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.
Ok, I did try to search forums for this, but I have created a full library of darks, bias, bad pixel calibration files. My bias I use the same gain, my bad pixel I use at the same gain... and then my darks I have a huge assortment I made of various gains and exposure lengths.
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For example on my 1600mm, I have 139 gain @ 60 second exposures. I will add my bias, my dark, and my bad pixel map, and my flats if I have them. They are all 32b while my lights come in as 16b fits. Is this okay to do?
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I was trying to find the mean ADU of my bias and dark today for a calculator and while I was expecting it to be around 300-400 ADU. But I don't seem to find that with these 32b calibartions?
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in APP, my mean shows this.
Dark 139 gain @ 60s:Â 4.867E-03Â which would be .004867 ADU?
Bias 139:Â 4.551E-03 which would be .004551 ADU?
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How can I get the 16b ADU of this? or am I missing something? I saved them as 16b and it shows like 4000+ adu.
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My lights that are 139 gain @ 60s show a mean ADU of around 522 ADU.
Ok, nevermind, I had accidently applied a stretch to it... so if I save my 32b calibration files to 16b, I can see the bias now showing a mean 297 ADU, and my lights are around 522 ADU.
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I am assuming it will still work fine leaving my calibrations as 32b while my lights come are 16b and it works just fine?
@jjones Yes 32b calibration files are fine. It just means that the pixel values get spread over a larger range, leading to smoother calibration files. That reduces the chance of artefact "jumps" in the calibrated lights.Â
ok, so I guess my next concern is it seems like nothing is actually applying calibration wise. I have a simple example, I loaded 20 lights of the horsehead nebula. I also loaded my master bias and my master dark. They were taken with same gain of 139 and same exposure length of 60 seconds.
I integrate and up top is the (linear, l-calibrated, l-c-registered, l-c-r-normalized) and when I switch between those there is no change in image? I zoom into pixel peep and see no pixel change at all on them. should I see changes? This is mono data, and I just have it left on the default 15% BG stretch.
ah, brain fart again.... I think I figured it out again. That applies when viewing original fits, not your final output file that went through stacking, correct? I can see a slight change in those files when viewing linear and l-calibrated now with the calibrations applied. You can close this... lol.
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