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 can run a set of data all the way through integration and even use tools and modify the results. If I then go back to the 0)RAW/FITS tab to extract Ha from a dual band data set (I had processed the data first time in RGB) I get the following:
Encountered error in module:
ImageNormalizer
Error message:
java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot load from object array because "this.a" is null
Cause:
Cannot load from object array because "this.a" is null
r.a(Unknown Source)
r.doInBackground(Unknown Source)
java.desktop/javax.swing.SwingWorker$1.call(Unknown Source)
java.base/java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(Unknown Source)
Strangely it complains about an error in ImageNormalizer but it had already started the first few steps of 6) INTEGRATE
I cannot be sure that this is the only case. It happened before and I started from scratch re-starting APP. Any thoughts?Â
Interesting, would you mind to upload a portion of your dataset that shows this problem? I'll test it myself then as well, might be a bug:
@vincent-mod Thank you. I have been trying to make a small subset of data and reproduce the error myself to be sure you don't waste your time but I just wasted mine. I'll try again after tonight's session and see if I can get a small set that breaks consistently. I found another java error today but need to make sure it wasn't my fault. I'll get you something soon. Thanks for the help
I processed new images today, from last night. I did the full stack of RGB, went back and extracted Ha, OIII and Mono from the same set. All good. Then I tried to combine RGB in the tools using the files I had created above (the Ha, OIII and mono) and got the same java error. I have tried to replicate it with a small set but I cannot break it repeatedly. I have plenty more to process and when I find a set that I can repeat I'll let you have a look.
Thanks for the effort Robert, in the end we can always have a look at the dataset to try and trigger it ourselves as well, if you would have one that does it at least once in a while that would be nice. 🙂
