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 the ability to save custom mixes in the combine RGB tool. I know it isn't a big deal to move the sliders around, but I wanted to possibly get it on the radar for the future. I've attached a screenshot of a Hubble Palette one I use. This is the mix I used to get the attached image.
Great stuff. This will definitely be possible when we add settings to APP. I don't know if that will be (specifically this setting) in the upcoming release, but it makes a ton of sense to make that possible yes. @mabula-admin
ps. stunning result there!
Thanks! APP is a really solid go-to tool for this stuff. Between the sliders on combine RGB and the selective color tool it is hard to beat the results you can get with it. I've actually done multiple tutorials on APP for the Telescope Live community. For this kind of stuff I'd run it up against any tool, and for stacking nothing out there touches it.
