Cosmic Geoff

This morning I tried using my Seestar S50 (with v1.52 firmware) in Solar mode. It found the sun automatically after I opened it up and fitted the solar filter. Not much problem after that except that the solar image disappears from the smartphone screen until one does some more button pressing. One can save a still or save a video to process later. I got an image with visible sunspots, similar to images in reviews elsewhere. On shutting down it seems a good procedure is to pick up the Seestar and turn it through 90 deg (away from the Sun) before removing the filter and commanding it to shut down.

I posted a Seestar 50 FITS file (a stacked file) in the imaging sub-section of this forum. I am still trying to determine whether the S50 delivers separate FITS files (lights, etc), if one has a different firmware version. Still figuring out how to process my FITS files. The no-brainer .jpg files delivered to the controlling smartphone look good, though.

ZWO have been issuing firmware upgrades for the Seestar 50, but nowhere on their site do they list the versions and what changes they introduce. The instruction manual is also vague about the features. Viewing the Youtube reports, one sees that some Seestars produce a composite FITS file while others (presumably with later firmware), appear to produce multiple FITS files. One report claims that late firmware delivers manual focus and the ability to connect to your home WiFi network (I'm not sure what this would do for you, other than dispensing with a cable to retrieve the FITS files). We really need someone to compile an 'unofficial' user manual for the Seestar. I upgraded the firmware on mine from v1.21 to v1.52, but without a sky to try it on it is not evident what difference, if any, this has made. This upgrade, incidentally, was accomplished in minutes with a few pokes of the finger. Compare that with the fooling around with cables, apps, and software libraries required to update the firmware on a Synta mount. Celestron and Skywatcher had better watch their backs.

I ordered mine on 17 April. I am still trying to figure out what's what with the FITS files. Some testers apparently received units which (like mine) produced a composite FITS file which did not need stacking.

You don't have to accept the selections. You can scroll the list till you see something that you know is accessible.

I mostly use Auto 2 Star, and select stars I can see from the observing position. It saves the bother of manually slewing the mount to the 2nd star. The Solar System Align is also quite useful on occasion, for daylight observing, or observing one planet in twilight, etc.

I have a SLT mount, and can confirm that the mount/tripod is on the wobbly side for this OTA. (similar weight to my 127mm Mak OTA). You can try various stabilising tricks but the only real answer is a sturdier and more expensive mount/ tripod. The EQ5 or the AZ4-2 will be like scaffolding by comparison with the SLT. If you can track down a used Celestron SE 6/8 mount that somebody doesn't want, your OTA will work with that nicely and the Nexstar software will be the same.

Your discouragement is noted. Seems that you have been a victim of a syndrome we have seen before here, where, for whatever reason, the seller develops a particular opinion of the situation and fobs off the hapless buyer with cut-and-paste advice. Others should note that the best response in this situation may be on the lines of: This is faulty. Replace it under warranty or refund me or you will hear from my lawyer.

Sir, you are clearly a pessimist. 🙂 If you bought a faulty mount for a few dollars, you would probably find it had faulty electrics (which seems to be the most common problem - I had to reprogram the firmware in my SLT twice) and perfect mechanical parts, so you'd just have to swap some circuit boards over to get a good mount. My SLT has worked OK for over 8 years asides for the firmware becoming corrupted a couple of times. But it's up to you. Clearly these mounts don't cost much to manufacture - just look at what little is inside - two motor-gearbox assemblies (identical), a circuit board or two and some wires.

As I said, I have not dismantled one of these so I don't know what this is supposed to look like. Did you get the mount from new? If not, one suspects that somebody has been in there and messed with it. If others say the nut should be Nyloc, then get one - it does not need to be special so long as it has the right thread. If you have engineering skills, it might be a good idea to strip the mount down and then figure how it is supposed to work. Rather than sell the mount for parts ☹️ it might be smarter to buy a SLT mount that somebody else is selling for parts, and swap (or copy) the relevant subassembly.

I made a mistake posting the header text above. That one is for M27, and the M57 one actually indicates that it contains five images. Below I have posted the iphone .jpg for M57. This 1.4 MB 1080px1920px file has not been processed by me in any way.

Sorry I can't help as I have never exposed that part of my mount.

Onnikinen - I tried that, but your method seems to be for a set of fits files, not just one containing multiple images (11 in the M57 example I have posted here).

Here's one, for M57. Header data follows: SIMPLE = T / file does conform to FITS standard BITPIX = 16 / number of bits per data pixel NAXIS = 3 / number of data axes NAXIS1 = 1080 / length of data axis 1 NAXIS2 = 1920 / length of data axis 2 NAXIS3 = 3 / length of data axis 3 EXTEND = T / FITS dataset may contain extensions COMMENT FITS (Flexible Image Transport System) format is defined in 'Astronomy COMMENT and Astrophysics', volume 376, page 359; bibcode: 2001A&A...376..359H BZERO = 32768 / offset data range to that of unsigned short BSCALE = 1 / default scaling factor CREATOR = 'ZWO SeestarS50' / Capture software XORGSUBF= 0 / Subframe X position in binned pixels YORGSUBF= 0 / Subframe Y position in binned pixels FOCALLEN= 250 / Focal length of telescope in mm XBINNING= 1 / Camera X Bin YBINNING= 1 / Camera Y Bin CCDXBIN = 1 / Camera X Bin CCDYBIN = 1 / Camera Y Bin XPIXSZ = 2.90000009536743 / pixel size in microns (with binning) YPIXSZ = 2.90000009536743 / pixel size in microns (with binning) IMAGETYP= 'Light ' / Type of image STACKCNT= 11 / Stack frames EXPOSURE= 10. / Exposure time in seconds EXPTIME = 10. / Exposure time in seconds RA = 300.15417 / Object Right Ascension in degrees DEC = 22.794444 / Object Declination in degrees DATE-OBS= '2023-09-15T21:17:52.226397' / Image created time FILTER = 'IR ' / Filter used when taking image INSTRUME= 'ZWO ASI462MC' / Camera model BAYERPAT= 'GRBG ' / Bayer pattern GAIN = 80 / Gain Value FOCUSPOS= 1617 / Focuser position in steps CTYPE1 = 'RA---TAN-SIP' / TAN (gnomic) projection + SIP distortions CTYPE2 = 'DEC--TAN-SIP' / TAN (gnomic) projection + SIP distortions CRVAL1 = 300.080461534 / RA of reference point CRVAL2 = 22.7485782229 / DEC of reference point CRPIX1 = 287.141927719 / X reference pixel CRPIX2 = 878.079833984 / Y reference pixel CD1_1 = -0.000640259548805 / Transformation matrix CD1_2 = -0.000155699886841 / no comment CD2_1 = 0.000155330795079 / no comment CD2_2 = -0.000640007144967 / no comment A_ORDER = 2 / Polynomial order, axis 1 B_ORDER = 2 / Polynomial order, axis 2 AP_ORDER= 2 / Inv polynomial order, axis 1 BP_ORDER= 2 / Inv polynomial order, axis 2 A_0_0 = 0 / no comment A_0_1 = 0 / no comment A_0_2 = -2.72399212086E-07 / no comment A_1_0 = 0 / no comment A_1_1 = 3.15089321972E-07 / no comment A_2_0 = -4.82895905823E-08 / no comment B_0_0 = 0 / no comment B_0_1 = 0 / no comment B_0_2 = 1.01487242366E-07 / no comment B_1_0 = 0 / no comment B_1_1 = 5.82881418145E-07 / no comment B_2_0 = -5.54562671461E-07 / no comment AP_0_0 = 2.36061654639E-05 / no comment AP_0_1 = -5.6197243827E-08 / no comment AP_0_2 = 2.72324015254E-07 / no comment AP_1_0 = -6.89411248193E-08 / no comment AP_1_1 = -3.1489293254E-07 / no comment AP_2_0 = 4.8196817389E-08 / no comment BP_0_0 = -3.84631989892E-05 / no comment BP_0_1 = -1.12292551537E-07 / no comment BP_0_2 = -1.0135344279E-07 / no comment BP_1_0 = 2.21043408709E-07 / no comment BP_1_1 = -5.82848681282E-07 / no comment BP_2_0 = 5.54345404161E-07 / no comment IMAGEW = 1080 / Image width, in pixels. IMAGEH = 1920 / Image height, in pixels. END Stacked_M 57_10.0s_20230915-221030.fit

Briefly, I'll explain that the new ZWO Seestar S50 delivers two kinds of output files: 1) A high-resolution .jpeg delivered to the controlling smartphone, and maybe onwards via the Cloud to your image processing PC. All so simple a child could do it. An increase in the contrast brings out more detail. 2) A FITS file (accompanied by a low-res .jpg thumbnail) stored in the S50. This can readily be extracted to a PC or laptop via a file browser. But what is one supposed to do with it? Apparently the FITS file contains the stacked images, and needs to be stacked by a program e.g. Siril or Deep Sky Stacker, before being processed in one's program of choice (e.g. GIMP). I have looked at Youtube tutorials, and downloaded various bits of software, but my small brain can't make sense of any of it. One tutorial recommended using Siril using a particular script, which turned out not to be in the default installation, and which I could not find to download. Fail 1 Sirilic was suggested, which seems to involve signing up to GitHub. And not finding anything to download. Fail 2 I downloaded Deep Sky Stacker (which I managed to try out a couple of years ago on another PC) but got nowhere with the S50 FITS. Fail 3 Isn't there a SIMPLE way of doing this?

I have a SLT mount, but I would appreciate a photo (preferably annotated) of the faulty area in case I can help. There is a slip clutch and on one occasion I removed the dovetail clamp screw so I could access the large nut and adjust it. I have not had to touch it since. IIRC there are various preparations, e.g. Loctite, used to discourage nuts and bolts from unscrewing.

I have established by using NASA's FV fits viewer that the SS50's FITS files definitely contain multiple images - the number varies depending which file I checked. They differ from Sharpcap's stacked FITS files. As for how to unbundle and stack them, I still don't see how.

I received the SS50 a few days ago and on Friday I was able to take it on a dark skies weekend and give it its 'first light'. First impressions are that it is extremely easy to use, except that the app is not that easy to use, and in total darkness it is impossible to see where the little black device is pointing itself - whether somebody is stood in front of it, or if it is pointing at a tree. The aiming process (entirely automatic) is not that quick and can take a minute or more while the device plate-solves and re-aims. One has to initiate the actual stacked image taking manually. Once taken, the images look good on the smartphone and if you have setup with icloud will copy to your image processing computer without further intervention. Here, I found that an increase in contrast brings up nebulae in the iphone image nicely. Images are also stored in the SS50 itself and this is a different story. First, these are not the same images as sent to the smartphone. There is a low-resolution jpg which is essentially a thumbnail, and a high-resolution FITS file. A big GOTCHA here for anyone who is used to using Sharpcap for live-stacking and saving a file. This is apparently a different variety of FITs file and needs to be stacked in Deep Sky Stacker or Siril, before processing in (e.g.) GIMP. It took me a while to realise this, following a search online. So I downloaded and installed Siril, and tried to follow an instructional video for processing SS50 FITS that I found on Youtube. Turns out after further head-scratching that this involves a script file that has to be downloaded separately because it's not in my Siril. Could not find script, and gave up. TBF I'm not impressed with this. It's really easy for any newbie to use this device, but if you want to process the saved images, you are expected to instantly transform into Image Processing Expert?

I had a plastic boss shear off on a Celestron SE tripod leg. My solution was to stick it all back together with Araldite and reinforce the boss with metal by Aralditing a snug metal sleeve over the outside of the boss. It made a neat job and is holding OK so far.

The OTA has various holes on the front and back castings for attaching stuff. There may be a set that will take a dovetail bar. If not, just fit some sort of bracket to the back casting via the available holes. Clue; my CPC800 has a red-dot finder And a RACI finder on separate brackets.

You won't see much detail on the live screen during capture, compared with the final processed result. Typically you can see a cloud belt or two, and the Great Red Spot if it's on the Earth-facing side. I'd hesitate to cast aspersions on your camera, but I could not find any reviews comparing it with the ZWO range. Have you checked the collimation of your Meade? I thought my CPC800 was okay, till I did a side-by-side collimation star test with another SCT, tweaked it and noted an immediate improvement in the imaging results. Clearly the collimation is critical - if it is noticeably off during general viewing then it's really bad.

You need to adopt a systematic approach, instead of searching for a magic bullet. Choose the right observing time, get the focus right, get the video recorded right. Then choose a set of tools (as used by others) and use them systematically, keeping a note of what settings you have used. If you keep the source videos filed by date, you can go back at any time and try re-processing with different settings, or different tools. Sort processed files in sub-directories. If the source videos are no good, the final results won't be either.

There is no need to have files that long. Most of mine are around 350MB (320x240 & 500 frames). If you can save .ser files instead of .avi you won't have to do a de-bayering operation on them.

You need to specify a budget. Any telescope with good quality optics will do, other than a short focal ratio achromat. Some designs may be slightly better than others, at the same aperture. And the bigger the aperture, the better.

I had a quick play with one of your Saturn files. I am not clear what you have done here, as I don't use PIPP for planetary at all in most cases. I loaded it into Registax as if it was a file pre-processed in Autostakkert from a video. The colour balance was awful, with hardly any blue. I have sharpened it up a bit but it still looks bad. Oddly there is hardly any noise. TBH, given the likely value of the other gear involved, it would not be overkill to buy a used Win10 business laptop, and use it for image capture and processing. Then you can use all the popular astro programs, e.g Sharpcap > .ser video > Autostakkert >tif > Registax. If you reduce your ROI that will cut your raw file size, increase capture rate, and avoid filling your storage with data representing black sky.