Ande

Thanks @Giles_B  I’m pretty sure it’s faulty too. After all, the first couple of sessions it performed as it should. Something has definitely gone awry since. Fortunately, I purchased it from FLO, so hopefully they’ll do me proud when I bring it to their attention. 

33 minutes ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

The only time i have the problem you first described is if i have mischieviously tried to goto Jupiter ... i then get the same massage about not having enough stars . I am 100% sure you do this , but please make sure to callibrate the mount (Compass ) and level the mount as accurately as you can . 

I’m no stranger to the compass calibration dance 😂. And I do level before each session, regardless of whether the Seestar asks for it or not. In fact, I bought a tripod leveller to better do the job.  What concerns me more than the preliminaries, is the huge amount of dropped frames. Over an hour’s imaging last night, on the Crescent Nebula, earned me 9 minutes of data. See pic.

I use the focus figures from the previous session as a starting point. However, the Seestar, if asked to then autofocus, will blow the stars up to blurry snowballs, have a half-hearted attempt to focus, and then declare that it can’t see the stars. Then it’s Bhatinov mask time as I manually get the stars sharp again. 

Last night’s disastrous session was from a Bortle Class 5. 

Is anybody else having issues with their Seestar? I seem to be having a running battle with mine….

Firstly, I usually get it to point at one of the brighter stars, Vega or similar, in order to get a decent focus. It will struggle to locate it and will try to plate solve. Then it will moan about not seeing enough stars. It’ll keep taking pictures, then take the full 30 seconds to try to get it’s bearings.  It will invariably fail, and keep repeating the process several times before reporting it’s inability to complete the task. Eventually, I’ll get the star centred, then it will fail to focus, so I have to do it manually with the aid of a Bhatinov mask.  Once it’s finally in focus, and pointing where it should be, I’ll choose a target. It’ll eventually find it, and then start imaging. However, it is discarding more frames than it is keeping. Far more…. It can take an hour to give me 5-6 minutes of data.  Every 6 or 7 passes it will inform me of star trails, but most of the interim pictures are ignored anyway, so it’s a moot point.  And every now and then it’ll moan that it can’t see any stars during imaging. It’s done this when looking at the Pleiades so I’m not at all sympathetic. Especially when I can see it clearly with my 61 year old eyes. 
 

Another odd thing it will do is suddenly present me with a picture where it looks like the brightest stars have melted downwards, as if the telescope has been knocked. But all of the lesser stars are still sharp, so it makes no sense. Although, somewhat infuriatingly, it’ll happily add the frame to the stack. 
 

With all of the above, I am trying to give the Seestar the best possible chance. I systematically level it before starting anything, regardless of whether it asks for it or not. And if the moons up and bright, and say sat in the east, I’ll pick a target in the west.  I’ll try and place it where it is sheltered from the wind. 
 

I’m getting exhausted keep running outside, because every time I realise it’s not adding frames I go dashing out expecting to see clouds and, possibly, rain. And it’s most frustrating when the sky is crystal clear giving the Seestar no excuse. Right now I feel like sticking my boot under it 🤨

Oh, lastly, when I carefully pick the Seestar up, by gripping the tripod, I can feel a slight wobble in the ‘scope. I just assumed that this was a little play in the bearings, or gearing. Just wondering if this is par for the course, or if it should be totally free of any play?  I do screw it fairly firmly to the tripod, so it cannot be attributed to the way it is mounted. 
 

Does any of this ring a bell, or have I got a Friday afternoon special?
 

The first proper break in the clouds since purchase came last night. Unfortunately, because I’m still at the stage of wondering what it can do, I had it hopping around the sky at numerous various targets, instead of settling on just one project. I aim to be a lot more patient for it’s next outing. I was very pleased at what it was able to to do with the Orion Nebula though. Is there a way to get the Seestar to take shorter exposures than 10 seconds? It would be nice to be able to blend one with the final image without having the core blown out.  
 

If I ever get the hang of post-processing the DSO’s , then the next thing will be trying to get my head around .avi for the solar and lunar stuff. But I’m definitely putting that on the back burner for a while as my squirrel brain only takes in so much at any one time. 

@powerlord Downloaded Quickfits, and am delighted to report that it does, indeed, convert .fits to .tiffs. Much appreciated Stu 🙂. I’ll battle on and see if PS suits me at all, if not I’ll bag Affinity. Just trying to cling onto my £68 a bit longer if I can 😂

Thanks Stu. I’ll have a peep at Quickfits. I watched the video you linked, and it looks very good indeed. Certainly a lot less intimidating than PS. 

1 hour ago, powerlord said:

you don' really want to be opening these in photoshop - you won't see much as they are linear data and will appear almost black. To just view them - get quickfits from app store.

To do anything more with them - i.e. stack, etc - download Siril - it's free.

DO watch a few tutorials first though as it's not easy to use.

Alternatively I would recommend Affinity Photo - it DOES handle fits natively, AND will stack them all up properly - so no need for siril ,etc. And it is really easy to use.

Unlike photoshop, its a buy once product - no subscriptions - its 68 quid - which compared to PS is a bargain imho. It does everything ps does and much more (imho) - in particular having lots of astrophotography features that PS does not have. One of the main chaps there, James Ritson is an astrophotographer.

https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/photo/#buy

30 day trial available, so download it and give it a go?

tutorial of stacking:

And it's native to mac and has a mac silicon version which is super fast if your mac is mac silicon.

stu

@powerlord Thanks Stu. Please forgive my naievity, but I thought the images had already been stacked on the Seestar? I had watched a couple of PS tutorials, and had purchased a ProDigital Astronomy Tools Action Kit for PS to help make things a tad simpler.  All I really wanted to be able to achieve in PS was to stretch the images to extract more data. I really am new to all of this imaging malarkey and, even with the Seestar removing all of the image acquisition workload, it’s still quite a steep learning cliff. So am I best off completely abandoning the PS route?

PS:

Re: Viewing the images….  I’ve actually downloaded ASIStudio which will let me have a decent gander at them in their unfettered form. So at least I have that bit covered 🙂

First problem….  Tried to open the .fit files into Photoshop, but the format isn’t supported. Any idea how I can convert the files to .tiff on a Mac?

Regarding the photos storage, my Seestar app asked for access to my photos during initial setup. Now, it just automatically drops the photos into my phone. 

I know it’s a bit nit-picky, but I find the fitting of the solar filter a bit of a pain. Not the actual inserting, but the orientation of the ‘scope. You almost invariably choose “Solar” from the parked position. It then asks you to ensure the filter is fitted before commencement. Again, almost invariably, it won’t be, and the scope is in the parked position so you can’t fit it. You then have to faff about getting it to target something that isn’t the sun, or move the scope manually, so you can get the filter on. Then it can go sun hunting. I don’t know why it just doesn’t raise itself up to 60 degrees or so when you choose solar, and then prompt you to attach the filter.  Like I said, a bit nit-picky, and not the end of the world. 

Well the app allows you to reframe the target, so I could do it with stitching, yes. I’d have to brush up on my total lack of stitching skills however 😅. Worth thinking about as a plan B though, thanks 🙂

I believe ZWO have stated that a mosaic mode will be on the cards at some point. Does anyone have any idea as to a rough timescale? Pleiades is calling, and I can’t bare to crop any of it out, lol. 

Thanks both. The autofocus on mine does seemed to be pretty good to be honest. At least it did on my most brief of sessions last night, when the moon popped out for a few minutes. I’ll leave the Bhatinov alone for a while. 

Thanks @DaveL59  I hadn’t realised that there was a manual focus option in the app. That would make the purchase of a mask a lot more viable. Cheers 🙂

Just a bit confused about the implementation of Bhatinov masks?  Does the Seestar have a manual focussing option, or does it automatically incorporate the mask in its focussing routine?

Had the happy email from FLO today, saying that my Seestar was now finally in stock. Managed to brave the traffic, and go collect it. Then the clouds rolled in….  Managed to get a snap of the moon before it got engulfed. Came out quite nice for a single, rushed  shot.  Then it started raining.  Really excited to have such an easy device to use though. And cannot wait to start getting some use out of it. 

9 minutes ago, Elp said:

Ask @Andeif they've still got the Z61 for sale, it's what I use and an awesome scope. They've also got a flattener for it listed. They are widely available otherwise.

Thanks for the nod 😃

Been wondering what all the fuss was about, so just had this turn up. And I must say if feels pretty premium, although I haven’t had chance to peep through it yet….

On 22/12/2021 at 18:00, nephilim said:

@Ande With your recommendations your becoming an expensive online friend to have what with the ASIAIR Pro & now this 😂

In all seriousness you've actually saved me money here (and as for the ASIAIR, that's been an absolute dream to use). I hadn't even thought about using a toolbox and flight cases that would be a suitable size were easily around the £150+ mark.

Buying the toolbox at £29.99 plus the packaging foam (here's a link if you haven't sorted yours yet.   https://www.easyfoam.co.uk/packaging-foam.php ) will have saved me a fairly big chunk of money.

Anyway it was meant to be though,  as I mentioned, there's a ScrewFix a 5min drive away from my parents & this was the last they had in stock until the New Year.

Although this would fit both the guiding & imaging gear, it would be a squeeze so I've decided to keep my main camera & lens setup in this case along with its Bahtinov Mask & Dew controller & dew heater strap, I'm then going to buy another toolbox the next size down for my guiding setup, the control until for my ES EXOS II PMC-Eight mount, filter, cables & the tablet I use for the AAP.

I never thought buying a toolbox would make me so happy 😂 Just please don't recommend anything beginning with the 'letters' Planewave or 10 Micron 😬

 

Did you ever get round to decking your case out in foam? Would love to see a picture or two if you have. I’ve not done mine yet. I need to order some of that pick-foam that you linked.

What an amazing image Nigella.  Well done! Truly inspirational. 

Happy to report that I’ve completely resolved the problem. And in a non-destructive way too, which makes me a happy bunny.  I happened to have some self adhesive circular, soft felt/fibre furniture protectors kicking around. I stuck one to each of the two PTFE washers, and Bob’s your uncle 😃. They are quite soft, so no chance of roughing up the paint. But, more importantly, they can be compressed quite nicely.  I now have no sag, regardless of how I align the scope.  I’m well happy now, and looking forward to getting it back out there. 
 

30 minutes ago, The Admiral said:

Agreed, at least for the Plus version, there is a power setting tab where you can adjust the percentage for each of the 4 outputs. It does seem to require that the corresponding O/P is named before you can access the adjustment.

Good to see that the dew control product can be had with a shorter lead, too. Saves trying to manage metres of excess cable.

Ian

Thanks Ian. I thought I was going slowly mad.  That will make cable management so much easier.