Jan 31 2026: APP 2.0.0-beta40 will soon be released with many fixes especially for Linux, upgraded development platform and 10-20% performance boost !
Jan 15 2026: FIXED LICENSE SERVER VPN Tunnel issue
The issue could have prevented APP to start when using a VPN tunnel or another complicated network configuration, like using APP on a remote computer on a different continent. This issue is fixed now and APP should start normally.
Jan 04 2026: 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. Unfortunately, Mabula was struck by a severe flu virus in the past couple of weeks and thus could not work. He is getting much better now and he has resumed work to release 2.0.0 as soon as possible. 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 one of those astronomy targets where I cannot quite make out the relationship between the name and the visual appearance of the object, but nevertheless this is SH2-132 or commonly known as The Lion Nebula.
I think the dark lines near the two dark areas may represent the lions mouth like an upside down Y, but who knows. This region is rich in HII, but also very rich in OIII as you can see by the blue in the image. I have produced both the HOO (Hydrogen Alpha+Oxygen III + Oxygen III as RGB) and the Hubble Palette SHO (Sulphur Dioxide II + Hydrogen Alpha + Oxygen III as RGB)
