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.
Hi,
I am integrating 435 subs (from 60s to 180s) of M51 with darks, flats, darkflats. The result has strange artifacts on the sides and inside the picture (see attached). This never happened to me before.
Integration is set in full automatic, with LNC set at 1st degree - 1 iteration and MBB at 5% as usual for me. All subs are correctly framed with M51 in the center (dithering apart). Version 1.077 of APP.
Does anybody understand where it comes from and how I can correct it ?
Thanks.
Philippe
Sorry, missed yours (it's a bit hectic here with my wife as a GP at the moment).
So, that looks a little like some kind of stack artefact, can you describe the exact settings you used? And maybe try 1.078 as well, the most recent version.
Thanks Vincent. No worry. I understand fully the hectic situation you are in !
That was with both 1077 and 1078 with all in automatic (no LNC). I solved (?) by using LNC 1-3 (LNC 1-1 was not enough) but I think it is a cosmetic correction to indeed stack artefacts. Never had this before. Could it be the number of subs?
Maybe you are import files from external drive or USB stick ..... Try move your folder on C disk and try again .....
I've just the other day encountered something similar, and could more or less reproduce it.
I had a stack of 757 images (on an external SSD), which required a whopping 500 GB of disk space, which I didn't have available at that the time I started the integration. I got a warning, did the "test for available space" which passed, and let the integration continue, ignoring the ever-repeating warning on disk space.
I ended up with similar artifacts, very likely due to lack of disk space which surprisingly didn't seem to cause further errors for APP.
I am now running a new integration, this time with enough empty disk space. It does take its fair bit of time to complete, so no results yet.
@phfenain, did you have enough disk space with your 435 subs?
After about 20 hours of integration I have the final verdict: a beautiful stack when you actually give APP the disk space it needs to perform the stack 😉
With enough space:
With insufficient space:
