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 new here and I have been trying to extract Ha and Oiii from my narrowband imaging with my modded Nikon D810 and L extreme filter. When I load lights and calibration frames I leave pattern in 0 tab as supported and change the algo to Ha Oiii colour. The image still comes out pretty red. Then I do the Ha & Oiii extractions and they come out looking the exact same in colour also and not in B&W. I gave a file to a fellow user and he was able to extract Ha & Oiii with B&W images after the extraction. Any help would be greatly appreciated. See the images below. There is little to know difference. Thank you!
@garycphoto Hi Gary, the best way is to select the Ha - OIII extract Ha algorithm and process normally. Then, without closing APP or changing anything, return to tab 0 and select Ha - OIII extract OIII and return to tab 6 and immediately click integrate again. You will be asked if you want to normalize again and to that you answer yes. That way you will have two mono files, one for Ha and one for OIII, that you then can combine in combine RGB in the Tools tab.
@wvreeven Thank you for the quick reply. I have been doing that but the results are the same. Should I forget about the Ha-Oiii colour algo? Also it never asks me to normalize.
@garycphoto What version of APP do you use? And FYI I use those algorithms all the time and they do work. So you should not need to forget about them. Do you make any changes to the APP parameters or do you go straight to tab 6 and click integrate?
I'm on the version 1.082 I dunno what's happening so. I make no changes at all and just integrate.
He's using the 1.083 Beta. I downloaded it and tried to no avail. I'm just running one light with masters frame to see if it works. No joy so far. I'll try on my laptop now.
@garycphoto In order for stacking to make sense you’ll need at least 5 subs.
Yeah, I did that and no matter how many subs I use I still get the same results.
@garycphoto Can you please take screenshots of tabs 0, 1 and 6 and post them here?
Sure thing.
@garycphoto Thanks for the pictures. What I meant is screenshots of the configuration that you use to process the images. Load them all please and configure APP as you normally would. Then instead of clicking the integrate button go through the tabs and take the screenshots. Thanks!
Here's everything. Thank you for the help 🙂
@garycphoto Thanks a lot. However, I am still not sure what you are choosing in tab 0. You have posted two pictures and neither of them show the correct settings for splitting off an Ha and an OIII channel from your images.
@garycphoto Thanks a lot. So that all looks perfectly normal to me. What OS are you on? And is your data located on the internal HD of the computer or on an external one?
Maybe a good one to see the data for ourselves to double check the settings. Please provide us with like 10 lights and the calibration masters.
Go to https://upload.astropixelprocessor.com and use upload as both username and password.
Create a directory named “garycphoto-extractIssue” and upload in there. Thank you!
@vincent-mod Uploading now Vincent. Thank you.
@wvreeven I'm working on Mac OS 11.4 and off an external HD.
Try the internal HD if you can. External HDs usually have a too low I/O rate, unless it is an SSD.
@vincent-mod Really appreciate it, thank you!
Hi @garycphoto,
So I'm taking a look at the moment. I think there are some issues in your imagetrain. If you look at the masterbias and masterdark, I think you have light leaking on the sensor. This will interfere with proper calibration and will influence the result;
MasterBias
MasterDark
Besides that, you're using tif files which are already stretched. This will also not work regarding extracting Ha etc. You need unprocessed, raw data which is still linear.
@vincent-mod Thank you for the reply Vincent. I did send the files to another user and he could get the mono extractions from the ha and oiii.
Ah, yes so was that with these tif files or the sony raw files? At least it's not working here either indeed.
@vincent-modit was the raws. I can load raws into APP? Also thank you for bringing up the light leak in my calibration frames. I can close the viewfinder window on the back of my camera.
@garycphoto Yes, in general you can load RAWs in APP, depending on the camera used. If your friend was able to split the channels then APP supports your camera.
@wvreeven thank you! Yes it’s a Nikon d810. I’ll run it now and see.
