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 was experimenting with combining OSC data with some narrowband data from a friend of mine, but I suspect that's not related to this issue. I was doing an integration, and when the Gong (or Trumpets, actually, in my case) went off, I got this surprise (see image). I know that this is likely something that got selected that should not been, or some combination of mutually exclusive options,
but does anyone know what it is? After checking settings and getting the same result, I RESET all options and menus, and that solved the problem. Still, I'd like to know what caused this.
Hi Jon ,@macejk
Thank you very much for sharing this issue.
This problem occurs when you enable dynamic distortion correction in 4) Register on data that does not need it. So if you disable it, it will simply work fine.
The issue has been on my todo list for quite a while and I am happy to share that this mathematical instability will no longer occur in the next release 2.0.0-beta39 which will soon be released with a new registration engine.
Mabula
Thanks, Mabula, that cleared it up. Sometimes when I'm experimenting with things, I forget exactly what I've enabled or disabled until something goes wrong like the above. If I were smart, I'd take some screen shots of the menus before and after (I screw things up) so that going back to (my) default settings would be easier.
Aside from this being a mathematical instability, it looks a bit cool, though. The "Spherical North America and Pelican Nebula".
Great Jon 🙂 And like I indicated, in the next release 2.0.0-beta39 that instability will no longer occur if you do enable dynamic distortion correction.
Mabula
