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,
I am looking for a bit of help. I believe I am having a walking noise issue due to not being able to dither my Star Adventurer. Now that I am guiding it seems to have gotten worse. Is there any combination of settings in APP that can help with this? I didn't get this with shorter exposures in the past. Also Deep Sky Stacker seems to deal with it a lot better, so I know there is room for improvement in APP.
I shot about 25 frames at 5 minutes each and I have added darks, bias and flats which I shot to match the same night. I am using a full spectrum Panasonic Lumix GH4 mirrorless camera with an STC Duo Narrowband filter. The attached images are from APP with Ha OIII --> Extract Ha, and from DSS with the blacks brought down to make them more similar. You can see that the DSS images is a lot better. I have tried several settings combos in APP and keep getting this, any help would be greatly appreciated!
I have similar problems. This is my latest stack. APP vs DSS. Same subs 🙁
/stefan
This is all likely because APP gives a different stretch, so the background comes out more in which you see, indeed, walking noise. Try to dither when collecting data, that will immediately solve that and improve overall results.
