Cosmic Geoff

My old Android tablet refused to download the Android app, let alone connect to the Seestar. But with my iphone 7, I followed the basic instructions, set the permissions asked for and had no trouble at all. It also updates the software when within range of the house wifi (to which the phone is connected) with no issues. You shouldn't hesitate to order the Seestar because of connectivity issues. Many Android users have clearly connected successfully. If you are obliged to buy a smartphone for the purpose, used iphones are very affordable.

Dobsonians come in all sizes. Do you want GoTo (which you can afford on your budget) or not?

Me. The jpg images that appear on the iphone are basically what I want. I have done little about trying to process the .fits images. I tried with some of my first (stacked) ones and that wasn't really worth the effort. I never got into serious deep sky imaging with my other kit as I did not have an ideal setup and all that post-processing seemed too much like hard work. But with the Seestar, I just have to stand around a bit and it produces a cool nebula image. For the enlightenment of other newbies, the unstacked fits files only appear if you select that option in the Advanced settings in the phone app. When I tried it, the Sun finding worked just fine - magic! and the Moon finding was a bit more involved, as I had to follow the instructions to set the compass, and then give it some help by setting it manually to point somewhere near the moon, so it would go find it rather than a streetlamp.

Look at the collection of 'beginners telescopes' sold by forum sponsor FLO. You may be able to find something there that appeals to you. With a budget of up to £750 you will be able to buy quite a large (and heavy) Dobsonian-style scope. Fitting a phone adapter to most scopes will be a trivial exercise, but without powered tracking you will find it difficult to take satisfactory shots of any objects other than the very bright (e.g. the Moon). Buying a 'scope for life' as your first purchase is likely to prove a vain endeavor (there is a reason why I have several scopes and mounts plus a Seestar S50) so I suggest you buy something well within budget like a table-top Dobsonian or a small refractor and tripod, and see how you get on with it - unless you think buying the biggest Dobsonian you can afford (and carry) is the way to go.

You can't be certain of that until you have bought it and tried using it for a while. What you can do is to have some defined goals and ensure that what you buy will fulfil them e.g. Can you carry/transport the thing from the storage place to the observing place? Will you practically be able to snap anything other than the moon with an unpowered scope/mount? Will the light pollution at your site prevent you seeing anything faint and fuzzy?

This is the dream of many newbie astronomers, but it is much harder than it sounds. Problems of finding the object with sufficient accuracy, small field of view of the camera, problems of focusing, etc, cause most to abandon the idea and convert their ambitions to visual observing, EEVA, or astrophotography.

Depends what you want to image as deep sky objects vary considerably in size. You should check what actual field of view you get with various combinations and setup accordingly.

Two books: "Making Every Photon Count" by Steve Richards (for deep sky imaging) and "Guide to High Resolution Lunar and Planet Imaging" by Dave Eagle. The former is available from FLO.

When I had one of those motors, I used a small 6v lead-acid battery, along with a charger from ebay which apparently was intended for use with model R/C systems using this kind of battery. As you can see above there are other solutions. With future proofing in mind, you could also go for a +12v system and a 12v to 6v step-down converter.

Personally, I think a battery power pack would be better on grounds of convenience and safety. A trailing cable is a trip hazard, and it would be much quicker to plonk down a power pack than to unreel an extension cable and reel it up again afterwards. I have mains power within a few yards of my observing positions, but I always use battery packs. It's less bother and it's safer.

Some Seestar images from 22 Oct. These are smartphone images, lightly enhanced in contrast and reduced in size by 50%. Bortle 6 skies. I'm impressed by the performance of this device on nebulae and need to figure out why I don't get images like this with my other EEVA rig (102mm f5). M17 also known as Omega Nebula, IC1396 known as Elephant's Trunk.

If you look up the ISS fly-over data for your location at that date and time, you should be able to answer the question yourself. We won't be able to identify a light in the sky from an undated photo. London, England, United Kingdom | Sighting Opportunity | Spot The Station | NASA

I had a session with the Seestar last night. At the end of the session I found it had disconnected itself from the smartphone and refused to connect. By this point, the battery had mostly discharged (1 Led showing). IIRC there's an auto disconnect option in the menus - I'm not sure what that's supposed to do though. I noticed that the On/off button LED pulses slowly while the device is operating - I'm not sure what this is supposed to indicate. I also note that according to the spec. the Seestar can draw up to 2 amps from a USB charging source. Fortunately I have a 2 amp wall plug that I got with a Nexus tablet. It might be wise to be careful about what USB port you plug the device into while it's discharged. The USB ports on my Celestron LIFEPO power tank are only rated at 1 amp, and I have no idea about the USB ports on my computers.

If you buy a replacement diagonal, you will probably find that more money = better build quality, but you won't see any difference in the view.

I am doing EAA with a lower spec laptop than this. 8Gb RAM, i5 series 7 processor, 256GB SSD, Windows 10. It works just fine and makes short work of plate-solving. The only issue I had with it, asides from replacing the battery, was not performance-related at all: it's a slimline design and the hinge mounts disintegrated because the hinges were far too stiff. It took me ages to dismantle it, rebuild the hinge mounts and slacken off the hinge friction nuts.

£659 is a lot of money to spend on a mount about which some people have written very negative things. Start simple with a tracking mount designed to support a camera. If you don't have a lens for it, there are plenty of used ones on ebay. I bought one there for my Canon camera body.

I suggest you get a tracking mount for your camera and use it to take widefield photos. I saw what some friends did at a dark skies site with just a camera and mount and it was quite impressive. Also order a Seestar S50, which does the telescope (50mm), mount, software and stacking all in one package. What this can do is quite impressive - it actually outperformed my bigger EVA rig on imaging nebulae from my backyard. Once you have had a go with these two things you may be satisfied, or if not, you will have a much better idea of what to buy in order to do better.

You should use a filter as suggested above to get the colours right. The image could be a little blurry for various reasons - slightly out of focus (what do you focus on?) or shooting over your neighbours' chimney, or just bad seeing. The 4 SE is a Maksutov, so the collimation should remain good unless you are unlucky. Yesterday I took a series of images of Jupiter with an 8" SCT through thin cloud, and it wasn't any better than the above. The setup can do far better. I have never used extremely long videos - in reasonable conditions 5000 frames seems enough - sometimes acquired in only 18 seconds.

These connectors are a regular cause of problems on various mounts. Two tips: expand the split centre contact slightly with a craft knife to give firmer contact. Use a cable tie or similar to restrain the cable near the connector.

One can't help comparing this with the update procedure for the Seestar S50 device and its smartphone app. In the latter a few pokes of the finger do the job - no cables, no special app installations etc etc. Celestron and other astro equipment manufacturers need to join the 21st century. Some months ago I updated the firmware on a Celestron C8 SE for my local astro club. It was a right pain, even though I had done firmware updates before.

I realised an odd thing when I reassembled my C8 with its hardware Starsense Autoalign system in Buckinghamshire after a trip to a dark skies site in Shropshire. I had forgotten about changing the location till I took it outside here. But it performed perfectly in Shropshire, placing every object I wanted to view within the field of a 25mm eyepiece.

Is the ability to save separate FITS files (rather than stacked) available in the generally distributed software upgrades, or is is only available in beta versions distributed to beta testers? Various beta testers have published Youtube videos indicating that they had this feature available to them. This is from the ZWO Seestar site dated July: " Moreover, our Pro Mode, coming soon, will introduce exciting additional features, including the ability to save individual images from each exposure for users to further enhance and personalize." So far as I know, the 'Pro Mode' remains vapourware.

Likewise. Once used on the sky and focused, it seems to hold focus.

How did you get it to aim at that? And name it? I could still make use of a decent manual for this device. How does one get it to save a set of FITS files rather than a stacked FITS file? Why can I select NGC147 but not NGC185? A month after my first light with the S50 at a dark skies site in Shropshire, I got a clear night at home and was able to see what the S50, now with the latest software, V1.9 and v1.58, would do in Bortle 6 skies. Some results are posted in the EEVA Reports part of the forum. I note that it now tags the smartphone .jpgs. I imaged NGC 7293, the Helix Nebula, the biggest planetary nebula, and was pleased with the result, considering that when I tried for it with my other EEVA rig, it was a total fail. Likewise NGC 6995 (Veil), which looks much better than my effort with the other outfit. Also IC5070, which I had not imaged previously. The LP filter was engaged for all of these. A couple of galaxies, also with the LP filter engaged, were disappointing, with hardly anything visible.

Three Seestar images taken 13 Oct 2023: These are iphone images, reduced in size by 50%. Bortle 6 skies, v1.9 & v1.58 The background looks blacker in the originals.