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.
Rarely imaged Molecular Clouds in Cepheus: MBM 163, 164 & 165 and LBN 569. MBM is an abbreviation for Magnani, Blitz and Mundy who identified/catalogued 57 molecular clouds at high galactic altitudes in 1985.
https://www.mauricetoet.nl/DeepSky/i-5Z9v6J4/A
Imaged with a Nikon D810a and Takahashi Epsilon-180ED on A-P Mach1 GTO3. Total integration time of 26.5 hours using 5 min. subs @ ISO 400 (318 light frames). Dither-guided with a Lacerta MGEN standalone autoguider (Vixen 70S guidescope). Captured during 6 nights (August 6, 8, 10, 11, 13 and 17) in Izon-la-Bruisse, Drôme, France.
At the beginning of each session, 30 flat frames were captured. Offset correction with a master bias frame of 200 bias frames. I didn't use dark frames.
Processing with APP. Settings other than default:
- noise weighted integration;
- MBB enabled: 5%;
- LNC enabled: 1st degree, 1 iteration.
DDP stretch: 20% BG - 3 sigma - 2.5% base.
Light pollution removal / fixing gradients: marking background areas with several dozen squares.
Post-processing in Adobe Photoshop CC: increasing colour vibrance/saturation (in RGB mode and on a and b channels in Lab colour mode), tightening star edges, enhancing nebulas/midtones (curves with layer mask to protect the stars), very slight noise reduction in the background (using noise reduction in Camera RAW).
Full field of view in colour:
Contrast enhanced monochrome version (with less stars):
Annotated version:
I 'discovered' this area by browsing / exploring the Aladin Sky Atlas. Last February I tried out a part of this area using the digitized POSS-II data (red and blue plates). Now I can show my result and that of the 48-inch f/2.5 Oschin Schmidt Telescope side-by-side.
😍Wow
Hi Maurice @maurice_toet,
Wow indeed, what a superb image, have rarely seen this 😉 !
Fantastic work to stick to such a long integration time for one object while on holiday ( I assume ? ) in La France.
Did you see clear differences with the integration weights? Any particular reason why yo used noise weighting ?
Thanks a lot for sharing 🙂
Mabula
Thanks Mabula,
This was indeed captured during my holiday in France. My goal was to capture at least 25 hours of integration time...
I have to confess I haven't made several integrations with different weight settings to compare. What I could have done (to save calculation time) is to integrate say 30 frames (instead of 318) with different weight settings for comparison. I decided to use noise weighting as I wanted to have the least of noise as possible in the 'background'.
Hi Maurice @maurice_toet,
"I have to confess I haven't made several integrations with different weight settings to compare. What I could have done (to save calculation time) is to integrate say 30 frames (instead of 318) with different weight settings for comparison. I decided to use noise weighting as I wanted to have the least of noise as possible in the 'background'. "
Yes good argument, I think it should have proven to be a good choice.
Another way to test integration settings, is by integrating only a crop of the reference frame. That should run much quicker as well 😉
Thanks again for sharing this beautiful result...
Mabula
