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.
Hi,
I have problems during comet processing to select the nucleus of comet C/2017 K2 (PANSTARRS) I captured last night. When clicking on the nucleus the cross is jumping to the next star. Is there a way to adjust the sensitivity of the process? I'm using Version 1.083-beta2.
See attached screenshot
Best
Wolf
Mmm, looking at the amount of noise it might be that APP is not able to detect a proper nucleus amongst it. We did notify Mabula as well.
Hi Wolf @airwolf599,
Can you upload your comet data so I can test it?
Please upload it here: https://upload.astropixelprocessor.com/
username and password: upload
Please make a folder with your name and let me know once uploaded then I will test it a.s.a.p. 😉
Mabula
@mabula-admin hello, is there a solution for this problem or a work around? I have the same issue. But only with some frames.
Not for this specific issue as it needs extra programming to hopefully get that to work on tricky data. If you upload your data of the frames that fail, Mabula can test on that.
I made a folder on our server called "comet-id-problems" in which you can put the frames.
Go to https://upload.astropixelprocessor.com and for the username and password, use: upload
I used the 1.083-beta2 to test this comet mode. The comet is 67P and the images were guided on the stars with subs of 120s (because JPL changed its Horizons interface and I could not activate comet tracking). The comet nucleus showed as a short trail. During the APP registration process I had to re-click on the comet a few times and sometimes APP selected a point just next to the comet trail. But in the end the result was acceptable. I have uploaded these files for APP testing.
Maybe it would be better if the user would be able to click on the nucleus in each image instead of letting APP trying to do this in the image sequence? (MaximDL works in this manner, the user clicks on the nucleus in each image, the program selects the brightest part at this position).
Thanks Geert, yes that may be interesting to include, however I think the algorithm should be able to distinguish this unless the nucleus is very faint. Thanks for uploading, I'll pass this on to Mabula!
Hi Geert @geertvdbulcke,
I have tested your 67P data in the current code for the stable 1.083 release and all works well. Since the comet is not guided well, you still need to select the comet in some of the frames, but each time the comet nucleus is detected properly, also when you click not directly on the comet.
The current code has been further refined and improved from the 1.083-beta2 code for the comet nucleus detection.
Mabula
Thanks Mabula. When I ran the image set, on one of the images the crosshair did not center on the comet but just below and to the right of it. But the result afterwards looked OK.
Geert
Understood, but the above is beta 3, not released just yet. 😉 So it's fixed.
Thanks Mabula. When I ran the image set, on one of the images the crosshair did not center on the comet but just below and to the right of it. But the result afterwards looked OK.
Geert
Hi Geert @geertvdbulcke,
Yes I understood, but now in the current code the crosshair works correctly on all the frames 😉 as well.
Mabula
