Apr 9 2026 APP 2.0.0-beta40 has been released !
It has a major performance boost of 30-50% over 2.0.0-beta39 from calibration to integration, for mosaics even faster! We extensively optimized many critical parts of APP. All has been tested to guarantee correct optimizations. Drizzle and image resampling is much faster for instance, those modules have been completely rewritten. Much less memory usage. LNC 2.0 will be released which works much better and faster than LNC in it's current state. Improved Outlier Rejection with LN 2.0 rejection. macOS CMD+A works now in file chooser ! And more, all will be added to the release notes in the coming hours...
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.
This is a reprocess of an image I did earlier in the year - http://www.astrobin.com/288033/B/
The data were calibrated, stacked and registered using Astro Pixel Processor. (Mabula assisted with some issues I was having with biases and darks, that were probably due to the capture software being used for those frames.) The RGB files were combined and calibrated in APP. I used the LP, Background and Star Calibration tools. I did thne head into PixInsight and PS for stretching and other work.
I felt that the colours were not quite right in the earlier version and I am much happier with the result that APP gave me. (Furthermore, I had overworked the core in the earlier version, leading to an un-natural look. This is softer, but none the worse for that I feel.)
The updated AB version can be found here: http://www.astrobin.com/311595/
Big round of applause - this astrophoto is certainly high on my list of excellent M42s! Your HDR combo is perfect, colors look great, and your range of colors is superb as well. Congrats on such a top notch image!
Scott - http://www.astronomersdoitinthedark.com/
Thank you Scott.
Excellent Steve,
I totally agree with Scott, this is a very good and beautiful M42 😉
I did also have a look at your older version in astrobin. I notice several nice differences:
- by looking at the stars (from dim to very bright) the new version has sharper stars and the brightest stars are better controlled I think, (less halo). Explanation could be that the stretch of the linear data was milder than in the old version?
- More and better colors over the entire field of view for both stars and the nebula, the dust surrounding the bright nebula has a more brownish color 😉 in the old version it was near greyish. And looking at the dimmer stars in the brown dust and we can see lots more colors on these stars.
- Top left bright nebula is much better !
Overall, splendid image and splendid improvements 😉
Mabula
Thanks Mabula. Yes this was a milder stretch. APP's colour is definitely an improvement.
You're welcome Steve,
I really like the M42 so much, would you be okay with me placing it on my main page in the gallery of APP user images and possibly in the rotation of images at the top of the website?
Mabula
Hi Steve,
Just wanted to let you know, I have added this excellent M42 to the gallery on the front page of my site and it's also one of the featured images at the top of the page 😉 :
https://www.astropixelprocessor.com/
Cheers,
Mabula
