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.
Just downloaded APP 1.075, but it won't open on my Mac running MacOS 10.15 Catalina. It gives me an error message that I screen-saved and attached. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.
EDIT BY MABULA: SOLUTION:
Please study the macOS Catalina release notes to know what is happening here. Catalina has big changes regarding privacy and security. Many software packages will show this warning on Catalina now. Astro Pixel Processor will still run luckily, but you will need to tell MacOS that you accept software from identified developers.
Go to System Preferences -> Security & Privacy ->
Allow APPs downloaded from App Store and identified developers
Delete the DMG file that you already downloaded, that one is now permanently blocked…
After you have changed the setting to Allow APPs downloaded from App Store and identified developers
Download the DMG again and then you should be able to install it.
If not, check again the Security & Privacy settings and say that you allow APP 😉
Interesting, I've seen others using it correctly. As I don't have Catalina installed I'm going to tag @wvreeven as I think he had it running and might know a bit more about the security in Catalina?
I just downloaded it and have the same issue. Help!
So upon further reading this is a security feature in Catalina (obviously), which pops up for software outside of the AppStore and the app not being signed the way Apple wants it. Could you try going to the finder, then right-click on the APP icon and then select open? Does that work? There are other ways to force it to run using the terminal, we will have a look at this.
Problem solved -
Settings -> Security & Privacy -> Run anyway
Ah ok, that's the same as in Mojave actually, different notification. 🙂 Thanks!
Sorry for the late reply. I actually had the same issue yesterday and, indeed, the issue can be solved as described by @mckechg.
As others have described, shows up for about 5 seconds and then terminates. Don't even have the option for the security override.
Mojave 10.14.6
2.2 GHz Intel Core i7
16 GB 2400 MHz DDR4
Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB
Others didn't describe it not opening at all, they described the security warning from Catalina which can be solved. Your problem sounds like it crashes. That's a new one for me, you don't get any indication as to why? You installed it properly by dragging it to the Applications folder?
@vincent-mod
Yes I did. And even tried to open from within terminal.
INFO: Failed to load the GDAL native libs from "gdalalljni". Falling back to "gdaljni".
java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: no gdalalljni in java.library.path
Ok then, that seems a problem with your Java environment and installation.. it isn't able to find the GDAL library in your current environment path. I'll have to ask Mabula as that's something I've never seen before.
edit: Also strange is that APP doesn't rely on your Mac Java environment.. do you have any other Java based apps that do start?
@vincent-mod
Java and a few issues but i'm up and running. Thanks to you and Mabula!
This is an old thread, but...
It has been about a year now since Catalina has been out, and I just updated to APP 1.082 and now get this "error".
Couple points here I would like to point out...
1) I (and I suspect others) paid €150 for APP.
2) I'm not sure how many purchases there are per year, but it would seem Mabula and team could spend $99/year for an Apple Developer ID and sign the binaries.
The Gatekeeper is there in MacOS to help prevent malicious software from creeping in, and while I somewhat believe APP has not been compromised, I really do not know either way, and feel like I'm skating on thin ice here.
Installing a notarized signed binary at least provides some reassurance.
Bypassing Gatekeeper is not something I take lightly; I've come across some apps which are not signed, and I just delete them.
I would be interested in your thoughts on this topic.
thx
-jeff
Hi Jeff,
I agree it would be very nice to have it properly signed etc. This is however not my decision, I guess Mabula might do this at some point, but I can also see the issue that this would mean all developers need to suddenly buy developer licenses (is this actually the only way to get them signed?). This is still a choice for the developers I'd say, not Apple. The risk is also very low when getting the software from us directly and when I look at my years on MacOS, I've never had any security issues to be honest.
But I do get your reasoning and we will always try to get APP working as well as on any other platform, so this might be something to look at at some point.
edit: ok, just talked with Mabula about this and a correction is in place here; he does have a license actually. APP is signed, but not being notarized on the new MacOS versions as it's using Java 8. We are migrating to 11 and that should fix this by then.
This does not open for me even when 'Allow the app to run' has been set for the application. Icon bounces in the task bar for some time then stops but no window appears and cannot switch to the app and need to Force Quit to stop the app/process which appears to be in a zombie state.
Unfortunately I paid for full licence on the back of using the trial version for Mac in 2019 which was fine.
Hope this gets fixed soon.
So... I finally got it working on BIG SUR:) - thanks to the APP team to provide explanations on how to make it work.
Here were my steps, in sequence:
- I was running Mojave and APP latest release without any issues. Macbook Pro 15" 2018.
- I upgraded to Big Sur 11.0.1 last week
- Uninstalled APP altogether (used AppCleaner for this purpose), removed all previous APP DMGs on my hard disk
- I had the setting "Allow APPs downloaded from App Store and identified developers" already active, as was the case before the upgrade to Big Sur --> I turned it back to allow only App store downloaded apps. This is the only notable change compared to my previous installation attempts.
- Downloaded the APP from this web site
- Unzipped, launched the DMG, moved APP to the Applications folder, as usual
- Unmounted DMG (not sure it is needed, but...)
- Launched APP - no prompt or warning whatsoever appeared on screen; didn't have to tinker with the permissions
- After a few seconds, the APP I always used was there, waiting to start working with my files 😀
I checked the Security panel again after the installation:
- Although still in the "allow only App store applications" mode, APP was running well
- Surprisingly, APP doesn't show up in the Confidentiality > Files and Folders, contrary to what was explained in this thread.
I didn't restart my Mac yet. Hope APP will stick working after a reboot. But who ever wants to reboot a Mac, anyways 😉 ?
In summary, my observations/conclusions:
- installation issues may be related to whether APP was already installed or not before upgrading to Big Sur, OR,
- upgrading to Big Sur may lead to different behavior than doing a fresh install
Hope these steps will be useful to others.
Rodolphe
