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.
Hello,
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My typical capture workflow for LRGB capture using a monochrome camera is to do:
10-15 images of L, then 10-15 images of R, then 10 - 15 images of G, then 10 - 15 images of B --- loop over these steps for multiple sessions.
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I stack, them, do combine LRGB and then do post processing like light pollution removal, color calibration, etc.
I image from my backyard in Bortle 7 skies so the Light Pollution removal tool is a life saver. I was wondering if I could improve my processing by individually applying light pollution removal to the L,R,G,B stacked images and then combine to obtain the color image? Would individual LP removal give better results? In which case, is there a way to transfer the area selection boxes from one image to another instead of re-doing the entire selection boxes manually for each image?
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Thank you,
Hi @outer-space,
In my experience, you want to perform Light Pollution Removal only on the resulting LRGB composite. If you perform it on the individual L,R,G,B stacks, you need to be very carefull. If you do it unprecise, you can create bigger problems that are harder to correct in the LRGB composite. The reason for this is that the correction models are very flexible and if applied not precisely, you can introduce unwanted and unrealistic gradients even. So in my experience best control and results are achieved if you only apply the light pollution removel once on the final LRGB composite.
We have on our ToDo list to save/load the correction model and the locations of the area select boxes as well 😉
Mabula
