15th Feb 2024: Astro Pixel Processor 2.0.0-beta29 released - macOS native File Chooser, macOS CMD-Q fixed, read-only Fits on network fixed and other bug fixes
7th December 2023: added payment option Alipay to purchase Astro Pixel Processor from China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and other countries where Alipay is used.
A 4.6 hour stack (60 s subs) of M106 and accompanying faint fuzzies stacked, calibrated and processed entirely with APP. This will get many more hours of data next year, but with such a wide field (86 mm APO, 460 mm FL, 1.7"/pixel) I am always surprised how well a full (and only) APP process does. The star calibration is always excellent changing DPP parameters has improved the data compared to several completed photoshop layering and masking processes, since the faint level of the galaxy halo in this case did not get any additional noise. For other targets such as nebulae, some PS does help in wide field, but I will be curious about star reduction routines to come to APP.
This was created without any flats or flatdarks, and calibrated using darks and BPM if course. Next year with 4 times more data, APP will likely render it the way I like, smooth and natural with just the right amount of color saturation from a OSC camera with no filters, as was the case here. More integration will remove the need for me to attempt to use of high pass filter, deconvolution etc. to extra galaxy detail at this small target size scale. Anyway, using APP for 95% of my processing is a breath of fresh air 👍
Beautiful result (I love galaxies personally) and great to hear it's working out so well for you!
And with some very distant objects identified. LEDA 213956 is 10.05 billion ly away, quite amazing.
Indeed, I love to do that as well, many times I find that background searching even more interesting than my main object. 🙂
@cwm2col A very nice image and yes there is a lot in the image.