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.
It would be extreemly usefull to add a star removal tool to the toolbox. I would envisage sliders to set the threshold of what is classified as a star and also the ability to select the margin around the star. the removed star being filled with data from surrounding pixels. an output could also be a star map
Could be nice to have it in APP, but there is a very promising tool outside of APP, using neural network techniques, and it is free.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/starnet/
https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/651745-starnet-star-removing-software/
Having said that, there currently is no way to protect stars while stretching in APP, so having some sort of "star protection" would be great!
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Thanks for the info on Starnet. Gave it a go and I must agree that its a very impressive tool.Â
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Hello Moderators,Â
is there a chance that Starnet will be integrated in the APP workflow just like in PI?
That would be really cool. Thanks, Achim
Not sure about if we would include starnet itself, as Mabula is already developing very good star detection algorithms, I think he would make it possible himself. Something like that for the comet integrations is being made. Who knows it can be applied in a broader sense, I don't know specifics about that.
Testing starnet now. Very usefull when not using narrowband. When motif is nebula or galaxies, the stars are mostly noise in the end result. Starnet should be included in 9 tools.
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Excellent, keep an eye up for the next release of APP. 😉
Can we have a beta2 with this tool as a Christmas gift 🙂
Wouldn't that be nice indeed. 🙂 It's still a week away so who knows!
Hurray, this would be so great for narrowband. 😀Â
Hi @jimmyd, @carlesa25, @annehouw, @swissastro, @vincent-mod, @glundby, @euripides, @peter-spatz, @wvreeven
I have been working on a Star Reducer/Removal tool for APP 1.083. The tool will be needed as well in the comet integration to get a sharp comet and sharp stars automatically.
To make this tool work very well, it is rather challenging, so it is taking some time in development.
I will not use Starnet in APP because it is really very !!! slow and it does not work great on all images I have seen with my test data to be honest.
This is a small teaser, soon I will show more:
IC1396a in SHO palette, data shot by myself with a Takahashi TSA102 @ f/5.6, asi1600mm-c, and 3nm astrodon filters.
Left is the original image with stretch, right is same stretch of star reduced linear data...
Hope you like it 🙂 ?
Cheers,
Mabula
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@mabula-admin Excellent! It even looks like the biggest star is resolved to a double star!? Looking forward to try this.
Great to hear from you again on a concrete roadmap item. To be honest, the next-release blog was a bit desolate for a long time.Â
From my experience: Starnet++ can be quite fast when using even a modest GPU. Having said that, as a user of a fast reflector (with diffraction spikes and a bit of a halo around stars), Starnet++ does leave a bit of a mess which takes time to clean. I am very looking forward to APP's implementation of Star removal/reduction.
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Now that I might have your attention: Many thanks for expanding the moderator/support team. There is great energy in supporting the userbase thanks to the combined effort of @Vincent-Moderator and @Wouter-Moderator. Greatly appreciated!
Thanks @annehouw that's really appreciated! The updates on the latest release have indeed taken more time then usual, this is because the features are way more complex. As APP is growing, the team is as well, slowly but surely so hopefully that will result in faster updates down the road.
Hello: A great result, I like it more than the total and brutal removal of the background stars, the result is too artificial.
Its reduction (APP) leaves a subtle trail of stars that seems to me a better solution and gives a more natural look to the final image.
@mabula-admin this is indeed very very beautiful. Full star removal is rarely pretty, your examples look very good to me and also show the love and dedication that you are bringing into your solution. Looking forward to put my hands on the next version.
