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.
Hi everyone, I just finished a two-night session on the flame and horsehead nebulae with my astro-modded Rebel T6. The top two-thirds of the image look pretty decent, but then I have this hard gradient and what looks like the program choked in a few areas. Does anyone have any idea what causes this? I'm currently re-running the set with a lower degree LNS (only thing I changed from my usual process) but don't have the new result yet.
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@ajm16143 We would need to know more about how you process the images to be able to help you solve this. What OS are you on? What version of APP? Are you processing the images on the local hard disk or an external one? Does it help if you disable OpenGL in the APP settings?
@wvreeven I'm using Windows 10, APP 1.082, and processing on a local drive. I just reprocessed the data and it seems that the problem is in my first session as the second looks fine. I'll try disabling OpenGL on them and see what happens.
@wvreeven Disabling OpenGL didn't do anything to help. I ran the first set of lights without any calibration frames and the red bands show up, so it must be something in the lights. I checked all of them in APP and don't see anything strange in any individual frame.  Â
@ajm16143 Can you upload a small sample of your lights and calibration files to
https://upload.astropixelprocessor.com/
using username and password upload2 and create a directory there called ajm16143_artifacts with the files in there? Then we can have a look and see if we can find the cause. Thanks!
@wvreeven Thank you, I uploaded them as instructed. What's interesting is I ran the same files through Deep Sky Stacker and don't see the artifacts so not sure what I did that's introducing them in APP.
I loaded the Lights, Flats, Darks and DarkFlats in tab 1 and then went straight to tab 6 and clicked the Integrate button. Everything else I left at their defaults. The result is this:
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A few comments: I see that your Flats and DarkFlats are 0.3 second exposures. With a DSLR camera you should take Flats of at least 1 second to give the shutter enough time to open and close because otherwise you run the risk of getting the shadow of the shutter in your Flats which will introduce other artifacts which will be hard to get rid of.
Also, your Bias and DarkFlats have the same exposure time. When Bias correction is applied, the effect of the DarkFlats will be reduced to zero, which may very well be the cause of the issue.
So, next time make sure to take longer Flats. If necessary dim the light source that you use to take them or, if that's not possible, use a white t-shirt or blanket over the opening of the telescope to dim the light. Also, either take very short Bias exposures or leave them out all together.
@wvreeven Thank you for testing that. Not sure what setting I did that aggravated it, but glad to know the data is good.
I think the bias issue was a mistake on my part uploading, they should have been 1/4000 shutter speed as that's what all the ones in my computer were shot at, but I think I mistakenly uploaded the dark flats to both folders. I will definitely take your advice on longer flats. Â
