ZWO Seestar 50

[andrew63]

33 minutes ago, Pixies said:

and here's the very faint Leo1 galaxy next to Regulus:

clue:

 

33 minutes ago, Pixies said:

and here's the very faint Leo1 galaxy next to Regulus:

clue:

That galaxy 'smudge' image is about the closest depiction I've seen that represents how many DSO and diffuse comets appear visually in my small telescope! 

[Geoff Lister]

9 hours ago, GasGiant said:

What sort of WiFi range are people experiencing?

Where I want to place the s50 is up the garden  somewhat.

I use mine from my conservatory or an adjacent room behind a cavity wall, probably 6m from the s50's location on a patio. The initial connection is via Bluetooth, and then via WiFi. There is probably a wide variation of the "range" of both, depending on the orientation of the s50 and tablet/phone.

The s50 does not require a continuous connection. Once it has started imaging a target, you can drop the connection, and go back later to check progress. I do this when I have both my s50 and Dwarf II operating at the same time. If the connection has dropped for some reason, your tablet/phone will probably have reverted to home WiFi, and you may have to use "settings" to go back to the s50 - your screen will show progess within a few seconds, as though the disconnection had never happened.

Geoff

[Bazz]

The Moon from last night

 

[paulastro]

I went out last night desperatel to be able to use the S50 on deep sky for the first night for a month.   Clear at 6pm but cloud forecast by 7.00pm.  At 6pm took a snap of the 72% gibbous Moon, so at least I'd get something..

Then out again at 6.30, still 50 mts until darkness arrives and few stars visible, but still clear.  I started an exposure of M33 about 6.40, despite the lack of stars and bright Moon.  In such conditions I wanted to see how the S50  would perform, if at all.

Anyway not long after starting, it started to miss stacking some frames as clouds were rapidly building up. By the time Ihad accumulated 7 mts of eposture time, M33 was only just visible on the phone. I was surprised I got what I did as by this time I could hardly see any gaps in the cloud. I ended the run.

Inside I just messed about with the phone's software to see what I could get out of it, without much optimism.  Now, of course the processed frame is of very poor quality, but I was surprised it showed up so much.  Comparing it with a photo in the Cambridge Messier Atlas it shows the extent of the arms to some degree, and several of the brighter star forming regions.  Quite amazing really in the conditions I thought.  It should show a lot in a datk sky with an hour or so exposure.  Below is the Moon shot, and the unprocessed and processed M33 exposures.

.

 

 

Edited February 19 by paulastro
Typo

[Elp]

M33 is quite a difficult one as it is reasonably large and spread out and we're sort of looking at it at an angle near head on so the spirals are quite faint, even with AP equipment it takes a while to gather the data to bring the detail out. I'm sure with some perseverance you'll get a decent result.

[paulastro]

7 minutes ago, Elp said:

M33 is quite a difficult one as it is reasonably large and spread out and we're sort of looking at it at an angle near head on so the spirals are quite faint, even with AP equipment it takes a while to gather the data to bring the detail out. I'm sure with some perseverance you'll get a decent result.

Yes, I realise it's a difficult object.  My point was how well the S50 did to bring out what it did in such conditions. In a good dark sky I'm confident it will be quite impressive.

Edited February 19 by paulastro

[M40]

12 hours ago, GasGiant said:

What sort of WiFi range are people experiencing?

On the subject of wifi, here's something I've noticed. The last two times when the clouds gave me a break, I had both the seestar and a telescope with an asiair working. Both times I first set the asiair to work using a tablet and then got the seestar working with the phone. They were about 5m apart. Both times in order to connect to the seestar, I had to reboot the phone, the app just did not want to connect. The phone could see the seestar wifi network. Once connected, all good, but if I moved past the asiair,  the phone disconnected and so I had to reboot again when standing next to the seestar. Not a massive big deal just a tad irritating. Clearly the asiair blows the socks off the seestar wifi.

Just to add, this is not something I plan to do again. I found myself extremely busy doing this and being as how I just enjoy having the time to just look up or look at the image build up, it's going to be one or the other not both.....unless there is an easy way I've missed 🤔

[WiltsStarGazer]

31 minutes ago, M40 said:

On the subject of wifi, here's something I've noticed. The last two times when the clouds gave me a break, I had both the seestar and a telescope with an asiair working. Both times I first set the asiair to work using a tablet and then got the seestar working with the phone. They were about 5m apart. Both times in order to connect to the seestar, I had to reboot the phone, the app just did not want to connect. The phone could see the seestar wifi network. Once connected, all good, but if I moved past the asiair,  the phone disconnected and so I had to reboot again when standing next to the seestar. Not a massive big deal just a tad irritating. Clearly the asiair blows the socks off the seestar wifi.

Just to add, this is not something I plan to do again. I found myself extremely busy doing this and being as how I just enjoy having the time to just look up or look at the image build up, it's going to be one or the other not both.....unless there is an easy way I've missed 🤔

If you at home, could you not put both into station mode and connect up to both via your home wifi and just switch between the two apps?

[tomato]

1 hour ago, paulastro said:

Yes, I realise it's a difficult object.  My point was how well the S50 did to bring out what it did in such conditions. In a good dark sky I'm confident it will be quite impressive.

Another issue is M33 is now sinking rapidly in altitude, imaging through all that atmosphere doesn't help either, so the S50 did a good job under the circumstances.

[M40]

6 hours ago, WiltsStarGazer said:

If you at home, could you not put both into station mode and connect up to both via your home wifi and just switch between the two apps?

Thanks for the idea, I know of it, but I have not looked at station mode at all, well worth a look.

[ionthesky]

I've been enjoying the SS50 since I received it late last year.  I'm still learning how to get the most out of it, but have had some successes.   It sure beats sitting outside on the patio whe the temp is in the single digits (Fahrenheit).

Here's a shot I got the other night of the Flame and the Horsehead.  This is under Bortle 5/6 sky, about 19.3 MPSAS.  No post-processing, other than a slight contrast adjustment in the phone's photo gallery software.

[GasGiant]

I see a few mods popping up as well as 3D printed filter holders, dew shield etc etc  Nice 🤙

https://www.thingiverse.com/search?q=seestar+s50&page=1

 

Guys on YouTube have made equatorial mounts for the scope. Though thats probably not something I would do as its not worth the hassle ?  Apart from that, maybe the angle would put undue strain on the motor, gears and bearings?  However, this guy has posted some lovely images! 

 

Edited February 20 by GasGiant

[Geoff Lister]

These 3 images of M33 (without any post-processing) were recorded during the same session, and give an indication of the increse in detail with increasing stacking time. I think it shows that even 1 minute (6-off, 10-second captures) starts to show some useful detail.

Geoff

[Beardy30]

Just ordered my Seestar today,  can’t wait ☺️

[GasGiant]

Mine just arrived.😀 

I expect FLO have added clouds,  as usual 🤣

[Geoff Lister]

This morning, when I started my Seestar app, it advised updating to latest version. I did so and Google Android "App info" now states "Build number 1.15.0" and the connected, and updated, s50 shows firmware 2.30. I like the way the built-in voice says "Updating Firmware" about 7% into the update cycle - very reassuring.

Needless to say, cloud cover forcast for the next few nights 😬.

Geoff

[Pixies]

There have been a few complaints about firmware v2.30. Mainly that it now struggles to find the moon!

I can confirm that this is true for me.

[Geoff Lister]

6 hours ago, Pixies said:

Mainly that it now struggles to find the moon!

Just in case, I recalibrated the compass.

There was a small gap in the clouds, and I tried a Lunar goto, and, after a levelling adjustment, it went straight on to target.

Geoff

[LDW1]

Maybe I have already mentioned this, every time I take one of my SS out I do a calibration, then level it and then a 3 point goto and it never, ever fails me !  The amount of time to do it is peanuts.  The sun, never had a problem, ever !

[GasGiant]

Im out now.  Had a faff to start with calibrating/moon finding.  Taken some imagery of M42 and currently on M31

 

How long should I keep going with frames etc ? Its at 8 minutes so far. Does it auto stop, or do I stop it when I think it looks good ?

[paulastro]

Just click on the button when you have the pic you want  and it stops and sends a jpeg of it to your phone.  Generally the longer exposure the better the picture.

You'll find the jpeg in your gallery if you're phone is an Android.

 

Edited February 22 by paulastro

[GasGiant]

First pics 😀

[paulastro]

Well done on your first light with the S50.  The first of many I hope.

[GasGiant]

One thing I noticed. 

when I tried to Go To the moon to do some frames it slewed on target but it was super bright and blew out the exposure. The exposure scale on the side didnt help matters ? what did I do wrong. I thought it would auto expose. I couldnt take any stacked images, just snapshots

[GasGiant]

Edit the above..

 

Just realised,  I have to take video!