Seestar S50 images

[Elp]

Kappa sigma rejection in other software does the same thing.

[Recretos]

Yes, almost all stacking software should have some form of pixel rejection. But as I only use Pixinsight, and I haven't seen any examples, I decided to add my own, based on what I know and what I have.  
I would love to see some Siril examples, as that is also the favourite software among a lot of Seestar users

[StevieDvd]

36 minutes ago, Recretos said:

Yes, almost all stacking software should have some form of pixel rejection. But as I only use Pixinsight, and I haven't seen any examples, I decided to add my own, based on what I know and what I have.  
I would love to see some Siril examples, as that is also the favourite software among a lot of Seestar users

Are you using the WeightedBatchPreprocessing or the FastBatchPreprocessing scripts and changing a pixel rejection setting(s)?

[Recretos]

3 minutes ago, StevieDvd said:

Are you using the WeightedBatchPreprocessing or the FastBatchPreprocessing scripts and changing a pixel rejection setting(s)?

I never used FPBB. I use WBPP up to registration and Local Normalization, and then I run integration and Drizzle as a separate process and activate pixel rejection there.

[StevieDvd]

16 minutes ago, Recretos said:

I never used FPBB. I use WBPP up to registration and Local Normalization, and then I run integration and Drizzle as a separate process and activate pixel rejection there.

I've only used WBPP and lately FPBB but only a few days ago whilst checking out another feature I came across an Adam Block video about settings for Pixel Rejection. In that he changed the settings criticising the defaults as poor and showing the use of ESD (Generalised Extreme Studentized Deviate) in the ImageIntegration values. 

[Recretos]

3 hours ago, StevieDvd said:

I've only used WBPP and lately FPBB but only a few days ago whilst checking out another feature I came across an Adam Block video about settings for Pixel Rejection. In that he changed the settings criticising the defaults as poor and showing the use of ESD (Generalised Extreme Studentized Deviate) in the ImageIntegration values. 

Yes I, also just tried it for the first time, and found the defaults really lacking. Best settings so far were with windsor sigma clipping, and with RCR if you also want a more agressive hot pixel removal along with satellite/plane trails. I also tested ESD on Seestar data but was not happy with the results. Could be specific for Seestar data.

Edited August 13 by Recretos

[Recretos]

First process of M33 with 8h of data, and a 3x Drizzle process, increasing the cropped resolution to 3200x4400. This is a JPG compressed image, as the full quality PNG was over 22MB in size.

There is much to improve, but happy with the first results. Next phase will be focusing on the brown-ish color of the dust lanes around the core, without destroying the natural blue-ish hue of M33, and imrpoving some of the "grainy" feel in darker areas.

 

Edited August 15 by Recretos

[M40]

The clouds let me have 10 minutes on M16, The Eagle Nebula last night. This is with the integral filter and simple screen grabs, complete with satellite trails 

 

 

And zoomed in on that famous area.....

 

 

 

 

 

[Recretos]

EAST Veil Nebula, with 5h of integration. Stacked and processed in Pixinsight, using a custom color palette, based on some narrowband images I looked on google of this target. This is the normal resolution file, non-drizzled. It could do with some more sharpening, so something to do for version 2, which will be Drizzled data.

 

Edited August 17 by Recretos

[Recretos]

Andromeda M31 core, with 4h20min of integration, stacked/processed in Pixinsight. Hopefully, I will do a full-frame mosaic, but that takes patience... lol 

[Elp]

50 minutes ago, Recretos said:

patience

Where do you get the time or clear sky to image so many one after the other so quickly? Or have you been queueing them up to process?

[Ratlet]

1 hour ago, Recretos said:

Andromeda M31 core, with 4h20min of integration, stacked/processed in Pixinsight. Hopefully, I will do a full-frame mosaic, but that takes patience... lol 

That is absolutely bonkers.  Incredible capture.

[Recretos]

I live in Slovenia, and we had a pretty nice stretch of clear skies thanks to a heatwave and high-pressure. But its starting to change slowly now, and with the moon being full, my Seestar will rest for a week at least.

I will probably restack and reprocess some old data in the meantime.

49 minutes ago, Elp said:

Where do you get the time or clear sky to image so many one after the other so quickly? Or have you been queueing them up to process?

 

[Recretos]

Below is the Andromeda with the same integration time, stacked from the same subs, but this time with 3xDrizzle applied in Pixinsight. Drizzle perhaps reduces the SNR overall, but its less visible on strong and bright targets like the Andromeda, and gives better colors also.

 

[CheshireChris]

Wow! If you were just shown the image l doubt if you would know it was done with the s50. I'm very impressed with what you are doing with it.

Chris

 

[M40]

4 hours ago, Recretos said:

gives better colors also

Amazing images once again, but personally the first one which is more black and white is my favourite and would definately take prime position on the wall. 👌

[John_D]

 

Two images of the moon the other evening. The left hand one is straight from the Seestar and the right hand one is a 2 min raw video from the Seestar stacked using ASIVideoStack ( part of ASIStudio ). I was interested to see whether (a) the stacking made much difference and (b) was it worth the effort. I think that the answer is "yes" to both. The stacked one seems generally clearer and sharper and you can see some some central peaks in the craters that you can't see with the single image. This is the first time that I've tried ASIVideoStack and it's very easy to use, drag and drop the video file, select the parameters and process. I tweaked the output brightness levels in ASIVideoStack and cropped both in GIMP. 

( I would probably process the stacked image a little further in the future but it's not bad as it stands IMHO )

[Recretos]

4 hours ago, M40 said:

Amazing images once again, but personally the first one which is more black and white is my favourite and would definately take prime position on the wall. 👌

Yea, colors are always a personal preference. That color edit was intentional, a bit of messing around, but I kinda liked it too, a bit more "monochromatic", so I said why not. I had the Drizzle file for proper colors anyway.

[Recretos]

I reprocessed my M101 with 9h of integration, using some of my latest workflows. Stacked and processed in Pixinsight.

[Soupir94]

Stunning!👍

[Xilman]

On 15/08/2024 at 09:22, Recretos said:

First process of M33 with 8h of data, and a 3x Drizzle process, increasing the cropped resolution to 3200x4400. This is a JPG compressed image, as the full quality PNG was over 22MB in size.

There is much to improve, but happy with the first results. Next phase will be focusing on the brown-ish color of the dust lanes around the core, without destroying the natural blue-ish hue of M33, and imrpoving some of the "grainy" feel in darker areas.

Very impressive, especially so given that the aperture is only 50mm.

You have captured Y Tri, a blue supergiant star in M33.  It is a variable star and is  around 18th magnitude. I have marked its position in this snippet from your image.

[Xilman]

On 19/08/2024 at 06:54, Recretos said:

Below is the Andromeda with the same integration time, stacked from the same subs, but this time with 3xDrizzle applied in Pixinsight

You caught one of the two variable stars in M31 which I monitor. At roughly 16th magnitude it is relatively bright. This one, AF And, is marked on the snip from your image which appears below.

The other one, AE And, is out of the field of view, unfortunately.

 

Really quite remarkable how such a small telescope can show individual stars in external galaxies!

I haven't looked for them but it seems likely that you have imaged other stars in M31. It is virtually certain that you have imaged many globular clusters, perhaps dozens.

I urge you to examine your images very closely, perhaps with the assistance of https://aladin.cds.unistra.fr/AladinLite/  and its SIMBAD overlays. You will doubtless find many things there which you had not previously realised.

[Recretos]

5 minutes ago, Xilman said:

You caught one of the two variable stars in M31 which I monitor. At roughly 16th magnitude it is relatively bright. This one, AF And, is marked on the snip from your image which appears below.

The other one, AE And, is out of the field of view, unfortunately.

 

Really quite remarkable how such a small telescope can show individual stars in external galaxies!

I haven't looked for them but it seems likely that you have imaged other stars in M31. It is virtually certain that you have imaged many globular clusters, perhaps dozens.

I urge you to examine your images very closely, perhaps with the assistance of https://aladin.cds.unistra.fr/AladinLite/  and its SIMBAD overlays. You will doubtless find many things there which you had not previously realised.

Oh my god.... This is really good information! 
I love looking at closer details, which is what my Pix workflow is usually aimed at, despite using just the cheap Seestar. But this is exactly what I want to achieve. Thanks very much again!

[Xilman]

3 minutes ago, Recretos said:

Oh my god.... This is really good information! 
I love looking at closer details, which is what my Pix workflow is usually aimed at, despite using just the cheap Seestar. But this is exactly what I want to achieve. Thanks very much again!

You're welcome.

If you would like me to send you a catalogue of the positions of the globular clusters in M31, please ask. It gives J2000 positions and magnitudes. Tracking them down in your images is your problem!  😉

Same for GCs in M33, for that matter.

[Ratlet]

I know it's not the point of these images but it fills me heart with joy that there will be people absolutely seething about the quality of these images.  So many people dunked on the seestar, but it does so many things really well, whether it's full on astrophotography or eaa quick peeks.  The fact that it can image individual stars in another galaxy blows my mind.

Fantastic images and brilliant processing.