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'm new to this today, I seem to be getting it except for one thing' Once I process my image, and close APP, how can I view the image again? How do I send that image via e-mail? If I try to reload in APP it wants to do it all over again? There has to be a way to view processed images.Â
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Thanks in advance,
C.D. Estridge
Hi,
When you start APP it asks for a Working Directory. This is where your processed images live. So if you want to email one of your processed images, you navigate to that directory and add it as an attachment.
If you wanted to load up your processed images again, you would choose the Other/Processed on the 1) LOAD tab, and then navigate to your Working Directory where you last processed your images, and load the files from there. Processed images are written as FITS files.
Typically your processed image will be something like M31_Andromeda_session_1.fits (or something like that). (If you use the latest versions of APP (1.081 and newer) you will be able to select a name for the Integration prior to integrating it. This forms part of the filename it will write. If you do further processing like light pollution removal or calibrate background the file produced after you save it using those tools will have extra characters saved to the filename too like lpc, cbg, etc.
If you wanted to then save that FITS image as something else and have that immediately useful to send as an email to someone (rather than be interested in further processing) you can save that file by using the SAVE button (top of the right hand panel), ensure Stretch is selected and then choose something like JPEG for a good format to send as it is a compressed format (smaller size = good for email, but you lose quality). It will be saved in that same Working Directory you selected when you first loaded up APP.
Kev
