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,
I have a very specific issue: I use an Altair AA183MPro. To capture files, I need to use the ASCOM drivers in combination with the capturing software.
Although the camera is mono, the capturing software adds a FITS HDU Keyword BAYERPAT, XBAYROFF and YBAYROFF. When I load this into APP, APP applies debayering.
To fix for this, I am currently editing the FITS Header and remove these three Keywords completely. Unfortunately this process is very cumbersome as I haven't found a tool that could do this in a batch process.
So I have two ideas:
Could APP be extended through a more advanced HDU batch editor? (e.g., select a Keyword to be deleted/modified from the selected files)
As an alternative (but I believe it doesn't make too much sense as the cause is a bug in another place): force Debayering off. While there is an option to force the activation of Debayering in APP, I haven't found anything doing the opposite.
Any other suggestions or comments?
Björn
@barnold84 Hi Björn, there is an option to not debayer the images. Hover your mouse over the algorithm drop down and read the help please. Sorry, I am currently away from my computer with APP so I cannot indicate the exact option for you right now.
Ok, I see that in panel 0) RAW/FITS, I can select "no interpolation" for the algorithm. This may help if I only have these incorrect file. However, I plan to combine luminance data from this Altair (with the incorrect header) with RGB data from a DSLR (which has to be debayered). For that purpose, I would have to be able to select the files which shouldn't be debayered and which should.
Of course, we're talking about a remedy for something that has been induced before the processing.
Björn
@barnold84 Yes, combining color and mono data for which debayering needs to be forced for color data only has been mentioned on this forum before and will be possible in a future version of APP. For now you’ll need to process the color and mono data separately and combine them later. You’ll need to register the data first before combining them.
@barnold84 : for the FITS batch editing you can use FITS4Win2 or a simple python script using astropy.io:
from astropy.io import fits
import glob
for file_name in glob.glob('*.fits'):
# print(file_name) # list all the fits files
hdul = fits.open(file_name, mode='update')
hdul.info() # print header
hdu_to_update = hdul[0].header
# print(list(hdu_to_update.keys())) # show all keywords
# print(hdul[0].header['VERSION']) # print the value of keyword VERSION
# hdu_to_update['VERSION'] = 'qwerty' # change the value of keyword VERSION --> 'qwerty'
# print(hdul[0].header['VERSION']) # print the value of keyword VERSION --> 'qwerty'
# del hdu_to_update['IDNR-2'] # delete IDNR-2 entry
hdul.flush() # update the fits file
remove the comment (#) to enable a command
best,
L.
@lvigano I tried using the free tool "FITS4Win2 Header Data Utility". I was able to modify the values of keyword but not delete Keywords that were apparently unknown to the common keyword list. The deletion was rejected by the tool.
Indeed, I read about the python solution as well. I have the alternative here to use Wolfram Mathematica to do the same. The latter will likely be the interim solution until there is (sometime) a fix in the capturing process.
