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 am a new member of this community as of today. I have quite a large set of data that are stored with the according MasterDarkflats and Masterdarks generated using PI. As I want to use APP for stacking in the future I would like to use a mix of "Old data" with according PI Masterfiles and new data in APP. I can export these .xisf files as .fits files. Is this a workable solution or what I will lose by this conversion? Original dark and flat files are not saved. Worst case I recalibrate the Old data in PI and saved the calibrated data, but that is a quite cumbersome workaround.
Hi @gunterk2,
Regarding your old masters and using them in APP.
1) convert them to FITS first
2) Then load your converted masters as single calibration frames, so load the old masterdark as a dark in APP, then APP will analyze it and make a MasterDark for APP with relevant metadata. That would be the best way to go. Same for the masterFlats.
Did you try this, is all working okay?
Mabula
