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.
@tailspin45 That looks like a comet registered stack. My understanding is that there is supposed to be a version that does a comet registered stack, then a star registered stack, and then combine them in a way that both the comet and stars are sharp, no tailing. This is what my inquiry is about...
Ah, sorry, I ,misunderstood. That would be a cool tool!
Hello, is there any update on the comet registration process to allow static stars and static comet in the same image, ive seen mention that this can be done in APP but im unable to work out how?
Thanks
Mark
It's not possible to have sharp stars and a sharp comet automatically, yet. The next release first fixes a number of issues that were still in the comet registration module: https://www.astropixelprocessor.com/community/release-information/astro-pixel-processor-1-083-preparing-next-release/
Method suggested by Adam Block involves removing stars with StarNet or StarXterminator and then you can do one star alignment in APP to get comet only image. Then you can subtract the comet from star-only subs created by StarNet to get the star field. Then combine them. The residuals after Star removal on the comet image can be removed by creating a mask for the comet and blurring or cutting to black point for everything else.
Thanks for the info Vincent .
Dear APP friends - for your interest I just loaded an image of comet Leonard to Astrobin ( https://www.astrobin.com/rdckuj/). I used the comet registration in the new APP 1.083 beta3 release. I also used local area normalisation rejection to minimise star trails, but you can still see artifacts.
thanks
Warwick
@vincent-mod
I think if we can freeze images resolution not changing every time in comet stacking and star stacking of the same data set, then we can use RGB combine tool to blend comet with star images. Is it possible?
Mmm, I don't think so at the moment. But I do know Mabula is working on getting the star-field extracted as well, so a combination would be possible in APP.
Wouldn't be a bad idea to allow plugins like StarNet++ or StarXterminator to be used instead of reinventing the wheel.
Well, the same could be said about StarXterminator, which could've simply used Starnet. 😉 The reason we make our own version is because it ties very well into our code, giving Mabula a lot of freedom to tune it to work as good as possible. It also opens up other functionalities, exactly because the underlying algorithms can be used elsewhere.
Dear APP friends
Letting you know I have loaded new images of comet Leonard to Astrobin using three different approaches in APP. https://www.astrobin.com/8pzs8i/
Best wishes
Warwick
