ZWO Seestar 50

[M40]

Had to give todays sunspot a go even though there is a layer of cloud 

And zoomed in.....

 

 

 

[paulastro]

M40.  That's very much all l could manage this morning - but even more hazy.  😊

[M40]

1 hour ago, paulastro said:

M40.  That's very much all l could manage this morning - but even more hazy.  😊

Another once in a lifetime thing so had to try 😁

[DaveL59]

So early-afternoon the postie dropped off the K&F ND10000 filter then had to pop out to the shops. Once back I had a little play tho the sun was a bit low and light cloud in that area, but did manage a couple pics 🙂

That's one heck of a big case the 49mm filter came in LOL

Fits nicely to the filter adaptor powerlord shipped using a 48-49mm adaptor ring

and here we go, a shot of the sun at last 🙂

 

Edited May 11 by DaveL59

[DaveL59]

Can see now having had a play yesterday evening and just now why some would fit a solar finder, since the S50 got itself close-ish but then the faff trying to direct it with the on-screen joypad, pah! So I rigged something temporary which worked pretty well, perhaps it is handy being a smoker after all! 😄

Crude but effective, just get the little dot to where I'd punched a hole and bingo!

Of course by the time I'd got on target, the darn oak tree decided it'd get in the way.

Did manage to get a few shots soon after tho once it'd passed the taller branches of the oak

I tried getting it to take some raw and also elapse and video, not hooked the S50 to the PC yet to see how they came out or if worthwhile.

Pretty pleased with the ND filter, even with the slight tinge of colour, easy enough to adjust saturation etc later if you really really want a pure white image 😉 

[Elp]

40 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

why some would fit a solar finder

You can find the sun quite easily using the tripod leg shadow to work out the azimuth, then slew up to the sun whilst watching your live camera output. It becomes much more difficult at longer focal lengths when you need to refine focus first, the solar finder then helps though it still needs to be adjusted to align with the scope optics.

[DaveL59]

18 minutes ago, Elp said:

You can find the sun quite easily using the tripod leg shadow to work out the azimuth, then slew up to the sun whilst watching your live camera output. It becomes much more difficult at longer focal lengths when you need to refine focus first, the solar finder then helps though it still needs to be adjusted to align with the scope optics.

yeah, other than the lag between lifting off the joypad and the scope stopping as well as some lag here and there on the video displaying. All too easy to overshoot and if using the phone/tablet outside not as easy to see with the bright light all around. Once you get the target in frame tho, it'll centre and track OK, just seems to position above/below and/or left/right even after a couple goes from my couple goes so far.

Funnily enough, I pretty much got spot on with alignment with the DIY fag packet finder 😄 

[Steep]

If you own a 3d printer there's a Seestar S50 specific file on Makerworld so you can print your own sun finder. It even holds the sun filter as well.

[DaveL59]

42 minutes ago, Steep said:

If you own a 3d printer there's a Seestar S50 specific file on Makerworld so you can print your own sun finder. It even holds the sun filter as well.

All well and good but I don't, I'll make one properly one day when I get some time, perhaps 🙂 

[LaurenceT]

I wanted to image Markarians Chain last night but neighbours trees put paid to that so instead of looking for galactic alternatives I settled for M3 when I could have imaged the Leo Triplet...................doh!

[AstroKeith]

Yes, the Leo Triple makes a good target - perfectly matched to the field of view.

[LaurenceT]

4 hours ago, AstroKeith said:

Yes, the Leo Triple makes a good target - perfectly matched to the field of view.

Excellent image, it frames very nicely in the Seestar.

[Neil H]

Wow that's a nice image I think I will do that for my grandson and print it out as his name is Leo

[AstroKeith]

1 hour ago, Neil H said:

Wow that's a nice image I think I will do that for my grandson and print it out as his name is Leo

My grandson is Leo too! I hadn't thought of printing it for him - at 4 years old it might need some explaining!

[PatrickO]

If you're wondering why the clouds have rolled in today. My Seastar is arriving today 😅

Edited May 14 by PatrickO

[LaurenceT]

4 minutes ago, PatrickO said:

I you're wondering why the clouds have rolled in today. My Seastar is arriving today 😅

It's all your fault........

[Cosmic Geoff]

I wondered if anyone has experienced their Seestar imaging the wrong bit of sky?  This has happened to me three times now, once with a galaxy and twice with comets.  It missed C/2023 A3 Tsushinchan-Atlas by a degree or so, but a couple of night later I got a nice image of it.  
I tried for 13P/Olbers and got nothing but some background stars. It darn well should have recorded a mag 8.5 comet with an exposure run of several minutes, so clearly a miss. 

[Gfamily]

47 minutes ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

I wondered if anyone has experienced their Seestar imaging the wrong bit of sky?  This has happened to me three times now, once with a galaxy and twice with comets.  It missed C/2023 A3 Tsushinchan-Atlas by a degree or so, but a couple of night later I got a nice image of it.  
I tried for 13P/Olbers and got nothing but some background stars. It darn well should have recorded a mag 8.5 comet with an exposure run of several minutes, so clearly a miss. 

If the failures were over last weekend, it's been reported that some devices had unexpected failures recently, possibly because of the intense magnetic storm affecting the GPS, or possibly because the internal compass was mis detecting the direction.

Why the supposed Plate Finding didn't send a correction before imaging, I don't know.

 

[paulastro]

35 minutes ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

I wondered if anyone has experienced their Seestar imaging the wrong bit of sky?  This has happened to me three times now, once with a galaxy and twice with comets.  It missed C/2023 A3 Tsushinchan-Atlas by a degree or so, but a couple of night later I got a nice image of it.  
I tried for 13P/Olbers and got nothing but some background stars. It darn well should have recorded a mag 8.5 comet with an exposure run of several minutes, so clearly a miss. 

That's surprising Geoff, Ive never heard of anyone having similiar problems, mine works flawlessly in this respect. 

It could possibly be something other than an issue with the Starsense itself.  Perhaps an issue with a tripod leg slipping  if its faulty or not tightened enough.  If not, perhaps some other mechanical issue causing it to be unsteady causing it to move out of position.  It shouldn't be over-tightened, but could it not have been  a it loose on the tripod?

[LDW1]

9 hours ago, Gfamily said:

If the failures were over last weekend, it's been reported that some devices had unexpected failures recently, possibly because of the intense magnetic storm affecting the GPS, or possibly because the internal compass was mis detecting the direction.

Why the supposed Plate Finding didn't send a correction before imaging, I don't know.

 

CG :  Every nite before I use the SS I first calibrate it, next I level it and then I do a goto and mine performs as designed every night, never fails. Did you do the same by chance, if not I think you have the answer !

Edited Wednesday at 00:44 by LDW1

[Geoff Lister]

I had a couple of sessions imaging C/2023 A3 where the Seestar's orientation calibration message indicated that it had failed its 3-point calibration, due to insufficient stars in its images. It indicated that it would repeat the process with the next target, but then went back to "origin" and started imaging.

The comet was passing through the middle of Virgo, so I stopped the imaging, selected nearby Porrima, and started a dummy image. The Seestar was happy to calibrate its position; I stopped the imaging; and went back to C/2023 A3 and started imaging again, with the comet dead-centre.

It is easy to miss the message that the Seestar has failed its calibration. On balance, I prefer the current situation, where it does its best to image; rather than just sit there and wait until it is happy with its orientation.

Geoff

[LDW1]

7 hours ago, Geoff Lister said:

I had a couple of sessions imaging C/2023 A3 where the Seestar's orientation calibration message indicated that it had failed its 3-point calibration, due to insufficient stars in its images. It indicated that it would repeat the process with the next target, but then went back to "origin" and started imaging.

The comet was passing through the middle of Virgo, so I stopped the imaging, selected nearby Porrima, and started a dummy image. The Seestar was happy to calibrate its position; I stopped the imaging; and went back to C/2023 A3 and started imaging again, with the comet dead-centre.

It is easy to miss the message that the Seestar has failed its calibration. On balance, I prefer the current situation, where it does its best to image; rather than just sit there and wait until it is happy with its orientation.

Geoff

If the 3 star is not working on any given nite for whatever reason just shut it off / skip it and just use the goto once you have selected your target, still works perfectly, every time unless the skies are just plain bad which can happen. Then its time to shut it down for the night.

[LDW1]

My first enhance of M17 under Bortle 6 backyard skies, they weren't the best.  The Swan in 15 min.

Edited Wednesday at 14:14 by LDW1
reduce photo size

[LDW1]

I would like to mention, for info purposes only, to new beginers that all the takes I post are minimally processed taking about 15 minutes.  I am not knocking the long, long processing but just trying to say that with minimal you can still get a nice enhancement.

[trailer]

The sun this morning. From a 20 second RAW AVI with the best 50% stacked. Also using an ND1000000 filter.