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.
With my RASA8 Iv'e shot 184 light subs of a galaxy field under the new moon, with som pretty heavy gradients caused by the moon.Â
My normal flats wont work for this as it only takes care of vignetting. So I made a synthetic master flat from the stacked lights in Pixinsight, a master flat that to me looks very promising. (I first tried to make a synthetic flat in APP, but due to the limited gradient options it didn't turn out good) This PI master flat was then saved as a 32 bit float fits.
The problem is, and I've tried everthing solution I possibly can find on this, but no matter what I do, APP does not calibrate the lights with this master flat. The results look identical with and without this master flat loaded.
I am able to fix the gradients with the Light Polution Tool, but I would reaaly like to get the synthetic master flat thing working as I see a lot of potential in this for different reasons.
I've attached a light sub and the master flat I made in PI.
Calibration frames made in other software, won't work very well (if at all) in APP as the way other software produces that data, differs. It's always best to use the same software for both data and calibration data so you know both are treated in the same way. In your specific case, your regular flats should work fine, taking out the vignetting indeed. What remains is light pollution is this is exactly where the LP tool is made for. A flat or synthetic flat won't take care of that very much.
