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 must have a setting wrong somewhere. I shot lights, flats, darks, and bias frame as usual on three separate occasions in the past two weeks and the final image comes out still containing the blemishes (dust motes, etc) that the flats should be removing. This most recent run instead of using just the default settings I ran each tab separately (still using the default settings so I could inspect the frames at each step. When I launch any of the frames following each of the calibration, analyze, register and normalize steps and view the calibrated frame it is free of the blemishes that the flats take out. However, even in this case having confirmed that the individual frames are calibrated the final integrated image contains the blemishes. I'm stumped. I thought it might be my recent switch to beta 29 but while at lunch I ran my previous version (beta 14) and the same result occurred. I've used this camera/scope combination for more than three years and have never had this trouble.
Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks
Figured it out (FINALLY). Had a light leak affecting my darks and bias frames. I reshot calibration darks and bias frames after plugging the light leak and cleared up the calibration just fine. I was too focused on thinking the problem was in the flats.
Hi @dcaponeii,
Great, I am happy to read that you were able to solve this. Light leaks are very nasty and will create issues like this for sure. They can be so subtle that you would not notice it in a single calibrated light frame, but then all of a sudden, the issue shows in the integrated result like in your case.
Mabula
@mabula-admin I've started to look at my dark frames as soon as I've captured a few of them. Load them into APP and stretch them to make sure there's not a new leak. That step has allowed me to discover a new leak already. It's my Meade microfocuser. Light seems to be able to leak around the roller bearings somehow. Black electrical tape tightly surrounding the edges of the rollers seem to have licked the problem (for now),
