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.
I am finishing my free trial of APP, I love it and going to purchase. I have a lot of old data that was originally stacked with DeepSkyStacker and I would like to stack again with APP to see the results.
A good portion of my older data I no longer have the calibration files (darks, flats, bias) as they were deleted to save hard drive space, only saving the master calibration files created with DeepSkyStacker.
My question is it possible to use those master files with APP? I tried a few days ago and received an error message. APP is very new to me and I am not sure of all what the program can do yet. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
I'm afraid that won't give you very nice results even if it would work. The way DSS calibrates is likely very different. You could try to use you calibration files you do have (bias, darks maybe) and see how far you can get the old data. Maybe the flats do still work? If not, go without and try the light pollution correction tool. Thanks for buying it, much appreciated!
