#seestars50 — Public Fediverse posts

Playing around with #seestars50: #m51 #jupiter #moon #m81

Because the UK sky gods continue to smile upon me, here’s some more #SeestarS50 #Astrophotography
This is NGC 3631, a ‘small’ spiral galaxy seen face on. You can find it in Ursa Major, and it’s an absolute gem.
An hour of imaging here. Noise reduction by Seestar, black point and definition tweaks by iOS.

So just below M86 here is a wee smudge of pixels. They are vaguely pinkish (zoomed in here so the colour is an artefact).
Those pixels a PGC169281 a galaxy that is A) travelling away from us at 11% the speed of light & B) is 2 BILLION light years away!

Blows my mind. Photons travelled for 2+ BILLION YEARS & then got captured by an image sensor. When they set off, life round these parts was basically unicellular. Incredible. The most distant object I've ever seen.
#Astrophotography #SeestarS50

Right then! For the first time this year basically I got a GOOD night of #Astronomy and #Astrophotography with the #SeestarS50. And it’s Galaxy Season. And I got the scope to do 20s subs with basically NO rejections. Truly the astronomy gods smiled upon me last night. So here’s a wee thread of the captured photons. For all bat two of these I watched the light come in as well. Old Skool me. 1/

Picture of #NGC891 better known as the #SilverSliver.  Quite a bit of light pollution, but I'm still continuously impressed with my #seestars50 

#astrophotography #space #galaxy #DeepSpacePhotography

IC 447 IC 2169 NGC 2245 NGC 2247 #seestars50

M81. 50 minutes. Seestar S50. Bortle 4. Processing in Siril

#astronomy #seestar #seestars50

Some images from last night.
We have Centaurus A, the Jewel box cluster and southern Pleiades (IC 2602) from the Dwarf and a mosaic of the running chicken nebula from the Seestar.
#seestarS50 #dwarf3 #astrophotography

For the first time, I put my #seestarS50 and #dwarf3 out in the same location, looking at the same object, at the same time for supposedly the same length of time. I have felt that the Dwarf was better but didn’t ’zoom in’ enough, so the Seestar would get me closer to an object. Now I have some evidence and no, the Dwarf wins even in that domain. Consider the images.
The dwarf has a wider field of view but a much higher resolution so you can zoom in on the image and get a closer in view of the object than the Seestar.
The image is less noisy on the dwarf (both had their respective denoise algorithms applied)
I’m sure there are situations where the Seestar will shine, but for this #astrophotography, I will stay with the Dwarf.

Note that both were scheduled for 1 hour of airtime but frames were dropped because of reasons I am not sure about, but probably because of streaks, blurs or planes flying through leaving trails.

Nice and clear for a change. M1 and Cone Nebula and surroundings. #seestars50

M42, the Orion Nebula. Captured on a SeeStar s50 in Mosaic Mode. LP filter on, 17 minutes, alt/az mode. #SeeStar #SeeStarS50 #M42 #OrionNebula #Astronomy

A big whopper. #Sun #SeestarS50 #sunspots

Comet 24P/Schaumasse on January 6, 2026.
ZWO Seestar S50.
250mm, f5, 379 exposures of 10’’.
#telescope #telescopes #zwo #zwoasi #zwoseestar #zwoseestars50 #seestar #seestars50 #astro #astrophoto #astrophotos #astrophotography #astrophotographer #spacephotography #astronomy #spaceexploration #nasa #universe #space #deepsky #deepsky #deepspace #comet #24pschaumasse

Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) on November 3, 2025.
ZWO Seestar S30.
150mm, f5, 142 exposures of 10’’.
#telescope #telescopes #zwo #zwoasi #zwoseestar #zwoseestars50 #seestar #seestars50 #astro #astrophoto #astrophotos #astrophotography #astrophotographer #spacephotography #astronomy #spaceexploration #nasa #universe #space #deepsky #deepsky #deepspace #comet #c2025a6 #c2025a6lemmon #lemmon

NGC2403 - a spiral galaxy 11 million light-years away.
ZWO Seestar S50.
250mm, f5, 2257 exposures of 10’’, 6 hours 16 minutes across 2 nights.
#telescope #telescopes #zwo #zwoasi #zwoseestar #zwoseestars50 #seestar #seestars50 #astro #astrophoto #astrophotos #astrophotography #astrophotographer #spacephotography #astronomy #spaceexploration #nasa #universe #space #deepsky #deepspace #galaxy #galaxies #ngc #ngc2403

IC434 - Horsehead & Flame Nebulae.
Seestar S50.
250mm, f5, 2258 exposures of 10’’, 6 hours 16 minutes across 5 nights.
#telescope #telescopes #zwo #zwoasi #zwoseestar #zwoseestars50 #seestar #seestars50 #astro #astrophoto #astrophotos #astrophotography #astrophotographer #spacephotography #astronomy #spaceexploration #nasa #universe #space #deepsky #deepsky #deepspace #nebula #horsehead #horseheadnebula #b33 #barnard33 #ic434 #ngc2023

M33 - Triangulum Galaxy.
More data with the S50 - 9h 51 minutes across 5 nights.
ZWO Seestar S50.
250mm, f5, 3548 exposures of 10’’.
#telescope #telescopes #zwo #zwoasi #zwoseestar #zwoseestars50 #seestar #seestars50 #astro #astrophoto #astrophotos #astrophotography #astrophotographer #spacephotography #astronomy #spaceexploration #nasa #universe #space #deepsky #deepsky #deepspace #galaxy #galaxies #triangulum #triangulumgalaxy #m33 #messier33 #messier

Motion of Comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN).
A timelapse created from the first 200 sub-frames I took on October 28, 2024.
ZWO Seestar S50.
250mm, f5, 200 exposures of 10’’.
#telescope #telescopes #zwo #zwoasi #zwoseestar #zwoseestars50 #seestar #seestars50 #astro #astrophoto #astrophotos #astrophotography #astrophotographer #spacephotography #astronomy #spaceexploration #nasa #universe #space #deepsky #deepsky #deepspace #comet #c2025r2 #c2025r2swan #swan

I was "developing" a shot of #M81 and #M82 when I started to get side-tracked and got curious about those nifty #Siril scripts. Notably, the #Galaxy Annotation script. And oh boy, is it marvelous.

Here is a picture of M81 and M82, and _a lot_ of other stuff ... mostly blotches, but still... those are some exceptionally old photons!

Question; is this really what we are seeing here?

Warning: _LARGE_ (as in 9k Pixels in height) picture.

#astrodon #astrophotography #seestar #seestars50

Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) on November 3, 2025.
The motor on my Celestron is unfortunately out of order, so I did what I could with the Seestar.
ZWO Seestar S50.
250mm, f5, 145 exposures of 10’’.
#telescope #telescopes #zwo #zwoasi #zwoseestar #zwoseestars50 #seestar #seestars50 #astro #astrophoto #astrophotos #astrophotography #astrophotographer #spacephotography #astronomy #spaceexploration #nasa #universe #space #deepsky #deepsky #deepspace #comet #c2025a6 #c2025a6lemmon #lemmon

The Hidden Galaxy - IC342, an intermediate spiral galaxy 12 million light-years away.
ZWO Seestar S50.
250mm, f5, 2561 exposures of 10’’.
#telescope #telescopes #zwo #zwoasi #zwoseestar #zwoseestars50 #seestar #seestars50 #astro #astrophoto #astrophotos #astrophotography #astrophotographer #spacephotography #astronomy #spaceexploration #nasa #universe #space #deepsky #deepsky #deepspace #galaxy #galaxies #hidden #hiddengalaxy #ic342

NGC4236, a barred spiral galaxy 14 million light-years away.
ZWO Seestar S50.
250mm, f5, 4641 exposures of 10’’.
#telescope #telescopes #zwo #zwoasi #zwoseestar #zwoseestars50 #seestar #seestars50 #astro #astrophoto #astrophotos #astrophotography #astrophotographer #spacephotography #astronomy #spaceexploration #nasa #universe #space #deepsky #deepsky #deepspace #galaxy #galaxies #ngc #ngc4236

Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS.
ZWO Seestar S50.
250mm, f5, 1174 exposures of 10’’.
#telescope #telescopes #zwo #zwoasi #zwoseestar #zwoseestars50 #seestar #seestars50 #astro #astrophoto #astrophotos #astrophotography #astrophotographer #spacephotography #astronomy #spaceexploration #nasa #universe #space #deepsky #deepsky #deepspace #comet #3i #3iatlas #atlas

M33 - Triangulum Galaxy.
ZWO Seestar S50.
250mm, f5, 924 exposures of 10’’.
#telescope #telescopes #zwo #zwoasi #zwoseestar #zwoseestars50 #seestar #seestars50 #astro #astrophoto #astrophotos #astrophotography #astrophotographer #spacephotography #astronomy #spaceexploration #nasa #universe #space #deepsky #deepsky #deepspace #galaxy #galaxies #triangulum #triangulumgalaxy #m33 #messier33 #messier

#M45 #Pleyades as #seestars50 mosaic (1083 × 20s, 3 nights) from the outskirts of #Berlin processed with @Siril_Official

#astrodon

This, my friends, is an interstellar comet, something we had never seen, like, a decade ago, showing up in my dinky backyard scope. We live in the future. #seestars50 #comet3iatlas

M82 - Cigar Galaxy.
ZWO Seestar S50.
250mm, f5, 1888 exposures of 10’’.
#telescope #telescopes #zwo #zwoasi #zwoseestar #zwoseestars50 #seestar #seestars50 #astro #astrophoto #astrophotos #astrophotography #astrophotographer #spacephotography #astronomy #spaceexploration #nasa #universe #space #deepsky #deepsky #deepspace #galaxy #galaxies #cigar #cigargalaxy #m82 #messier82 #messier #ngc3034

M82 - Cigar Galaxy.
ZWO Seestar S50.
250mm, f5, 1888 exposures of 10’’.
#telescope #telescopes #zwo #zwoasi #zwoseestar #zwoseestars50 #seestar #seestars50 #astro #astrophoto #astrophotos #astrophotography #astrophotographer #spacephotography #astronomy #spaceexploration #nasa #universe #space #deepsky #deepsky #deepspace #galaxy #galaxies #cigar #cigargalaxy #m82 #messier82 #messier #ngc3034

M82 - Cigar Galaxy.
ZWO Seestar S50.
250mm, f5, 1888 exposures of 10’’.
#telescope #telescopes #zwo #zwoasi #zwoseestar #zwoseestars50 #seestar #seestars50 #astro #astrophoto #astrophotos #astrophotography #astrophotographer #spacephotography #astronomy #spaceexploration #nasa #universe #space #deepsky #deepsky #deepspace #galaxy #galaxies #cigar #cigargalaxy #m82 #messier82 #messier #ngc3034

M82 - Cigar Galaxy.
ZWO Seestar S50.
250mm, f5, 1888 exposures of 10’’.
#telescope #telescopes #zwo #zwoasi #zwoseestar #zwoseestars50 #seestar #seestars50 #astro #astrophoto #astrophotos #astrophotography #astrophotographer #spacephotography #astronomy #spaceexploration #nasa #universe #space #deepsky #deepsky #deepspace #galaxy #galaxies #cigar #cigargalaxy #m82 #messier82 #messier #ngc3034

M82 - Cigar Galaxy.
ZWO Seestar S50.
250mm, f5, 1888 exposures of 10’’.
#telescope #telescopes #zwo #zwoasi #zwoseestar #zwoseestars50 #seestar #seestars50 #astro #astrophoto #astrophotos #astrophotography #astrophotographer #spacephotography #astronomy #spaceexploration #nasa #universe #space #deepsky #deepsky #deepspace #galaxy #galaxies #cigar #cigargalaxy #m82 #messier82 #messier #ngc3034

Exploring Deep Space with Seestar S50: A Year in Review

I first bought the Seestar S50 a little over 12 months ago. I ummed and ahhed for ages trying to justify the spend, as although its not a hugely expensive instrument, its not pocket change either.

Eventually at last years New Scientist Live I took the plunge and bought it from First Light Optics. A year later, I’m still amazed at the capability of this deep space observing telescope.

Firstly it is so simple to use. It connects to your smart phone and the interface is pretty intuitive. Seestar constantly improves it with updates pushed fairly regularly. I’ve read that some users have experienced issues with certain updates. However, I’ve never experienced this first hand.

Secondly, its really portable. It all fits into a small roughly 30 cm square carry case – which is really handy.

The S50 is fantastic for observing and photographing galaxies and nebulae far beyond the edge of our own Milky Way Galaxy. It’s also excellent for capturing comets, the Moon, and the Sun. I’ve even managed to get a recognisable shot of Jupiter out of it. You know, that bright ‘star’ in the winter skies that is now high in the morning skies indicating that Christmas is not that far away.

Sorry for reminding you…

I recently shared some photographs on my social media. They showed the results that this little telescope is capable of. One of the things I find fascinating is watching the telescope build up the picture as it takes the photos. It live stacks them, slowly revealing more and more details of whatever object you are focused on. I also love the tracking. It will locate things that are often very difficult to find in light polluted skies.

The next step for me will be to get an equatorial mount and try the recently released equatorial mode. This will allow longer exposures without star trails. It should also increase the quality of the images I can take.

Although the scope does a lot of the hard work in getting to an early image, you can still improve upon that with some post processing. I have been using Adobe Lightroom for that. Its pretty easy to use, there is a free version of it and it works on your phone too. Although my initial idea was just to use the scope for capturing some nice images of the universe to look at, share, and print – several of mine are on the wall in my office. I’m keen on exploring its use to do some photometry. The scope stores images in the standard FITS format. With the addition of a blue light filter and an EQ mount for longer exposures, I should be able to get images in both Blue and Visible light. Then, I can process them to create a Colour Magnitude Diagram (CMD).

However, for now, I’ll continue to take images of some of the stunning sights our universe has to offer. I love sharing these images and have huge admiration for the astrophotographers who have developed the skills to do this. Skills that I do not have the time or patience to acquire at the moment. Some of the images they take are orders of magnitude better than anything the Seestar can take. But, for ease of use and fun, the Seestar is unmatched. For seeing things you never thought you’d see ‘live,’ it is exceptional. For sharing snapshots on social media, there is no better instrument geared towards amateurs.

I’m a huge convert and have loved having this tool in my kitbag to use alongside my optical telescope.

#astronomy #astrophotography #firstLightOptics #galaxies #nebulae #newScientistLive #seestarS50 #space #stars #universe

M81 - Bode’s Galaxy.
ZWO Seestar S50.
250mm, f5, 2956 exposures of 10’’, 8 hours, 12 minutes.
#telescope #telescopes #zwo #zwoasi #zwoseestar #zwoseestars50 #seestar #seestars50 #astro #astrophoto #astrophotos #astrophotography #astrophotographer #spacephotography #astronomy #spaceexploration #nasa #universe #space #deepsky #deepsky #deepspace #galaxy #galaxies #bode #bodegalaxy #m81 #messier81 #messier #ngc3031

Październik nie rozpieszcza. Jedna długa sesja, jedna krótka i kilka z września. Całość, to około 11 godzin materiału.
Galaktyka Andromedy, M31 i okolice, czyli M33, M110 i NGC206.
Obróbka:
Siril, GraXpert, ASTAP, Cosmic Clarity I trochę wyciągnięte w LightRoomie.

#seestars50 #andromeda #m31 #astrophotography #astrofotografia

Październik nie rozpieszcza. Jedna długa sesja, jedna krótka i kilka z września. Całość, to około 11 godzin materiału.
Galaktyka Andromedy, M31 i okolice, czyli M33, M110 i NGC206.
Obróbka:
Siril, GraXpert, ASTAP, Cosmic Clarity I trochę wyciągnięte w LightRoomie.

#seestars50 #andromeda #m31 #astrophotography #astrofotografia

Październik nie rozpieszcza. Jedna długa sesja, jedna krótka i kilka z września. Całość, to około 11 godzin materiału.
Galaktyka Andromedy, M31 i okolice, czyli M33, M110 i NGC206.
Obróbka:
Siril, GraXpert, ASTAP, Cosmic Clarity I trochę wyciągnięte w LightRoomie.

#seestars50 #andromeda #m31 #astrophotography #astrofotografia

Październik nie rozpieszcza. Jedna długa sesja, jedna krótka i kilka z września. Całość, to około 11 godzin materiału.
Galaktyka Andromedy, M31 i okolice, czyli M33, M110 i NGC206.
Obróbka:
Siril, GraXpert, ASTAP, Cosmic Clarity I trochę wyciągnięte w LightRoomie.

#seestars50 #andromeda #m31 #astrophotography #astrofotografia

Październik nie rozpieszcza. Jedna długa sesja, jedna krótka i kilka z września. Całość, to około 11 godzin materiału.
Galaktyka Andromedy, M31 i okolice, czyli M33, M110 i NGC206.
Obróbka:
Siril, GraXpert, ASTAP, Cosmic Clarity I trochę wyciągnięte w LightRoomie.

#seestars50 #andromeda #m31 #astrophotography #astrofotografia

NGC7822 - Quick session interrupted by clouds.
ZWO Seestar S50.
250mm, f5, 660 exposures of 10’’.
#telescope #telescopes #zwo #zwoasi #zwoseestar #zwoseestars50 #seestar #seestars50 #astro #astrophoto #astrophotos #astrophotography #astrophotographer #spacephotography #astronomy #spaceexploration #nasa #universe #space #deepsky #deepspace #nebula #ngc #ngc7822

M81 Bode's Galaxy and M82 Cigar Galaxy.
ZWO Seestar S50.
250mm, f5, 1220 exposures of 10’’.
#telescope #telescopes #zwo #zwoasi #zwoseestar #zwoseestars50 #seestar #seestars50 #astro #astrophoto #astrophotos #astrophotography #astrophotographer #spacephotography #astronomy #spaceexploration #nasa #universe #space #deepsky #deepspace #galaxy #galaxies #bode #bodegalaxy #cigar #cigargalaxy #m81 #m82 #messier81 #messier82 #messier

M81 Bode's Galaxy and M82 Cigar Galaxy.
ZWO Seestar S50.
250mm, f5, 1220 exposures of 10’’.
#telescope #telescopes #zwo #zwoasi #zwoseestar #zwoseestars50 #seestar #seestars50 #astro #astrophoto #astrophotos #astrophotography #astrophotographer #spacephotography #astronomy #spaceexploration #nasa #universe #space #deepsky #deepspace #galaxy #galaxies #bode #bodegalaxy #cigar #cigargalaxy #m81 #m82 #messier81 #messier82 #messier

M81 Bode's Galaxy and M82 Cigar Galaxy.
ZWO Seestar S50.
250mm, f5, 1220 exposures of 10’’.
#telescope #telescopes #zwo #zwoasi #zwoseestar #zwoseestars50 #seestar #seestars50 #astro #astrophoto #astrophotos #astrophotography #astrophotographer #spacephotography #astronomy #spaceexploration #nasa #universe #space #deepsky #deepspace #galaxy #galaxies #bode #bodegalaxy #cigar #cigargalaxy #m81 #m82 #messier81 #messier82 #messier

M81 Bode's Galaxy and M82 Cigar Galaxy.
ZWO Seestar S50.
250mm, f5, 1220 exposures of 10’’.
#telescope #telescopes #zwo #zwoasi #zwoseestar #zwoseestars50 #seestar #seestars50 #astro #astrophoto #astrophotos #astrophotography #astrophotographer #spacephotography #astronomy #spaceexploration #nasa #universe #space #deepsky #deepspace #galaxy #galaxies #bode #bodegalaxy #cigar #cigargalaxy #m81 #m82 #messier81 #messier82 #messier

M81 Bode's Galaxy and M82 Cigar Galaxy.
ZWO Seestar S50.
250mm, f5, 1220 exposures of 10’’.
#telescope #telescopes #zwo #zwoasi #zwoseestar #zwoseestars50 #seestar #seestars50 #astro #astrophoto #astrophotos #astrophotography #astrophotographer #spacephotography #astronomy #spaceexploration #nasa #universe #space #deepsky #deepspace #galaxy #galaxies #bode #bodegalaxy #cigar #cigargalaxy #m81 #m82 #messier81 #messier82 #messier

IC1805 - Heart Nebula.
ZWO Seestar S50.
250mm, f5, 720 exposures of 10’’.
#telescope #telescopes #zwo #zwoasi #zwoseestar #zwoseestars50 #seestar #seestars50 #astro #astrophoto #astrophotos #astrophotography #astrophotographer #spacephotography #astronomy #spaceexploration #nasa #universe #space #deepsky #deepspace #nebula #heart #heartnebula #ic1805

Testing the Seestar S50 with the Moon.
ZWO Seestar S50.
250mm, f5, 10% of 3681 frames.
#telescope #telescopes #zwo #zwoasi #zwoseestar #zwoseestars50 #seestar #seestars50 #astro #astrophoto #astrophotos #astrophotography #astrophotographer #spacephotography #astronomy #spaceexploration #nasa #universe #space #deepsky #deepspace #solarsystem #moon #lunar #moonlovers #moonphoto #moonphotography #moongram

Testing the Seestar S50 with the Moon.
ZWO Seestar S50.
250mm, f5, 10% of 3681 frames.
#telescope #telescopes #zwo #zwoasi #zwoseestar #zwoseestars50 #seestar #seestars50 #astro #astrophoto #astrophotos #astrophotography #astrophotographer #spacephotography #astronomy #spaceexploration #nasa #universe #space #deepsky #deepspace #solarsystem #moon #lunar #moonlovers #moonphoto #moonphotography #moongram

Testing the Seestar S50 with the Moon.
ZWO Seestar S50.
250mm, f5, 10% of 3681 frames.
#telescope #telescopes #zwo #zwoasi #zwoseestar #zwoseestars50 #seestar #seestars50 #astro #astrophoto #astrophotos #astrophotography #astrophotographer #spacephotography #astronomy #spaceexploration #nasa #universe #space #deepsky #deepspace #solarsystem #moon #lunar #moonlovers #moonphoto #moonphotography #moongram

Testing the Seestar S50 with the Moon.
ZWO Seestar S50.
250mm, f5, 10% of 3681 frames.
#telescope #telescopes #zwo #zwoasi #zwoseestar #zwoseestars50 #seestar #seestars50 #astro #astrophoto #astrophotos #astrophotography #astrophotographer #spacephotography #astronomy #spaceexploration #nasa #universe #space #deepsky #deepspace #solarsystem #moon #lunar #moonlovers #moonphoto #moonphotography #moongram

Testing the Seestar S50 with the Moon.
ZWO Seestar S50.
250mm, f5, 10% of 3681 frames.
#telescope #telescopes #zwo #zwoasi #zwoseestar #zwoseestars50 #seestar #seestars50 #astro #astrophoto #astrophotos #astrophotography #astrophotographer #spacephotography #astronomy #spaceexploration #nasa #universe #space #deepsky #deepspace #solarsystem #moon #lunar #moonlovers #moonphoto #moonphotography #moongram