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.
"Set new reference frame" takes forever (never completes). I'm registering a 2x2 mosaic with a narrow (~10%) overlap, shot with a William Optics FLT 132 scope and an ASI6200MM camera through LHOS filters. 203 light frames.
This worked okay on a previous integration of 3 panels, "set new reference frame" took a couple of minutes. Due to narrow overlap, I shot four luminance frames which span the middle of the mosaic, and re-assigned one of those as the reference frame. I used normal registration, not the "mosaic" registration function, but it shouldn't matter. This problem occurs before that.
Today when trying to register my 2x2 mosaic with 203 light frames APP seemed to go off on an endless loop after analyzing stars, then choosing "set new reference frame". It never completed and showed very low (< 1%) CPU activity. I finally killed the process. (APP version 1.083.4, Windows 10, Intel i9 CPU, 64 GB RAM)
I then upgraded to APP 2.0.0-beta38. I told it to analyze 3,000 stars, same problem. "Set new reference frame" never ends. There is no way to cancel. So I killed the program and tried again by analyzing only 500 stars, then setting the reference frame manually. Still waiting for APP to respond after >1 hour, during which CPU usage is again minimal, <1%. the command never completes. (APP version 2.0.0-beta38, Windows 10, Intel i9 CPU, 64 GB RAM)
So I'm stuck. Unable to set a reference frame manually. Any idea what the problem is?Â
Edit: "Set new reference frame" worked quickly, and as expected when I invoked it using the popup menu on the light frame (versus the button in the "Register" panel).Â
