same place in all the images. I have attached 4 single subs for example of the lines and the stacked result of my OSC data. APP was able to eliminate about half of the lines in the image, but one side they still remain.
The stacked result has been cropped, LP removal, star color, and star reduction with APP, and noise reduction with Topaz Denoise.
I am not sure of what settings to change or increase for this, so I decided to ask the experts (you guys). I tried to include all the info I was aware of, but if something else is needed, please let me know.. Thank you for any help.
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Here is another stack I ran today with the filter set to Winsorized Rejection and I have Local Normalization Rejection checked. This did a much better job at removing them. I am only seeing very faint remains of the lines and feel I'm headed in the right direction. Although I am not sure what the next move should be. Should I try adjusting the kappa low and kappa high?
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Here is Adaptive Rejection and Local Normalization Rejection checked.
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Well, I think you're the first one asking for power-line removal. 😉 Seems you figured out a good setting already, you can indeed play around with the kappa low setting a bit, lower is more aggressive, though I don't think those will make a big difference as it's mainly used for pixel lines and stuff. But I'd say your result is very good considering the lines.
Power lines are quite common here. My neighborhood's lines are ran in the backyards instead of along the street, as this gives a nicer appearance to the neighborhood. But it can be a headache for imaging the sky in the backyard. The settings I have tried so far are definitely improving the image, but at this point I am just changing things blindly as I am not familiar with most of the settings that I have always left at their default. I can still see the lines faintly in the image and hoping to be able to fine tune them out. I actually just adjusted the kappa high setting of 3.0 to 2.0 and this improved the lines even more, but also noticeably removed some nebula. You stated that I should use kappa low instead? Is there any other settings I could try fine tune blending out the lines? MBB?  Â
Well not much other than having more data I think, with more data you can add these to still use the signal they have and it should subdue their issues more. If you're seeing that the settings hurt your image, you have to dial it a bit back yes, trial and error basically. MBB you can use, but that's used more for getting rid of stacking lines etc. In the end of the day, it's not optimized for removing these, but I'm pleasantly surprised it already did this much.
I can definitely collect more data, but the additional data will also have the power lines in them. I am assuming as long as the lines appear randomly in the subs, they will still average out of the image the more subs I add?
They should, but I'm not sure you can get rid of them 100% as these are so big they may even overlap sometimes.
I have the same issue in my backyard. Wires to the south. When siting the dome, I noticed that a change in location made a big difference in the altitude of the wires (as seen from the scope). It also is the direction to town and significant sky glow, so I have decided not shoot that low from home. I'll go remote for that.
In your case is it possible to move your imaging set-up so as to change the apparent elevation of the wires? 20 feet could make a big difference.
@jeffmorgan that is something I have been looking at for years now, trying to come up with a good solution. My driveway extends the entire width of the rear of my west-facing house. My normal setup location is already favoring the north side of my driveway. I could move further north maybe 10-15 feet and I might gain some more time without powerlines on those southern targets. One definite solution would be to move my setup in the grass of my backyard, but that is easier said that done. As I have a small hillside at the edge of the driveway where the yard begins before it levels off. I would miss the lines all together though if I could setup there. But I like to keep my gear together and just roll it in and out of the garage. This would require me to break it down everytime I setup and ended the night. There is also wildlife that comes through the backyard... deer, turkey, etc.. I would probably want to build some type of observatory to protect my gear and to keep it in that location long term.Â
It was not suggesting a permanent move. Rather, shooting a series from the new location to give power lines in different locations. Mix those in with the primary location and maybe they would process out better.
I can always try that. I have the next 2 nights clear here, so I will image the same targets for as much as I can. I'd like to see what results look like when I have over 100 subs. I will follow up with the results so you can see the difference in the number of subs make for your own power line issue.
