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.
Starting in November 2018 I made a pretty early start with capturing the Horsehead Nebula. At that time I could start shooting at 23.30 when the nebula was just above the rooftop of my observatory. I was wondering if the rotation of the camera was in such a way that I could make a mosaic containing both the Horsehead Nebula as well as M42. And it was! So I started my "winter project": a 3 pane mosaic, containing RGB and Ha data. Normally I wouldn't start such a project if I wasn't sure that APP is able to make this mosaic possible.
The last frames I shot at the end of February 2019 concluded the project –due to many, many cloudy nights– and I ended up with 518 light frames, divided equally over the mosaic and in total integration time of almost 48 hours.
Here's the first result of this project –my longest so far–. I'm sure I'll start over processing the data again and again until I'm really satisfied with the final result. I would like to give Mabula a big thumbs up for APP; I also tried to register the panes in PixInsight, but without a good result. As a matter of fact: it didn't come up with a result at all.
Great job! Can you share the details of the equipment you used and the exposure parameters?
Thanks
Great job! Can you share the details of the equipment you used and the exposure parameters?
Thanks
I shot the frames with a 80 mm F5 APO SW Esprit mounted on a SW EQ8, SBIG STF8300M CCD and Baader filters.
For all panes I shot 10 minute frames of Ha, with a total of between 7 and 8 hours per pane. The RGB frames were taken with an exposure time of 3 or 5 minutes, with a total of at least 2 hours per channel per pane. I ended up with 518 frames in total, with an integration time of 47 hours and 45 minutes. Guiding was done using an 60 mm guide scope and a Lodestar guider cam using PHD. Frame acquisition with Sequence Generator Pro. For the core of M42 –which was completely washed out– I shot 1 minute frames in both RGB and Ha and blended with the original frames using HDR.
LOvely and very nice Mosaic, CS
