ZWO Seestar 50

[DaveL59]

4 hours ago, powerlord said:

You should maybe tell the police in case it's serious ?

nah, they've been occasional callers to next door over the past years, not always getting an answer at the door even when they are clearly inside. Usually looking for a specific individual as I've spoken with them in the past when they've knocked here. Informed them about the rear escape route back then too so they can cover it if needed 😉 

Just been quite amusing to see the goings on after that SSID broadcast, got them spooked maybe 😄 

[LDW1]

On 06/10/2023 at 05:14, Stu1smartcookie said:

I like your enthusiasm for the SS50 , and showing the results , which are very encouraging for others . Good to see .

Thanx !  Just pointing out to eager fellow astronomers its capabilities, its instant views which we have all been told over many prior months. Its part of our duties to bring this out to waiting enthusiasts who are kind of sitting on the fence wondering if whether spending about $500 is worth it !  In my mind from what I can see, right now, it is a piece of gear for everyone who enjoys their night sky overhead, bar none !

Edited October 8, 2023 by LDW1
reduce photo size

[powerlord]

appropriate that today's APOD was this:

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231006.html

I wonder what Mr Hubble would make of an S50 if you went back in time and gave it to him.

Edited October 6, 2023 by powerlord

[LDW1]

25 minutes ago, powerlord said:

appropriate that today's APOD was this:

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231006.html

I wonder what Mr Hubble would make of an S50 if you went back in time and gave it to him.

He would start out at a loss for words, lol !

[powerlord]

On 04/10/2023 at 10:15, powerlord said:

just for kicks - here's what 26 mins with a seestar s50 gets you:

 

So... same target tonight. 30 mins - so 4 mins longer, but pretty much same... here it is with internal LP filter:

Surprising eh ? I mean, sure, with a heck of a lot more integration time, the L-extreme might be better, but I think the internal LP is a far better filter for most S50 use.

here's a gif:

[powerlord]

So,
the forecast was rubbish for tonight, but when it got dark the clouds disappeared, so I got the S50 out and did crescent again (see above).

But I also wanted to test the new more solid camera mount. I stuck the new sony a5000 full spectrum I've bought on it with a 55-210 lens. I stuck a UVIR 49mm filter on the front. I didn't know how well it would track, so I stuck to 20 second exposures, shot about 100 at around 130mm (according the EXIF) and 130ish at 55mm (full open). I must admit I thought I'd zoomed right in for the first set, but I reckon it slipped back.

Anyhoo, good news! - with a solid mounted camera the S50 has no issues tracking with that camera on, and the shots from the camera are good. It was just a test, so I just focused by eye, so my focus is not great - but the point is - no star trails on the 55mm, and minimal star trails on the 130mm. So I think it's definitely a viable platform for a aps-c sized mirrorless camera, even with a zoom lens on it.

Now bare in mind - this is a tiny amount of integration time: 13.5 mins for 130mm!!, 32 mins for 55mm. It is really just to test the concept. As your integration time goes up of course, your rotation will increase and you'll end up cropping into the square in the centre of your FOV.

You should be able to find your way around with Sadr in the middle there. A little bit of nebulosity starting to show where it should be. Is this going to get you an APOD ? No. But for a beginner who gets a taste with the S50, and doesn't want to spend a fortune to do a bit more - I think it's a great way to do that.

here's the integrated 130mm image:

and here's the 55mm.

Edited October 6, 2023 by powerlord

[DaveL59]

Wow, a nice result there. Yep some zooms when tilted will creep, either extend or retract depending which wahy you're tilting, a rubber band may help.

as an afterthought, is there a focus to infinity trick for the camera? Some Fuji's have so you can get it to crank the lens to its set infinity (as far as the AF thinks) and then switch to MF and it'll stay there. How close that is to where you need focus to be is the question tho.

Down here it wasn't looking great then a load of cloud rolled over from the north and while a gap did eventually appear there was more cloud following so I didn't bother. Tomorrow night it'd have to be clear early for me as I'll be working from early Sunday so sleep will have to have priority. At least this rig is a drop and play setup so will see how it goes.

Edited October 6, 2023 by DaveL59

[powerlord]

7 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

Wow, a nice result there. Yep some zooms when tilted will creep, either extend or retract depending which wahy you're tilting, a rubber band may help.

as an afterthought, is there a focus to infinity trick for the camera? Some Fuji's have so you can get it to crank the lens to its set infinity (as far as the AF thinks) and then switch to MF and it'll stay there. How close that is to where you need focus to be is the question tho.

Down here it wasn't looking great then a load of cloud rolled over from the north and while a gap did eventually appear there was more cloud following so I didn't bother. Tomorrow night it'd have to be clear early for me as I'll be working from early Sunday so sleep will have to have priority. At least this rig is a drop and play setup so will see how it goes.

nah, i found infinity was actually a good back back from the infinity icon on the bar when I pulled it back, so no such luck

[LDW1]

The new tripod for my SS, that I showed a few posts ago, raised it to 38" (90mm) to the bottom of the SS from 16" (40mm), its stable as rock and it is easier bending over to access it for whatever reason. Some on another forum thought it would be top heavy in a wind but it would have to be tornado force, lol !  You just have to make sure you keep your da* feet away from the legs, lol !

[LDW1]

IC1805, IC1396 using a basic editing program, took about 5 min. each. Some reproduction of photos on this site is bad, can you reduce the size on here for a better overall reproduction ? These really aren't worth showing save to bring attention to the quality.

 

Edited October 9, 2023 by LDW1
reduce scale of photos

[MalcolmP]

1 hour ago, LDW1 said:

can you reduce the size on here for a better overall reproduction ? These really aren't worth showing save to bring attention 

- - and to bring my attention to two objects that I can add to my list of things to investigate thanks for showing. 
If it were me the easy way would be to put the original in a .zip and attach that to the post. Then we would have something to play with,  in all it's glory, during these cloudy days in  England
 

[Giles_B]

Finally saw first light after the clouds parted early on Saturday morning. Cycled through IC410, M82 and finally M78 at about 5am. Left the Seestar stacking on M78 while I got a few hours sleep.

I can only seem to access these tiny jpgs, which don't look so impressive - here's M78 with *lots* of rotation - about 450 10- second subs:

All the FITS were saved, and so I spent the afternoon trying to follow DeepSpaceAstro's beginners guide to Siril -

The results won't rock anyone's world, but I'm fairly pleased with a couple of hours playing:

 

[StevieDvd]

2 hours ago, LDW1 said:

IC1805, IC1396 using a basic editing program, took about 5 min. each. Some reproduction of ohotos on this site is bad, can you reduce the size on here for a better overall reproduction ? These really aren't worth showing save to bring attention to the quality.

When you have inserted the picture double-click on it and you'll get edit options.  Add a title and reduce the size for example by 50%, leave the 'Keep original aspect ratio' checked and the other dimension will adjust automatically.

If anyone wants to see the original they just click on your embedded image.

 

[LDW1]

3 minutes ago, StevieDvd said:

When you have inserted the picture double-click on it and you'll get edit options.  Add a title and reduce the size for example by 50%, leave the 'Keep original aspect ratio' checked and the other dimension will adjust automatically.

If anyone wants to see the original they just click on your embedded image.

 

I will try that, can I still do it with those last two from my last post ?

[StevieDvd]

9 minutes ago, LDW1 said:

I will try that, can I still do it with those last two from my last post ?

Yes you should get the same option with an edited post.

[LDW1]

37 minutes ago, StevieDvd said:

When you have inserted the picture double-click on it and you'll get edit options.  Add a title and reduce the size for example by 50%, leave the 'Keep original aspect ratio' checked and the other dimension will adjust automatically.

If anyone wants to see the original they just click on your embedded image.

 

I reduced the size of the photos to what I want but the original larger sized photos are still there also, how do I now delete them ?

[StevieDvd]

15 hours ago, LDW1 said:

I reduced the size of the photos to what I want but the original larger sized photos are still there also, how do I now delete them ?

Click on the ones you want to delete to select them, they'll change colour when selected, then just press delete on your keyboard.

[Giles_B]

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)

 

[mcwill]

Using the iOS version of the app, the watermarked jpegs are auto saved to the photo library. 

Maybe a permissions thing and you need to give the app access to your photos?

[Giles_B]

9 minutes ago, mcwill said:

Using the iOS version of the app, the watermarked jpegs are auto saved to the photo library. 

Maybe a permissions thing and you need to give the app access to your photos?

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!

[bosun21]

On 06/10/2023 at 22:23, powerlord said:

 

So... same target tonight. 30 mins - so 4 mins longer, but pretty much same... here it is with internal LP filter:

Surprising eh ? I mean, sure, with a heck of a lot more integration time, the L-extreme might be better, but I think the internal LP is a far better filter for most S50 use.

here's a gif:

How much processing did these images require please.

[LDW1]

3 hours ago, StevieDvd said:

Click on the ones you want to delete to select them, they'll change colour when selected, then just press delete on your keyboard.

It doesn't work that way with an ipad air, I can get it to change color but there is no key board at that point, I don't use an external keyboard  therefore no on screen delete key.

[StevieDvd]

30 minutes ago, LDW1 said:

It doesn't work that way with an ipad air, I can get it to change color but there is no key board at that point, I don't use an external keyboard  therefore no on screen delete key.

I don't have an ipad to test this but you could click on the image so it's highlighted and type a single character space, number or alpha. That should replace the image if you can use a backspace on the ipad you could then delete any unwanted characters.

 

Edited October 8, 2023 by StevieDvd
test image removal

[LDW1]

17 minutes ago, StevieDvd said:

I don't have an ipad to test this but you could click on the image so it's highlighted and type a single character space, number or alpha. That should replace the image if you can use a backspace on the ipad you could then delete any unwanted characters.

 

As I mention I don't have access to a keyboard to type anything while highliting the image, the keyboard is on screen and is not visible at that point. I would have to have a keyboard accessory connected to do what you say, lol !

[DaveL59]

2 hours ago, mcwill said:

Using the iOS version of the app, the watermarked jpegs are auto saved to the photo library. 

Maybe a permissions thing and you need to give the app access to your photos?

On android they land in the images folder so should show in the photo gallery app. I've just picked the ones I want and email to myself then I can pick those up from my PC to snippy into a forum post. Or use Dex to drop the files directly into a folder on the PC.