Mar 28 2026 APP 2.0.0-beta40 will be released in 7 days.
It did take a long time to have the work finished on this and it will have a major performance boost of 30-50% over 2.0.0-beta39 from calibration to integration. We extensively optimized many critical parts of APP. All has been tested to guarantee correct optimizations. Drizzle and image resampling is much faster for instance, those modules have been completely rewritten. Much less memory usage. LNC 2.0 will be released which works much better and faster than LNC in it's current state. And more, all will be added to the release notes in the coming weeks...
Update on the 2.0.0 release & the full manual
We are getting close to the 2.0.0 stable release and the full manual. The manual will soon become available on the website and also in PDF format. Both versions will be identical and once released, will start to follow the APP release cycle and thus will stay up-to-date to the latest APP version.
Once 2.0.0 is released, the price for APP will increase. Owner's license holders will not need to pay an upgrade fee to use 2.0.0, neither do Renter's license holders.
Hello! I keep getting this notification Box (during integration) which comes after calibration. It says my data is somehow bad and suggests increasing my exposure time. I like really short subs but That's ok. Â I have to click OK to continue, and because I never know when it's going to show up, I have to babysit the APP to see if or when it shows. A GIANT WASTE OF TIME. I should either be able to turn off notifications in APP or the window should time out! Please advise or fix.
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@hawkula Hi,
The popup is there for a reason: APP detects that too many pixels clip and warns you about that, giving possible causes. I get your point about the popup timing out but how will you know that your data is sub-optimal?
Can you explain about the data that you are processing? Is it mono or color data? What filter do you use? What exposure time and what camera?
Wouter
@wvreeven Thanks for your response. Yes Know it's there for a reason. I am using color Data (QHY600mc OSC), 4min subs, Antlia Dual Band filter, -5 degree darks, biases and flats - Borg 107 FL f3.9. I have gotten this message when I shoot 1min subs in my light polluted area also (experimenting). And BTW the pictures turn out great. I just don't want to have wait for this message to come up and then turn it off because I never know when it's going to come up. It's like waking up in the morning turning on your computer and having a message pop-up saying 'You're Old!' I KNOW ALREADY. It needs to time out. If you have any suggestions that might eliminate the message and improve my shots I'm all ears.
@hawkula Thanks for the explanation. I'll ask Mabula to give his opinion on the popup.
It looks like the filter has two 5 nm band passes which is very narrow. In order to avoid the pixels from clipping you may need exposure times as long as 10 minutes. Remember that APP detects that pixels are clipping when performing dark and flat calibration so that hopefully is an incentive for you to consider using longer exposure times. I do understand that exposure time sometimes is a personal preference but I still wonder why you prefer short ones.
@wvreeven I don't have to guide for one thing! (APP 1100 goto with absolute encoders). Also with a 10 min sub the chances of an airplane flying over and ruining my sub is far greater than using 10 1min subs. There are a boatload of GREAT Images done with hundreds of 1 min exposures. Dr Robin Glover (Sharpcap) talks about this in a YouTube video. There are many who think that with the way cameras are going this is the way of the future. BTW I have won an APOD before so I'm not bad at this. The proof is in the pudding; with the new software (star xterminator etc) you can get great results in post. After all, the end result is art. And we all know about art! BTW I'm in business with DR Christian Sasse (iTelescope) and we agree on this technique especially in Bortle 7 skies. (I also have 2 setups in Siding Springs Aus) So I take it that this message can't be timed out? A shame...but thanks for the advice and help
@hawkula The popup currently doesn't time out. Like I wrote in my previous comment, I have asked Mabula to chime in as well so perhaps this could be considered for a next version. But that decision is for him and not for me to take.
Hi @hawkula,
Thank you very much for sharing your concern on this warning about pixels clipping. The issue is on our ToDo list already to fix this. I will make it possible to simply turn-off the warning and if it is enabled, to only show once all processing completes 😉
Mabula
Hi @hawkula,
This issue has been addressed and fixed for 2.0.0-beta5, see it's release notes:
- IMPROVED BLACK DATA CLIPPING WARNING from Calibration Engine
We realize that this warning caused some frustration allthough we do think that it is an important warning still to make the user better aware of data issues leading to possible suboptimal results. To remove frustration about the warning, we have increased the threshold for the warning to appear. Furthermore, the warning will only show now after a long running task completes. It will not stop a long running task anymore. The warning will not show at all if the calibration warnings are turned of in 2) CALIBRATE.
Mabula
