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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.

 

Loading images and calibration files

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 Heno
(@heno)
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Joined: 9 years ago
Posts: 142
Topic starter  

@Mabula-admin
You know I've been using APP for many years and in my opinion it is by far the best stacking program out there. However, there is always room for improvement.
What I wish to see is a much faster and smoother way to load images, lights, darks and flats. It should be possible to load all of the above based on a folder structure. The attached image below show the folder structure I use for another stacking program. All I have to do is to select the target folder (or any one of the combo folders) and everything is loaded in about 15 sec.
Here is some explanation to the folder structure:
1st level: The target name, obviously.
2nd level: The combo are my two telescopes/cameras. This folder level would substitute sessions 1 and 2. (The combo word does not need to be there, and if only one telescope/camera is used this level could be skipped entirely if the user so wish). On this level the user would normally locate lights, darks, flats (and dark flats/bias as required.) A folder containing the BPM could also be here if already created.
Since there is already a routine in place within APP to differentiate between master files and non-master files it is probably not required having to define this at folder level. However, having to do so would not be a hassel.
3rd level: I prefer to let NINA create a new lights folder for each night, but that would be entirely up to the user. There is actually no real reason to do this except if the user needs to create new flats/dark flats for each night. If so the flats/dark flats folder must be created at this level. In this case each date (folder) would be a new session to keep track of which flats belongs to which lights. Personally I would have liked to see the folder name instead of session 1, 2, 3 etc. in the final integration.
Finally, everything is grouped on combo (if created), filter and sessions (if applicable). Regarding filter names, in the program where I'm using this folder structure B, Blu and Blue would be interpreted as three different filters. It would be the users responsibility to make sure that a filter is named the same throughout.
If anything is unclear (probably) I'd be happy to elaborate.
Note that all of the above is about loading images and calibration. It will not affect the rest of the stacking process.

Please forgive this very lengthy, detailed proposal. I hope you will consider putting this on your "to do" list. It would make APP even more attractive.

Folder structure

 



   
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(@mabula-admin)
Universe Admin
Joined: 9 years ago
Posts: 5056
 

Hi Heno @heno,

Thank you very much for your request and your nice compliment, and I fully agree, there is always room for improvement. I will definitely add this to a new issue on our ToDo list 😉 I also want to add to this issue that APP should use the FRAMETYP keyword that indicates LIGHT, DARK etc.. that is stored in FITS files by several capture packages. Then even such a folder structure would not be fully needed I think.

I will try to implement it after the 2.0 stable release.

Mabula

 



   
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 Heno
(@heno)
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Joined: 9 years ago
Posts: 142
Topic starter  

@mabula-admin I'm so glad to hear that you agree and will add this to your to do list.
Regarding use of the FRAMETYP keyword, I fully agree. Those should of course be used when present. That would also eliminate accidental misplacement of files in the various calibration file folders. I will probably still keep this structure as it gives me a simple overview of which files were used in the calibration.
The combo (scope/camera) level would still be needed for those of us that is imaging with two combos at the same time, even if they are identical. So some flexibility in the loading process will probably be needed. But let me not jump to conclusions. 😉 
Will be looking forward to the first test.



   
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(@mabula-admin)
Universe Admin
Joined: 9 years ago
Posts: 5056
 

Hi Heno @heno,

Great, I realize that me need to make APP easier and faster in this regard as well, so we will definitely work on it. But please note, we first need to finish the work for the 2.0 stable release with save/load whole projects with their settings 😉 after which other new features and improvements will be implemented.

I have opened a separate issue on our list with your request and the IMAGETYP keyword (I mentioned FRAMETYP earlier, it should be IMAGETYP) and it will stay high on our todo list.

Mabula



   
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 Heno
(@heno)
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Joined: 9 years ago
Posts: 142
Topic starter  

@mabula-admin 
That is OK with me. I was not expecting you to drop everything else and start working on this. But I will be impatiently waiting. 😆  
Frametyp, imagetyp, whatever. I understood what you meant. 👍 

Helge



   
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(@mabula-admin)
Universe Admin
Joined: 9 years ago
Posts: 5056
 

great @heno 🙂

I will try to address it soon after the 2.0.0 stable release !

Mabula



   
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