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.
Hi Mebula, first I want to say that I use APP to stack all of my images and I find it to be very robust in handling many stacking situations.
Today I ran across ImageMM in a The Astronomical Journal paper by Yashil Sukurdeep, et al. They describe ImageMM as "a new framework based on the majorization–minimization (MM) algorithm for joint multi-frame astronomical image restoration and super resolution. ImageMM uses multiple registered astronomical exposures to produce a nonparametric latent image of the night sky, prior to the atmosphere’s impact on the observed exposures."
There are some discussions by a few individuals that this framework could be a game changer for image stacking. Also, an individual has incorporated ImageMM into his small suite of processes/programs. I do play on performing a back to back comparison of APP stack to this new method.
Would love to hear your thoughts. Thank you.
Hi Mabula,
I have used what I believed is the first implementation of the ImageMM integration method(with the setiAstro Pro suite) since it was released last week, and for me it has proven to be a significant improvement from the traditional integration way. The Integrated images are sharper from the start and this edge is maintained all through post processing, also after applying deconvolution software like BlurXterminator.
My approach has been to use APP all through registration and normalization, and then save the normalized files and load them into the SetiAstro suite's MultiFrame Deconvolution (ie the implementation of ImageMM) for integration. This has for me been a more successfull and efficient approach than to do everything within the SetiAstro suite.
The end result is the sharpest images I have managed to create with my equimpment( a C14 at F/7) so far. The improvements are significant enough that it will be difficult to go back to traditional integration.
The optimal scenarion of course is to be able to do ImageMM integration within APP 🙂
I could provide image examples if this is of interest.
Anders
Anders,
Thanks for bringing up the idea to use APP upto Normalization and use those images in SAS pro for ImageMM stacking.
I am a diehard APP user, but this gives new options as I got my graphics card activated (after some trial and error)
Hopefully Mabula will also give it a thought..
I would love to see this come to APP as APP is still by far the best program for integrating mosaic images. I do not get the same result when I integrate each panel separately then integrate together. Thus, using the Seti version, even if I work through normalization in APP isn't as good as being able to integrate with imageMM in APP.
