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.
Wow, the posted image is a lot worse resolution than it is. Any recommendations as to size to prevent compression? First image is 999 wide, second is 1920. Both are terrible here.Â
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Messier 42 the Great Orion Nebula with the Running Man Nebula (Sharpless 279). This was old data taken on my Esprit 150 and Sony A7s on February 1, 2019. It consists of two stacks. One for the faint areas, 6 - 2 minute subs with an Orion LPR and 3 - 2 minute subs STC DUO filter and one for the core, 6 - 4 second subs. I still managed to blow the core out slightly, haha. Click on the image for a larger, sharper version and pan around.
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If you right click on the image and open it in a new tab, is it then the right resolution? The inline images are indeed compressed.
@vincent-mod If I right click on image that is 999 and open image in new tab, it presents as 740x510. It is better than just clicking on the image,, but not full size, which is 999 x 689. The HD image(the second one) is 1920 x 1325 and opens in a new tab as the same 740x510 but much worse. If you click on the first image and use the arrow button on the right to get to the second image, it presents in the correct size, but resolution is lost. I'm going to post one resized to 740 and see if that solves it. The HD (1920 x 1325) image I posted is only 444 KB. There should be no need to compress it. Below is the resized image to 740. You need to actually click on the image for the best sharpness and presentation.
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No, not really indeed. I'll ask Mabula about it
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@vincent-mod Thanks. I posted my resized image to 740, and it looks a lot better. I noticed in the gallery that everyone else's images all look compressed too There might be a file size limit of 740 x 740 and anything above that is compressed. Given potential customers of APP probably look at the gallery, you certainly do not want their images to be compromised!
Hi @maadscientist,
I have upgraded the forum software and have also upgraded the attachment limits. You can now upload files of 50MB large (was 30MB). The image dimensions and JPEG quality were very limiting factors indeed. These are now much better and should allow images to be uploaded without clear loss of quality. The thumbnail previews can be 2000x2000 with 90% JPG quality, and the actual image can be 100% JPG quality and have max height of 4800 pixels.
Feel free to re-upload your images and let us know if it is indeed much better now 🙂
Mabula
