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 Folks,
I'm having a problem with background values computed by APP for a multi session runs. Â When I run a set of images from the same night as a single session, the background values computed by APP show smooth trends. Â However, if I attempt a multi-session run with two flats (one for each session), the same set images now has wildly varying background values ... even for consecutive frames which have very little actual background brightness difference.
The erratic background values only seem to occur for a multi-session run with separate flats. Â Below are some are screenshots illustrating the problem. Â Happy to provide data files if useful. Â Thanks for talking a look!
-Bret
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Single Session w/ all images from same night ... seems OK:
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Single Session w/ images from two nights (added the first four files) ... seems OK:
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Multi-Session w/ images from two nights and different flats for each night (darks and bias are the same) ... note the large variation in the background values such as frame #13 vs. #12 and #14 as well as the abrupt change after frame #18:
This might have something to do with the fact APP isn't separating the results per session in the graph, Mabula wants to change that to make it more consistent.
Hi Vincent,
Thanks for getting back to me.   It's more than just a graphing issue ... it affects the final integration results.   If you compare the data tables in screenshots, you can see how background values computed by APP in the multisession pic are very different than the single sessions above even for consecutive images in the same session / same flat.  The incorrect normalization is also visible when comparing  images that are calibrated (very little difference) vs. normalized (very different).
Currently, I'm unable to use the multisession combine feature of APP because of this ... I'm only able to combine multiple nights as a single session / same flat for all images. Â I had this happen once before and thought it was a fluke. Â Please let me know if there is something I should try or if I can upload my data for you to take a closer look.
Thanks!
-Bret
Interesting, I'll forward this to Mabula to see what he thinks about it. Thanks for sharing the potential issue!
