Oortraged

2 hours ago, Elp said:

I don't have a SS but this is what I do. I stack every session generally the next day with calibration files, then to complete a project stack each stack (you have to go through the usual workflow, but no calibration, just register and stack). It's generally better to stack all frames in one go rather than stack stacks, but the above is easier to mentally manage, it's also a good way to check you didn't have issues during the session.

Regarding satellite trails, if you're using standard AP software to stack, use a Kappa Sigma rejection algorithm with a narrow or low outlier range (you'll have to test what works) and it'll remove the trails in the stack as long as you have a largish number of total subs.

Thanks Elp, I've had the same question and appreciate the guidance!

43 minutes ago, cimh said:

Yes, because Seestar is tilted then viewing towards the south becomes restricted as it thinks the horizon is much higher than it really is. I think polaris sinks lower in the sky as you move towards the equator in which case people living in lower latitudes will be more restricted as the seestar has to be tilted more to line up with Polaris.  I hope that's right

That's certainly the same way I've understood what Cuiv is saying in the videos around this set up Cimh. Your image earlier is certainly impressive - I've been reluctant to add the wedge in, but you've tempted me again! Thanks for the detailed write up too 👍

31 minutes ago, Elp said:

If you want to pull more data out of the bubble it's worth putting in a few more hours. I tested it with my main setup around 2 hours with an lextreme, definitely needs more time. It's also quite low at the moment so not in the best position.

Definitely Elp, if we ever get a clear night here again it's top of the target list

Just got done fiddling with this composition of M52 and the bubble nebula in Siril. Limited data amounting to about 25 minutes, half with the internal filter and half without. Surprised just how much of the background nebulosity the S50 managed to pull through in my Bortle 4 skies under short integration.

17 hours ago, DaveL59 said:

Not ready to throw this sort of money in for a filter, not yet at least, but IIRC powerlord has experimented using a L-Extreme on the S50 for some excellent results. So some here may be interested in this option

Currently just under USD160 on the long river place at the moment.

Interesting Dave, thanks for sharing. I think there is definitely mileage in the S50 for some more tinkering, it has a broad enough audience that some (cleverer people than me) are undoubtedly going to start doing some interesting stuff with them!

2 hours ago, jp1977 said:

Hi - First timer here.  I was browsing one of those sites where people give their useless junk away for free to other people locally and stumbled across someone giving a telescope away.

Despite being a sci-fi fan, I've never even looked through a telescope before (I'm 47). So I saw this and thought 'why not - might be fun, and might be something the missues and kids will enjoy'.

Got it home (massive thing on a tripod), took it to peices (I'm a tinkerer) and cleaned away layers of thick dust and put it all back together again.

During this clean up, I found a problem with one of the gears on the mount (sorry, not sure of the correct terminology, yet) - it was the gear that makes fine adjustments up and down when you turn a flexible dial. Anyway, the gear appears to be plastic (nylon?) and about 1/3rd of the teeth are chewed out.

Not to worry I thought - I'll just spin it around so that the good 2/3rd's are within the range I'm likely going to need when adjusting the scope and in the meantime I'll look for a spare - that's a future problem.

I set it up last night for a quick peek, without doing any kind of research - managed to get the crescent moon in shot on the viewfinder. It was a very cloudy night and the moon was obscured intermittently (more so than not). The viewfinder and main cylinder aren't aligned yet either, so what's in the viewfinder, doesn't match what the cylinder sees (another future problem).

Actually seeing anything through the lens looks like it'll need to be a learned skill, as just sticking my eye right up to it resulted in a small blurry circle with my own eyelashes being the main thing I could see for some reason. Backing off slightly and getting the circle of light to fill the view seemed to work but it was a bit hit and miss. But, through some trial and error (adjusting both the horizontal and vertical direction whilst looking through the eyepeice and following light spots around the edges), I was able to get the moon in shot for about 5 seconds before a particularly thick bank of clouds came and didn't look like they were going to clear again for a while.

I mean, what I saw through the lens was pretty amazing for someone who doesn't know any better. For that brief 5 seconds, I got a really clear view of the moon and it's craters and the line where the shadow turns to light - It was pretty amazing.

I gave up after that, as between the clouds, the inexperience of setting up the telescope with the correct angles for my location (UK, Northwest), making the fine adjustments in the right directions, and the incorrect viewfinder alignment, it was just lucky I managed to see anything at all.

Definately hooked though - going to wait for a completely clear night with a good moon (cresent or otherwise) and give it a good go.

Now for the punchline - whilst researching for more lenses (it came with 1 lens only - a 20mm I think), filters, set up instructions and something beyond the basics - I found this site, along with some delightful reviews of the Seben Big Boss 1400-150. Oh well, I guess it was free...

Anyway, going to stick with the free scope for now, try and get some decent views, get the family hooked on it and then maybe I can convince them it's a worthwhile investment to get something half decent

Great bit of kit JP, and all the better for being a freebie! Looks to be about 150mm of aperture? There are arguments for bigger, but here in the UK this is typically the limit of resolving power as dictated by the atmosphere on an average night! I hope the scope brings you and the family many fun evenings!

1 hour ago, ollypenrice said:

Valid question. Our situation is that we want to squeeze a fifth robotic instrument into a roll-off roof shed designed for four piers. The instrument is just a Samyang 135 lens, so very small, and we can get away with squeezing this setup in if it is free of counterweight arms, etc. The AM5 mount and camera are perfect for the limited space available. At present the Samyang is occupying a main pier and this isn't necessary, it's overkill.

Olly

Yep, makes perfect sense! I think they're just wonderful bits of engineering - that would be a good enough excuse for me!

35 minutes ago, AstroGS said:

Wow Astro, now there's a set up that's as nice to look at as look through! Really stunning.

On 13/04/2024 at 22:33, DCrilly said:

It has been incredibly lovely reading all of your messages. My grandpa passed away this morning surrounded by family and friends.

It is amazing that he inspired so many people, but the best part is hearing how his kindness was abundant not just with me, but for everyone else too.

Of course, we have been blessed with a beautiful moon and clear skies this evening. So my partner and I whipped out the telescope that he gave to us as a present. See attached.

What a beautiful tribute. I can only hope to be held in the esteem you grandfather clearly was, condolences to you and yours.

3 minutes ago, Steve Ward said:

And clouds have baffled him before ... 😄

 

 

Thanks Steve, this actually made me laugh hard enough to scare the dog.

Olly, a question - I thought the big selling point of these harmonic drive mounts were their portability? Seems countinetuitive to mount one permanently in terms of cost/ performance? Or are they really that accurate?

I'm just watching 'Carbon Brush is typing' with utter glee at what is coming hahaha!

2 minutes ago, Steve Ward said:

I think the word is persistent ... 😄

This is one of the most sophisticated trolls I have ever encountered.

2 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

With a large mosaic there are new problems to be overcome besides those which present themselves with a single frame image. The big ones are field geometry and field illumination. At the time we made the big Orion mosaic we were stitching in Registar and this does not generate a global template or 'cartographic projection' of the full field geometry. If you just stitch images together from one near the middle, for instance, the distortions will be crazy by the edge of the field. We had to experiment with ways of addressing this. Modern software can help with this, up to a point. We still find enormous mosaics defeat it.

Software is also pretty good at seamlessly stitching two panels but, on larger scales, the brightness begins to vary so the background sky will be brighter or darker in different locations. I have worked round this by laboriously creating 'patch' sections to cover irregularities and blending them in by hand and eye. I've also worked in strips, making a strip of images across the top, then adding the neighbouring strip below that, adjusting it by hand along the way and so on down.

Star removal software makes mosaics much easier but can introduce problems of its own, notably a visible tile pattern across the image. This needs a cosmetic fix if the imager can come up with one...

Astronomy Now published an article in which I ran through my approach to the processing of Yves Van den Broek's Galactic Equator Mega-Mosaic. This project was easier than Orion and took about a working week. https://www.astrobin.com/full/g82xf7/B/

How long people spend on post-processing a single image, I don't know. In my case it will be about four hours then, after walking away from it, a couple more on tiny details or mild adjustments.

Olly

Thanks for such an in depth explanation Olly, really fascinating to understand a bit more of what goes into producing images of your standard. 

Just had a proper look at your linked mosaic - stunning. A week well spent in post!!!

2 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

I've collaborated with my friend Tom O'Donoghue and sold astro prints we've imaged together, though Tom did all the marketing and website construction. I won't link to his website out of respect for the forum rules, or the spirit of those rules. The image in which I collaborated had 400 hours of capture and probably a month's full time work in processing. It was also runner up in the APOTY competition.

I have, though, made a satisfactory living out of astrophotography, but not by selling my images. My images have been the 'advertisements' which publicized my astronomy guest house and imaging workshops and I've also generated income by being asked by magazines to write feature articles on aspects of AP.

One thing's for sure: I would not try to sell any image which did not contain something new, something not seen in any existing images. Over the last fifteen years that might leave me with about five images which meet this requirement, so not many!

Sometimes I get nice messages from folks who ask if they might buy an image from me and, if the images are only mine (I do a lot of collaborations) I usually just give them away.

Olly

Olly, I hope you don't mind me asking a question (and without intending to derail the thread from it's original question) - when you say 'a months full time work in processing'. What does that look like? Is it just the sheer amount of data that generates such timescales when you have 400 hours to integrate? Or is it more down to becoming an astronomical Michelangelo, taking slivers of data from a digital David in pursuit of perfection?

1 hour ago, LDW1 said:

I got rid of all my dobs years ago, now its refractors (10) only, lol !  From 60mm to 130mm, since the SS I am cutting back on them as well, plus my age (76), lol !

Now that's a Swiss army knife of a frac collection, one for every possible job! I do miss my old 8" dob, but I couldn't justify the storage space since a house move. Switched to an ED80 for visual use about 8 years ago, and it certainly shows less, but I love what it does show! The S50 has to satisfy my aperture fever through digital means for now... although I suspect Mystic Meg would probably forsee a large dob in my future at some stage! 😄

6 minutes ago, LDW1 said:

I bought a 4 & 8 star spike masks but I don't like the 8.

The 4 definitely looks cool, emulates that dob look, which is often how I think of the S50 - a companion dob that doesn't give me a hernia! 😁

50 minutes ago, LDW1 said:

M106 in 25 min. several nites ago !  Even though I have some pretty competent refractors this SS is getting to be pretty enjoyable, I will say !  Its a fast set up and a fast take down, when skize vary so fast in an evening !

 

Really cool image! I've meant to ask before, are you using a physical mask of some sort for the diffraction spikes, or is there some electronic wizardry I'm missing to do so?!

Heya folks, nice to see some images of the eclipse from the Seestar!

With the weather having been what it has recently, I had chance to sit down and pull the .fit files off the S50 and try and get to grips with post processing. Have been using the videos from Deep Space Astro on YouTube to get to grips with Siril.

This is my first proper effort at an image, could only convince Siril to use 40 minutes of data compared to the 53 the S50 had gathered. Utility on Siril handles colour calibrarion and removing some excessive green noise in the data. Then ran a general noise reduction on the resultant image. I used the StarNet plug in for siril to remove the stars, did a manual stretch of the data in the histogram and (perhaps excessively!) altered the saturation to bring some more colour forward in M51. Finally, stars added back in and a stretch done on those (tried to keep them a bit smaller).

There's definitely a little bit of a learning curve, but very manageable and a good way to pass a few hours when there's not much to see above! Lots of nuance and things to learn with the software, but found it genuinely really fun, and looking forward to tackling the rest of the archive!

Quick edit to add the YouTube channel I've been watching for anyone interested in learning more, apologies if it's already been linked earlier in the thread: https://youtube.com/@DeepSpaceAstro?feature=shared

Hey, welcome! Brilliant pictures, and a lovely part of the world to be based in!

3 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

It's also a matter of perspective, when you look back at early images I'd bet folk thought those were 'astounding' too

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrophotography#:~:text=The first photograph of a,s 15 inch Great refractor.

Of course modern gear has advanced what is achievable compared to the film era and with lots of time and effort we've seen some great images from others here. The fact that something like the S50 is now available to make it easier for those of us who don't have that time or budget (or inclination) has opened up new areas for those who've bought one to explore that was perhaps beyond their abilities/facilities.

In part I got mine as a cheap/easy EEVA which could also capture images to share with family. Does exactly what I'd wanted and adds the bonus of solar if I ever get the time and clear days to try that out. I'd never have done so otherwise given my potential for migraines looking at bright objects.

That's such a cool image Dave! Genuinely phenomenal where we've got to in 144 years since that shot. Especially given that people must have had far better visual observations even through relatively modest contemporary scopes!

As with most things in the UK, the main source of disagreement in these conversations is the weather - if we were in Arizona I'm sure we'd be too busy with what we were looking at to worry about what everyone else was looking through (although, the exception that proves the rule may be the CN forums 😂).

Ryan

3 hours ago, paulastro said:

On the contrary, I'm delighted to see an observing report on this forum.  

Lately it's been  hijacked by a few people (mostly traditional imagers with extensive kit) telling folks who are using  and enjoying the S50  that we don't know what we are doing and wasting our money.

It's the best waste of money Ive ever spent 😊.

Anyway thanks for your post, it shows what can be done in difficult and trying conditions.

Cheers Paul. I do empathise with both sides of the conversation in truth, and many of the the points that are raised disparagingly toward the S50 are ones that I had with myself over the course of months prior to purchase. Since ownership, all such concerns have dissolved in the joy of being able to view and share these objects with friends and family.

I'm very new to the hobby compared to many. I started pursuing it in anger in my early twenties, and am 36 now. I'm very aware of the fact I am standing on the shoulders of giants in how accessible the night sky is through this sort of equipment.

Equally, I recall being dissuaded from a goto as my first mount at my first Astronomy Soc - first, I rather ought to 'learn the night sky with binoculars and star hopping'. Many pleasurable evenings were had off the back of this advice, and the skills I learnt are used every night I observe - be it with the S50 or visually with the ED80 and azgti. However, the S50 is as nuanced an instrument as the Dob I started with: the challenges and opportunities to learn and grow as an observer remain as potent, it is just the medium which has developed. 

One of the greatest pleasures of this hobby is that there is space for every approach and perspective on it - a whole universe of room for all of us! I thank those who have the means and commitment to have invested in dedicated rigs (particularly those who have subscribed to the ZWO ecosystem) for supporting the development of devices such as the S50. I greatly value their feedback, guidance and experience in collaboration with all of us enjoying looking up at the night sky, through what ever means we are able.

Heya folks, it has been an interesting read catching up with this thread since ordering, receiving, and having had chance to spend about a month with the S50!

I hope you don't mind me shifting direction of the thread with a brief observing report from tonight. Was thrilled to have some clear skies, and have chance to take some images to share with loved ones. 

So, I'll start with the best image of the evening! M51. I have a little postage stamp of a garden, that faces roughly NNE. Weather report seemed to show that trying to get out into the wild tonight would have been touch and go, so this and all the rest come from my Bortle 4 garden. M51 shows 53 minutes of data in the time stamp. This took about 2 hours to collect in reality, with some high level cloud and star trailing issues confounding the S50 stacking more. I have the raw frames for the whole evening though, and look forward to learning how to process them

Next best image of the evening was M97. There are some star trailing artefacts on this image, but once again its just the live stack from the S50. Targets were few and far between in the garden tonight, and almost all of then at or close to zenith. Obviously a challenge for any device only moving in 2 axis in a fixed alt az set up. 

I already had 1 hour of data on M81, but some forum trawling  showed me I had missed a trick, and could have got M82 into the frame as well. Well, I've had a week of rain to ruminate on my failing there! Alas, both objects soon eluded the gaze of the scope, flanked, as they are, by the neighbours houses! I have to say, as short on data as it is, and how bad the framing may be, I love the composition of this shot.

And now, moving progressively from bad to awful, may I introduce you to my attempt at M108. I'd hoped to be able to get enough of this for a friend, who is a keen surfer, to make a birthday card. Even with cropping, I don't think I'll get something satisfactory! The field rotation is pretty impressive for how truncated the data collection was - but at least I caught some photons

Finally, a very tiny set of 6 x 10 second subs on M94. This was enough to notice the streetlight next to it ruining the attempt! 

All told, 6 of the Messier objects on an evening where the forecast made me sure it wasn't worth going out. I completely understand that the S50 isn't a device that will please everyone (and indeed, does such a thing exist?). To offer an analogy, however: I enjoy balancing the carbs on my VFR400. And my enjoyment of doing so is in no way diminished by the fact that others enjoy riding fuel injected bikes.

Clear skies all,

Ryan

Hey Jessica, welcome! I'm relatively new here myself, but have found lots of friendly and helpful people, and a lot of interesting topics, and even a local astronomy society in my local area since joining! I hope you have just as much fun delving into the forums

Ryan

4 hours ago, AstroNebulee said:

Thank you. I have the 2m lynx astro cable that powers it do plenty of length to the mount. When not in use I store the cable, talentcell battery and the phone to control the mount inside the pouch. 

Yes it is an adm dovetail clamp. I took it off my redundant AzGti eq imaging rig when dismantling and thought perfect for my AzGti in az mode for observing, lunar and Planetary imaging. Then hopefully some milky-way core imaging with the dslr this spring. 

Lee 

That looks really smart Lee, even more excited for mine now! I also opted for the 2m Lynx astro cable, so glad to hear I haven't overdone it or underdone it! Sounds like a great plan with the DSLR too 👍 definitely a fan of repurposing/ multi use from a bit of kit as I am tight on storage, so food for thought!

1 hour ago, Jim L said:

Here’s another possibly:

The battle Velcro’ed to the side of the mount eliminates dealing with the mount’s power cable once and for all. It’s especially helpful when viewing at objects widely separated in the sky.

That's a smart idea @Jim L, really tidy and no chance of cable snags as you say! Unfortunately, I think with the version of the talentcell I opted for (LF4100) it might be a bit too large to take this approach - I've included a plectrum for scale. It also weighs in at a heftier 750g or so. I have some other, non astronomical applications to press the TalentCell into, so unfortunately this was the compromise for now - but ought is better than nought, as they say! If it proves overly cumbersome through the summer then I can always make the switch for next season

Thanks for the perspectives folks, greatly appreciated.

11 hours ago, Elp said:

I just leave mine on the floor, and I'm usually imaging with two or three batteries attached. If it's on grass I use double wall cardboard or an offcut of yoga mat to place them onto, if it's dewy out then I lightly cover them with the same, they don't get wet.

Thanks Elp, that's good to know for quick set ups and as, inevitably, more electronic bits find their way into the set up!

1 hour ago, AstroNebulee said:

I have mine just above the spreader plate and rests on the arm of my tripod. Yours will work great anywhere on the leg and the carabiner is a nice idea to secure. 

I did try on the pillar as you have and thought it may get in the way of the scope. 

Enjoy your sessions with your AzGti, you won't be disappointed. 

Lee 

Cheers Lee, yours looks really neat and tidy. Good point about the tube potentially fouling if it is on the pier. Is that the ADM saddle I spy lurking there as well? Must say I'm looking forward mine arriving and getting it on the mount!

Ryan