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.
The other night I did my first imaging session which required a Meridian Flip. I'm using an ASI294MC Pro cooled camera. I'm also imaging the Dark Shark nebula. I noticed after the Flip that all the images after the Meridian flip were 180 degrees flipped as well, pointing in opposite direction...
So I had about 80 images with the shark facing one way and about 40 that were pointed 180 degrees in the opposite direction...
My question, will APP see this and put these in the proper position before stacking them for me? Or do I have to manually rotate them all myself first, before running them thru APP...
I thought these dedicated cameras it didn't matter about a Flip and they would all be in the same position. Maybe I'm wrong, obviously I am...
I think when I rotated these that it messed up my image creating Gradients, a massive amount of the stuff too!!
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Thanks,
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Rod
@rockinrod APP detects this automatically so no need to rotate the images manually.
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Awesome! Now I know...
Another question related to the above issue. When I rotated those 40 or so images manually, I was told that the APP software loses it's ability on those frames to read the FIT data, thus causing this Gradient and Light Pollution problem in my images. Messing up my entire session...This does seem to be what is going on here. No matter how many subs I add trying to improve the image, it seems to get worse with more data!
Make sense? Â Thanks!
Rod
@rockinrod When you rotate the images manually, they will end up being rotated with respect to the flats and darks, unless you rotate those as well. The result is that APP cannot perform a proper calibration which leads to all kinds of issues. So, yes, what you say makes sense. In short: do not manually rotate any files. APP can handle them very well as they come out of the camera.
@wvreeven I am just trying for the first time to process pre flip and post flip images. Initially I am trying without calibration frames so just lights, but I don't get a stacked image at the end.
