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.
APP cannot process my data.
Hi. I got some data yesterday that APP cannot process somehow. The final result are smeared stars. The first indication that there is something wrong is in the processing graph. All Stars are at quality 1. I am a beginner but it usually looks very different.
I process with the defaults.
I am about to upload the data, but it's 24GB so maybe someone can make suggestions? Maybe I need to process it like it was a mosaic because it shifted between pictures. But by not much. I also got an exception twice. But I did restart. This inability to process happens with 17 and 20 beta.
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Hi Konrad @guglhupf,
Your data is probably a bit noisy and/or you have very small stars (FWHM about 2pixels). Please enable the cosmic ray/noise reducer in star analysis and set it to a value of about 10 and then retry star analysis and continued processing 😉
Do you need cosmetic hot column correction? I will check if there is a problem there.
Finally, are you using calibration frames? Are you using darks and thus a Bad Pixel Map in APP? Chances are likely that if you don't, creating a Bad Pixel Map for your camera's sensor will really help here, because now APP is thinking that the hot pixels of your sensor are stars causing the misalignment in your result.
Mabula
Thank you.Â
Yes, after I tried DSS and then looked into the data in Photshop I realized that's likely what happens. The hot pixels are overwhelmingly brighter. I am a novice. The camera is a QHY268C the Scope FRA500. I also used an Optolong L-Exteme which likely makes things so dim.
The whole train is new to me ( I imaged before with a REDCAT and a ASI1600 ).Â
I did use a Bad Pixel Map and yes also a Master Dark as well.Â
Raw and Intermediately processed and final processed data is here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YgqBqv1R7mHoNDWEQemdaBDC9-BCBAGW/view?usp=sharing
Master Dark and BPM I used are here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UgwpUGGTJnkQR5FLezjZtBpVvqkfhwyt/view?usp=sharing
I did try the settings. But it didn't help. Still get all perfect scores.
Thank you!
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Ok, 15 seems to have done it
Hi Konrad, Okay I will look at your data for testing to improve this, thank you.
If you need to increase it to 15 even, then I think you are exposing your image way too short when using such a Optolong L-Exteme filter. What exposure time do you have? Your results will probably benefit a lot if you can increase the exposure time per sub.
Mabula
Sorry, I didn't get a notification. Thank you for sharing your experience. Much obliged.Â
You are of course you absolutely right. I saw it when I looked at a photo in PS. Way dark. I used 200s for the set I originally did. I used 600s yesterday. 600s is much better. But I could go even further up from there. Mount is not the best. But I think 600s will do OK. Thank you
