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.
I have been using several dual narrowband OSC filters successfully with APP for some time, but  am surprised that several FITS header fields are missing from the extract HA or Extract OIII stacks when these algorithms are used. In a normal OSC stacked integration I see that the RA, DEC, and pixel size information are included, but these header fields seem to be missing when I execute either the HA-OIII Extract HA or HA-OIII Extract OIII algorithms, as well as several other FITS fields. Is there an option to preserve these other header fields  when one of the Extract HA or Extract OIII algorithms are used? Thanks.
Hi Jim @casejim,
Thank you very much for reporting this. I will have a good look at the FITS headers of these dual NB stacks. I also have on my list to include all the important headers for astronometry. SO I will try to fix it soon.
Mabula
All of the headers would be a real valuable addition. Thanks for your efforts to include these. Jim
You are most welcome Jim @casejim,
Thank you very much for mentioning this shortcoming. I will try to have it fixed in the next release version 2.0.0-beta33.
Mabula
Thanks for your work on this Mabula. I will download the new release and appreciate the new functionality. Jim
