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.
Stock Canon 5D MkIV and William Optics Zenithstar 61 with flattener on a iOptron SkyGuider Pro guided in PHD2 with ZWO ASI120mm and 30mm f/4 guidescope.
30 x 4 minute exposures of the Deneb region, 20 darks/flats and 50 bias frames captured with APT. Calibrated and integrated in Astro Pixel Processor then finished in PixInsight and PS. Full frame image with 100px crop on the borders to remove the dithering artifacts.
This is the full sized jpg from the image processing so you can see the corners, which are pretty good (not perfect but pretty good)
Center (Dec, dms): +44° 08' 03.276"
Size: 5.56 x 3.6 deg
Radius: 3.311 deg
Pixel scale: 3.07 arcsec/pixel
Orientation: Up is 341 degrees E of N
Nice! No over processing, great detail. You might up the saturation a bit maybe?
Nice! No over processing, great detail. You might up the saturation a bit maybe?
I did consider lifting the saturation some more Vincent but in the very small regions where the Ha is more dense I was clipping the red slightly and losing fine detail so I left it at this level. I appreciate the constructive comments as sometimes you can get too close to your own work and miss the obvious and less obvious problems 🙂
I've got a spare Canon 5D MkIII body which I'm seriously thinking about modding for more Ha sensitivity but struggling to find someone in the UK to mod it lol I also need to invest in a proper EQ mount so revisiting targets for more data will be easier in the future.
The SkyGuider Pro is a great portable mount with the ZWO ASI120mm guiding it but I'm relying on plate solving from the DSLR and then manually re-targeting which is a pain to be honest, a simple slew to a known Ra/Dec position would be very useful.
best regards
Kev
Ah yes, well that does make the image more impressive! Manually targeting, kudos from me. Take your time when picking your next mount, read about the negatives around them as well and which ones are considered good for what you want. Been there, picked the wrong one at first. 🙂
Ah yes, well that does make the image more impressive! Manually targeting, kudos from me. Take your time when picking your next mount, read about the negatives around them as well and which ones are considered good for what you want. Been there, picked the wrong one at first. 🙂
Oh trust me I know the downfalls. I was heavily into Solar Ha imaging for a number of years using a NEQ6 mount with a hand-built 4" f/11 refractor modded for Solar work. I lost interest and sold the equipment onto a friend who is still addicted to the sun lol.
I'm pretty sure I'll pick up an HEQ5 with belt mod for any serious astrophotography work but camera mod first. I like wide field images, hence the WO61 refractor, and wouldn't want anything much larger than that on the mount so it will work well at that sort of payload.
regards
Kev
Ohh hand built, now that is awesome! Thanks for sharing. I guess you didn't make your own optics as well did you?
Ohh hand built, now that is awesome! Thanks for sharing. I guess you didn't make your own optics as well did you?
Life is too short for hand grinding optics lol. I used a Lyra Optics refractor with a D-ERF filter on the front and then the tunable ethalon out of a Coronado PST Personal Solar Telescope with some Borg adaptors to make up the correct optical path and spacings
Kev
Agreed, too many cool things in life and too little time. 🙂 Really nice, did you make a overview of the built somewhere by any chance? I love reading those.
Agreed, too many cool things in life and too little time. 🙂 Really nice, did you make a overview of the built somewhere by any chance? I love reading those.
I did Vincent, the complete build was documented but I lost it on a website crash 🙁 Some of the build images can be found with this search link http://www.photosbykev.co.uk/?s=loha
Kev
Agreed, too many cool things in life and too little time. 🙂 Really nice, did you make a overview of the built somewhere by any chance? I love reading those.
I did Vincent, the complete build was documented but I lost it on a website crash 🙁 Some of the build images can be found with this search link http://www.photosbykev.co.uk/?s=loha
Kev
I found a link (without images) on the wayback archive lol http://www.photosbykev.com/wordpress/2011/11/29/pst-modifications /"> https://web.archive.org/web/20161115132612/http://www.photosbykev.com/wordpress/2011/11/29/pst-modifications/
Haha awesome, thanks!
