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.
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
