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.
All the tutorials that I have found so far seem to start with data that you have captured with your own telescope.Â
But I would like to use APP starting with FIT files from HLA or MAST, because I do not have the tools to capture my own images.Â
Are there any tutorials/documentation about this particular process.Â
@jswift To my best of knowledge there are no such tutorials or docs. But the process should be exactly the same. If the HLA images already have been calibrated then you can load them into APP without calibration files. Otherwise you should load the calibration data (either the raw images or the masters but raw would be better) into APP. Then you can process the images like images from any other source (e.g. your own telescope).
Many thanks for the very quick reply. The images have already been calibrated.Â
I realise that I need to start with 9-Tools and work with combine RGB, but I'm combing the videos to see how to get beyond that.Â
@jswift Depending on the quality of the data, you may want to continue with calibrate background or calibrate star colors. You can wrap things off with HSL selective color.
I think I am missing a fundamental step getting my images into APP . When I use Tools> Combine RGB I'm asked to "add data and select ratios per channel" which does not mean much. That's why I'm looking for some basic docs about how to start at Step 9 🙂
Apologies for these very basic basic questions here.Â
@jswift In Combine RGB you can load R, G, B, L, Ha, OIII or SII images (each mono and representing a certain filter). Once loaded you can select a certain formula to combine the mono images into a color image. All of R, Ha and SII contribute to red values in the color image and you can select how much each image will contribute to the final result. OIII contributes to both green and blue so when you load OIII, G and B you can again select how much each contributes to green and blue.
EDIT: you can also add RGB images and APP will detect the color channels itself.
