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 đŸ™‚
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'm having a bit of trouble analyzing an image with Astrometry.net because of improper DEC and RA coordinates after a crop.
When you (batch) crop an image in the Tools tab, it doesn't look like the DEC and RA coordinates in the header are updated to reflect the new center of the cropped image.
Shouldn't the reference point (CRVAL1 and CRVAL2) for the new center (and potentially other WCS-related keywords) be recalculated to ensure the mapping remains correct?
Cheers
Gil
Hi Gilles @museceleste,
Thank you very much for your post.
APP 2.0.0-beta33 had the improvement that at least from now on, relevant and distinct FITS tags will remain present in the FITS files that APP produces. So if you do not crop the files, the DEC and RA coordinates and other pointing information from the reference are stored in the integration files.
Unfortunately, APP does not plate solve yet, so we can not update the coordinates/pointing information yet. I will try to implement this soon going forward.Â
For now, you will need to plate solve the image in the software that requires it. Can't Astrometry.net solve this easily by the way?Â
Mabula
Hello Mabula,
That’s good news, thank you. It represents a fair amount of work but should benefit and bolster the entire product! Curious to know how you are planning it: some packages involve downloading a star database (e.g. Kstar), others will link to Simbad online, etc.
I found the problem by regression. The first time I uploaded to Astrometry, it asked me if I wanted to plate solve the image. Surprised, I then realized that, following a batch crop in APP, the DEC and RA coordinates were gone. But Astrometry will plate solve from the stars all right.
G.
Hi Gilles @museceleste,
You are most welcome, I need to investigate a bit on how to implement it, but it should not be a problem and it is high on my todo list.
Glad all is fine now đŸ˜‰
Mabula
