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 am running into a problem performing 1-star comet registration on two different image sets from the same night.
I use a barn door tracker. It can track for about 30 - 45 minutes. After that I have to reset/rewind, resume tracking, and recenter the camera on the comet field. The delay is only a few minutes of time, but the second image set is offset (and slightly rotated) compared to the first image set.
If I try to register all images in APP, the resulting integration stack will have a double comet nucleus, and the double star trails show that there is also a slight angular misalignment. Somehow the software does not appear to be properly keeping track of the registration changes in the second set of images.
As a workaround I am performing normal (multi-star) registration on all images, saving those registered (and normalized) images, then registering again using comet/1-star mode, then performing final integration.
Am I using an incorrect workflow? Am I asking APP to try to do too much at once?
(First attached image shows final integration result after using the workflow method I described above. You can see the shift/rotation difference between the two image sets. Second image is a final integration of about 175 frames of comet 104P Kowal from last night.)
Thank you in advance,
Tom Krajci
New Mexico
I did a quick double check of my comet image workflow on a small sample of images.
 This shows the integrated result after using comet/1-star registration on three different image sets from the same evening. You can see there are differences in positioning and rotation of the camera frame.
But a close look at the final stack/integration shows:
...the comet images are not accurately registered, so the nucleus is triple. Also, the stars do not show motion in a straight line between the three image sets, so there is also a problem with keeping track of the necessary rotation for proper registration.
At the present moment my workflow is to calibrate and register all frames using normal registration...save these registered (and normalized) frames...clear/reset/restart APP and then register all these frames using comet/1-star registration.
I think we can do the same question with the data I already asked for you to upload. 🙂
