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.
Hi Vincent, it's near a star, so maybe that's the problem and yes it's faint. I have to confirm almost every frame. See my pasted image. I will load up the dataset but how do I have to do this?
Vincent, this is the final registration. It worked fine. Can you tell me from this streched image of this is due vignetting or light pollution? I use flatframes.
Kind of looks like vignetting, are you sure the flat frames are correct and applied as well? I'll have a look at the data as well, so can probably tell. Light pollution is also possible, but you'd have a lot then indeed. The LP tool should work pretty well on it.
Loading in the lights I noticed in the FITS header that the mosaic type could be different to what is reported. Which is kind of odd to me. I changed it manually to RGGB and that looks better, otherwise the blue channel was more pronounced which didn't make much sense to me.
It indeed does involve a few manual actions, but it also processes quite a few automatically. I think the data is somewhat on the borderline of what the algorithm can nicely detect. Nonetheless, always perfect for trying to optimize it.
So yes, the flats do have an issue. Not all dust spots are removed and it's over-correcting. This usually is the case with either a bias or dark not being correct or an issue in the flats.
Loading in the lights I noticed in the FITS header that the mosaic type could be different to what is reported. Which is kind of odd to me. I changed it manually to RGGB and that looks better, otherwise the blue channel was more pronounced which didn't make much sense to me.
I use Sharpcap Pro and in Sharpcap I can click on Inverted. Sharpcap suggest that this is for APP. Is reverse the bayer. Is that what you are saying?
Loading in the lights I noticed in the FITS header that the mosaic type could be different to what is reported. Which is kind of odd to me. I changed it manually to RGGB and that looks better, otherwise the blue channel was more pronounced which didn't make much sense to me.
I use Sharpcap Pro and in Sharpcap I can click on Inverted. Sharpcap suggest that this is for APP. Is reverse the bayer. Is that what you are saying?
Ah how interesting, never seen that before. When I loaded in your data, the standard pattern as reported in the fits header is used and that was showing GBRG. Which I overruled manually to RGGB in tab 0. I guess the setting in Sharpcap will do that then.
What do you suggest I do to get correct flats? Bias and darks are from last month.
That depends on how exactly you're taking them. What procedure do you follow exactly and what program do you use to capture it. How are you taking proper bias and darks..
Loading in the lights I noticed in the FITS header that the mosaic type could be different to what is reported. Which is kind of odd to me. I changed it manually to RGGB and that looks better, otherwise the blue channel was more pronounced which didn't make much sense to me.
I use Sharpcap Pro and in Sharpcap I can click on Inverted. Sharpcap suggest that this is for APP. Is reverse the bayer. Is that what you are saying?
Ah how interesting, never seen that before. When I loaded in your data, the standard pattern as reported in the fits header is used and that was showing GBRG. Which I overruled manually to RGGB in tab 0. I guess the setting in Sharpcap will do that then.
What do you suggest I do to get correct flats? Bias and darks are from last month.
That depends on how exactly you're taking them. What procedure do you follow exactly and what program do you use to capture it. How are you taking proper bias and darks..
I use Sharpcap for all my calibration files. I use for the flats a selfmade flatpanel with white chalkpaper. I take 30 flats of 2.5 seconds, my histogram is about in the half. Darks are taken at the same temperature as the lights (- 5°C) with a silicone cap (from Altair) on the camera. No light leaks. Bias the same way but I use the shortest integration time possible.
Mmm, never seen such a flat panel. The most important thing there is that it creates a full-spectrum, flat field. Are you sure the panel delivers that? Besides that, some sensors have an issue producing a proper bias signal at the shortest amount of exposure time. I'd suggest a flatdark instead, where you do the same as for a bias, but expose for the time of your flat.
My flatpanel is like the one with the white T-shirts, only I don't use a T-shirt but white paper. 😊
Next time I will take a shorter time for my flats so that the histogram is more to the left at 2/3 of the histogtam. Maybe my exposure was to high although it was just in the middle, somewhat to the right side.
I think your time is fine, it's usually even better to expose for longer, just making sure not to clip on the right-hand side. Reason for this is that you use the full dynamic range of the sensor which can actually help in cases of quite big vignetting.
ps. I tried to make an artificial flat as well, but I keep having an uneven pattern in the end result. This signals to something creating something that's not a regular gradient. This could be light pollution or a light "shining" into the optics, could this be the case?
ps. I tried to make an artificial flat as well, but I keep having an uneven pattern in the end result. This signals to something creating something that's not a regular gradient. This could be light pollution or a light "shining" into the optics, could this be the case?
Maybe light pollution because the nearly full moon was up. A light shining in the optics seems not possible because my setup is shielded by gardenpanels.
