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 am very new at all this, and am on a steep learning curve, so apologies if this is a dumb question.... I recently shot a subject with LRGB, Ha, Oiii and Sii filters. Is there any point in using all of these (the subject was a spiral galaxy, not a nebula) in APP, or should I just use the LRGB for it?
Like we mention more often, there are no dumb questions. 🙂 Maybe you learned that in school, we really don't care and are happy to answer any question you may have.
For galaxies it won't make a lot of difference indeed. Maybe if you can see some Ha regions in the galaxy, like in M31, it does help to add some Ha signal to the mix. I would advice to just try it basically, you can save the split frames (into R, G and B) and then combine them in the CombineRGB tool with 50% R and 50% Ha for instance. If that really doesn't add anything or even reduces the result, just go with the RGB.
