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 would like to have someone look at my data to see what I should do next. Â I would like to upload the data for someone to look at it.
Could you point to what data you're talking about and what the question is?
@vincent-mod yes, is it possible to upload here directly or do I need to upload it somewhere else and point you to it?
You can see where to upload on the top right of the forum, make a directory on the server called "msamazing-data" and please describe what the issue is as I'm not seeing it here in this thread, thanks.
@vincent-mod I just updated so hopefully I did it correctly.  I am new to astrophotography and wondered what steps you  would not take with my data processing where it is now.
Will check the data first, please allow for tomorrow as it's quite late here already. 🙂 Thanks for uploading!
@vincent-mod thank you! Â No rush.
So, could you also explain what exactly you'd like to do next? What's th question you have basically?
@vincent-mod I am very new to astrophotography and don't really have a trained eye. I guess what I am asking is when someone that has been doing this a long time looks at my image, is there anything that would make it better? Â Maybe it is fine as it is. Â I am really just trying to learn if there is any way that I should improve it.
Ah, got it. So looking at your data, it's actually looking really good already! Impressive for someone who's just beginning even. You may be able to even the background out a bit more using the Light Pollution tool, but other than that, just gather more data to get more signal etc and you'll be fine. This result is already really nice.
