Mar 28 2026 APP 2.0.0-beta40 will be released in 7 days.
It did take a long time to have the work finished on this and it will have a major performance boost of 30-50% over 2.0.0-beta39 from calibration to integration. We extensively optimized many critical parts of APP. All has been tested to guarantee correct optimizations. Drizzle and image resampling is much faster for instance, those modules have been completely rewritten. Much less memory usage. LNC 2.0 will be released which works much better and faster than LNC in it's current state. And more, all will be added to the release notes in the coming weeks...
Update on the 2.0.0 release & the full manual
We are getting close to the 2.0.0 stable release and the full manual. The manual will soon become available on the website and also in PDF format. Both versions will be identical and once released, will start to follow the APP release cycle and thus will stay up-to-date to the latest APP version.
Once 2.0.0 is released, the price for APP will increase. Owner's license holders will not need to pay an upgrade fee to use 2.0.0, neither do Renter's license holders.
Hi, it has been quite awhile since I've imaged with my DSLR, which is a Pentax K-5iis. But since I recently acquired an Astro-Tech AT8RC of 1625mm focal length, I wanted something with a bigger sensor and bigger pixels than my 183MM Pro.
I've noticed that when I capture FITS files with Ekos, and pull them into APP, they have a VERY pronounced green cast. The first image attached here is a screenshot of such an image -- just some rando shot out the window on a grey day, should be pretty close to a neutral color balance. Notice that the FITS header specifies a "BGGR" pattern, which I've also selected on Tab 0. (I get identical results to this if I leave the pattern at "Supported").
The second shot shot shows what appears to be the correct Bayer.
First, thanks for including the option for the right one, but secondly, wow, what is actually going on here?
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I think this camera has a regular sensor right? RGB would then ben the right one, it can cause a green cast due to the sensor having more green pixels overall. This will be calibrated later during processing.
@vincent-mod Yes, it's just a standard Sony DLSR sensor, I can't remember where I looked up the Bayer pattern but the BGGR in the FITS header sounds right to me. The tooltip in APP for the RBGGGGBRGGGG... filter pattern is "select this if 'supported' doesn't work" or something like that. It does seem to work, but I was just curious.
Yes, it also mentions "for X-trans sensors", which are quite different. 🙂 The green cast is not abnormal and will be calibrated out later.
So just to be crystal-clear here: Are you saying I should use the BGGR setting when I import the FITS files, instead of the (much longer) that yields correct-looking images when I double-click them before calibration? I'm probably not going to bother with darks, back when I was using the K-5 all the time I determined that the IQ was at least as good (and maybe better) without them. Flats and bias, though, of course.
That's indeed what I'm saying yes. BGGR already shows there are twice as many green pixels in the pattern, this is what you see then in the first raw images.
When you switch on "neutralize background" on the right of the application, it should correct for that. Switch it off when processing again.
