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.
All --
I shot M101 on two different nights. On the first night, I shot two hours at gain 236 with offset of 1. On the second night, I shot another two hours at gain 236 with offset of 20. Other than the offset, there were no differences in camera settings.Â
When I first attempted to process using APP, I loaded the lights and calibration frames into a single session. That failed because, when I was 25 % of the way through normalization, I got an error message that the frames were clipped below zero or the calibration frames didn't match. After consulting with folks on CloudyNights, I began to process using multi-session processing. I used the calibration frames from the second night but separated the lights from night 1 and night 2. When I hit normalize, the button grayed out but normalization didn't begin. I was still able to close out of the app, so it wasn't frozen in that sense.Â
My first question is -- how do I start back up with processing using the registered frames that are all saved in the working folder? Do I really have to load all the frames again?Â
Second -- how do I avoid what happened when I pressed the normalization button? Is this a known problem?Â
Third -- do flat frames have to match the offset of the light frames? My sense is that they may not have to because the flat frames I used when I successfully processed the frames from just night # 2 likely had an offset of 1 (I don't know this for sure because I used NINA's flat frame wizard and couldn't find a way to adjust offset for the flat frames).Â
Fourth -- SOME shooting sessions with my current imaging camera, the ZWO 294 MC Pro, my flat frames don't seem to work! The dust motes increase in number and there is heavy vignetting. How can I avoid this? On other occasions, the flat frames work just fine. I am wondering whether the flat frames are being rotated or improperly applied?
I'd appreciate any help you can give me! My equipment/camera settings/work flow are below:
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Celestron Edge 9.25 with focal reducer
CEM70 mount
Celestron OAG ZWO 290 mm mini guiding set up
Optolong Deep Sky filter
ZWO 294 MCPro imaging camera
NINA for shooting with offset adjusted in the sequencer page and then use of flat wizard after the session.Â
APP for processing (as above) -- I just go from one tab to the next while retaining the default settings. I save all frames at each step.Â
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Thanks!!
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Hi @felixa7,
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My first question is -- how do I start back up with processing using the registered frames that are all saved in the working folder? Do I really have to load all the frames again?
If you saved the registered frames, load those registered frames as lights in 1) Load. Then skip star analysis and registration and proceed at 5) Normalize. Load or save the project is a current work in progress for the 2.0 stable release, so that is coming.
Second -- how do I avoid what happened when I pressed the normalization button? Is this a known problem?
I am not sure exactly what happened from your description, so Normalize did not start? Nothing happened? This is not a known issue.
Third -- do flat frames have to match the offset of the light frames? My sense is that they may not have to because the flat frames I used when I successfully processed the frames from just night # 2 likely had an offset of 1 (I don't know this for sure because I used NINA's flat frame wizard and couldn't find a way to adjust offset for the flat frames).
No, flat frames can be shot with a different gain/iso as the lights, no problem there 😉 But you need to realize that flats need to be calibrated with darkflats/bias, thos darkflats/bias need to be compatibel with the flats, so those darkflats/bias need to have the same gain/iso and offset as those flats as well.
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Fourth -- SOME shooting sessions with my current imaging camera, the ZWO 294 MC Pro, my flat frames don't seem to work! The dust motes increase in number and there is heavy vignetting. How can I avoid this? On other occasions, the flat frames work just fine. I am wondering whether the flat frames are being rotated or improperly applied?
Flat frames are never rotated, the issue must come from incompatible calibration data for your flats and lights. Make sure that you supply bias/darks that match the lights in terms of gain/iso, offset (and temperature and exposure for darks). And make sure that you supply bias/darkflats that match the flats in terms of gain/iso. offset (and temperature and exposure for darkflats).
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Let me know if this helps 😉
Mabula
