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 am in the middle of a couple of projects tracking the asteroids Ceres and Pallas. I need to stack the images without integrating out the moving object. To do this I need an integration option that sums or maximises the FITS data, rather than averaging it. This should be a quick and easy addition. You would just need to add a new integration option with slightly different maths.
Deep Sky Stacker has a maximum integration option for this type of thing.
What would be really cool (but more complicated), is to be able perform two integrations and blend them. One integration of the background stars using median/average stacking, and one integration of the moving object using maximum or sum stacking. You could then use a winsor/sigma rejection map (or something similar), as a blending mask to combine the two integrations.
(N.B. What I am wanting to do is different from comet stacking. I want to see the moving object in its different positions over time against the background star field.)
Thanks a lot for this suggestion! I think this is definitely on the radar of Mabula as I know comet stacking is as well. Unfortunately it is something a bit more "down the road".
