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.
When combining images from different scopes, the images need to be combined with some magnification adjustments to match different scope focal lenghts. I think this also requires the star shape and quality metrics to be adjusted accordingly.
Hi Astrogee,
You are totally right, APP is actually doing this and have been doing this for several years already.
After 4) Register, you will get adjusted star size/shape and quality metrics, because APP then knows the relative magnifications.Â
For instance, Star FWHM min, max (abd -- rel)
the abs is the absolute value found in pixels after star analysis.Â
the rel is the relative valye found in pixels after the correction found by registering the images.Â
Is this not working as expected?
This is what I get with 2.0.0-beta45, processing 15 subs, 3 subs per optical setup, so 5 different telescopes + cameras:
After star analysis:
After registration:
You see that even the star density appears because it is a measure of the star count per area sky. Notice the difference in the abs and rel values for star FWHM and shape. Also notice that the quality metric is changed after registration to reflect the relative focal lengths.
Please let me know if this makes sense or not,
Mabula
Ah I see! I didn't know what the relative measurement was for but its clear now 😀 Thanks!
