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.
So having just taken a dozen or two frames of Lemmon at o-dark thirty this morning, I'm trying to stack them in APP, but have run into an error.
I was on a previous version, I think maybe beta26 or somesuch, so I installed the latest and still getting the same error in the same spot when its on the Registration sequence. I get the popup asking if I want to use the timestamps to help more accurately track the comet, I've tried both yes and no, no change. I am not even getting to the point where I get prompted to select the comet.
Ok, well, it did finally go through, I kept changing settings on other stuff and then it finally accepted it. I think it was having issues with the Dynamic Distortion Correction settings, as well as the Registration Model needed to be on Projective. Not that I've had the dynamic distortion settings really do anything to help with my wider shots anyways, as they always end up distorted like crazy if different.
Ok, so the first result doesn't look great, as if it def got the center wrong on a few subs, looks like there's some ghosted tails in there.
I guess now I have to figure out how to get a clean "comet" shot and a clean "stars" shot to combine for a final image. So its working, ish.
I am just a few steps behind you. I have one data set I need to process, and hope to get another set tonight. Any chance the StarNet, StarXterminator, or APP's star elimination tool will work on streaked stars like these? If so, I have data from previous years I need to reprocess!
Regards, Martin
@martinontheroad One thing I tried is to take the comet registrated files, save them as tif(f) and batch process them in StarNet++. Then I reimport them into APP and integrate with star analysis and registration disabled of course. So you’ll get almost starless comet subs. However, I wasn’t satisfied with the overall result. Maybe there is a better way to do this.
If you are able to generate a stack with a good comet and streaked stars there is an old trick that can be used (but its a bit tedious).
You start by taking your raw subs and grouping them into at least four groups of non-successive exposures (more than four if you have the patience).
That is:
- Sub 1 -> group 1
- Sub 2 -> group 2
- Sub 3 -> group 3
- Sub 4 -> group 4
- Sub 5 -> group 1
- Sub 6 -> group 2
- Sub 7 -> group 3
- Sub 8 -> group 4
and so on.
Then you integrate each group normally - using comet registration.
You end up with four integrations with hopefully a good comet but with star streaks that don't overlap.
Then you load these four integrations as lights (no calibration frames).
Disable registration and integrate using median stacking.
This should hopefully leave you with a good comet and no stars. If you want, the good stars can be added back from a normal integration.
JC
@connor231 That sounds interesting! I only have around 44 subs so far, but I’ll give that method a try asap! Thanks for the hint.
@nickoson-2 Looks very nice to me. I think the "ghosted" tails are actually real on this comet.
