MAY 4 2026: APP 2.0.0-beta44 has been released !
New improved internal memory controls should now work on all computers
May 1 2026: APP 2.0.0-beta43 has been released !
Improved internal memory controls (much more stable and faster on big datasets), fixed CPU image viewer, fixed Narrowband extraction demosaic algortihms.
Apr 29 2026 APP 2.0.0-beta42 has been released !
New improved Normalization engine, Fixed random crashes in integration, fixed RGB Combine & Calibrate Star Colors, fixed Narrowband extraction algorithms, new development platform with performance gains, bug fixes in the tools, etc...
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.
Hello,
I am trying to shoot the Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) from my Bortle 9 location.
This is a difficult target as it has a very bright core and a very dim outer ring.
The outer ring gives me no problems. I shot a sequence of 360 sec subs and the ring came out nicely.
The core, of course, was way overexposed.
At 60 sec it was still overexposed.
At 30 sec it was OK (42000 out of 65532 levels).
At 15 sec it was well underexposed (21000 out of 65532).
Now. If I stack 15 sec exposures in APP I get blown-out/overexposed core.
If I save un-stretched to tiff and stretch in Photoshop I can get reasonable result. But I cannot stretch properly in APP. No matter what I do the core is blown...
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Any suggestions?
Thanks!
Â
Max
I'm curious about this problem because stacking is supposed to average the image over the stacked amount of frames. So why does the output end up being almost indiscernible or in your case overexposed.
This would require an HDR processing, APP doesn't have this (yet). I would then take long exposures for the faint signal and shorter for the bright parts. HDR processing can then be used to combine that nicely, I did that in PI and I guess Photoshop would also be possible to some extent (I have no experience with that).
Ah.. OK. I just thought APP might help to equalize somehow.
My scope is too small to resolve any details in the core anyway..
Thanks!
