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.
Hey everyone, I had a quick search of the previous topics and can't find anything about this.
I've recently moved to 2x binning most osf my data by realised my dawn flats were being created using 1x data. I will eventually collect some 2x flats so this is a short term problem, but I was wondering if APP down-samples/scales my flats to match the geometry of the 2x images or if they are not being used at all.Â
Which makes me think it would be great to know what calibration files are applied to each image and to be able to modify it manually if APP ever gets it wrong.
Hey everyone, I had a quick search of the previous topics and can't find anything about this.
I've recently moved to 2x binning most osf my data by realised my dawn flats were being created using 1x data. I will eventually collect some 2x flats so this is a short term problem, but I was wondering if APP down-samples/scales my flats to match the geometry of the 2x images or if they are not being used at all.Â
Which makes me think it would be great to know what calibration files are applied to each image and to be able to modify it manually if APP ever gets it wrong.
Hi Paul @xthestreams,
In the current calibration engine, masters that have a different dimension than the lights are not used. So bin1x1 masters are not applied on bin2x2 lights. We will make this possible going forward, but I can only recommend that you create masters of the same resolution as the lights, especially for flats where flats also help on pixel scale to correct pixels in how they behave on the incoming light. Not all pixels behave perfectly linear and flats can help to correct this as well 😉
APP shows you clearly which masters are used after step 2) Calibrate, in the Frame List Panel at then bottom, you have the frame column on the left. The masters that are attached to the lights are shown in that column 😉
APP always checks for compatibility of masters with lights in terms of pixel dimensions, ISO/gain and exposure 😉
Hope this answers your question?
Mabula
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Thanks Mabula - I had assumed as much on teh geometry question, but it was worth checking. I went back and captured some bin2x flats and still had a problem until I realised that (looking that the column I had never noticed before!) that it was using the same flat for everything (I had selected the "use the same choice for everything checkbox, I assumed it would only apply the same answer for the same filter type and same session, but it applied to all).
Once I fixed that it worked great! Thanks!
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