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'm currently stacking some images from the Leo Triplet and after getting the 'light leakage warning', I went ahead and got this stack. Does anyone know what I did wrong? When I got this warning before, I never had this stacking failure happen.
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How many subs did you collect total? The little vertical lines through the stars just look like tracking errors or dither settling. They are common as you image through the night, just about everyone will get a few each session. Did you review all your subs before you ran your stack? If not, you may of had several subs with the tracking error that made it through to the final image after APP averaged your subs out. I would suggest to carefully review and zoom in on all your subs before stacking again. Delete any that have the small lines through your stars and try again.
Thanks for the response. I collected 300 subs, so I'll review these again and reject them even more rigorously where they are less than perfect (I did have some high clouds, so I tossed these).
