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.
Only new to APP, so far only concerned with getting a good "integration" file and its so far better than PI. One gotcha that comes up is during normalisation APP asks for user input on focal length and pixel size. Can't you get or determine these automatically from the exif data? Failing that for now can you ask for the information when the files are loaded and/or when the normalise button is pressed, rather than halfway thru this process. Makes it hard to trust I can kick off processing and go to bed/work if 20min later it pauses waiting for my input.
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Likewise while most of use use a variety of gear we tend to use particular combinations often so could an equipment list be implemented at least for individuals rather than something that gets installed. for example I might store a profile called "Nikon 200" for my common configuration of Nikon D800E using 70-200 f2.8 lens @ 200mm and I could manually enter figures there just the once for permanent reference anytime APP wants the numbers plus it could store/update with its own values i might need (like measure true focal length, lens distortion characteristics etc).Just saves us having to reenter data app wants repeatedly. Keeping it an unshared database could also be a place to store say quality measurements and APP could then rank our configuration profiles in terms of image quality they produce, handy for testing our hardware configurations/upgrades.Just an idea but seriously the unexpected user input popup at a random time during a lengthy process is a pain to users, so hope its getting looked at soon.
Hi Steve,
Thank you for your feedback.
One gotcha that comes up is during normalisation APP asks for user input on focal length and pixel size.
APP will only ask for this information in registration in the calibrated projective mode. So before normalization. I'll try to have this question removed once I upgrade the registration engine, but for now I can have the question being popped-up at the start of the calculations.
Likewise while most of use use a variety of gear we tend to use particular combinations often so could an equipment list be implemented at least for individuals rather than something that gets installed. for example I might store a profile called "Nikon 200" for my common configuration of Nikon D800E using 70-200 f2.8 lens @ 200mm and I could manually enter figures there just the once for permanent reference anytime APP wants the numbers plus it could store/update with its own values i might need (like measure true focal length, lens distortion characteristics etc).
APP already supports this, you can save the camera plus optics combo as a profile 😉
To be able to save the profile, you need to have dynamic distortion correction on, same camera and optics enabled, calibrated projective registration model, and save distortion model enabled. The distortion model includes focal length, principal point, and distortion parameters. Saving such a profile is only really valuable if you are using a camera with a regular photography objective and you are sure that the objective is always mounted in the exact same way to the camera. So for a regular telescope and camera this will be less valuable. If the camera is rotated relative to the optics then you have no gaurantee at all the de camera profile wil work. Distortion models are only perfectly circular in an ideal world...
A saved camera + optics profile is very nice, you can also use it to undistort regular photographs 😉 This feauture of APP is much more precise than profiles stored in Adobe's applications for instance due to more complex parametrization of the distortion models.
Kind regards,
Mabula
Cheers, I get the point of the distortion response. And in my case its consistent, but wont be for most. The idea was more a profile system so any current or future program features could store information it needs to refer to instead of pausing for user inputs.
One question to confirm...anything we set in the leftside tabs (except load) stays permanently until we change it again. Correct?
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Looking forward to seeing improved documentation so I can better understand the features of APP and ways to use them. In a forum they can get lost, and I've got so many things to test out and explore in the mean time anyway. I'm impressed so far, to me getting subs is one process, then getting the best quality integration frame is next, then post processing for aesthetics is final step. APP for me gets me a better integration frame than PixInsight. Â Aesthetics I'm looking forward to playing with later, but for now APP is what I'll stick with to get my integration frame and it seems pretty tolerant of sub quality so I have hopes of improving /salvaging some past quick captures .
Hi Steve,
Cheers, I get the point of the distortion response. And in my case its consistent, but wont be for most. The idea was more a profile system so any current or future program features could store information it needs to refer to instead of pausing for user inputs.
Yes, I agree, there will be a configuration file most likely in the near future that would store certain information 😉
One question to confirm...anything we set in the leftside tabs (except load) stays permanently until we change it again. Correct?
Yes, it does. The settings apply to the process they belong, if you change a setting than it will be automatically applied if you rerun the process.
Looking forward to seeing improved documentation so I can better understand the features of APP and ways to use them. In a forum they can get lost, and I've got so many things to test out and explore in the mean time anyway. I'm impressed so far, to me getting subs is one process, then getting the best quality integration frame is next, then post processing for aesthetics is final step. APP for me gets me a better integration frame than PixInsight. Â Aesthetics I'm looking forward to playing with later, but for now APP is what I'll stick with to get my integration frame and it seems pretty tolerant of sub quality so I have hopes of improving /salvaging some past quick captures .
Thank you Steve, work on the documentation continues and will soon be updated 😉 it's one of my main priorities now.
Cheers,
Mabula
