Jan 31 2026: APP 2.0.0-beta40 will soon be released with many fixes especially for Linux, upgraded development platform and 10-20% performance boost !
Jan 15 2026: FIXED LICENSE SERVER VPN Tunnel issue
 The issue could have prevented APP to start when using a VPN tunnel or another complicated network configuration, like using APP on a remote computer on a different continent. This issue is fixed now and APP should start normally.
Jan 04 2026: 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. Unfortunately, Mabula was struck by a severe flu virus in the past couple of weeks and thus could not work. He is getting much better now and he has resumed work to release 2.0.0 as soon as possible. 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.
Nov 28 2025:Â APP 2.0.0-beta39 has been released !
I have questions whether I am using the best practices to process a two-panel mosaic for Ha/OIII. I am processing light frames for 2 panels for the Heart Nebula captured with an Optolong L-Extreme. Â (I haven't tried this with more than 2 panels).
I load all frames for both panels (in a single session) and load the applicable calibration files. Â Calibration with defaults and Analyse Stars with an increased number (like 4000 or so).
In Registration enable Use Dynamic Distortion Correction and disable same camera. Â Increase Scale stop to 10. Â Set Mode to Normal, not Mosaic. Â (If set to Mosaic it requires thousands of "tasks" and runs forever). Â I can't see any difference in the results between using either Mode.
In Normalize use Advanced.
In Integrate use LNC (usually 2d degree and integrations up to 10) and MBB with percentage greater than the overlap percentage of the two panels. Â Run twice, once for Ha extract and once for OIII extract.
I have not had much luck running the two panels in 2 sessions requiring separate calibration frames. Â Also enabling Multi-Session Options to integrate the sessions separately (for the option to integrate the panels' Ha and OIII separately) as well as together makes the integration hang (at 72% each time) and never finish.
Any help on what I am doing right or wrong and whether I am doing this the most efficient way, would be appreciated.
Thanks, Jeff
Dear Jeff, @jhart
Please accept my apologies for the delay in my response.
The workflow that you describe is not our recommended workflow for any mosaic as described in our mosaic tutorial: https://www.astropixelprocessor.com/mosaic-tutorial-milky-way-to-rho-ophiuchi-by-mabula/
You indicate that you have 2 panels. Simply stack the separate panels per filter, so you will get a stack of Ha and OIII per panel, right? Do this with defualt settings, no need to increase star count to 4000 in 3) analyse stars for this.
When finished, you will have 4 mosaic panels, right? 2 panels for Ha and OIII.
Load those 4 panels are lights, increase star count in 3) to 2000-2500.
Register them as a mosaic, with same camera and optics disables and distortion correction enabled.
That should work and will complete very fast.
Let me know if this helps.
Mabula
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Hi Mabula,
Thanks so much for the guidance. Â You are correct, the mosaic processing you describe is very quick!
In loading the 4 (2 Ha and 2 OIII) integrated stacks as lights, I enabled Multi-Channel/Filter and loaded the 2 Ha with the Ha filter and the 2 OIII with the OIII filter. Â The result is an Ha mosaic and an OIII mosaic of the 2 panels-- ready for Combine RGB Tool. Â If the Ha and OIII integrations are loaded as lights with no filter designation, the result is a single integrated mosaic in grey scale.
One thing I noticed is that leaving Registration mode as Normal instead of Mosaic (done by mistake initially but tested some later) produced what appeared to be the same quality mosaic result as using Mosaic mode. Â Was that because I was doing only a 2 panel mosaic?
Do you expect your above described workflow to work equally well for mosaics with any number of Ha and OIII panels?
Thanks again for your help.
Jeff
Hi @jhart,
Indeed, with only 2 panels, everything has a common overlap area still and the mosaic registration is not even needed then.
And yes, with a higher number of panels, it should work equally as well, but keep in mind that the more panels you add, things will get more complicated fast. Make sure that the panels have enough overlap with other panels and then things will work 😉
Mabula
