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.
In ASICAP (I'm using version 1.2 on Mac) the exposure time is identified by "EXPOINUS", in microseconds. APP 1.075 doesn't recognise this and reports zero exposure time. My stacks still turn out OK, but it would be nice to also recognise the somewhat odd naming of the exposure time. Can this be added in future versions?
@ralph There are documents describing the FITS standard. Wouldn't it be better to contact ZWO and ask them to make sure that ASICAP adheres to those standards? I am aware that this doesn't solve the issue with your images and perhaps a small (python?) script that rewrites the FITS keywords into what they are supposed to be could help. I can give you a hand there if you are not familiar with python.
Wouter
I just saw this post on the ZWO forum:
https://bbs.astronomy-imaging-camera.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=10295
Out of curiosity, did you open that topic @ralph or is this someone else?
That is indeed a weird way to name it, indeed it would be a good idea to also ask ASI about it, they might change it maybe. If not, I guess Mabula could add it, but if it's totally non-standard and only with that program, he might not.
