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 set up my gear and start taking images. After I have a few I start stacking them to get a preview. How do I add more lights as I acquire them during the night and add them to the stack w/o doing all of the lights over again?Â
Thank you,
Szumi
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Hi Szumi,
Dynamic integration while acquiring frames is an option that I have not yet implemented.
I think I can implement it though, I'll put in on my priorities list 😉 But it's a function that usually only works well for images of only one session.
If you have multiple sessions, then dynamic integration is something that isn't really usefull. To get good and sharp registration & integration, you really need to combine everyhing from scratch. Because all frames give information on how to optimally register the data. If you add new frames as they come, this simply isn't possible. So a dynamic stack will always be of less quality, even if you combine data of only 1 session.
Kind regards,
Mabula
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I agree with Mabula. Stacking subs as they come in through the night is not all that useful, I find. You can get a good enough preview from one sub in your capture software.
One place where it is valuable is EAA and live outreach or broadcasting. I have been looking to a tool that will do the registration and stacking live in Linux for some time now. I played with DeepSkyStacker quite a bit, and up until I discovered APP, used it under wine on Linux without issues. I never did get AstroToaster to work correctly in Linux however. I would not say it is a high priority for this feature, but it would certainly be handy and fun.
Hi xsnrg,
Indeed, those are nice examples of when it is a nice function to have as a possibility 😉 It's on my priorities list..
Mabula
