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 currently use NINA to capture TIFFs with my ASI2600MC camera. It seems to be working well for capturing and stacking.
I use TIFFs because Nina can do lossless compression which saves my disk space and it’s easier to view TIFFS from various types of programs.
But I’m wondering if there is any difference between a RAW 16-bit TIFF and a RAW 16-bit FITS with respect to APP.
@readyjetty Hi Steven,
This probably is a question for the NINA forum. FITS is designed to contain lots of useful information for image processing, like gain, exposure time and sensor temperature. It depends on NINA if that info also is stored in TIFF images. Therefore, in general, it is advisable to store raw data in FITS format.
HTH, Wouter
I guess I’m asking here for the APP perspective. What I’m hearing is that as long as the two files have the necessary header information, then there is no difference to APP. Correct?
@readyjetty Hi Steven,
use FITS, because NINA will write all information into the FITS-header. I don't know, how muchit writes, if any, into the TIFF-headers. Only drawback is, you can't compress FITS. This is only possible with XISF, which NINA fully supports, but sadly, APP not.
Hi Steven @readyjetty,
It will be best to use FITS. FITS is a dedicated format for astronomy data where TIFF really is not.
The TIFF specification has little header tags that are agreed upon (standard) for astronomy procesing whereas FITS has it all and we fully support it. At the moment we have no clue what tags in a NINA TIFF file are used that are needed to get all metadata for correct processing of your data.
Maybe Nina is storing relevant processing info in the TIFF header, but those header tags are very likely not standard. If you can point us to some URL which tags NINA stores in their TIFF files, then maybe we can support it and make processing TIFFs from NINA as easy as FITS files.
Only drawback is, you can't compress FITS.
@chris_16 ? Where did you get that information? FITS has several options to store data with lossless compression, the sad thing is that capture software like NINA is not providing it. APP can and will read and process it though if they would provide it 😉
Mabula
@mabula-admin Ok, thanks! It sounds like TIFF is convenient for me but risky, I’ll switch back to FITS. I do not have any documentation on what NINA stores in the TIFF header.
I’ll look for a good quick FITS viewer and maybe a FITS lossless compressor for when I’m archiving.
