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.
Against all odds, I tried my chances and did shoot some nights of M4 (and some other highlights around Antares).
Equipment: Lumix GX9, Olympus 300mm IS PRO, EQ5.
Well, I had to shoot this from my balcony (instead of my garden), as this target was standing just above the horizon. I am situated about 60km north of frankfurt, so this one comes with a really nasty gradient up from "botton" to "top".
To tackle this I collected about 9hrs over 5 sessions. I ended up with 200x 60s (iso1600) and 171x 120s (iso 800). Well, about half of that would have been enough, because removing that gradient didn't leave me with much signal. on top of that, the field of view didnt give me really any spot for a "true background" so light pollution removal was a hell of a task...
I really like how APP handles integrating several sessions, and i did bayer drizzle this one.
In "post" processing I tried to be as minimalistic as possible. Used APP for everything up to color calibration / hsl (but colors got a bit screwed afterwards), starnet++ for star removal. Rawtherapee for noise reduction and sharpening (other tools tend to give a even more "polished" look, somewhat too artifical). (Re-)composition in gimp and publishing in rawtherapee (again).
