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 using matching Flat darks to calibrate my flats. Everything seems to run ok, but after calibration the Flats don’t show that the Master Dark Flat has been applied. Like the Lights shoe all the cal files that are applied to them. Is this expected behavior?
Wayne
Hi Wayne @whixson,
Yes, this is normal.
APP performs the flat frame calibration automatically. If bias and/or darkflat frames/masters are present, then they will be automatically used to calibrate the flats.
If APP does not find either bias or darkflat frames/masters, then APP will issue a warning that flat frame calibration will not work. So if the warning does not appear, you are assured that the flats are properly calibrated.
To be 100% sure, you can track what is happening with the flats in the console panel, during the creation of the masterflat 😉
I will work on adding more calibration details to the metadata of the masters, like which masters were used to calibrate the frames.
Kind regards,
Mabula
What happens when you create a master flat and use a flat dark, does it save the master flat with the flat dark applied or do you need to add the master flat dark as well?
Hi Steve @steveibbotson & Wayne @whixson,
APP will only create a MasterFlat correctly, when the flats can be calibrated before integrating to a MasterFlat., so if the flats can't be calibrated, APP will issue a warning !
So the masterbias and/or masterdarkflat is applied on the flats and these calibrated flats are then integrated, to create a masterflat.
So once the masterflat is created, the masterdarkflat has become redundant for calibration of the light frames. Any MasterDarkFlat loaded will have zero influence on the Light frame calibration. The MasterDarkFlatss will only be used for flat frame calibration before integration of the MasterFlat.
Please let me know if this is clear 😉
Kind regards.
Mabula
