Captured Jupiter early yesterday morning as I was taking my Seestar back inside. I wasn’t planning on seeing any details. I was pleasantly surprised with what it captured!
Raw video: 25 seconds. Stacked in app.
Now that we have official Seestar representation here, the standing question: Why isn't the Seestar open source, when it's relying heavily on GPL code for core functions?
ZWO was previously dinged for not providing source for the Astrometry.net plate solver, and I see you're using a newer version, with no updates to your github repo since the last time we did this dance.
When I called out that you were using the YOLOv5 neural model to operate the focuser, you just renamed it to something else, but it's still there, and you've added another in the 3.x train.
FFMpeg is not only GPL, but you've compiled your kit with the --non-free flags, which is an entirely different can of worms.
The Skymap is still Stellarium Web Engine, which is not only GPL but Aferro GPL.
All of this while you're adding SSL-based verification to the client protocol. I haven't dug into the Alpaca implementation yet, but I've got some free time this evening, I suppose.
Even without that, this platform, as well as the ASIair, should be open source.
Hey! It rhymes!
North American Nebula (NGC 7000) 174 30s subs. Stacked in Siril, processed in SAS Pro.
Only 2 dropped frames over the course of the session. I'm definitely going to spend more time on this target, and I'm floored by the amount of detail compared to the S50.
Seestar S30 Pro, hybrid alt/az and EQ, 182x20/229x30/44x60 (3:39:10hrs). Stacked/processed in Siril, masked in Affinity, final touches done in Lightroom mobile tif>fit>PNG>JPG
This was one of the first objects I captured and decided to add 60sec exposures and reprocess now that I know a lot more than I used to eight months ago.
M101 is a giant spiral galaxy 21-25million LY away spanning 170,000LY across (Milky way is 100k across) and is estimated to have a trillion stars. It's unique pattern is caused by nearby galaxies pulling on its arms.
Seestar S50 EQ
Bortle 6,4
Processed in Siril
Captured >22h, kept 19h for processing
I noticed NGC 7000 is completely taking over the sub today (those S30 Pro widefields look awesome!). So here is my contribution: a zoomed-in 22-hour deep dive into the Cygnus Wall.
Since the feed is full of standard RGB shots today, I decided to go with the classic Hubble (SHO) palette. I actually used this target to test my new custom script for the first time, which makes separating and dialing in the gold and cyan tones much easier while keeping the background clean. I'll share the script in a separate post soon. 🔭
The complete 16-step processing breakdown is like always attached in the third image for anyone interested in the details. ✨
Clear skies! 🌌
A simple diagram showing why our Seestar frames rotate during Alt-Az tracking and how properly polar-aligned EQ tracking keeps the sky’s orientation fixed on the sensor. Particularly useful for understanding those uneven stack edges and why longer sessions can need substantial cropping. This is a schematic illustration; poor polar alignment and tracking drift can still cause problems in EQ mode.
3rd image taken on my S30 Pro with LP Filter on, 220x30 second subs, Siril with a statistical stretch and Photoshop curves. Bortle 7.