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 get a very cryptic error message when I attempt to stack/stitch 13 images of the Milky Way together. Error message is attached. I haven't a clue as to what this could be due to. Any help in sorting this out would be greatly appreciated.
PC:
- MSI Raider Laptop
- 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-13950HX 20 GHz
- GeForce GE68HX 13VF graphics card
- 32 GB RAM
- 1 TB SSD
- Windows 11 Home, Version 23H2, 22631.3880
I have attempted to reduce the number of frames stacked to generate a mosaic panel - 8 subs with generous overlap. I am still getting the same or very similar error. I could really use some assistance in navigating this issue. Thanks in advance.
How many CPUs is APP showing on the slider at the top left?
This should be fine. What are the parameters on you ticked or changed for this mosaic?
@walsc There are quite a few parameters to tic. Here is where I currently stand. I have managed to create 4 FITS files in APP that together should create my Milky Way panorama. They were created from RAW files, Master Darks, Master Bias, and Bad Pixel Map. I then restarted APP, loaded in these 4 FITS files and proceeded to stack them in Mosaic mode. They loaded fine. I used Calibration defaults. Analyze Stars went fine, no signs of anything radically different from the results when building the mosaic panels. When I ran registration, I received the error message below, which I can only speculate as to the cause. Thanks for your engagement.
Regards, Martin
P.S. It was 32 CPUs
Registration Tab Settings:
Pattern Recognition: quadrilaterals
Scale Start: 1
Scale Stop: 15
Flip Descriptors in X/Y: unchecked
Dynamic Distortion Correction: Use DDC checked; Same camera and optics not checked due to message from APP indicating not to do so when using previously calibrated files.
No Distortion Model
Distortion Margin: 0.005 (default), Save Distortion Model unchecked
Registration Mode: mosaic
Registration Model: Calibrated Projective
Rotation: 000 degrees
Calibrated Projective Options
Projection Method: equirectangularProjection
Move COP Horizontal: 000
Move COP Vertical: 000
Save Registered Frames:
Scale: 1.0
Interpolation Method: lanczos-3; no under/overshoot
Error Received Using Quadrilaterals
Error Received Using Triangles
Error Received Using Pentagons - a total non-starter
OK. Try this:
Tab 0,1,2 unchanged.
Tab3: 1000 stars, maybe more
Tab 4: Scale start: 1, scale stop:10, distortion correction on, same camera off, registration mode mosaic
Tab 5: normalization mode: advanced
Tab 6: enable MBB, slider somewhere between 10 and 25% (depending on overlap)
everything else default.
I did not include Tab 5 and 6 settings as the images will not register. I will try >1000 stars in Tab 3. Perhaps that will assist with getting past the Registration phase.
I have been using max MBB in general. It does not appear to slow my processing down much. I have also been using LNC1, 3 passes.
I do mosaics quite a bit and MBB is set to 15%, LNC2 3 iterations, and for star analysis I find that 2000 seems to work best. Also make sure that on tab 5 normalization is set to advanced.
@imnewhere I usually do not use LNC, most of the time it is not necessary or does weird things, and it slows down the process significantly.
@martinontheroad As APP has strange limits everywhere, I do not recommend to set MBB at a very high level.
@walsc I will take that into consideration. But, would settings in Tabs 5 and 6 impact Tab 4, star registration? My instinct says “No,” but others may know better. Right now, I am stuck at Tab 4 and cannot Register my mosaic panels.
Ultimately, we will not be spared the fact that sooner or later we will have to do everything with PI anyway, there is no longer any support from the developer here.
@walsc I have very good results with it when mixing data with high variability and CMOS with CCD data. I'm also running a monster of a computer so I am not worried about slowing down either. The current mosaic I am working on has 56 panels for each channel of SHO, so 168 total master lights in it.
@imnewhere Thanks for this. I’ll give these settings a try. Maybe the 2000 stars will get me past the Registration tab.
It definitely went through the whole process for me. Too bad APP will not combine them in RGB combine without me resizing them down
@walsc will PI combine the masters without redoing registration? I know that I have combined masters from PI in APP before without registering them. I may try running them through PI this evening. This is a monster size image though.
No. You must apply an astrometric solution (scripts/imageanalysis/imagesolver) for each master in PI, then you must register them with processes/imageregistration/staralignment. After that you can combine nthem with PI.
But if your masters are already registered with APP, maybe PI will combine these without further registration, you have to try.
They have already went through everything up through the integration tab, but APP isn't able to do the combine RGB due to the files being the size they are.
