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.
Hi all.
I am doing RGB frames at 120s, dualband frames at 180s, in Bortle 5-6.
Per session some 60-100 frames. In total, I do 10+ hours integration, so mostly >300 frames, up to 1000.
For a single session, I need to discard all frames with satellite trails. (Of course, I also discard frames with clouds, airplanes, guiding problems, and very strong satellite trails). If I leave a single satellite frame in, I see the trail in the stacked result.
Usually, I have
- very few, only 2-3% of really unusable frames (wind, airplane)
- but 15-20% of frames with satellite trails. So a lot, worthwhile to think, whether/how to keep those.
I am using still 2.0.0 beta39, my parameters are:
- RGB: adaptive airy disk, in 5) no neutralize background, in 6) LNC 1st, 3 iterations, bayer/x-trans drizzle, scale 1, droplet 1. Rest standard
- Dualband: Multi-NB extract Ha+OIII, 5) no neutralize background, 6) LNC off, rest standard.
- I tested (in beta39) a lot with 5) neutralize background and 6) LNC ...
... and came to the conclusion that the above settings are best as input to PixInsight's processes to correct the gradient (MARS, GradientCorrection, DBE). If I „smooth“ more in APP, I either loose faint details (e.g. IFN) or get worse gradient correction results.
(I use APP for stacking only.)
My questions:
- Are there any better settings to eliminate satellite trails, for one session, 60-100 frames ?
- If I have 200+, or 300+ frames: Does it make sense to leave the satellite frames in? Will the trails be „outliner-ed“?
- Is beta42 better in removing satellite trails?
Thank you and best regards.
Michael
Hi Michael, @michaelacg
I think beta42 will work better because it has improved outlier rejection with Local Normalization 2.0 rejection. In my tests it is better to remove outliers while preserving signal.
If you stack in APP with the automatic setting in 6) integrate, the outlier rejection settings can be too conservative. So what you want to do is set the integration mode to average instead of automatic and then tweak the outlier rejection settings yourself.
If you have many frames, the most important adjustment will be to decrease the kappa high relative to the kappa high used in automatic mode. You can find that kappa in the FITS header of an integration that was done in automatic mode. With many images, that kappa will be 4.0, better to lower it to 3.0-3.5 and see if that removed all the outliers then properly. Also enable the outlier rejection output map for visual feedback on what is rejected 😉
Let me know if this helps,
Mabula
