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.
Taken with the FLI Kepler KL4040 at the Oregon Star Party July31-Aug2. 65 3-minute subs each Ha and O3. 16 darks, flats and biases. My first "serious" image with this camera under dark skies. This camera is highly sensitive but difficult to calibrate - Vincent was a GREAT help in getting an acceptable result!
Thanks, but it's your data so well done! Maybe, if I may, the background is a bit too dark and you used some de-noise tool I think which hurts the finer details in the nebula.
Thanks Vincent, god points. I tend to over-process. I'm redoing it to go to a grey background with a lighter smoothing touch and not much other processing. I'm also running a larger set of darks and biases (50 each) to improve calibration. Will post update later
Taken with the FLI Kepler KL4040 at the Oregon Star Party July31-Aug2. 65 3-minute subs each Ha and O3. 16 darks, flats and biases. My first "serious" image with this camera under dark skies. This camera is highly sensitive but difficult to calibrate - Vincent was a GREAT help in getting an acceptable result!
I share Vincent's argument, I think the background is a bit too dark and possibly clipped.. I prefer to process not so dark, if you do, fine details get lost very easily 😉
OK I ran some more darks and reprocessed from beginning. Combined in APP - looked at lots of LRGB settings, ended up R=Ha, Green = 25% Ha 75% O3 and Blue = O3. Very light touch on denoise (using Topaz AI) and set background to about 35 (scale of 0-255 photoshop levels). Hope it looks OK on the web and in jpg format
