June 24 2026 APP 2.0.0-beta46 has been released !
Improved internal memory configuration (lower ! memory usage), fixed beta45 startup issue, fixed Set Save Directory & 2-panel mosaics.
May 27 2026 APP 2.0.0-beta45 has been released !
Fully Multi-Threaded LNC, many improvements for the registration engine, platform upgrade, and further tuning of internal memory consumption and memory release back to OS.
Apr 14 2026: Google Pay, Apple Pay & WeChat Pay added as payment options
Update on the 2.0.0 release & the full manual
We are getting close to the 2.0.0 stable release and the full manual. The manual will soon become available on the website and also in PDF format. Both versions will be identical and once released, will start to follow the APP release cycle and thus will stay up-to-date to the latest APP version.
Once 2.0.0 is released, the price for APP will increase. Owner's license holders will not need to pay an upgrade fee to use 2.0.0, neither do Renter's license holders.
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
