2372 replies to this topic

[WillR]

I gave Siril a try last week however to be honest I didn't understand how it works and set it aside. Perhaps if someone has a step by step instruction I could follow that until I get my feet on the ground. I installed Siril on my Mac, I also have a nice Windows 10 machine  I could install it on too. I'm much more of a Mac guy though, I can maneuver in Windows but I am much more comfortable in  Mac OS. 

Cuiv has a good, easy to follow tutorial on processing Seestar photos with Siril.

 

https://youtu.be/lMo...n-mKNhX2LNMPyMs

[marvindj]

As long as it clearly identifies (finds) the same named object on subsequent nights it will add the new data to the same folder.  It separates them by date within the folder.  I have found, and read here, that at some point adding more subs doesn't give the same result in quality as the initial half hour or so.  I believe people have said that if you have say one hour of data, in order to see an improvement you would need to gather twice as much more, so you'd have to add another 2 hours to see an improvement and so on.   I have been disapponted with adding a lot more subs over several nights didn't really improve the images much when you scanned through them.  I'm by no means an accomplished post processor so that may be the problem, but right out of the seestar with limited editing I didn't get much improvement by doubling the number of subs.

The math shows that to double the SNR (that is, improve the quality of the result) requires 4 times the exposure time...all else being equal.

[rkaufmann87]

Cuiv has a good, easy to follow tutorial on processing Seestar photos with Siril.

 

https://youtu.be/lMo...n-mKNhX2LNMPyMs

Thanks I will check it out. I'm going to have to learn it, my session last night went well and I now have over 3000 10 second images to stack. I attempted to do it on the SeeStar however I get an error indicating the SeeStar doesn't have adequate storage. So that means I'll have to download all 3000 to one of my computers and then use Siril to process them. I'll be back after watching (and even more importantly UNDERSTANDING) the video.

[redbaron12]

I remember reading it was a lot more to see better results.  Personally I don't have the patience for that and I'm not able to leave it out all night long.  I'm still very happy with what I get in a short time.

The math shows that to double the SNR (that is, improve the quality of the result) requires 4 times the exposure time...all else being equal.

[Artimon]

You may also try this:

https://www.youtube....h?v=kVw-cKl-esA

Seti Astro Suite, with a demo for Seestar 

Stephane.

[Danweis1]

I’ve been imaging the North American Nebula for a few nights with my S30. Mosaic’s. I’m in Bortle 5 with no clouds the last week or so.  I’m seeing a very pronounced red and or purple cast on about half of the subs. They go from unusable to marginal. Attached are 2 subs showing the difference between usable and unusable. Does anyone have any idea what may be causing this?

Thanks

 

Attached Thumbnails

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[mourip]

Is it possible to copy files from an S50 using direct USB connection to their PC? I did a search here but it did not come up with anything. ChatGPT says that it is not supported.

 

Currently I am using my S50 in station mode. It shows up on my Mac as a hard drive and does allow me to copy files but the speed is excruciating.

 

Any work-arounds or am I missed something?

 

Thanks!

[davidgmd]

Yes, that’s how I get mine from the Seestar if I want to process the subs.

Just plug it in with a USB cable and navigate to the folder with the subs.

[WillR]

Is it possible to copy files from an S50 using direct USB connection to their PC? I did a search here but it did not come up with anything. ChatGPT says that it is not supported.

 

Currently I am using my S50 in station mode. It shows up on my Mac as a hard drive and does allow me to copy files but the speed is excruciating.

 

Any work-arounds or am I missed something?

 

Thanks!

I have an IMac  and the Seestar, when plugged in and turned on, shows up as an external drive.It can be slow though, depending on how many files you are moving. But I never have found it painfully slow.

[gfamily]

Is it possible to copy files from an S50 using direct USB connection to their PC? I did a search here but it did not come up with anything. ChatGPT says that it is not supported.

There's a thread about trusting what AI says.

 

Basically, believing it is the mistake here.  

[mourip]

Yes, that’s how I get mine from the Seestar if I want to process the subs.

Just plug it in with a USB cable and navigate to the folder with the subs.

 

I have an IMac  and the Seestar, when plugged in and turned on, shows up as an external drive.It can be slow though, depending on how many files you are moving. But I never have found it painfully slow.

Thanks for the helpful replies. I am able to copy files in Station Mode which is Wi-fi but I tried with two USB-C cables but was not able to browse the drive that did show up.

 

I will try the cable that came with my unit.

[mourip]

There's a thread about trusting what AI says.

 

Basically, believing it is the mistake here.  

Do you own an S50? Just curious...

[rkaufmann87]

I am a pretty new S50 user too (see post #2348 on this thread) and found that a) it's really wise to have a PC to do any post processing per Cuiv the Lazy Geek's YouTube at: https://www.youtube....h?v=lMoSAHOgbD4. I am primarily a Mac guy but found using the Mac to be slow and cumbersome, using the PC was easy. In the Cuiv's YouTube he will  provide very simple instructions on how to use:

 

• GraXpert
• Siril
• Gimp

 

1 thing I found very important to follow his video and to pick up all the nuances is to use the versions of GraXpert and Siril he's using which are available from their respective websites download sections.

 

Once done, you will end up with a .jpg which you can easily send (I just use e-mail or sometimes a flash drive) to move the finished photo to my Mac which I then import into the Photos app.

 

Another thing I have found useful is to watch Cuiv's video at the same time  you are working on the photo. How I do that is my desk has my 2020 27" iMac which I use for watching the video and then I use my Windows laptop to do the post processing. For each image do this process until you pick up all of the nuances and really begin understanding each of the apps if they are new to you.

 

If you want to continue to use Siril's Mac version you can but honestly I don't recommend it. PCs are cheap, you don't need anything expensive. Below are a couple of the images I have done using this workflow. The first is Cocoon Nebula, the second is M 20. 

 

 

 

 

Edited by rkaufmann87, 26 June 2025 - 09:36 PM.

[mourip]

 

I am a pretty new S50 user too (see post #2348 on this thread) and found that a) it's really wise to have a PC to do any post processing per Cuiv the Lazy Geek's YouTube at: https://www.youtube....h?v=lMoSAHOgbD4. I am primarily a Mac guy but found using the Mac to be slow and cumbersome, using the PC was easy. In the Cuiv's YouTube he will  provide very simple instructions on how to use:

 

• GraXpert
• Siril
• Gimp

 

1 thing I found very important to follow his video and to pick up all the nuances is to use the versions of GraXpert and Siril he's using which are available from their respective websites download sections.

 

Once done, you will end up with a .jpg which you can easily send (I just use e-mail or sometimes a flash drive) to move the finished photo to my Mac which I then import into the Photos app.

 

Another thing I have found useful is to watch Cuiv's video at the same time  you are working on the photo. How I do that is my desk has my 2020 27" iMac which I use for watching the video and then I use my Windows laptop to do the post processing. For each image do this process until you pick up all of the nuances and really begin understanding each of the apps if they are new to you.

 

If you want to continue to use Siril's Mac version you can but honestly I don't recommend it. PCs are cheap, you don't need anything expensive. Below are a couple of the images I have done using this workflow. The first is Cocoon Nebula, the second is M 20. 

Good tips. I tried out GraXpert this week after finding a video which recommended the most recent beta version that had added a good de-noise function. After getting some issues. I copied an error text into ChatGPT which suggested some things to try. After a bit it asked me to copy in the last few lines of the GraXpert log file. It analyzed it and one of the suggestions worked. Basically I had to uncheck the choice to use GPU acceleration on my Mac M4 Mini.

[mourip]

I have an IMac  and the Seestar, when plugged in and turned on, shows up as an external drive.It can be slow though, depending on how many files you are moving. But I never have found it painfully slow.

I decided to turn off Wi-fi on the PC that I was trying to copy the files to over the USB cable. It did work. It was slow but better than over Wi-fi.

 

Mission accomplished!

[davidgmd]

I decided to turn off Wi-fi on the PC that I was trying to copy the files to over the USB cable. It did work. It was slow but better than over Wi-fi.

 

Mission accomplished!

  
Glad to hear it worked. Files transfer pretty quickly for me with a USB C high-speed (40 Gbps) data transfer cable.

https://www.amazon.c...d/dp/B0CJJRKWC5

[gfamily]

Do you own an S50? Just curious...

I do. And retrieving the image data from it onto a PC is always done through the USB cable. 

Attach the cable and switch on the Seestar and it'll appear as an external drive. 

[slatts]

Hi everyone,
 
I recently decided to try the new equatorial mode, and it's working great for me. Tonight, in northern Ohio, we have clear skies, above-average seeing and transparency, and the moon below the horizon. I'm capturing the Crescent Nebula using 20-second exposures, and it looks much better and more detailed than all my previous attempts from last fall using Alt/Az mode. So far, after 97 minutes, the Seestar has captured 83 minutes of exposure time, or 85% integration efficiency. This is much better than I am used to, especially because the Crescent Nebula is very high in the sky right now, above 84 degrees. I would never be able to accomplish this without EQ mode.
 
The conversion to set up my Seestar in EQ mode only cost me less than $5: the price of a 3/8"-16 nut, a 3/8"-16x1" bolt, and a little bit of filament. For anyone who has a 3D printer and is interested in trying out EQ mode without breaking the bank, you can use this 3D-printed wedge and these micro-adjustable tripod leveling feet to fine-tune the side-to-side and front-to-back level. The person who created the 3D-printable wedge made a model for each latitude, so you just need to open your Seestar app and check your latitude to know which one to print. If you follow their instructions on how to print it, it's rock solid. I did find that the 41-degree wedge registered as 39 degrees in the app, so you might want to print one that is a degree or two higher than you need to account for a bit of flex in the system. My setup process is to open a level app on my phone, hold it on the wedge, and use the leveling feet to get the side-to-side level perfect. Then, I level front to back until the app shows the correct degree—41 in my case. After that, I use the built-in micro-adjusting routine in the app and fine-tune from there. Let me know if you have any questions if you decide to use the 3D-printed parts. (I designed the 3D-printed tripod leveling feet.)

[mourip]

Very nice. I opted for the type of leveling device which goes directly under my 3D printed wedge. A wedge design which has an offset built in to move the scope more directly over the mount is also a good idea. It helps with tipping or vibration. You could probably add a short "cheese plate" to do this with your wedge. On the other hand perhaps there is no reason to mess with success!

 

For those considering a 3D wedge remember that it will be dedicated to one specified latitude. It is great at home but if you travel very far it may no longer be accurate. I am currently shopping for an adjustable wedge to have when I view away from home.

[davidgmd]

Thinking about getting a wedge and trying equatorial mode. Any good video tutorials?

  
Does the Seestar app make it easy to polar align without a view of Polaris?

[voxelman]

I think the answer is yes but Google is your friend: 

 

Seestar equitorial mode tutorial

Edited by voxelman, 04 July 2025 - 10:59 AM.

[mourip]

Thinking about getting a wedge and trying equatorial mode. Any good video tutorials?

  
Does the Seestar app make it easy to polar align without a view of Polaris?

You are in the perfect thread to start. Choose one of the wedges that you find here and then use YouTube to find a good tutorial. Lots of good ones there. Watch a few of them and then you will pretty soon figure out who knows what they’re talking about.

 

Edited by mourip, 04 July 2025 - 12:34 PM.

[pavel7757]

Hi everyone!

Please tell me if anyone has taken the seestar s50 to Egypt (Sharm El Sheikh)? Have you encountered any problems at the airport? Thank you in advance.