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.
2026-10-03- UPDATE FROM MABULA
I am glad to announce that I am finally fully healed, my energy and strength are really back now !
In the past 3 weeks while recovering, I have prioritzed the release of 2.0.0-beta47. So much work has accumulated into this release that it needed to be tested extensively, but also it needed to be available for all of you. Unless a big problem is reported for this release, I expect it will be the final release, finally !, before the official 2.0.0 release.
I am working on a Milky Way mosaic with 110 panels. To do a full registration of all these panels takes over 40 hours (note each panel is 42MPixels). My intent is to increase integration time on each panel over the coming months/year. As I update a given panel, do I need to do the full registration of all panels or can I load the previously saved registered panels along with the updated panel and do a registration that doesn't need to re-register all the others?
