June 24 2026 APP 2.0.0-beta46 has been released !
Improved internal memory configuration (lower ! memory usage), fixed beta45 startup issue, fixed Set Save Directory & 2-panel mosaics.
May 27 2026 APP 2.0.0-beta45 has been released !
Fully Multi-Threaded LNC, many improvements for the registration engine, platform upgrade, and further tuning of internal memory consumption and memory release back to OS.
Apr 14 2026: Google Pay, Apple Pay & WeChat Pay added as payment options
Update on the 2.0.0 release & the full manual
We are getting close to the 2.0.0 stable release and the full manual. The manual will soon become available on the website and also in PDF format. Both versions will be identical and once released, will start to follow the APP release cycle and thus will stay up-to-date to the latest APP version.
Once 2.0.0 is released, the price for APP will increase. Owner's license holders will not need to pay an upgrade fee to use 2.0.0, neither do Renter's license holders.
Against all odds, I tried my chances and did shoot some nights of M4 (and some other highlights around Antares).
Equipment: Lumix GX9, Olympus 300mm IS PRO, EQ5.
Well, I had to shoot this from my balcony (instead of my garden), as this target was standing just above the horizon. I am situated about 60km north of frankfurt, so this one comes with a really nasty gradient up from "botton" to "top".
To tackle this I collected about 9hrs over 5 sessions. I ended up with 200x 60s (iso1600) and 171x 120s (iso 800). Well, about half of that would have been enough, because removing that gradient didn't leave me with much signal. on top of that, the field of view didnt give me really any spot for a "true background" so light pollution removal was a hell of a task...
I really like how APP handles integrating several sessions, and i did bayer drizzle this one.
In "post" processing I tried to be as minimalistic as possible. Used APP for everything up to color calibration / hsl (but colors got a bit screwed afterwards), starnet++ for star removal. Rawtherapee for noise reduction and sharpening (other tools tend to give a even more "polished" look, somewhat too artifical). (Re-)composition in gimp and publishing in rawtherapee (again).
