Giles_B

Having been lucky enough to get a ZWO Seestar delivered a short while ago, I can now see how imaging can really add to my experience of astronomy. I'm now thinking about how the right camera to complement the Seestar and act as a stepping stone to "deeper" imaging in future. The SeeStar uses a Sony IMX 462 colour sensor. I was wondering if a mono camera based on the same chip - the ZWO Asi462mm - would be a complementary piece of equipment? My primary intention is to image solar system objects - the sun with an 80mm f12.5 refractor / a 60mm Daystar Ha scope on a Star adventurer, and the planets with my VX10 10" dob, which has an equatorial platform. I'd also like to experiment with imaging some DSOs - I'm expecting broadly similar results to the SeeStar, but expect to add something by using a mono camera for extra sensitivity, a range of objective sizes of the various scopes above (plus potentially a celestron 130mm Newtonian if I can find a better focuser for it). I'd see this as a stepping stone to getting a more suitable imaging scope, camera etc. further down the line. Is the ASI462mm a good choice for this plan? I'd rather stick with ZWO because I've just bought a Asiair, but I'd be interested in your advice about my expectations of the ASI462mm and whether there are other or better intermediate solutions I should consider?

A SeeStar for sale on ABS for £650. Same strapline as the ebay auction last week: "the only way you'll get one before xmas" - let's hope it's clear skies over the holidays!

I get about 10m for a good signal and 12m for a signal that drops out and reconnects. Switching the SeeStar to 2.4G helps. Our garden is long - about 40m - so one of the first things I did was to buy a cheap programmable repeater https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-mt300n-v2/. I put this just outside the house and it gives me a good signal a fair way inside - enough to sit on the sofa and control the Seestar.

Last update for today - there has been a new version of the app released for android and iphone - the newest app version 1.10.1 is available for download from the ZWO: https://www.zwoastro.com/downloads/seestar Feature: Added Auto-center feature in the Solar & Lunar Mode. Added Full-screen preview feature. Added Advanced Feature: Compass Calibration. Added Advanced Feature: Adjust Level. The max-record time of the Time-lapse is changed to 1000min. The visibility time of the objects is changed to the current altitude. Automatically use the result of the last preparation when preparation for image enhancement fails. Increase the step size for manual focusing. Optimizations: Optimized text and UI. Fixed known bugs.

And just to +1 this - my Honor 9 phone is Android 9 and has no problem working with the SeeStar.

Just updated to the latest firmware (1.79) last night before continuing my multi-session capture. Seestar now saves a master dark in the SeeStar/DarkLibrary folder - I'll be interested to see how this affects manual postprocessing. Edit - just a quick update on this having had a chance to start messing around - very annoyingly, at least for doing my multi-session stacking, the Naxis 1 and 2 variables are switched around by the update - i.e. old images are: NAXIS1 = 1080 / NAXIS2 = 1920, and new images are NAXIS1 =1920 / NAXIS2 = 1080 - this means that images from older sessions are not compatible with newer sessions in Sirilic. I'll have a hunt on google when I get time, but on the off chance does anyone know of a workaround? 2nd edit - having investigated a bit more, it is only the master dark that is switched around - the images since the update have the correct rotation. This means the fix is straightforward - open the master dark, rotate it 90 degrees and then save it. This allows stacking to work for multi-session with the master dark included.

yes, I've definitely got a bit hooked - I've always assumed that imaging was a bit boring, but now I've started trying to do multiple sessions on the same objects. I think I have a natural tendency to get into the geeky stuff.

@Ande, if you do want to dive a bit deeper I've been following this guide from Deep Space Astro, which uses Siril and Photoshop to process the images: Should you wish to stack in Siril you can either the OSC_preprocessing_withoutDBF script (downloadable from the Siril website https://gitlab.com/free-astro/siril-scripts/-/tree/main/preprocessing?ref_type=heads) or Sirilic (https://gitlab.com/free-astro/sirilic/-/releases) This made the learning curve much more shallow for me, and produces very satisfying results for me.

To be honest solar was only something I tried when I first got the scope. I agree doing things fast was asking for trouble! In many cases doing things slowly doesn't make things much better and I'm forever dropping and misplacing things - it's a minor miracle my kit is still in good shape!

Yes, I'm absolutely on the same page - I haven't used it much for solar, but when I did I found myself hurriedly trying to fit the filter while the scope was in motion, undoubtedly placing a strain on the motor in the process. A simple, "maintenance" mode would be helpful - my SeeStar got caught in light rain last night when I sneaked a couple of hours during a break in the cloud - it was a real pest not being able to quickly check the objective was dry once I got it inside. Yes, plastic ones being sold on ebay for a fiver, and metal ones on AliExpress for a bit more.

Full moon over the weekend so not the most favourable conditions, but had a go at the flaming head nebula about 5am this morning. Quite dim, but managed to bring a bit of detail out with post-processing: Also got aquainted with Sirilic and had a go at stacking 3 sessions on IC5070 - Pelican nebula: Original first (posted this before), then post-processed:

Thanks for sharing. The D2 is certainly an exciting little device and the EQ mode, wider field of view remote and daytime function- not to mention landscape orientation - are tempting additions. What is the range when using it for remote nature watching?

Cloudy last night, but partially so, always a few gaps in the clouds so I thought i’d see what the Seestar would achieve in tough conditions. It was a night I'd never have bothered to set the dob up on, because the view would have been too intermittent. I was pushing the Seestar to its limits obviously and for that reason only the results may be of interest. A few targets I tried the software claimed to find but didn't get any result - I guess the plate solving either got confused or the target clouded over. The couple of targets I did capture needed to enhance for long periods. M39 was a fairly easy target. 20 minutes on the target, all the available subs have some cloud but the cluster comes out nicely. It must reject the subs that have no stars because these aren't saved - generally only 2-3 subs a minute are available. Much less luck with the wizard nebula despite about two hours on the target (of which only about 1\4 resulted in a saved sub) so lots of variation in sky quality and some rotation. However to be honest I'm quite surprised it captured anything, given the conditions.

These are great, and I particularly like M81 (although it's labelled M16 on your processed picture 😮) What's the galaxy nearby visible on the top left corner of that M81 pic? The processing seems to have added detail to this over that visible on the SeeStar image - was that because the internal stacking cropped it out? Got some clear sky last night, but I haven't got around to doing anything with the SeeStar pictures yet. Spent the evening switching between looking a Saturn with the dob, and getting a better sense of the early winter sky with the binoculars, and all the while SeeStar looked at DSOs in detail - a perfect astro night out!

In common with most astronomers I certainly AM cash-limited and have to weigh up my purchases carefully. Unfortunately I won't be getting a Dwarf soon. However that doesn't mean I'm not very interested in what the Dwarf will eventually do with the right software support (which seems to be coming, if slowly).

A second beautifully clear weekend, and a chance to try out the updated v1.9 app and 1.6 firmware. Unfortunately I spent much of the small hours of Saturday imaging the elephants trunk only to find that the SeeStar was pointing at a tree. There is only so much operator error you can take out of a go to system! A couple of images from early on Friday night worth sharing all the same - in both cases I've included post processed versions I manually restacked and further processed using Siril and Photoshop: M13: Pelican Nebula: Finally, the power died during a visualisation of M32 - this was after the elephant's trunk debacle, so the battery was pretty low. No SeeStar processed version to be found, but the FITS survived. I've included it here because I did a rather lacklustre job of capturing this with my first weekend with the SeeStar - I forgot to use the internal filter - so I was pleased to see the amount of detail the SeeStar FITS hold when the filter is used as it should be. This was from a total of 112 10 second subs, restacked with Siril and post-processed in Siril and Photoshop: All imaged in Bortle 5 suburban skies.

There is a setting in the "advanced features" menu to "save all frames" - this saves separate FITS and JPEGS in a SeeStar folder with the suffix '-sub', accessible when you connect to your computer.

FYI v1.9 of the app is available to download from the ZWO website for both iOS and Android - https://www.zwoastro.com/downloads/seestar

I haven't been brave enough to test my french or deal with automatic translation, but the most obvious Achilles heels of the SeeStar seem to be the narrow field of view and the relatively low pixel resolution of the camera - you don't have to try many objects to get sense of these limitations. Some software tweaks will help - mosaic would help it to shine with larger objects - but it's hardly surprising that the higher spec'ed Vespera is the best performer. Ultimately whether this is a deal breaker for the SeeStar comes down to cost - for the cash limited - i.e. pretty much everyone, there is always something bigger, better and more expensive in astronomy , but the SeeStar (and I assume, having never used one, the Dwarf) give a heck of a lot of bang per buck.

Thanks Geoff - That's usually the case with photos on Android, so I'm not sure if it is an issue with using a phone with an old version of Android, something weird I've done with the SeeStar app setup, or something else, but the stacked jpegs are definitely not on my phone - I've been searching on and off since Sunday(!). I've filed a bug report, and will do some more experimenting by using a different device (with newer Android) to control the Seestar next time.

I'm having some issues with retrieving (rather than just viewing) the stacked images from SeeStar (no problem getting the fits and stacking them myself). I've worked around this by taking screenshots of the images - these are my favourites from the lovely clear spell on Saturday night. Generally I tried to linger on the objects for a while to see how much detail the SeeStar could extract, but I'd emphasise that the results were generally very impressive after a couple of minutes or less:

Well after a lot of searching they are definitely not there on my phone - I can view, but not retrieve the images from the cloud. Could be the android version - my phone is on Android 9. I can check this out next time by using my tablet, which is running Android 13 - instead of the phone to access the SeesStar. For now I can take screenshots of the photos from the cloud to share the images. Which is a bit clunky, but it's a workaround. That said, I've found playing with Siril and photoshop surprisingly satisfying and straightforward, so I imagine I will reprocess most images anyway.

You were right - permission to access phone storage was not set on the app. Still can't find the jpegs, but hopefully next time I connect with seestar and process an image they will be saved to my photos!

How is everyone getting the watermarked processed jpegs from the SeeStar? I can copy the jpeg thumbnail and fits files to my PC but can't seem to view the watermarked processed jpeg images outside the app - they are not on my phone or the SeeStar as far as I can see. I'm running the android 1.8 app and the latest firmware (from memory version 1.58)

Just getting familiar with Siril and the SeeStar, one after another. This is M82 - 27 10-second exposures over 7 mins. The image was pretty much as is from the first exposure, really showing the SeeStar's potential for object enhancement in real time. I had some problems getting the processed jpg because the app wasn't signed in - hence the scrappy original jpg here. Later tidied up in Siril for a prettier version. Original: Processed: