Cosmic Geoff

If you want to have a rig that clearly outperforms the Seestar, be prepared to spend a lot more money. Like several times more. No. The Seestar battery lasts for several hours. I have found that my iphone needs a recharge before the Serestar does.

It is unlikely to make any visible difference. They still work with slight dew on the corrector plate and that big round thing in the middle. 🙂 The practical effect will be to scatter some light and reduce the contrast. But if it is not yours, you could pass on it and look elsewhere. Lots of these have been sold so there are plenty other SCTs out there. On the other hand, if you sense a bargain, see if the owner will accept a low offer. They usually sell used for far less than the new price anyway.

I only tried the Seestar once on the Moon and it came out looking correctly exposed (as did the Sun). I think others have had the same experience. I have not tried to image any planets with it as that seems a total waste of time with a 2" f5 (not least the question of how you make it find the planet in the first place). If I want to image planets, I have an 8" SCT.

That's an understatement. Despite its impressive performance in other areas, a device less suited to planetary imaging would be hard to find. 😁

The figures don't seem to add up. 60x300 = 18000 frames. (not 40000). 1280x720 x 18000 comes to about 16.6 GB (uncompressed) (not 1.3Gb). As I understand the definition, MOV is a container for mp4 files (a compressed format) which does not seem a good choice if you actually want a RAW file to play with. Perhaps what has happened here is that PIPP has converted the file from a compressed format to an uncompressed or less compressed one, making it bigger.

It seems odd, but some numbers might help someone here put a finger of the problem. What is the size of the images, in pixels? Exposure time for each image? Length of video in seconds? Why is your camera saving the video as a MOV? Isn't that an Apple format?

Have you any idea what a deep-space astrophotography-ready mount for an 8" Newtonian OTA looks like? It will cost you a lot more than 400 euros. It would be better to use the dob for visual and buy something else for imaging - depending on what exactly you want to image the possibilities range from a DSLR on a tracking mount to a large telescope on a very heavy and very expensive GoTo mount.

Dobsonians are not well suited to taking photos of deep sky objects. For that you need a driven (GoTo) mount. The size of the telescope is not material. A fast focal ratio is desirable but the size of the telescope merely affects the image scale. Hence a small telescope, even a 2" aperture one, on a GoTo mount, can take impressive deep-space images of larger objects. If, on the other hand, you actually want to use the telescope visually, Dobsonians are popular in this role.

If you can take the block off without anything dropping inside, do so and attach a dovetail with tube rings. Then you can orient the OTA as you want.

I have the ASI462MC which I bought as a planetary camera. I have used it on deep space objects, mainly planetary nebulae, where it works quite well (there is little or no amp glow), but the field is restricted, and if DSOs are the primary aim a camera with more pixels would suit better. Check the FOV with your intended scope if you intend to image the Sun or Moon with the MM version. As for whether mono or colour is best, the colour version works well and saves all that bother with filter wheels and extra processing. The ASI462MC (unlike the MM) is a non-current model, BTW. I tried out my 102mm f5 achro with a dual band light pollution filter and the ASI462MC as a potential Seestar-beater - see the EEVA Reports thread.

Should you be interested in EAA, note that I put together an EAA rig with a Startravel 102mm f5 achromat, Eq5 Synscan mount, ASI224MC camera, a helical focuser and a recently acquired dual-band light pollution filter. I had most of this to hand, but if bought new it would amount to about £1300, twice the price of a Seestar, but offering twice the image scale. If you want to image, there are various options depending on the size of the objects you want to image, e.g for wide nebulae you would choose a DSLR + camera lens, for smaller ones a telescope, and for very small ones a bigger telescope. A number of popular nebulae more or less fit into the Seestar's FOV. A GoTo mount is a very useful thing to have, but be aware that an equatorial GoTo mount is rather a fag to set up starting from storage, and an alt-azimuth mount is generally much less work, and optional devices can cut the setup work still further. An equatorial is reckoned as being needed for deep-space astro-imaging, but the Seestar demonstrates that this is not necessarily true.

Here are some images taken on 6 Nov through some rather average urban skies. A pleasing image of the Bubble Nebula exceeded my expectations. I captured a small amount of nebulosity in the Pleiades. Smartphone .jpg files reduced to 50%.

I recently bought the ZWO 1.25" dual band filter to add to my EVAA setup, to see if I could match the Seestar S50's performance on nebulae. I figured that with a similar filter, and twice the aperture, it ought to... The filter ought to cut out some of the achro scope's chromatic aberration. Here is the result with 120mm f5 achro, ASI462MC camera, EQ5 Synscan mount and half an hour's worth of live stacked 20 sec exposures. Half an hour makes it more astrophotography than EEVA maybe. This is in fact a better image than the Seestar version and shows some detail of the filaments.

It's worth checking that the motors are not set to minimum speed, which will look like nothing is happening. Set the speed to 9 and see if that fixes it. If that does not work, it may be worth refreshing the firmware, though one would expect an error message if there is a fault. A cable and USB-serial set will be cheaper than a new mount.

If you do the alignment procedure (see the manual) the mount should track any object automatically. You don't need the Starsense (do you mean the hardware Autoalign or the phone app?)

The ingress was clouded out but I saw the exit with my 127mm Mak and with the 102mm f5 GoTo. I did not try setting up for imaging. I missed the moment of emergence as I was walking between the two telescopes.

I have a Canon 300D camera. I have rarely used it for any astrophotography because of various drawbacks - no live view, could not see what I was doing with it in the dark, etc. IIRC I imaged the Moon with it, and after I bought a photographic zoom lens for it I was able to image a few constellations. The support software for the 300D only works on Windows XP (though I was able to get image files off it using Mint Linux). I have not tried any planetary imaging with it as I have planetary cameras more suitable for the purpose. You need to make the camera take a high-speed video and if possible be able to crop the region-of-interest in the camera. The 300D pixels may also be on the large side. As for nebula imaging, you would need a much better mount, e.g. a substantial GoTo mount and maybe other ancillary kit. Can you get the camera to come to focus when mounted on the 114P? (it may not unless the scope has been modified). With the 300D you could try imaging star trails with a fixed tripod, or star fields and maybe large nebulae with a tracker mount (q.v.) If you want to dabble with imaging deep sky objects including nebulae you might think of ordering a Seestar S50, which does it all for you in one package. Having tried it, if you want something that outperforms the Seestar on nebulae, be prepared to spend a thick wad of money.

The third one in your first post apparently has an EQ-3 mount. That's not a bad mount (if it is the same as the Skywatcher one) and alone might be worth the asking price. Omegon is a brand rather than a manufacturer. One of our respected UK retailers sells the same outfit for £318, so search for reviews and draw your own conclusions.

From Apple/Seestar page: Seestar on the App Store (apple.com) Looks like it also works on ipads and apparently on Macs (though this is the first indication I have seen that the app will work on any laptop!) Information Provider SuZhou ZWO Co., Ltd. Size 681.6 MB Category Photo & Video Compatibility iPhone Requires iOS 13.0 or later. iPod touch Requires iOS 13.0 or later. Mac Requires macOS 13.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later. Languages English, French, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Spanish

Get it working first without the Asiair, then try using the Asiair later. The mount will not ask for a Lat/Long if you have given a city ( London) as the location. It probably defaults to city, but you can change it in the menus.

I continue to be impressed by what the Seestar can do in imaging nebulae from my murky backyard. Conditions last night were dismal, with the Plough barely visible, but I still got good-looking images of some nebulae with which I was not familiar at all, with imaging runs of from 30 to 45 minutes. I also have an EEVA rig based on a 102mm f5 achromat, and am wondering why I can't get good nebula images with it, though it performs better than the Seestar on imaging a typical galaxy. Maybe I need to buy the ZWO dual-band filter and try a long run of 10 sec stacked exposures.

Mak's and SCTs have problems with dew if you don't use a dewshield. The same problem occurs with a refractor, but the typical refractor has a dewshield built-in. As I have pointed out elsewhere, a Mak or SCT should work fine with a dew-shield, and a dewshield should be seen as an essential accessory. I have used my Mak and SCT satisfactorily for years, using a dew-shield. In more extreme conditions one can also add a dew-heater kit (also used with refractors.) You mean a big Dobsonian. A small table-top Dob should fit in your car OK. A big f10 refractor (+tripod & mount) might not fit well in your car either.

It is said that (depending on when and where they were manufactured) some SCT optics were individually figured so that it mattered how the corrector was put back when re-fitted. If you don't know for sure whether your SCT is affected or not, it make sense to mark the corrector and put it back how it was... On the other hand, it is apparently possible to purchase replacement corrector plates from a 3rd party manufacturer, which is clearly a case of crossing fingers and hoping it'll be OK.

If you are expecting to see galaxies and nebulae visually like in the photographs, you are in for a disappointment. I think there is a thread some where in this forum on 'what can I expect to see'. On the other hand, star clusters, globular clusters and double stars will show up well with a small telescope. If galaxies and nebulae are what you want to see, then you should order a Seestar S50, which is a little over your budget.

Saturn will always be visible from most of the Northern hemisphere. If you have a planetarium app you can see for yourself.