ZWO Seestar S50 Chat n Share

[jolly parrot]

il give it a try anyways

after that i want to image m63 to

[odd quartz]

im going for Bodes, Whirlpool, M106 and Pinwheel tomorrow night

[odd quartz]

these are what im looking at for targets

[jolly parrot]

how long do you leave it on one object for?

[jolly parrot]

usually*

[rugged shale]

I’m now aiming to get at least 2 hours of data for each = 3 hours of shooting

[jolly parrot]

fair enough

Il probabaly leave mine on m81 for about an hour or 2

[rugged shale]

Depends on your seeing though. You might have better than me.

[odd quartz]

i have no idea but im gonna put it on a target and just go from there haha

im aiming for 2hrs

[latent kestrel]

https://youtube.com/shorts/xscYcMCKUJI?feature=share

[barren owl]

Why is it so shaky

[odd quartz]

prob wind

[barren owl]

Nice hall of fame lol

[odd quartz]

haha thanks man

[latent kestrel]

yup. wind.

was about 20mph out there

[final plume]

https://astronet.zwoastro.com/thread/59871?locale=en&sharedUserId=480658408869990403&shareId=1712630377771

Maybe, I guess there's maybe a chance... Never know.....

[final plume]

Maybe I'll win if y'all like my photo 😁❤️

[final plume]

Who am I kidding

Photo sucks lol

[rugged shale]

Saw my first used Seestar advertised last night

[odd quartz]

tonights weather 😍

[jolly parrot]

i get some pretty good weather tonight to 😍

very excited to finally shoot

[odd quartz]

same here - i got bodes, whirlpool and sunflower galaxy tonight

[jolly parrot]

got bodes and Markarian's chain i wann shoot tonight

maybe m63 to if enough time

[odd quartz]

i got M63, M106, M51, M101 and M81 tonight

[jolly parrot]

yeah thats nice do share the images to! id love to see them

[odd quartz]

oh of course! i'll share all pics i get

[barren owl]

I’ve got it cloudy for the whole week and a half

[odd quartz]

yeah sorry, hope you dont mind but i sent my clouds that direction haha

[barren owl]

well tbf the clouds have calmed down the crazy middle eastern heat atleast

[wispy vessel]

Captured this with my Seestar

[odd quartz]

right time to head out to my spot and get set up - laterz all

[jolly parrot]

👋

[jolly parrot]

how easy is pixinsight to use ? you just bang the one single image in ? or you save all the seestar images on your PC?

[odd quartz]

I'll ping you when I'm back, just packing up. Battling bad wind here which is a shame but I did get 32mins on bodes and 17m40s on pinwheel

@jolly parrot

[jolly parrot]

yeah same here lol

wind wasnt to bad for me tho

Unedited M81 27MIN

Photo Quality Not To Great Because Shared From Phone To PC

[odd quartz]

now back in

[odd quartz]

with Pixlnsight you can edit pictures AND stack frames as well

[jolly parrot]

damn

was this image stacked or editedd?

[odd quartz]

just about to download the files from the seestar to the pc now and start stacking

[jolly parrot]

👌

[odd quartz]

both

[jolly parrot]

ahh ok , thanks alot

[odd quartz]

https://discord.com/channels/794642864218439681/1226700676281794590 - here is the stacked file before editing

[jolly parrot]

interesting , might have to start stacking my own soon thanks alot

[odd quartz]

any time and nice m81 pic

[jolly parrot]

thanks alot!

[odd quartz]

@jolly parrot

[surreal nova]

dayumm

[odd quartz]

and these are only 38mins (bodes) and 17min (pinwheel) intergration - i cant wait to see 2hrs+

i was battling bad wind and had no wind deflector but got 1 turning up tomorrow

[atomic flame]

That’s insane!

[jolly parrot]

yea that looks amazing bro

Very nice work

[lone shoal]

Got 35 mins of data on needle galaxy,great target for seestar,got some background galaxies as well,will try to process later

[atomic flame]

Noiceee that’s Beutiful

No edit?

[jolly parrot]

defo gonna go for this one as my next target

great shot

[lone shoal]

Nope, straight out of scope

[lone shoal]

Yeah its a great target,was faintly visible in live view too

[jolly parrot]

damn thats insane gonna go for that target when i get my next clear night

[atomic flame]

That’s insaneeee

How dark are ur skies?

[lone shoal]

Goodluck,looking forward to see what results you get

[lone shoal]

I went to bortle 4 location for this

[atomic flame]

That’s amazing man!

[rugged shale]

Attempt to mosaic two sets of data. 2 hours of data on the left, 2 more on the right.

[tardy basin]

boi this little thing is powerfull

[odd quartz]

Yeah it's actually better than most think

[tardy basin]

ye

i considered to buy it but i had arledy a 6" newtin

[odd quartz]

Compared to a big scope, dedicated dso camera and a eq mount yes the s50 can't compete but for someone maybe starting out or like me can't take main rig out this thing is perfect

But for the price and what it comes with, find me a setup that had a triplet scope, auto focus, 2 filters built in, dew heater all for £550 lol

[tardy basin]

that's one of the most amazing things zwo made

also the sensor is good

[rugged shale]

Managed to get rid of the background noise.

This is the stack of the Eyes straight from Seestar

[odd quartz]

The sensor ain't actually good, if I'm honest it could of been alot better (it's a planetary sensor) but it's still good enough if you can manage 1hr+ on a single target

[tardy basin]

Good for 500 bucks

[latent kestrel]

works for me

[rugged shale]

It’s a Starvis sensor, so a proper low-light one used by astro cameras (unlike the Dwarf’s). IIRC it’s also one of the most sensitive cameras in its class. There are threads on CN’s EAA forum comparing the sensitivity of this sensor vs the more recent ones that have less noise. The problem is the size, but if it were any bigger the field rotation would be apparent, and if it had smaller pixels they’d catch even less light.

[lone shoal]

After post processing in siril and Lightroom

[latent kestrel]

m104

resized the image and cropped it.

vs hubble 😄

[wind condor]

Hubble takes the lead

[latent kestrel]

i just like looking at the differences

besides price 😄

[wind condor]

Yeah, I know, was just messing with you! 😅

[latent kestrel]

damn good for 500 bucks! ive told folks it does equal to the photos i got from my 3k rig i sold. just far less pain in the butt to setup and use. that said.. yea a 4k rig will outperform it. results become more and more marginal as it goes up in price. but whatever. 🙂 ill stick to the s50.

just saw someone else posting how the seestar is for kids...

some guys wont relent.

[wind condor]

Hmm, I honestly like the pain of setting up my rig

[latent kestrel]

some folks like riggin up a carriage and horse. but i still prefer my car. 😄

but then.. film use to be hard as could be.. just getting an image and having to go to a dark room.. it was indeed a art in itself. but no way i could do that with what i do now.. like if i shoot a thousand 10 sec images in a night. man that would be crazy.

[odd quartz]

I'd say its more for beginners or just as a great "grab n go" but definitely not "just for kids" lol I love my little seestar lol

And I'm 40 lol

Or if anyone else asks, 30ish 🤣🤣

[lone shoal]

Same,i never thought of going into deep sky astrophotography coz i knew its a big rabbit hole and i ll spending alot plus i wont be using it that much coz i have busy routine

Thankfully with seestar i was able to wet my feet in it,and i love it so much,great introduction to solar,lunar,deep sky and lil bit planetary too

[odd quartz]

100% agree

[atomic flame]

NO WAY

[jolly parrot]

shooting tonight?

quite a clear night atleast for me

[odd quartz]

Clear here as well but working

[jolly parrot]

ah fair enough

[latent kestrel]

here is from last night. i was still in alt az. 280 10 sec subs. pi. grax, ps.

hamburger and friends.

yes.. i went against my nature and added a few diffraction spikes on a few smaller stars.

have to open it in the browser to see them tho.

kinda small

since i did it in the default alt az, i had to crop it for the field rotation.

[jolly parrot]

M81 n 82 / m13 / m101 / IC 405 all unedited bad seeing for all these images BTW

Pretty happy with these

Think I might be unleveled or something my Shots have much noise

Compared to others

[lone shoal]

Looks great,looks lil clipped to me,nice details tho

[lone shoal]

Yeah they look quite noisy,plus looks like it was taken from high light pollution

I always try to level it near 0.4 or 0.5 max,no more than that

[rugged shale]

35 mins of M51 and 15 of M101 taken from B4. 15 minutes at home mostly just captures a light gradient so I’m happy with that.

[jolly parrot]

yeah defo something wrong there

[rugged shale]

The walking noise is the weird part. I don’t tend to get that at all because it dithers every 5 frames. Long exposures?

(In the M101 pic especially)

[jolly parrot]

na just the normal exposure 10s

[latent kestrel]

M63. sunflower galaxy. imaged last night.

[odd quartz]

Going for m106 tonight, got a 3-4hr patch so took the seestar to work haha

[atomic flame]

Noice

[odd quartz]

30mins - unedited

Got while I'm at work, got another 10mins worth of frames to add to it but will do it once I'm at home

Seestar stacked version - will try Pi when I get home

122 frames at 20s

[lone shoal]

Looks real good for 30mins, i will try this target too

[barren owl]

how quickly does the noise start to creep up

[odd quartz]

On the live stack you don't really notice it, it's not until you use the stacking bit you can see it but I'm sure pixlnsight will sort it when I stack it in there

[odd quartz]

pixlnsights version lol 39m40s

[rugged shale]

It creeps down. Each frame is less noisy than the last but the early frames are also dimmer. You can see the effect if you whack the brightness and saturationright up.

[weary pasture]

tad too clipped

imho

[rugged shale]

I’m finding it quite difficult to avoid clipping TBH. The alternative to clip seems to be to have colour noise. With these galaxies there’s not a lot of gas and dust to disguise the noise. I find nebulae a lot easier.

[rugged shale]

Incidentally, I tried putting the Seestar details (f/5, 2.90um pixels, 62%-91% QE) into this calculator https://tools.sharpcap.co.uk . The idea is to see how much noise is provided by sky glow. Once the sky glow swamps the read noise there’s no advantage to using longer subs. At the gain 80 which it uses in sky gazing mode, the camera has a readout of about 1.1e/pixel. So in theory, in Bortle 7 the read noise is passed by the sky glow noise after 1/3 seconds! So definitely not worth chasing longer subs to reduce noise. In fact, even in Bortle 1 the break even point is 10s.

Also I’ve noticed that even 10s exposures clip even dim stars. The only thing longer subs would give you is fewer exposures to stack and less time idling between exposures (which is quite significant).

[wispy vessel]

Is there any specific settings that you used to get this? I tried getting some data of M104 last night but was only able to get around 4 minutes due to weather, but still your image looks crazy good, also do you know of any way to move data from a Seestar onto a laptop without it converting to an mp4 file

[rugged shale]

It saves the jpg on the device. Connect it to your laptop and it will appear as a drive called “MyWorks”. If you want to process the individual frames you need to activate the option in the Advanced Features menu

[wispy vessel]

Also this is what I got of M104 in a deeply sky polluted city and the first image is using 30s exposures and the second is with 10s exposures

[wispy vessel]

So just connect a usb c cable to the Seestar and then into your laptop to then move over the videos and or frames? But then I know for a lunar video I got when I tried just saving it to my phone to move it over to my laptop it saved as an mp4 rather than staying in the raw format so can I avoid that by just directly connecting to the Seestar via my laptop? Also do you know of a good siril video that goes over how to process your individual frames?

[rugged shale]

For solar and planetary you can press the RAW button before you hit record and it will save movies as an uncompressed AVI instead of MP4. For stargazing images each individual frame is saved as a FITS file in folders marked “sub”

You need to make sure typing activated the option to save all the subframes though.

For editing in Siril, check this out https://siril.org/tutorials/seestar/

[barren owl]

How does this little thing hold up to winds?

[wispy vessel]

Its usually pretty okay for winds but it does depend on how windy we’re talking

But I would say too that winds could mess with tracking especially if you try for 30s or 20s exposures

[jolly parrot]

Solar image today with some lightroom editing 👍

[barren owl]

Woah so many sun spots

[jolly parrot]

fr

super happy with it

[latent kestrel]

this was just 6 minutes of images but i decided to process it anyway.

[jolly parrot]

2 shots tonight, dark ones are edited in lightroom and the others are untouched

m101 15 min / capella 2min

[atomic flame]

Noice capella shot

[rugged shale]

The S50 is an APO triplet. Not terrible, but there’s some minor CA in both reds and blues.

[odd quartz]

Quick moon picture while waiting for clouds to go away lol

[jolly parrot]

lol just got 1 hour on m101

moving to m3

[odd quartz]

😍

[tardy basin]

cool

[jolly parrot]

🤩

[odd quartz]

Altogether that was about 4mins of RAW video, total frames stacked was just over 3000, did have 5800 but kept the 1s above 90% quality

[barren owl]

i think this is the nicest moon pic from the s50 i've seen so far

[jolly parrot]

its very amazing thats for sure

[odd quartz]

I'm tempted to try another but when the moon is more near a full moon as this was only 4mins worth of subs lol

[mortal ermine]

Sombrero Galaxy unprocessed.

My Partial eclipse.

[mortal ermine]

Depends on which tripod you are using and how stiff the setup is. I have a good quality Carbon Fibre tripod and only extend one section on the legs. The little tripod it comes with holds up to wind pretty well.

[latent kestrel]

i made a song about my Seestar s50. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0w1zT0kK1E

[odd quartz]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/196265217489?var=0&mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&campid=5338268676&toolid=10044&customid=CjwKCAjwz42xBhB9EiwA48pT722_wPKUdMp6PXtQovMySlvx7xHcgjCnvH-r02wvnALcSI5UDhRA8RoCQ34QAvD_BwE - i got 1 of these but a taller one as this is only 35cm tall but these things are perfect for the Seestar s50

[final plume]

What is the name of this? Ive never seen or heard anyone talk about m104...

[odd quartz]

It's called the Sombrero Galaxy

[rugged shale]

I saw someone on CN suggest using a small amount of felt to dampen the wobble in the alt axis. Gonna try that next time to see if it makes a difference to number of subs rejected.

I expect that regreasing the gears would also help but I’d rather not open it while it’s still in warranty.

[wispy vessel]

Processed solar image and M13

[rugged shale]

Spent ages on this and I'm still not happy with it. Don't like the colours, clipped the blacks too far and I've done something weird to the stars. Galaxies are hard.

[odd quartz]

got the original stack file?

and how much integration?

[rugged shale]

About 2 hours of subs, maybe 1h40 good ones there, including 20 mins from a B4 zone which is honesty better than all the rest.

I’ll upload the stack tonight

[odd quartz]

yeah ping me when you upload it as would love to take a look (and if you want you can upload the frames and i'll try stacking it on my end) coz if you have 2hrs you should definitely have better results @rugged shale

[tardy basin]

galaxies are easyer for me

[wispy vessel]

Does anyone have any tips for getting a solar ISS transit? I’m planning to get one tomorrow morning but just want to know if there’s anything I should do to capture it as best as possible

[rugged shale]

Stacks. There's one fit for the ircut filter and another taken with the lp filter, which I didn't use. Was hoping to get some Ha out of it but couldn't get it to work. 2x CFA drizzle. https://1drv.ms/u/s!ArEUZ19_cutJmYwyN-B8ni6YzmVu3g?e=zk6HLO

Lights from the lp filter (800MB) https://1drv.ms/u/s!ArEUZ19_cutJmYwzGe9yCEF2NLodow?e=xXCFgx

Lights without the lp filter (1.1GB) https://1drv.ms/u/s!ArEUZ19_cutJmYw08eueuNEB5xX6sQ?e=Dcg5zS

[odd quartz]

@rugged shale downloading now, will take a look

[rugged shale]

Would be good to see what you make of it cos my processing is not good

[odd quartz]

just FYI the lp filter is a duo band filter, not great for galaxies lol

[rugged shale]

No but M51 has Ha highlights and I was hoping to extract and merge it as HaRGB.

[odd quartz]

ahh ok

[rugged shale]

Couldn’t get it to work though. The workflow is a bit advanced.

[odd quartz]

i'll see what i can do with it - im stacking the uv/ir 1st to see what it comes out then go from there

now to drizzle 520 frames lol

[odd quartz]

just a quick saturation to see whats there - this is just the uv/ir frames from your borte 4&7 with a blurX @rugged shale

[rugged shale]

Oh nice! That’s way more contrast than I managed, let alone colour

[odd quartz]

im just about to stack the borte 4 and 7 seperately and also the lp frames and combine and see what i get

[rugged shale]

The small amount of B4 data looked better to me but it was a bit windier so there’s some trails. In theory B4 offers about 10-15x better SNR than B7.

[odd quartz]

yeah im thinking of image integration in Pi

[odd quartz]

@rugged shale i have tried everything i can to fix the background but im hopeless at backgrounds until i work out how to sort them lol but i have tried every way i can (stack and process the borte 4,7 and lp seperate then merge, tried just the borte 4 and lp, tried just borte 4 on its own lmao) but the detail you have is definitely there i just wish i could enhance the galaxy more without making the background look like a rainbow haha - hope you like it and for the detail, damm man! 👏 feels me with confidence lol

and if you have Pi i got the original stacked files of the borte 4, 7 and lp in xisf if you want them, just ping me

definitely got good detail and nebulosity its just the background looks like a rainbow but i think thats more down to my s**tty processing skills, not your data

[surreal nova]

that’s from a seestar?!

[odd quartz]

yes

not my seestar but yes its from a seestar s50

[rugged shale]

Wow, that’s amazing! Definitely shows what’s possible. I have a long way to go.

[rugged shale]

Does the xisf show the history of steps you used? I’m using Siril + Affinity right now but I could grab a Pix trial

[odd quartz]

No these are just stacked using pixlnsight, I can convert them to fits or tiff if you want

[iron barn]

I bought the seestar ages ago but never really used it. Decided to use it for a bit and it actually performs really well.

that was like 10 mins exposure time i think

[odd quartz]

nice! your be surprised how it handles for the price it cost, would recommend exposures no more over 20s as your have alot of rejected frames

[iron barn]

Ah okay, didn’t really know its capabilities so i decided to push it. To be honest it’s one of the best, if not the best, portable little telescope setups i have ever seen. You can’t fault it for the price i payed for it

[odd quartz]

i 100% agree, for the price you find me a triple apo, with auto-focus, goto, built in uv/ir and a duo-band filter, built in dew heater (which drains the battery a little lol) that sets up this quick lol yes the sensor in it aint exactly the best by far but for the price i think the whole package is actually cheap

[wispy vessel]

Does the Seestar need to be in a location with service to work?

As I went to a park to capture the ISS transit and it would not connect regardless of what I did and then when I came home it connected first time effortlessly

[odd quartz]

I use a tablet to connect to it, the seestar makes a local network so as long as you have WiFi on your device you should be able to connect no probs

[wispy vessel]

So when I take my Seestar out away from home would I need to use my data? Because I’ve moved it away from my home before and it worked fine but just this morning I tried connecting to it and it just wouldn’t work but then functioned perfectly at home

So maybe I should’ve connected to it before leaving but I’m not sure why it happened

[rugged shale]

The Seestar itself doesn’t the internet at all AFAIK and it still works if your phone has no internet connection.

It does seem to block you from using it if it needs a firmware update though. Maybe it was that?

[odd quartz]

You don't need Internet to connect to it, just a device with WiFi, if your having issues connecting let me know and I'll help out if I'm online

And yes like teamonkey said, might have a firmware update so maybe when your home check if you have any outstanding updates

[odd quartz]

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/896538-seestar-s50-troubleshooting-and-first-thoughts/ - this could help - Fortunately, my first step in troubleshooting worked, shut off cellular data. Once I disabled that, it linked up immediately. Interestingly, if I later reengaged cellular data it would lose connection immediately. - could be your issue when your outside

[wispy vessel]

Weird because I checked and didn’t see any updates even when I connected to it when I got home

[wispy vessel]

Hmm I’ll keep that in mind but I don’t see how data would affect it especially because to load the in app weather forecast I would think you need internet

[odd quartz]

if you have your mobile internet running it "blocks" the wifi connection to the seestar

[wispy vessel]

Oh interesting I didn’t know that

[odd quartz]

i didnt either as i use wifi anyway lol found out from other users

[wispy vessel]

I just turned off my internet and turned on my data and still was able to connect to the Seestar and control it around once connected with my data still on. Unless data is different than mobile internet?

[odd quartz]

you indoors?

if yes, try connecting to it past your house's wifi range and see if you can connect to it with your mobile data off

[wispy vessel]

Yeah I was indoors and alright I’ll try and do that possibly tonight if not this weekend and then I’ll let you know the results

[tardy basin]

this thing keeps amazing me

Seestar people

how mutch does the battery last?

[rugged shale]

About 4-5 hours of imaging or about 3 hours with the dew heater on.

[tardy basin]

how mutch memory does it have?

[rugged shale]

512GB I think

[tardy basin]

absolutely good

i'm thinking of getting that thing for my summer trip

[rugged shale]

Fills up fast if you save each sub 😄

[tardy basin]

instead of getting a dso cooled camera because it's very portable

[rugged shale]

I took it on holiday, it's very portable.

[tardy basin]

can't take my rig to a b4 so

[rugged shale]

I had another go at process I'm nowhere close to that level of detail. Can you tell me a summary of the steps you do cos I feel I'm missing a lot.

[odd quartz]

50Gb

[tardy basin]

is it enough to image?

[odd quartz]

easily lol

[tardy basin]

max eposure time?

[odd quartz]

30s

[tardy basin]

cool

only live stacking or not live stacking too?

[odd quartz]

but the longer you expose the more frames are rejected as it saves the best frames

you can livestack and save the frames

[tardy basin]

is it worth it?

[odd quartz]

DEFINITELY

[tardy basin]

will try to get it before my summer vacation since it's easy to carry

[odd quartz]

find me a triple apo with all the bells n whistles for the same price lolol

even setting up its really simple

[tardy basin]

i mean if i can use the EQ6R

would be my first time going into a bortle 4 site

[odd quartz]

i'll try and remember and write it down for you

[odd quartz]

yeah this seestar is great for literally grabbing it and going somewhere lol

[tardy basin]

fully automatic?

[odd quartz]

yep lol

[tardy basin]

cool

if i manage get 600 euros before august will get it, if not so will just get an ASI533 Mc pro

[odd quartz]

you screw on the tripod, turn it on, once it powers up (few secs) you tell it where to go and off it goes lolol

of course the 533 will beat it easily

but then the 533 dont have mount, auto focus, dew heater, scope etc etc

[tardy basin]

but can't transport the whole rig

[odd quartz]

same as me hence i got this

and love it lol

[final plume]

I would absolutely love a seestar s50, I love stars, just can't afford it right now and have other house projects that are taking priority 😕

[odd quartz]

life comes 1st, hobbies come 2nd lol

[final plume]

Yeah, it just sucks

[odd quartz]

but i can guarantee if you love stars your love this seestar lol

[final plume]

Cuz I can "see stars"

[odd quartz]

yeah just looked at your setup lol

[final plume]

Not many people look at my bio, I decided to do that cuz lots ask what I have lol

[odd quartz]

lol yeah its a force of habit - "what you got" is easier than looking for some it seems haha

but this will give you a good idea what this little thing can get (not mine and please ignore background lol)

[final plume]

I saw that earlier, I'm obsessed with the seestar enough to read the entire chat when I miss a bunch of shit lol

[odd quartz]

hahaha

[final plume]

This was one that blew me away tho

I literally have the seestar app just to watch the community tab

[odd quartz]

yeah i do admit when i saw this even i looked again lol

the seestar has great potential thats for sure, and if set up right (which is super easy) you can get images like these

[final plume]

https://astronet.zwoastro.com/thread/62967?locale=en&sharedUserId=480658408869990403&shareId=1714134762646

^ like what the fk? That photo is INSANE

[odd quartz]

im hoping a good 1 of pinwheel on sunday

yep its amazing what this thing is capable of - only thing i will say is this is definitely designed (for now) for galaxies lol

[final plume]

Why do you say that ?

[odd quartz]

field rotation

the alt az mount

but

thats easily fixable (well, kinda easy lol)

[final plume]

With cuivs video you can fix it

[odd quartz]

with a alt az mount, the scope can only go up, down, left and right but no "rotation" so you get whats called field rotation which basically means your target rotates as your recording - a EQ mount is designed to rotate with the target while tracking it so no rotation

so with a alt az mount, if you record a nebula like say orions or rosette then you longer you record the more nebula your lose to field rotation

but galaxies....

are circular 😉 it can rotate all it wants as it dont matter as we only care about the galaxy, not the stars in the background lol

[final plume]

Hmm, innerestin

Still absolutely want one lol

To go from the photos I've taken to what he can do....

[odd quartz]

yes and no lol yes we can make it EQ but until ZWO do a update on the firmware we cant go "under the horizion" lol

i fully agree lol i got a full rig here as well but as i cant take it outside and power the whole rig i never got alot

i reckon 3-6mths and we'll have a full EQ mode on the seestar lol

[final plume]

How would that work?

[odd quartz]

which if they get it right they could increase their exposures to 60s, maybe even 120s if they get it tracking good enough

[final plume]

Like you would have to have a eq mount right ?

[odd quartz]

not always - EQ wedge

[final plume]

Hm

See it's stuff like this that make me want this even more

[odd quartz]

but there are good cheap EQ mounts out there

you and me both mate haha

the day i got this i was already planning upgrades haha

[final plume]

Someone told me the other day "better hurry cuz next they will come out with a seestar s100 and you will want that instead" lol

[odd quartz]

yeah no doubt lol if i can get hold of ZWO i could even design v2 for them haha

[final plume]

Before you do that tell them to give me a free one , purely for testing purposes cuz you know me so well !

[odd quartz]

and if they do it right, they could even "upgrade" the insides to make version 2/s100, but keep it within the size of the s50 and give us the chance to buy and upgrade the originals

oh your be 1 of my main testers hows that? lmao

[final plume]

One day, one day I'll get the s50, I believe I can do it, I'll just have to find the right day to convince my wife/financial boss

[odd quartz]

oooooooooooooo your bank manager, good luck 🤞 🤣

just tell her "its a long term investment" lmao

planning for the future and that haha

[final plume]

Lol, I try, but I must agree things like redoing our deck or redoing our master bathroom or this or that is more important than a telescope ... But hey

[odd quartz]

either that or be a man, put your foot down and say "look, im the man here, either i go expensive or cheap, the seestar is cheap, im getting it woman!!!" 🤣 🤣 🤣 the only issue with this approach is you might be sleeping on the couch for a few months lmao!!

[final plume]

Yeah, I'll stick with sleeping in my bed with her, I'd rather wait till I get a really good commission job or something

[odd quartz]

lol yeah luckily the seestar aint expensive compared to a "traditional rig"

[atomic flame]

Traditional rig better

[rugged shale]

Yes, we’re aware. Thank you.

[atomic flame]

Dslr tracker

Better than seestar

🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅

[tardy basin]

bro got the newt seestar 💀

[unique badge]

wtf

that's a newt

[rugged shale]

Those aren’t real diffraction patterns

[odd quartz]

really? none of us knew that!! 😱

[atomic flame]

[tardy basin]

traditional rig is better, seestar for it's price is unbeatable

[rugged shale]

It’s not even that. I can go out and image something in the time it takes me to polar align my EQ5

[tardy basin]

the best thing is how small it is

[rugged shale]

The number of times I’ve set up my rig in the time it takes for clouds to roll in

[tardy basin]

but i wont get it yet

[unique badge]

theoretically you can get a used dslr and tracker for the price

[iron barn]

im not sure how they are making a profit on them. It’s crazy how much there is for such a cheap price

[odd quartz]

same here! some nights id have 3hrs recording time with my main rig and by the time ive set up, leveled the mount, polar align, nina and guiding im down to if im lucky 1hr

the seestar - from opening the case, putting it together and calibrating, to recording..... 10-15mins lol

it takes me longer to set my TENT up 🤣 🤣 🤣

[jaunty drift]

wha?

@unique badge @tardy basin no clue what you mean by newt

[odd quartz]

your diffraction spikes on your picture

[barren owl]

Oh it’s that small the s50

[jaunty drift]

oh

3d printed diffraction spike mask i made

[odd quartz]

yeah thought you did lol

[jaunty drift]

yeah it looks really nice imo, not too well on brighter stars tho

[odd quartz]

you selling them? haha

[jaunty drift]

this is like 2 minutes

[jaunty drift]

been thinking about it

saw some people selling for like 20 bucks on etsy (it cost less than 50 cents to make)

[odd quartz]

if you do i'll buy your 1st haha depending on the price of course lol

[jaunty drift]

bet, ive also made some dew shields and a bahtinov mask

[odd quartz]

i got the bahtinov mask from astro essentials but definitely would love a diffraction mask lol - if you do make any fancy posting to the UK?

[jaunty drift]

dont know abt shipping yet, for now thats the only reason i havent started selling

shipping seems annoying to deal with

[odd quartz]

would be ultra light so the shipping shouldnt be too much, but i dont know how it works over there

[jaunty drift]

true

[odd quartz]

of course buyer pays postage lolol

[jaunty drift]

true true

[odd quartz]

10s exposure is the way to go with the seestar, usually I do 20s and lose about 40% of the frames but so far I'm losing maybe 2 out of 10 frames at 10s

[wispy vessel]

But you’re not getting as much light in?

[odd quartz]

But I'm still getting enough it seems lol

Last time I recorded for about 2hrs and only managed just over a hr of data - so far I've recorded for 1hr and got 48mins

So it's more light but get less data or lose a little light and get more data per hr 🤔

[rugged shale]

There’s some maths involved but in general the safest bet is to get more data per hr rather than try to achieve longer subs, especially if you have any form of light pollution.

[odd quartz]

50m 20s of 10s exposures

my 1st DECENT astro photo ive taken ever! lmao

[nocturne torrent]

Wow seestar can take pretty descent images pf galaxies.

[odd quartz]

alot of people underestimate this seestar lol this thing is better than most think

[odd quartz]

my 1st solar lol

[quiet pendant]

im thinking of getting one, as i have never done deep space photography ever

[quiet pendant]

what was bortle reading when taking this photo?

[odd quartz]

4.8

[quiet pendant]

Is there a time limit when recording with the S50? I get the impression 1hr is the limit with an AZ mount?

[barren owl]

What bortle is this star visible in?

[odd quartz]

it depends what you go for to be honest - if you record a nebula like rosette or orions nebula then yeah your have to deal with the field rotation - but if you record galaxies or smaller central nebula then rotation aint a issue 😉

[odd quartz]

seriously? its the sun 🤣 🤣

[barren owl]

[odd quartz]

unless your in cloud city your fine lmao

and if your lucky you can get a satellite going over the sun lol (careful, you blink and your miss it)

[quiet pendant]

this is very helpful, thanks!

[odd quartz]

any time 👍

[final plume]

Thats so cool!

[odd quartz]

thanks 🙂 i felt like a kid when i saw it hence i asked someone to put in the "weee" voiceover haha in 40 today but a satellite can still make me feel like a kid lmao

[final plume]

Lol, I just unmuted the video 🤣🤣🤣

[odd quartz]

hahahahaha

[final plume]

I'm 28 and that made me laugh 🤣

[odd quartz]

the "weee" makes it soo much better

told ya lmao

i even uploaded it to youtube 🤣

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/F0Kce5yID7g - had to be done lol

[rugged shale]

Comet tail’s showing. C/2023 A3

[odd quartz]

why you delete the pic? lol

i was just about to click on it hahaha

[rugged shale]

Haha. Discord compression destroyed it.

[odd quartz]

open in browser

[rugged shale]

That's better.

[odd quartz]

nicely done

[rugged shale]

The background is a bit blotchy still but I've spent enough time on it now.

[odd quartz]

backgrounds are hard for me as well

[rugged shale]

Really I need a couple more hours data so that I can get the tail without overstretching it but it's directly overhead and the Seestar doesn't like it. Too much field rotation.

[odd quartz]

yeah im at 86 degrees at the moment myself when it hits transit

seestar dont record above 85

unless its already recording 😉

was your mount dead level and you done auto focus just before recording? coz my data was same exposure and only 50mins

and also @rugged shale did you stop it every 30mins and auto focus and continue recording? i find every 30mins it needs re-adjusting on auto focus

after 30mins i found the focus point changes 5 or so

[rugged shale]

Huh. No, I've not tried that. I do focus with a baht mask at the start of every session.

I think there's some play in the focuser, it might move if it's blown by the wind.

[odd quartz]

i had a night with patchy clouds when i 1st got it but used the night for testing and that and i found that even with going for the same target, so no changing directions and that so it kept tracking all the time, i found that over 30mins it changes on the focus point by 5 or so in 1 direction

and when i thought about it - earth rotates dont it so wouldnt that mean the distance between us and the target would move ever soo slightly? lol

[rugged shale]

On CN someone was complaining about tilt in the images and they fixed it by racking the focuser all the way in and out.

[odd quartz]

ive not had tilt as of yet (or ive not noticed lol)

but i dont know if this is how auto focusers work as this is the 1st one ive had but i found that before transit the focus goes say down by 5 every 30mins, then after transit it goes up by 5 every 30mins

[rugged shale]

That’s after an hour. Very slightly off.

[odd quartz]

and its always the same direction by 5 or so depending if its before or after transit - honestly i think if we do 1 target over the night, just stop every 30mins, re focus, then restart recording and if you dont change direction it asks if you want to continue the recording anyway, i think with these seestars it will make the final pic soo much more clear

thats what i mean, maybe it changes slightly due to earths rotation (or angle of the target, i have no idea haha) and we need to re-focus every 30mins (only takes a minute) then record again

it may be very slight but aint that also very slight blur? (out of focus)

[rugged shale]

Maybe not the position of the earth exactly, but the amount of atmosphere you're looking through can change the focus (less atmosphere for a target above you than for one on the horizon). A change in temperature can also change the focus.

[odd quartz]

i honestly have no idea lol im just going on what i found with a night i was testing on, over the course of 4hrs after transit, i was start and stopping due to clouds and every time i hit auto focus the amount was going up by 5 every 30mins, i think the focus could be changing due to angle (if a expert on this knows please help lol) and the amount of atmosphere like you said, but the auto focus on these needs redoing every 30mins or so to keep the best point in the right place

i dont think its a problem with these seestars but i think its something we need to do to keep the focus right

[rugged shale]

I find that the number is different every time, so I just ignore it and either autofocus or use the baht mask. I assume it’s not intended to be accurate. Autofocus is good IMO, it’s never more than a couple of notches away from what the baht mask tells me.

[odd quartz]

i honestly dont know 🤣 i only started astrophotography about 7mths ago and im still a idiot compared to some hahaha im purely going from what ive found thats all - i believe the numbers are right, i may be wrong but i feel that we need to trust the numbers lol my whirlpool was me stopping twice to focus and with no bath mask or anything, i honestly trusted the numbers lol

i dead leveled the mount, done 1 horizion calibration, hit auto focus and every 20-30mins i stopped, re focused and carried on, whatever it said the focus was i honestly said "OK" haha i believed in the seestar lmao

i felt pervious nights that "i know better" on the focus and what i thought was fine tuned it myself and recorded but with the whirlpool i "gave the seestar a go" kinda thing and honestly.... i prefer the seestars lmao

[rugged shale]

Well, I wouldn’t be surprised if it did need refocusing from time to time. It’s pretty common, I just never thought to do it with the Seestar.

[odd quartz]

ive got your data still somewhere on my hdd so im gonna test something later lol you know your say borte 4 data? was that recorded in 1 go or over multiple stops/re focus?

[odd quartz]

honeslty i think im on to something here (either that or ive smoked too much again hahaha) but i think if you went out 1 night and went "ok seestar go on then" and NO baht mask or anything, just let the seestar have a go and re-record whirlpool and get about 2hrs data total again - but every 30mins just stop, re focus and re-record again and i honestly think at the end your be as surprised as i was over this little thing lol

[rugged shale]

One go

[odd quartz]

just 1 lol

honestly i think your do it again lol

ive had nothing but clouds here since so ive not tested again but i think we need to "trust the seestar" more honestly lol

[rugged shale]

I need to go out to the dark sky area near me. It’ll be like cheating.

[odd quartz]

well thats the thing...

we bought a smart telescope no?

maybe its smarter than we think? lol

either that or ive had too much again lmao

i mean i got a tiny satellite going clearly past the sun at 4x zoom with the filter provided lol thats smart lol

all i done on my end was dead level it and i just let it do its thing as i sat there enjoying the sun lol all i done was focus again every 30mins

for a tiny thing im quite shocked

ignore the "wee" in the video lol

thats me being me 🤣 (not my voice)

[wispy vessel]

I had my volume maxed lol and was not expecting that

[odd quartz]

😂 😂 sorry lol

[tardy basin]

https://tenor.com/view/stupid-dog-shiver-the-antagonists-aiya-dog-perrito-gif-22710731

[odd quartz]

its not the size, its how you use it🤣

[tardy basin]

yep

[unique badge]

not quite

[final plume]

Do not ignore the"wee" 🤣

[odd quartz]

once you have heard it you cant ignore it haha

[wispy vessel]

I got 30 min of integration time without the light pollution filter on

[tardy basin]

get more data

[odd quartz]

how much integration time?

[rugged shale]

Try with the light pollution filter on too

[wispy vessel]

@tardy basin how much time do you recommend?
@odd quartz I had 30 minutes of integration time.
@rugged shale will make sure to do that next time I attempt to capture it

[tardy basin]

i'd say 2 hours

the little thing is powerfull

[wispy vessel]

Should I try and capture it over separate nights?

[tardy basin]

ye

[wispy vessel]

To reduce rotation

[tardy basin]

but you can do it in one night if this isn't the full image

[odd quartz]

with the veil your going to definitely need more integration time like M22 said especially with the lp filter because its basically a duo-band filter so its going to be even more faint

[rugged shale]

Hopefully not too much fainter, it’s mostly ionised gas so the lp filter should let most of the light through while blocking skyglow.

[wispy vessel]

Yeah the framing on the S50 was pretty tight so I was only able to fully capture it when it was upright so I may have to use multiple nights

[wispy vessel]

So how does the lp filter make the image better? It just reduces the lp to help visibility of the nebula?

[rugged shale]

It’s a 20nm dual-narrowband filter: Ha and Oiii. Ha and Oiii are frequencies of light emitted by many emission nebula. The idea of a narrowband filter is that it only lets those frequencies through, so you get the light you want but less of the frequencies you don’t (light pollution)

So you should use it for emission nebulae like the veil, but not for galaxies or reflection nebulae like the Pleiades, because they have frequencies you want to capture.

For emission nebulae, you’re not actually going to gain any more useful light by turning the filter off, you’re just going to capture more light that you don’t want, and that light is going to make it harder to see the target.

[wispy vessel]

So should I turn it on for all nebulas except for reflection or is there any others I should worry about?

[rugged shale]

If you look at the front page of the Seestar app it actually recommends whether to use the lp filter or not.

But in general, emmission nebulae and ionised gas, yes. Otherwise no.

Globular clusters maybe, depending on how much you value the true star colour. They will have more contrast with the filter on.

[wispy vessel]

Oh okay I’ll have to check that next time I use it as I just saw now that it recommended the filter but I didn’t see that as I went to it while on the sky atlas

And thank you for the info

[rugged shale]

It’s a little green dot on the image, it’s easy to miss

[wispy vessel]

Ah okay see that now thank you and also does anyone know why my Seestar is making a “zap” noise upon start up and also I’m not able to connect to it for some reason

Then when leaving it sit on it’s making a hum/staticy noise which I’m assuming is relatively normal

[surreal nova]

that does not sound normal LOL

[wispy vessel]

I really hope this is a fixable issue if not then I hope I can get it replaced under warranty or something

[surreal nova]

is it causing any problems?

[wispy vessel]

I wasn’t able to connect to it tonight and a week or two ago it had another connection issue but I was able to sort it out when I was at home. The zapping noise is new and the hum is louder than usual

[surreal nova]

i would contact support

[wispy vessel]

I submitted a bug report and also posted on the official ZWO Facebook page but should I also email them? Also I looked over their warranty and it said that it cannot be covered if it wasn’t bought directly from their store which I didn’t know even existed so I bought from telescopes Canada

[rugged shale]

Ask Telescopes Canada.

[wispy vessel]

I will test it again today to see if I’m still having an issue but then as you said I’ll likely contact TC to see what I can do

[wispy vessel]

So I tested the Seestar this morning and so far it’s had no issues as well as it updated a new firmware so maybe that was the issue.
The zap noise is still there but the humming noise is quieter

[rugged shale]

https://youtu.be/lwJf8ncNt-E?feature=shared

[wispy vessel]

Interesting, only issue with that is if I were to open it up to try and address the issue:
A: that removes any chance at getting the warranty
B: I will likely damage it accidentally

[rugged shale]

Oh no,I just thought it was interesting:

Yours doesn’t actually sound too bad, so if it works now and tracks well I wouldn’t worry about it.

[odd quartz]

Going for sunflower galaxy at the moment, got 20mins of 10s exposures so far and it's moonless and clear so going for as long as I can, hopefully get at least 60mins worth

[odd quartz]

My little setup 😆

Used my zeq25 mount.... soooooo much better

[rugged shale]

I need a wind break like that

[odd quartz]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/alloutdoor-Poles-Panels-Windbreak-Camping/dp/B09BFL942Y?pd_rd_w=pHUAm&content-id=amzn1.sym.c8a5b9ab-9876-4c56-aa13-e746c73e193d&pf_rd_p=c8a5b9ab-9876-4c56-aa13-e746c73e193d&pf_rd_r=XEMMCGEJQJBBRZEVX003&pd_rd_wg=nCmbG&pd_rd_r=b81f5762-7d07-4715-9758-988622f1f4b7&pd_rd_i=B09BFL942Y&psc=1&ref_=pd_bap_d_grid_rp_0_1_ec_pd_gwd_bag_pd_hp_d_atf_rp_2_i - thats the 1 i bought, from amazon as well @rugged shale

[odd quartz]

tonights work 🙂

[wispy vessel]

How much integration time?

[odd quartz]

35m10s

[wispy vessel]

Right on I’ll have to try that whenever I get clear skies

[odd quartz]

i got another clear tonight (be my last before astro dark goes) so im going to try pinwheel

[wispy vessel]

Cool little image I got with the Seestar autofocusing on the branches rather than the sun

[wispy vessel]

Good luck with that, I’m trying to get m104 and eagle nebula whenever I can or possibly more veil nebula data

[odd quartz]

yeah where i am its basically just galaxies for now

all above 75 degrees lol

[barren owl]

This is great, btw why isn’t the target in the center?

[odd quartz]

Pi autocrop at its best lol

todays sun

[barren owl]

Would love to see more integration on that target, what’s it called?

[odd quartz]

sunflower galaxy

M63

[jaunty drift]

should i 3d print a mount that goes over the seestar that can hold my camera so i have my camera tracking and the telescope at the same time

[odd quartz]

The seestar tracks rather well

[mortal ermine]

Anyone getting errors when the app is trying to load weather. Keeps saying network is abnormal?

[mortal ermine]

Nevermind, firmware updated and now it's ok.

[mortal ermine]

@odd quartz I have an Artist heavy duty carbon fiber tripod and one of those 3 way adjustable levelers. I can set the tripod up,adjust the level before putting the seestar on it and the level adjust usually says it's .04 or less.

Artist. 😜

Autocorrect 🤬. "Artise"

@odd quartz I don't usually set it up when windy (over 5 to 10 mph).
But, seestar is as steady as it's mount. I'm in central Arizona and this time of year, we get wind instead of rain.

[odd quartz]

2h3m40s of 10s exposures 😍

[wispy vessel]

Was only able to get a bit of time on this before a tree and clouds but hoping to get back out tonight

[jaunty drift]

what bortle zone because thaats kinda impressive for 4 minutes

[tardy basin]

Holy sh...

[wispy vessel]

I believe bortle 4 but I’d have to recheck

[barren owl]

anyone tried pillars of creation?

[rugged shale]

I’ve seen some photos but it’s not in view for me right now

[wispy vessel]

Hoping to get it Monday night

[barren owl]

how long you planning on shooting it for?

[wispy vessel]

If weather holds as long as possible so around 2 hours

Then I’ll try my skills in siril or share my data if people want to try it

[odd quartz]

yeah i reckon 2hrs minimum, and if you share it i'll give it a go with editing

[wispy vessel]

Sounds good and hopefully I can collect some more data over the summer but clouds are against me right now

[odd quartz]

honestly, i still look at it and im still 😱 about it even know i know i got it lol

[odd quartz]

yeah same here thats why i went out all night last night, more a "do or die" lol im down to 3hrs astro dark so very soon i wont be doing much apart from sun's and moon's for about 3mths

but this time im READY for orions nebula and horsehead

im even tempted to get a eq wedge

[wispy vessel]

Fair enough but if you were to try and process it in siril would you have to rotate all of the frames manually?

[odd quartz]

no it should align the stars up no issues as far as im aware, i use pixlnsight

[wispy vessel]

Oh okay is pixinsight free?

[odd quartz]

only for 45days if you get the trial version - its 300 euros to buy

not including the addons like blur, noise and starX

[wind condor]

Not 250?

[odd quartz]

When I got it it was 300 euros unless they have lowered the price since I got it

[rugged shale]

There’s a Siril script for stacking Seestar images https://siril.org/tutorials/seestar/

[wispy vessel]

just used that tutorial and got a new processed image for NGC6992. It looks good but the tutorial didnt really go over reducing the nose in the image and im not too familair with siril so theres still a bit of noise but overall pretty solid.

I do like the new processed image over my past attempt, so thank you for showing me this I'll make sure to follow this for new images.

[rugged shale]

There are a lot of things you can do to reduce noise. The most obvious one is take more images. Other than that, keep following tutorials.

Graxpert is free and does AI noise reduction now. Its background gradient reduction is no better than Siril’s IMO but the noise reduction is good. Or alternatively, NoiseXterminator works with Photoshop and Affinity Photo.

[jaunty drift]

cant yu just do it the normal way?

i stack them just by putting them in the conversion, registering them then stacking

[wispy vessel]

So here’s my attempt through siril using different methods

[surreal nova]

anyone have an eq modified seestar? im curious what images with long integration times look like with it

[rugged shale]

Yeah.

If you use the dev builds of Siril they have CFA drizzle which makes a huge difference to Seestar data

[jaunty drift]

how does one get a dev build

[jaunty drift]

would look the same as a normal image but without field rotation

[quiet pendant]

what was the bortle reading

[tardy basin]

Sir can you send data?

[rugged shale]

20 mins in B4 + about 2 hours in B7

[rugged shale]

Go here and get the latest win64 build for the "master" branch https://gitlab.com/free-astro/siril/-/artifacts

The docs for drizzle are here https://siril.readthedocs.io/en/latest/preprocessing/drizzle.html

[jaunty drift]

tyty

[rugged shale]

I recommend 2x drizzle with a fraction of 0.9 using a gaussian drop. If you want to compare my data with some different drizzle settings I have an archive here #1220109001682059275 message

[jaunty drift]

how much of a difference does it make?

[rugged shale]

Huge, honestly. It smooths out the background noise immensely, which makes it much easier to stretch. Combine that with some AI noise removal and you can get a lot out of it. It works best with lots of dithered frames, and with the Seestar you're working with thousands. It doesn't really add any detail but fiddling with the settings can gain you a little contrast.

[jaunty drift]

ooo sounds nice

[wispy vessel]

Sure can, I’ll try and upload it a little later today

[trail token]

Overall impressions of the Seestar? I sold up last year on my main astro gear but I'd potentially like something plonk down and play. Seestar is hitting a lot of my requirements but hands on impressions are always appreciated.

[odd quartz]

the seestar itself, of course you have the field rotation to deal with but overall picture quality? you definitely need at least 2hrs data to get the detail to start coming out. The tripod it comes with does need a heavier upgrade, with the original the seestar becomes very top heavy and where ZWO cant work out a "balance point" the seestar does lean to 1 side more (hence the wind beats the crap out of it with the original tripod) so what ive done is get the tripod from my zeq25 and use that to make it much more stable. It does come with a 6hr battery (more 5.5hr) so i would recommend taking a power tank because the 6hr battery is only if you have the dew heater off lol with dew heater on its more 2-3hrs but i have a skywatcher 7Ah power tank and that does me all night easily (think it takes me to about 15hrs) - if your honestly looking for a "grab n go" then i would rate this high, it has good auto focus, very accurate goto, built in duo-band filter and uv/ir cut, including the seestar, my whole setup (including my new tripod) fits in a backpack and the scope itself sets up very quick - from putting it together to recording... 10-15mins

if you decide to put a eq wedge on it just bear in mind, until ZWO do a update, if you use the horizon calibration trick to make it EQ, whatever your angle is for the pole star WILL become your new horizon so anything under your pole angle cant be recorded until ZWO turn that shit off lol

Yes it does come with a very tiny sensor (but does have a high QE), yes you cant exactly upgrade it so what you have is what your have lol but i personally think the seestar, especially for its price, is a Damm Good Bargain!! 😂 i should be their spokeperson haha

but overall the seestar is just a v1 RedCat 51 with a planetary camera shoved up its butt lol so its optics is actually quite good, even with the planetary in it the quality is still quite high

[odd quartz]

if you stack in Pixlnsight, i would advise changing your Grid Size as well when adjusting your drizzle settings as the default 16 is not enough, my m101 was done with grid size 40

[latent kestrel]

this was a bit of a rough target.. but i did cats eye nebula one night ago.

here was the starless image

and here it is with stars

this was 446 30 second exposures in a bortle 2.

[trail token]

@odd quartz Thanks for the exhaustive review! It seems to be pretty much an ideal device for my needs. I sold off all my other gear as I'm a bit of a broken man nowadays. I can't be lumping around gear and stooping down etc. So I just want something quick n easy to mess around with.

I can understand why the smart scope market is hitting the alt az but if there was an option to do all this with an eq mount I'd be happier.

[latent kestrel]

minus some it threw out in the stacking 🙂

[trail token]

I'll have a little think about it but I may hold off for the predicable "next gen" and considering how fast things are moving I doubt I'll be waiting long.

Something a little more wide field would be nice too.

Have Zwo mentioned if mosaic is possible/coming?

[odd quartz]

i will be honest, waiting for the next gen might be a very good idea, i know ZWO have hinted at EQ mode and i know alot of users are pushing for a Pro Mode as well as 30s exposures and no access to gain is not the way to go lol if i could get hold of ZWO i could happily tell them whats needed and make the V2 extremely desirable even to pros but i dont know their email address or have a ZWO in my discord friend list haha i mean they could easily fit a imx533 in this and not worry about heat too much as they have plenty of room for a crude air con system. And with mosaic and that, if they get EQ mode done properly then mosaic will be easy

[trail token]

It almost seems like a loss leading device to pull people in for what is to come next.

[odd quartz]

honestly i got the next gen already worked out in my head for them, even a backpack design, a EQ mount actually designed for it and even a powertank to go with it i just dont know how to get hold of the fkers haha

it is for sure, its like "planting the seed" in us haha

[trail token]

I suspect even if you went and knocked on their door they wouldn't listen.

[odd quartz]

well thats the thing, they have been listening to people as they put in the horizon calibration instead of relying on just the level sensor so ZWO are listening with at least 1 ear open lol

[trail token]

If I see one come up 2nd hand I may pick one up for a play at least. I'm intrigued enough at this point but it still has compromises that if they can overcome them I'd be super happy with it.

I'm guessing though that 99% of their intended customers wouldn't give a rats ass about EQ mode.

[odd quartz]

it is definitely designed for the "beginner" i will admit that, but, in the hands of someone that has astrophotograghy experience, oh this aint for just beginners lol

its designed for beginners but actually more advanced than we think lol

for 2hrs? i think this thing is amazing

[trail token]

Oh for sure. Give Nadal a tennis racquet with broken strings and bent handle and he's still going to whoop your ass on a tennis court.

A decent ap'r can make anything work really.

[trail token]

Can't argue with that result.

[odd quartz]

exactly, this is basically a v1 redcat 51 - thats good optics

if they put a 533 sensor in this - ooooooo lol

[trail token]

It's all been made to a price though. That price is attractive, go much higher and you start to ask questions and look at the alternatives.

Which is why I feel it's a bit of a loss leader for them.

[odd quartz]

oh definitely, for the price, i cant find anything else that comes close to what this thing offers

auto focus, duo band and uv/ir cut filters, built in dew heater, very good goto system, its just little things that lets it down a little like the off balance and being top heavy with its tripod but for the price i cant complain lol

[trail token]

Easy fixes if you have other gear I guess.

[odd quartz]

i got a bigger rig (of a real rig for the smart scope haters haha) and i have to polar align, set up laptop with nina and phd2, get all of it chatting etc etc - with this i literally plonk it down, level it and tell it where to go and off it goes lol - only thing i do is stop it every 20mins to re auto focus as its a manual auto focus, not a continuous 1

i just upgraded the tripod, problem solved tbh lol

[trail token]

I'm capable of operating a normal rig and have done but physically I'm just knackered and can't do it. I threw my back out last time trying to pa my tracker and that was whilst using an ipolar!

[odd quartz]

yeah im not exactly young anymore so i literally "feel your pain" lmao

[trail token]

So I'm all for just plonking something down and getting back to drinking tea

In an ideal world I'd have an observatory and a pier but that's just not going to happen with my garden.

[odd quartz]

then get 1 of these lol (or more wait for gen2) i have a tent i take with me so as its calibrating i put up my tent and pour out a cup of tea (i got a flask haha) it calibrates quicker than i can put up a simple 2 pole tent lol

no wires apart from the wire from my powertank

[trail token]

Always a bonus.

[odd quartz]

thats me every night im recording haha

[trail token]

You go out and about to shoot?

[odd quartz]

i have to i live in a flat so no garden lol

[trail token]

Ahhh

[odd quartz]

but my spot is only 10mins up the road

[trail token]

Sheltered from the public?

[odd quartz]

but once its connected to my tablet it knows its exact position so no need to re-calibrate

oh no im in public area so i have some come over and look at what i do, last time i had 2 couples come over and learn about what i do lol

[trail token]

Oh jeez, I don't think I could handle that!

[odd quartz]

but its dark enough that if im quiet the drunks dont spot me haha

[trail token]

Power to you.

[odd quartz]

with what i take with me - im safe 😉 lmao

[barren owl]

🗡️

[barren owl]

bros packing

[odd quartz]

spot on lol

i even have the police come up and look at what i do lol had 1 come up and had their break with me looking at the stars haha

[trail token]

I hate people so they can jog on! Luckily I've got a few spots available all on private land.

[odd quartz]

ahh perfect then

mine is dark enough that if i stay silent the 1s i dont want coming over keep walking lol borte 4.6

[trail token]

I have to travel a bit to get to a B4. Stuck in B6 but it might as well be B9 as I'm quite close to a football club and they never seem to turn off the pissing floodlights.

[odd quartz]

yeah i know that feeling lol where i live i got a beautiful LED streetlamp shining DIRECTLY into my bloody window and the local council wont put a damm shield round it so i have to travel but luckily i go to the end of my road, turn right and walk abit and im at my spot lol

i live right on the coast so dead south for me is looking at france

[trail token]

Oh nice. I was down on the south coast last year. Took a small rig with me and it clouded out every single night.

[odd quartz]

yeah costal weather, gotta love it haha

[trail token]

Pevensey, not even sure what bortle that is down there.

[odd quartz]

better than mine apparently

[trail token]

Hmm, might have been nice to be under B4 skies.... I'll be down there again in a few months and should I decide to get a Seestar that would work out great.

[odd quartz]

even this seestar id think you would love down there lol

hopefully they do v2 before the end of the summer as i am ready this time for orions and that, started astro last October so didnt have this, or even know what to do so this will be fun

least i got these to improve on for the next few mths now lmao

[trail token]

Rho Ophiuchi viewable just about with a clearly southerly sky on the coast?

I have no southern skies at my location. It's a pain in the arse.

[odd quartz]

barely - 14 degrees in the sky as of tonight

[trail token]

I'd have a go if I had the access.

[odd quartz]

there are alot of targets this thing can go for but due to field rotation (until i eq wedge it) i only got for ring neb or galaxies for now

[rugged shale]

I’m not sure how quickly they’ll bring out a v2. I know people want one with more zoom and more resolution but it’s a really well-balanced device. Changing anything means compromises in one direction or other.

[trail token]

I want wider!

[odd quartz]

not really, they could upgrade this quite quickly if they pulled their heads out of their butts haha

[rugged shale]

Wider would be the easiest thing to do, yeah

[odd quartz]

firmware updates for eq mode and pro mode - they have the room easily for a 533 sensor and a cooling system - properly balance it instead of 1 sided a little

done

[rugged shale]

IDK. If they made the sensor bigger the field rotation would limit it. If they made the aperture or focal length bigger it would become quite large and heavy

[trail token]

They will be testing the market for a few years I expect but they could put out a device a year with enough improvements and people will buy it if the price is right.

[rugged shale]

They can’t add smaller pixels because it’s right at the edge of its resolving limit

[odd quartz]

their sensor vs 533 fov

the scope is big enough for a 533 at least

someone done a test on having a 533 in it and they said it would fit no problem

[rugged shale]

In alt-az mode there would be significant star trailing at the edges that would make it useless.

[trail token]

Pebcak?

[odd quartz]

oh of course but if they put a 533 in it they would of had eq by then guaranteed

[trail token]

Not enough stars, in B1. I'm finding that hard to believe.

[odd quartz]

if they are in focus, i agree with wayne, i cant see this thing struggling anywhere in a borte 1 lol

either dirty optics or not in focus

im in a 4.6 and this does a 3 point calibration for its horizon calibration and its never let me down

never had a "not enough stars" ever

stars trails yes - not enough stars, never

[odd quartz]

https://tenor.com/view/bs-memes-funny-kid-gif-10302293152269396732

🤣

borte 4.6 - 10s exposures - and they cant see stars enough for a borte 1? haha i should ask them "have you tried turning it on?" lmao

thats just a SPCC, deepsnr 95% and a hitso stretch just to drag it out abit

single frame unedited

[wispy vessel]

https://wetransfer.com/downloads/4ae8e6f397e0087f5c7bd817f3ad16a820240506180134/171f020a9fadede7718d557c54b90fc020240506180154/e7455b?trk=TRN_TDL_01&utm_campaign=TRN_TDL_01&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sendgrid

Heres the link to my subs, let me know if you can download them or not. If you do process it can you show me how it turns out? Thanks!

[odd quartz]

V2 vs original edit

[jaunty drift]

i cant find a master branch thing

[wispy vessel]

M104 is currently underway, then will try and capture M16 later tonight so hopefully results will be coming soon

[jaunty drift]

how much total time?

[odd quartz]

2h3m40s

at 10s exposures

[jaunty drift]

really nice

are you using the pre-stacked or restacking them?

[odd quartz]

thank you, i do prefer my 2nd edit though (just above)

restacking in pixlnsight

i just use the seestar to get me the single frames basically

[jaunty drift]

looks rlly good cant even tell its a seestar img looks like a normal telescope img

[odd quartz]

yeah a few others have said the same even myself haha it still blows my mind how good it can be as this is i think my 3rd time taking it out properly

imagine 4hrs

[jaunty drift]

imagine like 50 hours

[odd quartz]

if i can knock it down to more getting only 1hr per night instead of there 2hrs (less rotation to deal with) i can save more of the final pic

multi nights - easy

[jaunty drift]

you couuld convert it to EQ with a wedge

[odd quartz]

its mother nature being a b**ch haha

i know but im already 51 degrees so at the moment anything under that i cant record

due to "under the horizon"

[jaunty drift]

oohhh

man they should allow ways to bypass that

[odd quartz]

i am about 99% sure they will its just taking time thats all

same as eq mode (and maybe pro mode) - just give it time

[jaunty drift]

yeah thats what my uncle said when i first got the telescope

he said they should add a pro mode where you can do anything

[odd quartz]

alot are and from what ive read so are zwo themselves so be patient lol

its currently at 60 gain, nothing wrong from going 30 to 150

[jaunty drift]

the entire disk-slot on my pc just dissapeared tf

[odd quartz]

exposures, if they get eq done right we wouldnt mind up to say 120s, dont need no more than that

turned off? (the seestar)

[jaunty drift]

i mean like the slot where you can put in discs

[jaunty drift]

would eq be able to do 120?

[odd quartz]

if done right and the mount is stable ----- why not? lol

[jaunty drift]

also just found out it snapped off when i took my laptop off of my ps4

good point

[odd quartz]

well that aint good

[jaunty drift]

120 sec images would be great

would probably uphold to a expensive build with some modifications

[odd quartz]

im not expecting no 5min or 10min subs, this is STILL a budget smart scope afterall, not professional haha

it has soo much potential (i keep telling everyone that, i should be hired by zwo i swear haha)

[jaunty drift]

kinda sucks the hate the users are getting espec in the r/ap server

[odd quartz]

im only this 1 lol ive heard about the others and no thanks haha

here is quietier ive heard lol

[jaunty drift]

yeah r/ap is alot more toxic

[odd quartz]

but honestly, put me in a room with the haters and watch me go haha

im brittish i have hard skin haha

and im taurus so apparently im very stubborn - yeah lmao

[jaunty drift]

yeh imo they're projecting/jealous because they want everyone else to go thru the work they had to do for theyre setups 😭

[odd quartz]

erm hello its a smart scope no? the whole point of the damm thing is ITS SMART lmao (this is what i tell them) why the fk are we still pretending WE are smarter than robots? lets admit it we are thick as fk compared to a computer espically 1 as smart as this little thing lol

so why still trust in us thinking we know better and just let the little thing show you what it can do lol i swear down all i done for my pinwheel was put it together, level it, calibrated it all, said go to pinwheel, and off it went haha

every 30mins just stop, re auto focus it, go again

whatever number it says it is, just trust it i swear

[jaunty drift]

fr its just easier and honestly somewhat better

i want a smart scope that still behaves like a traditional scope tho tbh

[odd quartz]

im doing nothing special, all ive done personally is get a heavier tripod just to make the center of gravity alot lower

[jaunty drift]

pretty much just a seestar with an eyepiece (still w/ camer)

[odd quartz]

dont get me wrong its no put it down and leave for X amount of hrs, your still check it and watch over it its no high end thing

your have to do auto focus every 30mins at least for example

check its still level

it does tilt to 1 side unless you shove a small weight on the side

i used 2p coins and sticky tape haha

[wispy vessel]

Finished working on M104 and have a final image but will definetly need someone to try processing it as its not as great as I think it could be. Moved onto M16 now currently with around 20 minutes of integration time atm, hoping to get at least an hour. Also capturing my first wide field milky way images, if anyone knows of a video that shows how to process that kind of data please lmk!

[wispy vessel]

M16 capturing done

[rugged shale]

Sometimes you have to go a few pages back but you’re looking for one like this

[rugged shale]

I don’t find it loses its level but I find the tripod legs hard to adjust and they can slip if you don’t have them at their shortest. I use the levelling adapter that Cuiv and everyone else recommends but that’s only good for up to 5 degrees or so.

It’s heavy enough for the legs to sink in soft earth too

[jaunty drift]

ohhh alr

guh

[wispy vessel]

This is what I was able to capture last night before post processing but if someone is willing to try processing them for me that would be awesome because I’m not too great with Siril

[deep island]

I can give it a shot

You could post this in #share_your_data too

[wispy vessel]

I don’t have access to that channel and also how would you like me to share the files?

[deep island]

Raw would be best. Or straight from the seestar

[wispy vessel]

Oh I meant if you had a preference on how I shared the files (ie: google drive or WeTransfer or a zip folder)

[deep island]

google drive

[wispy vessel]

Alright I’ll get that started whenever I get home

[wispy vessel]

https://discord.com/channels/794642864218439681/1237585874804539492
Just uploaded my M104 data in share-your-data

working on transferring M16 data now

also just let me know if you can access it

https://discord.com/channels/794642864218439681/1237590227107713044

[trail token]

Peer pressure.

[odd quartz]

https://tenor.com/view/go-do-it-yes-no-go-for-it-gif-17183104

[trail token]

It's done

[odd quartz]

nice lol

[trail token]

Local shop has free shipping and a tenner off, so I thought sod it!

[pseudo jetty]

Couldnt access the raws you sent so i edited the png

[wispy vessel]

Do you know how I can let you have access? I clicked the option to allow people to have access if they had the link

[pseudo jetty]

Its cause im on my phone, so it took too long to load all the lights in the drive

I think you can send just the stacked image as a link

Like this
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FRLRcOMSLkbtA9zjwLym8KX3r_w4FxNg/view?usp=drivesdk

[wispy vessel]

oh okay, I was just wondering if someone could attempt stacking them as I'm not too great with Siril also thats a single sub of M16 as I accidentally uploaded the wrong file but this is my final image of M16

[pseudo jetty]

Is this stacked or single sub? I couldnt really understand the text

[wispy vessel]

All good and the picture I just sent in here is the final stacked image, the one that was posted in the share your data was a single sub

[pseudo jetty]

Og then the edited one i sent is the right one

O took it from this channel

[odd quartz]

Any money off makes it tempting 😅

[trail token]

Free shipping didn't hurt either.

[surreal nova]

the background is a little weird though

[wispy vessel]

Oh interesting could it be due to dew or just the Seestar itself?

[surreal nova]

it looks pretty uneven to me but that could likely just be nebula

[wispy vessel]

Maybe, the nebula does look a little slanted compared to the pillars but also have you seen my M104 data

[surreal nova]

no

[rugged shale]

Don’t see anything wrong with that at all. Looks like the gas and dust you see in any photo of the region.

[nocturne parrot]

Do it !

[trail token]

It's done already.

[trail token]

Shall have it tomorrow. Probably just in time for a week's worth of it pissing down.

[odd quartz]

lol nah you might be ok tomorrow night or saturday night depending where you are

[odd quartz]

seestar strikes again lol 2h39m10s

[quiet pendant]

This is the best photo by a SeeStar S50 that I've seen!

[trail token]

Very nice

[trail token]

Club joined

[barren owl]

Nice! show the haters what this lil puppy can do

[trail token]

Once the clouds sod off maybe. Typically it's hazy today so other than setting it up I think I'm done for the day.

[odd quartz]

Now THAT is a perfect picture right there lol

https://tenor.com/view/welcome-gif-23701526

[odd quartz]

wednesday might be good for you but astro dark is fading fast lol

[trail token]

Pesky high cloud for days. I'll check the weather the old fashioned way but if it stays shit then I'll just mess about the scenery mode. Looks capable.

[odd quartz]

yeah i got the high clouds down here as well, its killing me lol

beautiful during the day then the second the sun goes down the high clouds appear, and its HEAVY dew down here, got soaked last night

[trail token]

Humidity has been pretty high for ages now. I keep an eye on it as I run a dehumidifier in my house. We've had a few days getting into the low 40's but months of 70-80

I might print out a bahtinov mask though I'm sure the autofocus is good enough.

[odd quartz]

in all my images i have NEVER used the baht mask (i do have 1) honestly i think the auto focus is quite accurate

[lucid dirge]

Would you be able to take it to hiking trail with all the stuff that it needs? Seestar that is or would dwarf be better for such trips?

[rugged shale]

Sun was quite low and hazy

[trail token]

You could but the Dwarf would be a much better option I think. I'd happily drag a Seestar camping but I don't think I'd want to hike up a mountain trail with it.

[rugged shale]

It’s quite possible to put it in a backpack. It’s just a question of what else you want to fit in the backpack.

[lucid dirge]

Yeah, I wish they had made it wider fov right now fov wise I like dwarf a lot more as well for what I would be using it for, rather do what seestar does with the backyard setup

Super easy to use well automated wide field device to take to B1 bush trips would be the bomb although dwarflabs is making new product as well

might wait to see what that is going to be

Seestar is I think more like a gateway drug for first device to want to get first start with astro imaging, while avoiding the supermarket scope pitfalls, and dwarf tiny light backpack companion

[trail token]

I'm sure I'll live with it but I completely agree about the fov. Coming off the back of using 135mm lens and doing really wide field stuff the Seestar is going to be... different.

[lucid dirge]

If it is possible to put it on EQ wedge somehow, it might be killer for doing mosaics though

[trail token]

People have done it and apparently mosaic mode is "coming" but I checked on Zwo forum posts and they've been saying that for a while now. People seem frustrated that it's not there.

I for one would like to see it happen.

[lucid dirge]

mosaic i would imagine is really hard with field rotation so it might need them to start supporting eq mode somehow more openly

[trail token]

Pretty sure the Vespera II has a mosaic mode out of the box.

[lucid dirge]

I think celestron is releasing smart telescope on that level or did they already

speaking of Vespera

[trail token]

There is a bonkers money celestron smart scope but I don't know of anything more lower end.

https://www.cliftoncameras.co.uk/celestron-origin-intelligent-home-observatory?gad_source=1

£4000 is a fair chunk of cheese.

[surreal nova]

gah damn

[lucid dirge]

yeah but it is smart telescope with basically RASA scope inside

crazy fast and wide

obviously not a trekking item either though

[trail token]

I'm sure there's good marketing reasons why it's alt az all the way with smart scopes but I'd like a EQ option.

[lucid dirge]

I think it is about the whole ethos, currently marketed ones are for people to be able to enjoy AP without really understanding how any of it works so I think it is so that there is no need for PA

I think once someone makes one with more experienced astro photographers in mind then it will be possible but

Current ones just are not for that demographic

But in that Origin scopes defense

I do not think that you can get any same FL F/2.2 lens for that money so in that way it is a bargain

[trail token]

If I had am5 or am3 money I'd just go down that route probably. All the benefits of lightweight and portable and the ease of pa.

[lucid dirge]

but that origin, it really seems to be for bit more advanced use as well

you can use your own filters, it has drwer for it

you can get all the raw data it produces and process as you like

and so on

Cause at that focal ratio you need some really expensive filters

[trail token]

For that sort of money though unless you really wanted that form factor your money could arguably be spent better elsewhere. (Depending on your goals)

Might be worth having a quick go tonight if it carries on like this.

[odd quartz]

tried to join that seestar group on facebook - after 24hrs my application is STILL pending 🤣

[barren owl]

Seems like there a serious gang

[trail token]

I had a look at the official group and left almost straight away. People treating it like Insta posting pictures not using the device and not on subject.

[rugged shale]

You need Smart Telescope Underworld

[odd quartz]

i just want to be let in haha im even making a s50/smart scope discord server but im crap at making them so its taking a while lol

[lucid dirge]

I am going to hold on grabbing Dwarf II for sure, apparently 30:th this month Dwarf III should be launched and it is apparently going to be same form factor

[surreal nova]

guess who just ordered a seestar

[barren owl]

Is it gonna be better than the Seestar? 👀

[lucid dirge]

It depends on what you need, seestar is better if you want detail but heavier device, dwarf is better if you want fov and portability.

I think they have a bit different niches as product.

[barren owl]

Is 2-3kg really that heavy lol

[odd quartz]

got bored haha

[wispy vessel]

How do you bring out the mineral colour on the moon?

[odd quartz]

ton of saturation on certain colours

or thats all i did lol

[wispy vessel]

Quick western veil nebula I also did the ring nebula but it didn’t save the processed image so I’ll have to work on that tomorrow

[trail token]

Not even used mine yet. High cloud for days. Need some rain to come in and clear out all the muck.

[quiet pendant]

noticed after a rainy day the night seemed clearer than normal

[lucid dirge]

That is how it often is, also on partaalla cloudy nights, sometimes there is excellent seeing in spots between cloudy

Moisture in air evens temperature and takes dust away I suppose

[trail token]

Yup, that's my experience. Though I guess you could argue that the rain causes ground "pollution" as you get a lot of pollen and muck thrown back up in heavier rain.

Looked at the weather and the rest of the week is a total wipe out. British summer has arrived with a week full of rain!

[lucid dirge]

Some of my best jupiter views have been from clear spots between clouds, here at northern finland it is solar and daytime planetary only till fall :(

[trail token]

Yea, that must be somewhat limiting.

[trail token]

I'll let you know in a week because I have a feeling it's not going to clear up for me! Typical weather reaction whenever you get some new equipment.

[signal moon]

AR3664 from Friday ^^

[lucid dirge]

Bunch of Earths would fit on that one x.x

[trail token]

Was bored so printed some probably unnecessary parts.

[surreal nova]

do you guys use 10s or 20s exposures?

I noticed that 20s exposures might be a little sharper and not eggs

[odd quartz]

i personally only do 10s subs as the reject rate is higher when shooting 20s or 30s until i get a eq wedge then i'll try 20 and 30s again

[trail token]

I've not yet sold my WO wedge, so if they do push a "pro mode" eq mode I'll give it a go I guess.

[barren owl]

Is zwo taking in feedback from the ppl or are they just messing about?

[signal moon]

What do you mean?

[barren owl]

like do they usually take feedback from ppl and implement it for future updates n stuff?

[trail token]

I'm sure they do but most companies have a roadmap and they will add to it but not everything is going to make the cut.

[quiet pendant]

What are we observing?

[haughty pond]

damn what is your bortle??? this is insane for just 16mins

[sage vine]

srsly

dawg, i need to do the veil with my newtonian if that thing is so bright

he is in b4-b6

south stormont, look to the bottom of the image

[final plume]

I am very very jealous 🥺, I would love to buy one of these things but financial life after being married is tough to make a sell on a hobby item when I have Reno's to finance first lol

[trail token]

I can only afford it as I sold a bunch of other stuff. It's not a cheap hobby so don't feel bad.

[final plume]

I am trying to sell my drones to maybe afford it, but once I sell those I gotta convince my wife that I really do need the seestar

[trail token]

I've had mine now for 5 day and I've still not used it.

[wispy vessel]

M57 also known as the Ring Nebula

[wispy vessel]

Currently in a bortle 4 for the summer

[haughty pond]

that's insane...great shot

[wispy vessel]

Thank you hopefully I can get more time on it so then I can pair it with my eastern veil nebula that I’ve imaged

[wispy vessel]

Quick process to bring out a little more colour

Let me know if anyone has any advice on the image

[surreal nova]

was the background that dark straight from the seestar?

[wispy vessel]

I think it was slightly lighter but not by too much but it was really noisy though

[jaunty drift]

only suggestion is to not jpg it 🙏 normally seestar files are small enough to go with a png

[wispy vessel]

Is png better than jpg?

[jaunty drift]

yeah jpg just makes the file smaller but also makes it lose quality

liike as an example my milkyway photos stacked are like 670 mb as a png but 45 mb as a jpg

but seestar files are normally tiny so its better to png them

[trail token]

Had my first light!

[trail token]

Did 30mins of acquisition on M81 as a test run. Horrible clouds and dew in buckets but pretty happy with the performance of the Seestar. For someone just beginning, they don't know how good they have got it nowadays!

[surreal nova]

my seestar delivery got delayed another day

dont order from fedex!

I better get it before these clear skies go to waste

[wispy vessel]

Oh damn okay I will make sure to convert them to pngs

[quiet pendant]

looks amazing

[trail token]

Enjoy! I hope you see more clear skies than I bloody do!

[surreal nova]

@wispy vessel I noticed that my seestar also does the weird buzzing and humming thing when it connects

I guess it’s normal

[wispy vessel]

Oh okay I must not have noticed it before but thankfully it’s normal

[final plume]

Take a moment to go back to the "wee"

[surreal nova]

does the seestar continue to take pictures if the app runs in the background?

[spiral vault]

It’s keep going to work until target goes over 80 degrees even when you disconnect

Few shots from seestar

[odd quartz]

The V1.19.0 (Firmware Version: 2.61) is now online! You can download the latest version from the App Store, Google Play Store, official ZWO website, Xiaomi GetApps, and the Huawei AppGallery
👉 Here are the details about this update:
💡 New Features

• Added multi-select download in Album
• Added the ability to quickly share saved files to the AstroNet
• Added Korean voices
• Added zoom button in SkyAtlas
• Increased sun and moon tracking range
  🔧Optimizations
• Optimized the calculation of the estimated duration of the Deep Sky Stack
• Optimized text and UI
• Fixed known bugs

[odd quartz]

i still watch and giggle lol

[barren owl]

Oh yes finally a Korean voice

[trail token]

Yep, the app is just the window for what the scope is doing. You can set and forget till the battery runs out if you wanted to practically.

[quiet pendant]

cant believe SeeStar took these shots, any editing done to get this result?

[spiral vault]

It’s been highly processed. 2x drizzle and cfa separation using wbpp, extracted Ha and O3 with pixel math and regular post processing using bxt, nxt and sxt

Around 700 10 sec sub for each object

[sleek knoll]

wait it actually took these images?

thats insane!

[final plume]

What's the first image?

[odd quartz]

looks like rosette

[spiral vault]

Yep it’s rosette. It would be nice if the add scheduler or panorama mode so I can take bigger images

[odd quartz]

you can do a mosaic easily enough

[jaunty drift]

yeahh just install ICE
take exposures over one part, move the selector where it intertwines with the previous shot but has more of the object repeat repeat repeat
get the data and just throw the stacked into siril, auto stretch it then download it as a tiff into a new folder (all of the images)
throw it in ICE, download it as a tiff, then process the image like normal

if you get 2 images like this and just shove it in ICE it just auto does it

[spiral vault]

Do I need to crop out the filed rotated area before putting in?

[surreal nova]

can you share a link to the download of ICE?

[surreal nova]

nevermind i find it

[jaunty drift]

yeah i do that, i crop out the FR spot then shoot righ before the FR starts that pretty much removes it

[surreal nova]

I wonder why it stops at 80 degreees

[jaunty drift]

field rotation would be horrible i think

that and its harder to track

[surreal nova]

oh that’s true

last night it randomly stopped while I was out of the app and I got confused

[surreal nova]

my seestar refuses to connect to the app

I get stuck at “connecting to the wifi of your seestar” for like 10+ minutes

[odd quartz]

24th will be a sad day for me - bye bye astrodark 👋 😢 😂

[lucid dirge]

already gone since a while :p

[odd quartz]

its quite amazing how fast it drops within the week, 90mins to 0 in 6days

[lucid dirge]

good thing is that reverse also happens super quick come the fall

but at least lots of time for doing solar...

[odd quartz]

and lunar lol

yay haha

[trail token]

Weathers been shite all day long and just looked out the window and it's looking good. Once it gets dark (ha!) I'll chuck the Seestar outside if this holds.

[odd quartz]

my night will be tomorrow and then thats it for me

just been working old data today