#seestar — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #seestar, aggregated by home.social.
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Huh, the Moon doesn't rise until almost 11 pm tonight and clear skies are forecast. I have a Plan!
The Seestar is set up outside, I've taken twilight flats and checked polar alignment, and the Plan is loaded and ready to start as soon as it gets a bit darker. Going to work on a Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex mosaic until the Moon rises, before switching to other targets for the rest of the night.
#Astrophotography #Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #TMMT #ThirtyMillimetreTelescope
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Huh, the Moon doesn't rise until almost 11 pm tonight and clear skies are forecast. I have a Plan!
The Seestar is set up outside, I've taken twilight flats and checked polar alignment, and the Plan is loaded and ready to start as soon as it gets a bit darker. Going to work on a Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex mosaic until the Moon rises, before switching to other targets for the rest of the night.
#Astrophotography #Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #TMMT #ThirtyMillimetreTelescope
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And now the Prawn Nebula gets a similar treatment. For this one I had a little over 1000 30 second exposures in the bank, and put 600 of the best into the stack.
Seestar S30 Pro with dual narrowband light pollution filter, all processing in Siril with SyQon and VeraLux scripts.
#TMMT #ThirtyMillimetreTelescope #Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #Astrophotography #Siril #SyQon #VeraLux
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And now the Prawn Nebula gets a similar treatment. For this one I had a little over 1000 30 second exposures in the bank, and put 600 of the best into the stack.
Seestar S30 Pro with dual narrowband light pollution filter, all processing in Siril with SyQon and VeraLux scripts.
#TMMT #ThirtyMillimetreTelescope #Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #Astrophotography #Siril #SyQon #VeraLux
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After much farting about in Siril I now have my version of the Lagoon, Triffid and Chinese Dragon nebulae. It's certainly different to the results from the Seestar app, and overall I think I prefer this version. Plus it's more satisfying doing it this way!
To get the best possible result I dug up all the data I had on this target (almost 1000 30 second exposures) and selected 560 of the best to stack together. Some were taken in Kurrajong with lower sky background but worse focus, while most were taken from Sydney with measurably more sky background (despite the light pollution filter) but better focus.
All processing in Siril with SyQon and VeraLux scripts.
#TMMT #ThirtyMillimetreTelescope #Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #Astrophotography #Siril #SyQon #VeraLux
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After much farting about in Siril I now have my version of the Lagoon, Triffid and Chinese Dragon nebulae. It's certainly different to the results from the Seestar app, and overall I think I prefer this version. Plus it's more satisfying doing it this way!
To get the best possible result I dug up all the data I had on this target (almost 1000 30 second exposures) and selected 560 of the best to stack together. Some were taken in Kurrajong with lower sky background but worse focus, while most were taken from Sydney with measurably more sky background (despite the light pollution filter) but better focus.
All processing in Siril with SyQon and VeraLux scripts.
#TMMT #ThirtyMillimetreTelescope #Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #Astrophotography #Siril #SyQon #VeraLux
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While I still think it's possible to get better results, and certainly more control, processing astrophotography images on my computer in Siril I have to admit that the latest versions of the Seestar firmware and phone app can produce some pretty good looking results by themselves. The adjustable star reduction feature makes it easy to get nice looking nebulae shots, like the Lagoon, Triffid and Chinese Dragon nebulae here from last night. I didn't even restack the images for this, it's just the live stacking result run through the app's "AI enhance" with minor tweaks to the settings.
#Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #Astrophotography #TMMT #ThirtyMillimetreTelescope
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While I still think it's possible to get better results, and certainly more control, processing astrophotography images on my computer in Siril I have to admit that the latest versions of the Seestar firmware and phone app can produce some pretty good looking results by themselves. The adjustable star reduction feature makes it easy to get nice looking nebulae shots, like the Lagoon, Triffid and Chinese Dragon nebulae here from last night. I didn't even restack the images for this, it's just the live stacking result run through the app's "AI enhance" with minor tweaks to the settings.
#Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #Astrophotography #TMMT #ThirtyMillimetreTelescope
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I had a couple of :seestar_s30: :seestar_s30: out overnight and scored some goodies. The older seestar had a problem (I think the usb cable I used was too short and it got stuck whilst tracking) on the first mosaic target, so I won’t be posting that. I am happy to ignore the few rubbish frames that caused the weird trails on corona australis.
The rest of the images turned out well though, despite the Moon and a giant pillar of light.
The Corona Australis molecular cloud (Ant Eater nebula), the Western Veil nebula, 47 Tucanae and (a small part of) the Large Magellanic Cloud.
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I had a couple of :seestar_s30: :seestar_s30: out overnight and scored some goodies. The older seestar had a problem (I think the usb cable I used was too short and it got stuck whilst tracking) on the first mosaic target, so I won’t be posting that. I am happy to ignore the few rubbish frames that caused the weird trails on corona australis.
The rest of the images turned out well though, despite the Moon and a giant pillar of light.
The Corona Australis molecular cloud (Ant Eater nebula), the Western Veil nebula, 47 Tucanae and (a small part of) the Large Magellanic Cloud.
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Ik heb deze foto van de maan gemaakt een dag na de volle maan #fullmoon #astronomy #astro #SeeStar
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Ik heb deze foto van de maan gemaakt een dag na de volle maan #fullmoon #astronomy #astro #SeeStar
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Whilst the humans were having an astronomy club meeting inside, the little robots did their bidding outside in the bitter freezing cold 🥶 🤖 🔭
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Whilst the humans were having an astronomy club meeting inside, the little robots did their bidding outside in the bitter freezing cold 🥶 🤖 🔭
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Oh, neat. Using the very latest version of INDI I was able to successfully connect KStars/Ekos to my Seestar S30 Pro. Full control over the mount, camera, filterwheel and focuser, with a proper sequencer.
This should give me more control over calibration and (re)focussing, amongst other things. Going to take a while to learn how to use it, though.
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Oh, neat. Using the very latest version of INDI I was able to successfully connect KStars/Ekos to my Seestar S30 Pro. Full control over the mount, camera, filterwheel and focuser, with a proper sequencer.
This should give me more control over calibration and (re)focussing, amongst other things. Going to take a while to learn how to use it, though.
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The Helix Nebula.
This is more of a target for bigger telescopes really, but I have been curious about what the little Thirty Millimetre Telescope could do with it. Between last night's data and a smaller stash I'd previously taken I put a little over 8 hours worth of 30 second LP filter exposures into the stack. All processing in Siril with SyQon and VeraLux scripts.
It would probably benefit from even more exposure time, but the Seestar was already well into the diminishing returns domain as it was and I'm not sure it's going to get dramatically better no matter how long I go.
https://drhotdog.smugmug.com/Nature/Seeing-Stars/i-VqQVR3M/A
#Astrophotography #Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #TMMT #ThirtyMillimetreTelescope #Siril #SyQon #VeraLux
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The Helix Nebula.
This is more of a target for bigger telescopes really, but I have been curious about what the little Thirty Millimetre Telescope could do with it. Between last night's data and a smaller stash I'd previously taken I put a little over 8 hours worth of 30 second LP filter exposures into the stack. All processing in Siril with SyQon and VeraLux scripts.
It would probably benefit from even more exposure time, but the Seestar was already well into the diminishing returns domain as it was and I'm not sure it's going to get dramatically better no matter how long I go.
https://drhotdog.smugmug.com/Nature/Seeing-Stars/i-VqQVR3M/A
#Astrophotography #Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #TMMT #ThirtyMillimetreTelescope #Siril #SyQon #VeraLux
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It's clear again tonight so I felt compelled to get the Thirty Millimetre Telescope out again. I took the opportunity to do a flat field calibration using twilight flats because I noticed some residual low level radial variation in the background in the images I've taken recently. I had to redo the polar alignment as I had brought the tripod inside since the last time I used it, but that only takes a few minutes.
It's a Full Moon tonight so I'm not even going to try taking images of anything that isn't an emission nebula, the dual band light pollution filter will be in use all night long. I've decided to spend most of the night on the Helix Nebula, with the Eagle Nebula filling in the first part of the night while the Helix is too low. I'm hoping for decent seeing as my plan for both targets is to see how much resolution I can squeeze out of them given plenty of signal to noise.
#TMMT #ThirtyMillimetreTelescope #Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #Astrophotography
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It's clear again tonight so I felt compelled to get the Thirty Millimetre Telescope out again. I took the opportunity to do a flat field calibration using twilight flats because I noticed some residual low level radial variation in the background in the images I've taken recently. I had to redo the polar alignment as I had brought the tripod inside since the last time I used it, but that only takes a few minutes.
It's a Full Moon tonight so I'm not even going to try taking images of anything that isn't an emission nebula, the dual band light pollution filter will be in use all night long. I've decided to spend most of the night on the Helix Nebula, with the Eagle Nebula filling in the first part of the night while the Helix is too low. I'm hoping for decent seeing as my plan for both targets is to see how much resolution I can squeeze out of them given plenty of signal to noise.
#TMMT #ThirtyMillimetreTelescope #Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #Astrophotography
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This is the nicest photo I've ever taken of a bunch of dust.
This image of part of Corona Australis includes the Corona Australis Molecular Cloud, one of the nearest star formation regions to Earth.
Turns out this is a challenging target for the Thirty Millimetre Telescope, especially when the Moon is up! I put a total of 14.3 hours of exposure time into a 3 panel mosaic and I still think I need to revisit this target with some darker skies (and better flat field calibrations) to do a better job of it. I'm calling this a work in progress until then.
#Astrophotography #Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #TMMT #ThirtyMilliMetreTelescope #Siril #SyQon #VeraLux
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This is the nicest photo I've ever taken of a bunch of dust.
This image of part of Corona Australis includes the Corona Australis Molecular Cloud, one of the nearest star formation regions to Earth.
Turns out this is a challenging target for the Thirty Millimetre Telescope, especially when the Moon is up! I put a total of 14.3 hours of exposure time into a 3 panel mosaic and I still think I need to revisit this target with some darker skies (and better flat field calibrations) to do a better job of it. I'm calling this a work in progress until then.
#Astrophotography #Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #TMMT #ThirtyMilliMetreTelescope #Siril #SyQon #VeraLux
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Meanwhile I've been struggling to get an aesthetically pleasing result out of this other bunch of stars, the Small Magellanic Cloud. Plenty of data (about 8 hours 20 minutes of total exposure time) but it can't massage it into a pleasing JPEG. Maybe I just don't like the SMC.
#Astrophotography #Seestar30Pro #Seestar #Siril #SyQon #VeraLux #TMMT #ThirtyMilliMetreTelescope
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Meanwhile I've been struggling to get an aesthetically pleasing result out of this other bunch of stars, the Small Magellanic Cloud. Plenty of data (about 8 hours 20 minutes of total exposure time) but it can't massage it into a pleasing JPEG. Maybe I just don't like the SMC.
#Astrophotography #Seestar30Pro #Seestar #Siril #SyQon #VeraLux #TMMT #ThirtyMilliMetreTelescope
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My god, it's full of stars.
M24, the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud, and neighbouring bits and pieces. Just over 4 hours 10 minutes of total exposure time over the last two nights with the little Seestar S30 Pro and its UV/IR cut filter. Not bad considered how irritatingly bright the Moon was being at the time. Processed in Siril with SyQon and VeraLux scripts.
I should have been using the light pollution filter under conditions like that, but I've already done all the big HII regions that are conveniently placed at this time of year so I've been trying to do stars and dust despite the Moon.
Edit: Full res, with *all* the stars, here https://drhotdog.smugmug.com/Nature/Seeing-Stars/i-B7XMtVm/A
#Astrophotography #Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #Siril #VeraLux #SyQon #ThirtyMilliMetreTelescope #TMMT
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My god, it's full of stars.
M24, the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud, and neighbouring bits and pieces. Just over 4 hours 10 minutes of total exposure time over the last two nights with the little Seestar S30 Pro and its UV/IR cut filter. Not bad considered how irritatingly bright the Moon was being at the time. Processed in Siril with SyQon and VeraLux scripts.
I should have been using the light pollution filter under conditions like that, but I've already done all the big HII regions that are conveniently placed at this time of year so I've been trying to do stars and dust despite the Moon.
Edit: Full res, with *all* the stars, here https://drhotdog.smugmug.com/Nature/Seeing-Stars/i-B7XMtVm/A
#Astrophotography #Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #Siril #VeraLux #SyQon #ThirtyMilliMetreTelescope #TMMT
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Astronomers classify M101 as a "grand design" spiral galaxy because its spiral arms are so unusually prominent and well-defined. Those bright, bluish knots you see scattered throughout the arms are massive regions of active star formation, where enormous clouds of hydrogen gas are giving birth to brilliant new star clusters.
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Astronomers classify M101 as a "grand design" spiral galaxy because its spiral arms are so unusually prominent and well-defined. Those bright, bluish knots you see scattered throughout the arms are massive regions of active star formation, where enormous clouds of hydrogen gas are giving birth to brilliant new star clusters.
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And finally, proper stack of the 5 1/2 hours of data I got on the Helix nebula over the course of four nights in inner Melbourne. #space #astrophotography #seestar #astrodon #astronomy
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And finally, proper stack of the 5 1/2 hours of data I got on the Helix nebula over the course of four nights in inner Melbourne. #space #astrophotography #seestar #astrodon #astronomy
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And the same images again, but with some basic post-processing applied to get rid of the ridiculous brightness gradient from millions of inner city lights. #space #astrophotography #seestar #astrodon #astronomy
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And the same images again, but with some basic post-processing applied to get rid of the ridiculous brightness gradient from millions of inner city lights. #space #astrophotography #seestar #astrodon #astronomy
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Another successful overnight rooftop imaging run. The Moon is still very new, so I decided to image without the light pollution filter for a while.
Globular cluster Omega Centauri, Messier 24 (the Sagittarius Star cloud) and the Helix Nebula.
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Another successful overnight rooftop imaging run. The Moon is still very new, so I decided to image without the light pollution filter for a while.
Globular cluster Omega Centauri, Messier 24 (the Sagittarius Star cloud) and the Helix Nebula.
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Obscure globular cluster Terzan 4, 29000 light years away on the other side of the center of the galaxy.
#astrophotography #seestar #terzan4 -
Obscure globular cluster Terzan 4, 29000 light years away on the other side of the center of the galaxy.
#astrophotography #seestar #terzan4 -
Obscure globular cluster Palomar 10, 19000 light years away in Sagitta. Note the improvement in picture quality over a year ago through the use of an equatorial mount.
#astrophotography #seestar #palomar10
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:7pkzzzyr5cruwxk3x3wbe6a7/post/3lqow6tka7c2g -
Obscure globular cluster Palomar 10, 19000 light years away in Sagitta. Note the improvement in picture quality over a year ago through the use of an equatorial mount.
#astrophotography #seestar #palomar10
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:7pkzzzyr5cruwxk3x3wbe6a7/post/3lqow6tka7c2g -
And the post-processed versions with the gradient removed, levels tweaked and noise reduced.
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And the post-processed versions with the gradient removed, levels tweaked and noise reduced.
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The overnight bounty off the :seestar_s30: from the city.
The fighting dragons of Ara, the Corona Australis molecular cloud, the Helix nebula and the Sculptor galaxy with globular cluster NGC 288.
These are stacks off the seestar, they’ve not been post-processed to get rid of the light pollution gradient.
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The overnight bounty off the :seestar_s30: from the city.
The fighting dragons of Ara, the Corona Australis molecular cloud, the Helix nebula and the Sculptor galaxy with globular cluster NGC 288.
These are stacks off the seestar, they’ve not been post-processed to get rid of the light pollution gradient.
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Shot planetary nebula Humason 1-2, 5000 light years away in Cygnus, but couldn't resolve any detail.
#astrophotography #seestar #vv267 #aro89 -
NGC 7044, an open cluster 10,676 light years away in Cygnus.
#astrophotography #seestar #ngc7044 -
NGC 6515, an elliptical galaxy 310 million light years away in Draco.
Challenge mode: PGC 61180 at 11:00, distance unknown.
#astrophotography #seestar #ngc6515 -
IC 1291, 100 million light years away in Draco.
Challenge mode:
At 11:45: PGC 62055, 110 mly
5:30: PGC 2335645, ? mly
#astrophotography #seestar #ic1291 -
Het wordt in de zomermaanden niet echt donker in Nederland ,rond 24 uur een poging gedaan wat redelijk goed gelukt is, de telescoop heeft in een klein uurtje 300 foto's gemaakt en er een stack van gemaakt tot 1 afbeelding van. dit 👇
M101, ook bekend als het Windmolenstelsel (Pinwheel Galaxy)
afstand ergens tussen de 21-27 miljoen lichtjaar, diameter 170.000 lichtjaar. #astrophotography #astronomy #seestar -
I did another round of rooftop imaging, despite the haze and fog. Turned out fine!
The first image was without the light pollution filter. Given where I am and the conditions, I am impressed!
Antares through Rho Ophiuchi, The Swan or Omega nebula, the Helix nebula, and Melbourne.
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🌃 🔭 Slightly more successful inner city rooftop astrophotography overnight. Fog interfered with the final image though.
The Eta Carina nebula, the Lagoon and Trifid nebulae, the Eagle nebula, the Helix nebula.
The first three are all about 2 hours of data, the last one only 25 minutes. They are stacked and processed on the device only.
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One thing I checked out with the Seestar last night was the Rho Ophuici Cloud Complex. I only managed to get just over half an hour of images before the clouds appeared, and the Moon was certainly not helping either, but taking the look at the data now I can already see the potential.
Definitely need to revisit this next time I have clear skies, preferably without scattered Moonlight, ideally with less light pollution too (can't use the light pollution filter on this). It's going to need a lot more exposure time and, I think, a 4 pointing mosaic in order to get the whole cloud complex in frame.
Removing background gradients is really challenging here because there's so much stuff! There's gas and dust almost everywhere so there's barely any truly empty sky to measure the background in. That makes it especially important to minimise background gradients in the data to begin with, i.e. take images close to zenith and with no pesky Moon nearby.
#Astrophotography #Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #TMMT #ThirtyMilliMetreTelescope
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Bonus astrophotography! I though I was done for the next little while as I was expecting there to be enough cloud tonight to ruin any plans I made, but as it turned out it was completely clear for the first half of the night. So I improvised and managed to get a good 4-ish hours on the Running Chicken Nebula and Pearl Cluster, then just played around in interactive mode looking at some different sorts of targets, getting ideas for the future.
That included my nemesis the Moon, which has been up and brightly illuminating the entire sky for most of every clear night that I've had since getting the Seestar 4 weeks ago. That is why up until now I've concentrated almost exclusively on emission nebulae that I can use the light pollution filter with.
#Astrophotography #Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #TMMT #ThirtyMilliMetreTelescope