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.
Hi Everyone
Need some help as i can't figure out what's wrong with my master dark and master dark/flat files. I am kind of sure it not a camera issue as i have two Zwo 1600mm and both show the same issue to different levels.
I take 25 of each dark and dark/flats to make master but when i look at say the dark master in fits liberator it seem to indicate histogram levels run from about 700 all the say up to white 65533 if adjust the histogram i can see white pixels see attached tif (not as easy to see in tif) . I have only just started to use master files i used to just load the dark files and run with that. So if i look back in time back to my early work and look at the master from each project then levels are more normal 700- 7500 so i am not sure what's changed. Have i changed a setting as far as the camera but with in pixel processor not sure but i have tried two camera and both show the same issue. The single dark files look fine no issue no hot pixels just random noise levels.
Just need some help to find out what i am doing wrong here.
I can't add the fits file too big so here a reduced tif.
I have also added jpg of two screen shots of fits liberator bad is the master now and good the old master fromÂ
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 Thanks in advanceÂ
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Mike
Could it be you're using a different gain now from back then maybe? Also, these are different camera's, so you can't directly compare those if the sensor is different.
Hi vincent
I am going to repeat tests but i am sure its the same gain and offset same make both 1600mm pro i am going to re-run the dark frames the old ones to make a new master if i can find them. Are those levels kind of normal then all the way up to white. I noticed this because it got some very strange final images see below its seem related to the dark and dark/flat files.
This is Lum crop using those files if you look close load of black dashes in the image please ignore levels very basic to show the problem.
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mike
They shouldn't reach the entire capacity no, not by a long shot. Can you show them opened in APP so I can better judge them? Both stretched and not stretched (right hand panel, set the stretch to "no stretch"). Would be interesting to see the histogram in there as well. Might also indicate there is the tiniest bit of light leaking in or something like that. The masterdark (the last one in the first post) also shows horizontal lines which I wouldn't think are normal.
Hi vincent
Strange stretched and not stretched made no difference to the image or histogram but here is two images marked good and bad on the bad one you can see peaks on the right. Gains a little different 67 vs 100 but don't think it would have that much effect on thisÂ
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Mike
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Selecting the "no stretch" option should change the histogram. Did you deselect it like in the screenshot here; I do think your masters look pretty normal.
Vincent
Yes that the box I unchecked it made no difference to the image or histogram i even selected the file again to make sure. So you think the small peaks on the bad i age picture to the right of the main histogram signal are normalÂ
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Mike
Hi vincent
the pop up text when i hover over the button states this only effects the saved image so would it effet the live preview and histogram
Mike
Yes, that is a UI thing we may need to improve. The top button is just to say that you want to save the stretched image or save the image, not stretched. You should select "no stretch" from the pulldown menu a bit lower, like you can see in my screenshot. 😉 But I do think it can be correct yes, just a feature of the sensor-respons. When it works fine on your data, that should also cause no issue.
Hi vincent
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Ok i see that now was looking for button, Here scree
n shot of the bad one the godd one just show black image and no histogram. So if these look ok why do i have all those black dashes on my final stack image attached.
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Mike
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I'm not really seeing black dashes, or do you mean the diagonal stripes if I zoom in? Not sure about that, but it might be a bit of walking noise perhaps...do you use dithering while shooting?
Hi vincent
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No dithering at the moment i am using two camera at the same time 14 inch and 80mm i use APT so it can handle dithering of multi cameras and is in fact setup but turn off in the options. Guess i am going to have to wait for clear skys to repeat some tests.
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Thanks for the help
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mike
No problem, my guess is that dithering will solve this. 😉
