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.
When APP does an integration, it saves the file name with all the various parameters that were used in pre-processing it. This can be helpful when trying integrations with different settings, but it also creates a very long filename that doesn't include any of the original info. I know for me, this can be cumbersome, as I like to include things in my filename such as the filter used, focal length (helps identify the OTA), data captured, etc.
I think it would be helpful for APP to have either:
1) A config option to prompt for file name when integrating (the alternative to use APP default naming)
OR
2) When performing an integration, prompt for a filename with the APP default filename already preloaded into the filename box.
Scott - http://www.astronomersdoitinthedark.com/
Hi Scott,
Yes, I fully agree with you. The current long file name (and auto-save) will soon be changed.
I have this in my priorities list, all integration information will be moved to the FITS or TIFF header, so the user will get the choice of saving the integration in 16/32 bits TIFF or FITS format as well.(32bits is default, because integration of plenty of frames increases bitdepth):
https://www.astropixelprocessor.com/community/development-priorities/current-priorities/
Light frame integration: possibility to not use autosave, add all info to header of saved file (FITS and TIFF), give user the option to choose the saved file name
I think option 2 will be best, when you click on integrate, you will first choose/adjust the integration name and then the process starts. Would you agree?
Kind regards,
Mabula
Hi Mabula - Sorry, I guess I should read through the priority list before making suggestions! Yes, I think the second option would be best, although you may want to continue to have the default (suggested) filename be the name you're currently using. In this way, I might want to retain part that filename to remind me of aspects of how I integrated it (i.e., maybe I want to keep the -noMBB part of the filename).
No problem Scott 😉
Yes indeed, I will implement it like that. The proposed name stays the same and the user will be able to adjust, for instance add the object name and remove parts of the suggested name.
Cheers,
Mabula
