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 have started processing images I took last night. I have loaded the frames, created the various masters using Calibrate and have completed Analyze Stars and Registration. I don't want to begin Normalize and Integrate as I need to take my laptop somewhere.
If I close APP and re-open later and choose the same Working Directory, can I just continue processing from where I left off?
Thanks in advance.
-Trevor
I dont think so Trevor, unless you leave app on and have the laptop in standby mode rather than shutting down. The lights.dat file and any other info I think is expunged if APP is shut down.
But, you can save all the frames at each stage, so you can save the registered frames (choose save option in the tab) and just continue from the normalise tabs when loading those back into app. That will give you the option you wanted in your post.
I have started processing images I took last night. I have loaded the frames, created the various masters using Calibrate and have completed Analyze Stars and Registration. I don't want to begin Normalize and Integrate as I need to take my laptop somewhere.
If I close APP and re-open later and choose the same Working Directory, can I just continue processing from where I left off?
Thanks in advance.
-Trevor
Hi Trevor @tbar23,
Indeed, like Colm indicated, you can save the registered frames in 4) and then close APP.
Next time that you start APP, load these registered frames. Skip 3) and 4) and proceed in 5) 😉
In the next stable release, we will make it even easier by providing save/load of your complete project with all processing details preserved.
Mabula
Another question on a similar topic: my computer restarted itself during the integration phase of a multi-session processing. It looks as if APP may have generated the integrated fits file for the first session and then restarted somewhere after that.
My working directory has one "M42_HDR-RGB-session_1.fits" file - I think this is the integration output of the first session.
The directory also has a BPM, an MF-IG_xxx, an MDF-IG_xxx and several MD-IG_xxx files.
Because I didn't save any calibrated, registered or normalized files, I am guessing that I basically need to start over. Is that right?
@tbar23 You can reuse the master files that APP created so you don’t have to reprocess the raw calibration files. And if the integration result of session 1 was created then you can skip that. But the rest you will have to redo, yes.
