Mar 28 2026 APP 2.0.0-beta40 will be released in 7 days.
It did take a long time to have the work finished on this and it will have a major performance boost of 30-50% over 2.0.0-beta39 from calibration to integration. We extensively optimized many critical parts of APP. All has been tested to guarantee correct optimizations. Drizzle and image resampling is much faster for instance, those modules have been completely rewritten. Much less memory usage. LNC 2.0 will be released which works much better and faster than LNC in it's current state. And more, all will be added to the release notes in the coming weeks...
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.
Suggestions for improvement:
In the left menu bar : after integration the created file x
Tab 7)
automatic creation by choice of x in RGB files
automatic creation by choice of x in Ha / Hß / Oiii / files
So practically an automatic workflow for the Hubble images...
Remove the buttons 1/3 2/4 in the middle and program the possibility to enter the value directly
Regards Ed
Hi Ed @tomsen,
Thank you very much for your suggestion.
Do I understand correctly that you propose an additional tab on the left for this?
In my experience, especially for narrowband data, there is no magic formula to create a nice satisfying composite, so automatic creation of such an image sounds wonderful but can't be done really., because the formula of the composite will always depend strongly on:
- quality of data per filter ( how much exposure? shot under good or bad sky conditions?)
- the object itself (on which wavelengths does it emit ? or not )
- the characteristics of the filters that you use
- the characteristics of your camera
- characteristics of your optics even play a role here... especially when the data was shot with several optical tubes.
We will try to add more formula though in the RGB Combine Tool, they always should be considered as starting points. Not as "The Formula". So customizing the formula is always adivsed because of numbers 1-5 above 😉
Mabula
Hi Mabula,
RGB Integration
1. Stack and integrate the color files as you normally would but do no post processing on it yet.
2. Clear the input files out of APP (or close and restart it) and load in the stacked integrated color file as a light file.
3. Click on the Calibrate tab (tab 2) and scroll to near the bottom and check the "Split Channels" and click on Save Calibrated Frames. This will then split your composite color image into 3 RGB images that have all been preprocessed. These are the three files you will combining with the NB files
Ha and OIII Integration
4. Now for the narrowband images. Clear everything out of APP and on Tab 0 (Raw/Fits), click on your correct debayer pattern (mine is RGGB).
5. For the algorithm, select Ha-OIII extract Ha.
6. Click on Load (tab 2) and enter your lights, etc. for your L-eNhance frames and appropriate calibration frames.
7. Click on Register (tab 4) and select Use Dynamic Distortion Correction.
8. Click on Integrate (tab 6) use the automatic parameters. Click on Integrate.
9. Once the integration is complete for the Ha file, clear the data once more, go to tab 0 and select the Ha-OIII extract OIII algorithm. Reload the same data, but now for the OIII signal. Click integrate in tab 6 and this will integrate your OIII data.
10. When the OIII is complete you now have 5 files: R, G, B, Ha, and OIII. Now the files must be registered and normalized together so that you can combine them.
R, G, B, Ha, OIII Registration/Normalization
11. Restart APP and in the Load tab (tab 1) load in the R, G, B, Ha, and OIII files.
