27 replies to this topic

[starpicturesmiami]

I'm excited to have my second ZWO Seestar S50 smart telescope set up at a remote observatory in Texas.   I am accessing it via an on-site MacMini(M2) running the Seestar IOS app.   I sure spent a lot of time trying to find information on controlling the Seestar remotely and was coming up empty.  Most people said it could not be done.  So I am posting this as a resource for anyone looking to do the same.   

 

I love my Seestar, but I live in the suburbs of South Florida with many cloudy nights and light pollution.  The Seestar does great from my back patio, but I wanted to push the unit a bit more in a darker environment.  This observatory claims to have a bortle 1 night sky!  However, when I look on LP maps, it shows it as a Bortle 2.  Anyway, it's a lot darker than my Bortle 7 patio.

 

See attached picture of my Seestar mounted on a pier. 

 

Here is my blog post https://starpictures...te-observatory/

 

And like clockwork work the new equipment curse has been hitting me hard.  Since I was set up at the remote site, it has been cloudy!!  The pain is real.  Previous to this they had 16 days of absolute clear night skies.  

 

Well I hope this helps.

Carlos

Star Pictures Miami

[roelb]

How do manage you remote solar imaging?

[jprideaux]

Thanks for posting your link to your blog post. I might need to pick up a m2 mini Mac to tech things out. I think it would work for either the SeeStar or the Origin.

[Lindhard]

How do you power the Seestar up when you want to use it? I guess someone has to press the button?

[Susan H]

How do you power the Seestar up when you want to use it? I guess someone has to press the button?

Can’t you turn the SeeStar on from the app? I think you can turn it off from there. 

[gjanke]

How do you power the Seestar up when you want to use it? I guess someone has to press the button?

Good chance it is powered on all the time.

[lost_in_cosmosis]

How do you power the Seestar up when you want to use it? I guess someone has to press the button?

I believe he mentioned someone at the observatory has to power it on and connect it to the Mac, then he can take over.

[jprideaux]

Another person I know who is in the process of getting his conventional rig set-up at that location is telling me that with following the Discord message traffic that the site is telling people that it is technically possible to run tunneling software on your tablet (or phone) to tunnel into the router there and if the smart-scope is connected to the router via station mode, then control the smart scope directly from your home tablet without remoting into a separate computer there (like a mac mini with
M" chip).   Of course having a mac mini there may have some other advantages.  At least using the mac mini is easy to understand and then you remote into that.  All very interesting...

I look forward to seeing some of his results once they get clear skies again.

 

And as I understand the operation there, there are people on site that respond to "service requests" via Discord and can do things.  I don't know how fast the turn-around is on service requests or if you need to pay extra beyond a certain number of requests per unit time...   Of course ideally one would want things as autonomous as possible so you don't have to wait for anyone there to do something (like press a button).  At least with the SeeStar, you don't need help in changing a filter.  

There is no real advantage to use a scope there for solar since a scope can easily be used for solar anywhere (even in a bortle 9 city).  The sun itself makes any notion of a low bortle area moot.  

Edited by jprideaux, 04 September 2024 - 11:41 AM.

[Lindhard]

Can’t you turn the SeeStar on from the app? I think you can turn it off from there. 

Off yes, but not on.

[starpicturesmiami]

Yes, for now I have to rely on the support team to physically press the power button to turn on the Seestar.  One problem I am having with the Seestar with the usb-c cable wrapping around the pier.  I am using a 10 ft. cable and I have had the tech staff check to make sure it is not tightly wrapped around the pier.  They tell me it has wrapped around but not tightly.  So I went ahead and ordered magnetic usb-c adapter that will disconnect with light tension.  The problem I am having is that it disconnects from the SS with the very lighted tug.  And last night it happened again, second time.  I was imaging the Western Veil Nebula and went to bed.  When I woke up this morning I could not remote into the SS because it was turned off.  So it probably ran and the batter for 4-5 hours then powered down.   I was hoping to point it at M45 for an hour before daylight this morning, but that did not happen.

 

The tech support at Star Front has been excellent.  In most cases they respond in a few hours from the time I submit the service ticket via their Discord.   For minor things like leveling, repulsing the usb cable, installing a UPS batter backup, there is no additional charge or fee.  Its included.  Now, if you have a bigger rig that may require addition of spacers, a filter wheel, or something more involved, then they will charge $50 per. hour for that support.

[starpicturesmiami]

Album: First images from remote Seestar at Star Front

4 images

0 comments

[jkelly]

I believe he mentioned someone at the observatory has to power it on and connect it to the Mac, then he can take over.

I am starting to see people using this for remote control powerup/shutdown.

 

https://www.amazon.c...B07B4D9KVX?th=1

[bdjeep]

Another person I know who is in the process of getting his conventional rig set-up at that location is telling me that with following the Discord message traffic that the site is telling people that it is technically possible to run tunneling software on your tablet (or phone) to tunnel into the router there and if the smart-scope is connected to the router via station mode, then control the smart scope directly from your home tablet without remoting into a separate computer there (like a mac mini with
M" chip).   Of course having a mac mini there may have some other advantages.  At least using the mac mini is easy to understand and then you remote into that.  All very interesting...

I look forward to seeing some of his results once they get clear skies again.

I'm not sure of the networking specifics at the remote location, but I regularly connect to my SeeStar and AsiAir through a VPN connection to my home network.  Both are in station mode connected to my home wifi, and I can check on the telescopes on my phone from anywhere.  It works really well and was supported quite easily through my wifi mesh router.  

 

Someone recently posted a picture of the switchbot connected to a Seestar on one of the Seestar S50 facebook groups.

[starpicturesmiami]

Seestar S50 at remote observatory update:

March 21, 2025.  I moved my Seestar at Star Front to the new Seestar Bar in building #6.  I was on a pier in building #1 since August.  But they announced a new lower monthly rate for smart telescopes and asked if I wanted to move to the shared Seestar Bar and I said yes!  There are now over ten Seestars at the observatory and one user has set up his on an EQ wedge running Alp on a Raspberry Pi computer.  Now that ZWO is releasing EQ mode for the S50 and 30, I imagine more people, and maybe me too, will opt for an EQ wedge for my remote rig.

 

Everything has been running perfectly with little to no hiccups.  I have since added a external usb-c hard drive for local storage.  I also purchase a ASI662MC that I am using as a pier cam mounted underneath the Seestar.  Here is a short time lapse video of the pier cam showing my unit and 4 other Seestar.

 

https://youtu.be/7SO637cTLrQ

 

Super excited for the future of the Seestar line up with rumors of a possible S70 in the works.

[jkelly]

Hi, I have the seestar on the right. Where are you located?

 

Jeff

 

[starpicturesmiami]

My Seestar is shown to the left of the white S30.   I love that my scope is mounted higher than the side walls when I was in building #1 on a pier.  We now have a much better view to the southern horizon, and that's where all the good targets are.  At least for me.  I have not gone with the EQ wedge, yet.  Still waiting to see better image results from my S50 here at home.

[rydberg]

I am too one of those folks with the Seestar at Starfront.  A mini mac with a m1 chip will run the IOS app properly, so by simply using Chrome remote desktop or Anydesk software is easy to control the Seestar remotely (the mini mac is plugged in into ethernet).  The Seestar is NOT on station mode, since we do not use the wireless on site, but it is using its own WIFI.   Change password, otherwise you risk someone "hijacking" it.  Right now the Seestar is ON all the time.  If you shut it down, you need to have someone push the power on button.  Support strongly recommend using a KASA power strip so you can turn things off and on remotely as well.  I keep my seestar always charged from the power strip.  You can actualyl get a Switchbot  that can be controlled via bluetooth and used to Push the on-off button for the required time.  I have not sent mine in yet, but I'll do it soon enough.

Marco

[starpicturesmiami]

So great to see so many people taking advantage of Star Front Remote Observatories with their Seestars.   Here in Miami, the rainy season has started.   So, not much imaging or visualization time for the next 4 months.  But it should be clear at Star Front this summer.  I just posted some recent images from SFRO on my site.  https://starpictures...atory-in-texas/

[starpicturesmiami]

Here is a time lapse video of my Seestar S50 capturing M81 Bode's Galaxy from Star Front.  Now, the weather was not great.  High thin clouds and a 90% illuminated moon did not help.  But, I went ahead and recorded the Seestar dashboard using Quicktime screen record on the M2 Mac mini at Star Front.  Towards the end of the video I add the Denise function and do some native color editing on the Seestar.   https://youtu.be/DYGWvz_XS8k

[ism409]

Seestar S50 at remote observatory update:

March 21, 2025.  I moved my Seestar at Star Front to the new Seestar Bar in building #6.  I was on a pier in building #1 since August.  But they announced a new lower monthly rate for smart telescopes and asked if I wanted to move to the shared Seestar Bar and I said yes!  There are now over ten Seestars at the observatory and one user has set up his on an EQ wedge running Alp on a Raspberry Pi computer.  Now that ZWO is releasing EQ mode for the S50 and 30, I imagine more people, and maybe me too, will opt for an EQ wedge for my remote rig.

 

Everything has been running perfectly with little to no hiccups.  I have since added a external usb-c hard drive for local storage.  I also purchase a ASI662MC that I am using as a pier cam mounted underneath the Seestar.  Here is a short time lapse video of the pier cam showing my unit and 4 other Seestar.

 

https://youtu.be/7SO637cTLrQ

 

Super excited for the future of the Seestar line up with rumors of a possible S70 in the works.

how much do they charge for the Seestar Bar per month?

[rydberg]

The reservation feee is $99.  They use that money to set up the equipment you send them (computer, telescope, power strip etc) and to polar align the scope.  Once that is done, the monthly fee for the "seestar Bar" is $99.

[CraigR]

I'm counting 16 of us now at Starfront. We might be close to filling the original Seestar Bar (which of course is the best Seestar Bar). :-)

[Astrojedi]

Just came across this thread. Carlos, (and others) thanks for sharing your experience.

This feels like the future to me. Been doing astronomy for 25+ years and I have seen many evolutions of the hobby.

A lot of remote automation can be implemented in software. I know ZWO is working on bringing remote hosting capabilities to the ASIAir. I think it’s only a matter of time that these come to the Seestar.

Hopefully future versions the Seestar also add the HW changes needed e.g. remote power on, home position (to avoid cable wrap), etc. (and a cooled camera would be awesome)

Edited by Astrojedi, 31 May 2025 - 10:26 AM.

[CraigR]

Just came across this thread. Carlos, (and others) thanks for sharing your experience.

This feels like the future to me. Been doing astronomy for 25+ years and I have seen many evolutions of the hobby.

A lot of remote automation can be implemented in software. I know ZWO is working on bringing remote hosting capabilities to the ASIAir. I think it’s only a matter of time that these come to the Seestar.

Hopefully future versions the Seestar also add the HW changes needed e.g. remote power on, home position (to avoid cable wrap), etc. (and a cooled camera would be awesome)

I have a remote ASIAir-based system at Starfront. Works great. There's a lot of things it can't do when you compare it to NINA, but there's nothing I need to do that I can't. For example, last night I set up a plan to start running about 10 minutes before astro dark (to allow time for guide calibration, camera cooling, and autofocus), then it automatically ran a 4-panel mosaic and shut off when it was done or astro dawn, whichever came first. No, I can't monitor approaching storms, roof closures, and other useful things like NINA can, but it does everything I need without requiring me to remotely administer a Windows box.

 

Until about 2-3 weeks ago, I had an S50 there. (Sold it in-place.) You're right that it needs remote power-on. We got around cable wrap by closing the arm between targets. In plan mode you just leave the minimum 10-minute gap between targets and it will return home. ZWO keeps adding little things — eq mode, 60-second exposures, and (I think) auto-focus before each target in plan mode, for example — that make it an outstanding rig for remote deployment.

 

I think that integrated astro rigs aka smart scopes are at least some portion of the future, and I think smart scopes with more remote-friendly software operating at remote observatories is absolutely the best way to take advantage of those advancements.

[starpicturesmiami]

Yes, next week I will finally have my Seestar S50 set up in EQ mode.  I ordered a William Optics EQ wedge and the skywatcher 20550 ball head adapter dove tail mount.   Looking forward to seeing the results of 20, 30 and 60 second subs.