I shot 30 HOURS with a SMART TELESCOPE? RESULTS?! (ZWO Seestar) 

I did a 20h stack of SH2-171. I swear this is amazing. Stacked using Siril script, Gradients with Graxpert, Stretching with Siril, sent it to Lightroom for Enhance, finally tweaked it on Photoshop. The details are amazing, beautiful clean background. THANK YOU!

Keep up the good work! Really appreciate knowing all about this device. Hope mine will be here by mid Nov

Nice result. 30 hours... Living in the extremely EXTREMELY wet and cloudy Netherlands, I do not think I had a total of 30 hours of clear skies in the last 4 months...

good job, you have made very clear many aspects of the telescope and answered many questions many wondered about or asked about, well done!

Thanks for pushing this to the extreme. Mine's been on order a while and I want to make the most of it. Brilliant.

And having JW Library installed on your computer helps you appreciate what you are seeing. Good to see a brother with similar interests Scott!

Great!... Finally a video that shows what's possible with the SeeStar with longer exposure times...So many videos expose for 1-2 hrs and say LOOK!!!... Yes great but what's truly possible? You did a great job of showing us!

Thanks for the dedication put in this video ! S50 definitely have an high potential and i can't wait to give line a go !

Nice video Brother. I thought of pre-ordering one but might just wait for the main release date. It does look awesome if you put the time in.

It's not fair that this cheep, smart scope is this good! Mines on order.

EDUCATIONALLY FUN! great work bro.

Just purchased mine today, chomping at the bit to start imaging! Thanka for the video!

Awesome breakdown! I have one on order but now I’m tempted to order two more and triple my aquisition time!

Hi Scott, thank you for your amazing tutorials on how to do post processing using Siril. I recently received my Dwarf II and have been able to get a decent image of M31 following your advice.

Very nice job! Really impressive. 30h Wow. Could you do a short version of this video? Because I don’t that much time on my daily ride ahahaha

Pretty awesome! Thanks for making the effort to gather the photons and produce this video. Overall the audio sounded more balanced to me but I skipped around a bit and entirely skipped your standard video splash screen as it usually far too loud once I've cranked up my volume to hear you. Since you asked about the balancing, I went back and played the splash screen. The audio was much better - not blowing me out of my seat - seemed balanced to me. Thanks for providing the data. I've only been post processing for about 8 days now - since I received my Seestar. Had a little practice with the May beta data before that. I'm going to see what I can do with your data.

For me dont have the patience for astrophotography so EAA for me is fine and just usually touch up my PNG images on Dwarf 2 and seem to still get better data by adjusting curves, reducing noise, etc. I like the fact Seestar has linear tif also, so cuts out the stacking, easier for the beginner, even I could manage that through ASI suite, etc. Have suggested the Dwarf 2 have a linear tiff and fits feature also. While not as good as the individual images, its still raw so allows you to still do more. Just hope ZWO keep the linear feature also as its a well underestimated feature

Thanks!

amazing

Good work. I am running Firmware Version 2.01 which has under the advanced screen, 10s, 20s, and 30s sub exposure time options. The importance of the longer sub exposure is dynamic range. If you make additional videos, include the firmware version.

You have a ghost. Door opened by itself early on in the intro

Great job on the tutorial to combine data from multiple nights. For a short-cut, would it also work just to stack the already stacked fits files the SeeStar produces if you don’t have the individual fits turned on?

I like your videos. Learning a lot watching them. I’m an old fart over at Lake Jackson. Waiting on my Seestar.

Thanks for the video. I'm inspired. I have a seestar on order. Just wondering what laptop model / spec you are using as i need to get a laptop at some point too for processing images.

The result is incredible for a £500 setup! Great work.

Wow 😮

Props for your efforts Scott! Really nice comparison over time, which shows more data better SNR! This actually gave me an idea as I was not impressed with my Cone/Christmas Tree cluster image after an hour as you might have seen. So I will try over time adding data to it and see how it goes. Clear skies here are the worse!, so may take a long time Thanks again for a cool video!

It is good what your managing to pull out the data

Hello Scott! Great work and a lot of dedication to make this video with really impressive results for this little device. i do have a question if you don t mind, did you stack all the sub frames ( from each single night) or did you stack the stacked images ( for example the result from the first 2 hours, then the e hours and so on) produced by the Seestar ? Thanks a lot and I ll continue to follow your channel with interest!😊

Awesome video and pictures! What software did you used and where can I find tutoriels to do that in my own?

Very nice results and great involvement on your side! To be fair I think that you could really do much better by stacking all the aligned (r_) pictures and stack them with the deviation stacking method. Stack stacked image together I don't think that you do really benefit from averaging out noise :) Still great results

Super video! I have one question: How did you make that stacked .fit files that you used for the 30 hours composition? Did you stack photos from seestar in Siril from every night or use stacked .fit files from the seestar that are made automatically?

1) I live in Bortle 5 skies. Thoughts on that? 2) Much better on the intro volume part. 3) Beautiful results.

Hi Scott, I’ve been really considering getting a seestar S50 as I’m in college a lot and working so I don’t have time to get really into astrophotography. I was just wondering (ignore me being an amateur) can you collect, for example 5 separately saved 30 min exposures of say the andromeda galaxy and stack them on siril without darks lights and bias and if you do need them how would you take them with this device ?

Just got my seestar. How do I save my image before shutting down?

There is a SeeStar video showing selectable exposure time = 10 seconds, 20 seconds or 30 seconds.

Hi Scott. I enjoyed this video. I was under the impression that you could not get the individual light frames out of the Seestar, but only the stacked fit file. Do I have to tweek the app?

Very interesting video!! One question, what is the Bortle class you have where you took these images? because I'm assuming if we take the very portable S50 and bring it to a Bortle 2 or even 1 location, the results could be much better and could compare to the ones from much more expensive and less portable setups! Hope you can answer this! and thanks again!

fantastic work! i'm very very new to this and i'm really curious, with the seestar, is the process of taking exposures from different nights and stacking them together as a single image, as simple as combining each night's stack together as one and then combining those stacks together into a final stack, then stretching that? was there anything you've done with making sure the pixels and orientation etc. aligns perfectly with each different night's stack while combining the final one; other than making sure you've got each night's exposure at the same time? was there anything else needed to make sure the pixels align perfectly? thank you! and apologies if this is a stupid question. cheers.

Hey. Curious if youre gonna do a video on the new siril scrip made just for seestar. Thanks

Wow thanks for the video. What size battery bank did you use?

Enjoyed the video. Just got my seestar s50. With all that time how did you deal with field rotation? Also up till now I've been using dss into Ps. Do I have to switch to something like Siril? Thanks

I have my s50 but only have limited tine due to cloud cover. O e question I have if Nyone can answer, as the tripod is low, should i place it on cover when using on grass to minimose condensation. I know it has an inbuilt dew heater.

Thanks for a great video. Now I wonder why in this AI age the rotational noise from the non eq is so extreme... Why is it not only a light blur/loss of detail from being fewer stacks? Why this extreme purple noise....

Just wondering. Using similar cameras, how would the exposure times compare between the ZWO Seestar S50 and a 12" SCT? For example, how long would it take with the SCT to get the same quality image as the 10 hour exposure with the S50?

Can you please tell me how you get exposures that are hours long? Mine stops capturing, or at least i think it does, after ten minutes. Thanks!

How do you get 30 hours of exposure with alt-at mount. Could you please share.

For the wind, I would just cut the bottom off a trash can and slip it over the scope and weight it down from the handles.

Very true, cannot take a big scope as carryon an aircraft. I took my Dwarf 2 with me to Roratonga, and just carried it on my shoulder. My Seestar is on the way. Did you not say your saving to get a serious astro rig setup? in one of your videos?

Just buy two Seestars and combine their data. They're cheap enough and you'll double the light gathering capability. Two tracking away on a big tripod with suitable dual mount would look so cool.

Has anyone found a way to take calibration frames with the Seestar? Or do we not think they are necessary?

Mine too

Can u test some optolong filters with seestar

Sorry for the silly question but how do you actually gather the data? You place the telescope in the same place and position for 3 consecutive nights?

Various blogs are saying "It’s advisable to limit your capture time to around one hour to mitigate field rotation issues associated with alt-az mounts." How did you get around this issue?

does this unit have a internal storage unit where the files reside or you need to insert a mini sd card

Why do you take all the stars out and only have a few in your final image? I think it looks fantastic with all the stars like in the original picture.

It just went up by 50 dollars, screw this economy

Not for me, yes its a portable system but if you go out to a dark site for example are you going to be able to get 30hrs of data in say a weekend, no, therfore a small refractor could get much more data in a quarter of the time, yes probably will cost more but who wants to take 30hrs on every target, good video anyway

So how many 10 second captures can you do before you have field rotation???

Would you say this setup is meant for causal astronomers? Not for people who are taking up Astrophotography as a hobby?

I like your videos, I really do, but you need to balance your audio. It gets old cranking the volume to hear you talk, which is the actual point of watching the video, only to get my ears blasted by the way too loud music.

While great for someone who wants a budget Astrophotography setup, got to pay good money to get far better results. Cannot beat a good astrophotography setup. Its like comparing your Smart phone images to a far more expensive dedicated DSLR. While the smart phone images will look great for most people, will not compete for something that costs far more

То что вы сделали, это ужас! Из фото(истины) сделали сказку (картину)

Why do you need this “smart” thing then? Just use conventional set up and bigger mirror/glass, and get better picture in 5-8 hours. Smart scope to astrophotography is as smart phone to photograph. Both have nothing to do with astrophotography and photography, respectively.

You might have nice cameras, but geez: Buy a microphone! FYI: There is no such thing as "very unique". It is a nonsense phrase. Something is unique - OR IT IS NOT. You can say "Truly unique", as opposed to something is claimed to be unique, but isn't. Unique is defined as: "being the only one of its kind; unlike anything else." When you say "very unique" other people will tend to think of you as ignorant. And I am sure you don't want that, and of course, your ignorance is easy to cure - as I am attempting to do here for you. I wouldn't bother posting this unless I enjoyed your video, and wanted other people to think you are smart, and well educated.

Total fail. Get on screen. Bye!

Scott I truely believe that these digital robo astro scopes will collect a huge amount of data far easier then ever. This huge amount of data is going be played with by guys like you which in turn will encourage others to try. More people gather and experiencing the night sky will create a market for more gear and software to make the whole process easier. Personally i have been watching, waiting, and anticipating thes revolution since the early 90's . In the early 90's I was connecting a b&w video camera to my 10" f7 cave and seeing the moon and planets like no other. Hello EAA and live stacking, plate solving, and the wonderful phones amd tablets. Also thank God for all the different ways to share your images either on paper, glass, metal, and electronic picture frames. You got the bug and its a great time for amateur astronomy. I see a future with less eyepieces , scpoes home brewed and more all in one great solutions.

Congratz on 2k subs! Thanks for all the information on the S50. Chris KY4CKP - LCARA Ham Radio YT

Hi bro how are you I have two questions. The first is: How can you photograph many hours, meaning more than 10 hours? Do you do more than one session and merge the files together, or do you stop filming until night falls again? This is the question that confuses me the most in the world of DSO monitoring. My second question is: Do you have Instagram or Facebook? Or any way to communicate?