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.
Yes that looks really good! Beautiful colors in the stars, I always struggle a bit with that, how did you manage to get the color into the cores of the stars?
Hi Vincent,
With the mixing of the layer Ha and RGB in APP, I perform a star color calibration, then it is a question of well adjusting the sharpening and the star protection.
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And it's not a combination of shorter exposure for the stars and longer for the object (HDR like)? Recently I did this mixing of Ha in RGB at 80-20-20 trick and that did make for nicer stars. Still have to look at why that works so well. 🙂
Its a combination 60 X 600secs equal time for Ha and RGB 24X600secs Ha and 12X 600secs of each channels RGB
APP haved a very good tools for giving beautiful star but if my memory is good the mixing are around 80 20 20
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Nice, thanks a lot for the info!
This is very nice! could you share how much Ha and RGB data used in this integration?Â
Helle Maxcoppell,
I use 24 X 600secs sub exposure for Ha and 12 X 600secs for each channels of RGB for a total of 10 hours
