27 replies to this topic

[Overtime]

I used my seestar s50 in AZ mode

Yes I know it would have been better if I had more data.

It is much better then my Fri-sat picture ( I changed viewing location)

I am expecting to sometime soon mount this on my manual eq mount so I can take longer shots.

 

I was looking to get a bit more color. I was very tired so I cut my viewing time short but I wonder if it would have improved this picture much?

 

Edited by Overtime, 06 July 2025 - 02:17 PM.

[CraigR]

93 minutes ought to be long enough to do better than this. Do you have your LP filter on? It should be off for broadband targets (galaxies, star clusters, and reflection nebulae) like this one and on for narrowband targets (emission nebulae). 

[Overtime]

93 minutes ought to be long enough to do better than this. Do you have your LP filter on? It should be off for broadband targets (galaxies, star clusters, and reflection nebulae) like this one and on for narrowband targets (emission nebulae). 

Don't.remember. It was basically on auto. I didn't realize the target wasn't centered till I got back into the house and I don't remember seeing the center object button. Next time I will make sure the LPF is off and it was longer then 93 mins if you factor in the dropped shots.

[Stevan Klaas]

This looks like fireworks galaxy IC342 right. Not an easy one. Actually it is a bit faint and difficult to get details.

 

Definitely deserves more time. But it can be further processed.

 

You could try the AI denoise and the editing of Seestar App. Sometimes it works well enough to pop things out.

 

Then in more advanced processing it would probably benefit from extracting the very dense (and beautiful) star field, boost the galaxy and reintegrate stars.

[Overtime]

This looks like fireworks galaxy IC 342 right. Not an easy one. Actually it is a bit faint and difficult to get details.

 

Definitely deserves more time. But it can be further processed.

 

You could try the AI denoise and the editing of Seestar App. Sometimes it works well enough to pop things out.

 

Then in more advanced processing it would probably benefit from extracting the very dense (and beautiful) star field, boost the galaxy and reintegrate stars.

Oops I forgot to mention it was the fireworks galaxy. I had posted in another thread on the forums and after asking some questions it was suggested I move here.

IC 342? NGC 6946.

Yes it is a dim and I haven't done any further processing to it mostly because I lack the experience on how to do it. I haven't found anything to compare it too yet. I don't want to process it to make the photo unreal looking.

[rkaufmann87]

I think there is quite a bit you could do with it using GraXpert, Siril and Gimp which are all free. There is a great tutorial on YouTube by Quiv the Lazy Geek that explains how to do it all. These apps run on a pc so don’t plan on using your phone or tablet or Mac if you happen to be a Mac guy.

[CraigR]

Don't.remember. It was basically on auto. I didn't realize the target wasn't centered till I got back into the house and I don't remember seeing the center object button. Next time I will make sure the LPF is off and it was longer then 93 mins if you factor in the dropped shots.

The folder on the Seestar will have the large JPG file, a thumbnail JPG file, and a FIT file. The file name of at least the FIT file (and maybe the other two also) will have _LP_ in it if the so-called light pollution filter was used. I have to think that's your issue. There's too little here and that filter will take it right out.

[Overtime]

The folder on the Seestar will have the large JPG file, a thumbnail JPG file, and a FIT file. The file name of at least the FIT file (and maybe the other two also) will have _LP_ in it if the so-called light pollution filter was used. I have to think that's your issue. There's too little here and that filter will take it right out.

As soon as it's dark enough I plan on shooting again. I can shut off the LP but it was also suggested I use aidenoise. That seems to control itself and I can't control it, unless I am doing something wrong which wouldn't surprise me. I don't know much about this technology yet.

 

BTW I cleared off some of the older no so good picks earlier today and saw the fit files. I didn't delete them yet but that will make a bunch of room.

 

Now that it's dark enough to scan the target I can not disable the LP filter. Since I only had 10 mins of data I restarted the process. Once it stopped collecting data I was able to shut the LP filter off.

Edited by Overtime, 06 July 2025 - 08:36 PM.

[jprideaux]

Of course your bottle level, moon, and seeing conditions matter as well as total integration time. For faint galaxies, I try to drive a bit to a dark site with no moon for best results…. And go as long as the night allows.

Edited by jprideaux, 07 July 2025 - 01:05 AM.

[Overtime]

Of course your bottle level, moon, and seeing conditions matter as well as total integration time. For faint fallacies, I try to drive a bit to a dark site with no moon for best results…. And go as long as the night allows.

The moon is towards my south east the fireworks galaxy is towards my north west, hopefully that helps.  My first attempt was 10 mins long before I reset and restarted but I see nothing but stars so far.

[Overtime]

15 mins still nothing. Hopefully this isn't a waste of time tonight.

[Overtime]

Almost 30 mins of data and no galaxy to be seen. I plan to switched to a new target. m106 seems to be my target. Less then 2 mins and I signs of  it. I had wanted o do the hamburger galaxy but it wasn't in the cards.

[Stevan Klaas]

I think it is more in the 4-5hrs for you to get good signal for this galaxy, seeing what you got in 90 min.

 

Then it is easier to process. I would use the editing function in the seestar app to begin with.

[Airstrike]

always best to plough as much time into a target as possible to get the best from it .....

 

this is my M106 , 23hr 30min        around 3000 subs of 20-30sec exposures 

 

even now i still think it can do with more time

 

astro is a HEAVY game of patience so if you want the rewards , you know what you got to do now

 

i saved all the subs and stacked them myself and edited to get the best from the data

 

s50 will stack and spit out an ok pic but its nothing to an image thats been hand crafted

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[jprideaux]

Good comments above on improving images. In visual astronomy there is a saying: “Aperture is king” meaning that you can benefit in what you can see with larger and larger aperture. This is why you see people with 20” and larger Dobsonian telescopes at star-parties.

The statement for imaging could be “Total integration time is King” meaning that the longer you spend on the target the better.

My crude “rule of thumb” is that I notice an improvement after each doubling of my integration time. Meaning whatever I get after 1 hour, I will see an improvement if I go an additional hour. Whatever I get after 2 hours, I will notice an improvement after spending an additional 2 hours on it. Etc.

You can keep getting improvements but you have to keep increasing the additional time you spend. You will eventually run out of night. Then people collect time on a target across multiple nights…. And stack it all together. I know people that spend 40+ hours on a target. Sometimes longer…

So the simple one thing you can do is just spend a lot more time on the target. Of course you won’t see any difference between 2 hours and 2 hours 15 minutes but you will see a difference between 2 hours and 4 hours total time.

Edited by jprideaux, 07 July 2025 - 11:04 AM.

[Airstrike]

 Of course you won’t see any difference between 2 hours and 2 hours 15 minutes but you will see a difference between 2 hours and 4 hours total time.

this is so true but on a s50 though you will see a difference from 2-4 hrs it wont be massive using these little scopes 

as you say aperture is king and when you are doing like 5min subs then you are stepping into big boys toys and that comes with ££££££££££ and alot of 

 

@overtime

so if you want to make pretty pics like most of us like do and with the tools you have available then time and patience needs to be your best friends in this game

 

i know on the seestar flitting around the universe and grabbing a few frames of this and that is so tempting because its so easy , so next time you set up give yourself the challenge and do several full nights get like at least 12 hours on one target then stack them using siril (free) or DSS deep sky stacker also (free) then stretch the data then ... your eyes will pop

Edited by Airstrike, 07 July 2025 - 09:45 AM.

[Stevan Klaas]

I did a comparison of signal to noise a couple of months ago : 4 / 9 / 14 / 18 hours

 

https://www.cloudyni...3#entry14138600

 

 

But certainly the biggest win is from one hour to 4 hours.

Edited by Stevan Klaas, 07 July 2025 - 10:48 AM.

[CraigR]

Now that it's dark enough to scan the target I can not disable the LP filter. Since I only had 10 mins of data I restarted the process. Once it stopped collecting data I was able to shut the LP filter off.

You can only turn off the filter when it is not imaging. So you did the right thing.

 

I changed the option that tells it to start imaging as soon as it finds the object. That gives me time to check the focus and turn on/off the filter. Then I start manually.

[CraigR]

“Aperture is king” is true in the sense that it can gather more photons per unit time, but it is not the whole picture in astrophotography, where:

• Sensor sensitivity (QE, read noise, thermal noise) can easily offset smaller apertures, especially with modern CMOS cameras.
• Pixel scale matters for resolution and SNR per pixel; oversampling wastes light across too many pixels, and undersampling wastes resolution.
• Seeing conditions usually limit practical resolution far more than aperture.
• Integration time can make up for aperture limitations; 10 hours on a small refractor often beats 1 hour on a large SCT.
• Optical quality and field correction often matter more for practical, sharp images across the frame.
• Tracking accuracy and guiding become a bigger bottleneck than aperture once exposures go longer.

In other words, aperture helps, but in astrophotography it’s one variable among many, and ignoring the others leads to disappointment and bloated gear purchases that underdeliver.

 

It’s a different game than visual observing, where aperture usually is king. Astrophotography is a photon SNR and sampling problem under practical seeing, not just a light bucket competition.

[marvindj]

I used my seestar s50 in AZ mode

Yes I know it would have been better if I had more data.

It is much better then my Fri-sat picture ( I changed viewing location)

I am expecting to sometime soon mount this on my manual eq mount so I can take longer shots.

 

I was looking to get a bit more color. I was very tired so I cut my viewing time short but I wonder if it would have improved this picture much?

 

1751827940250b.jpg

Still a novice at processing but my version of Fireworks Galaxy (NGC6946) for comparison. 

 

Bortle 8, S50, EQ mode, approx 20 hours of 20s exposures, stacked and processed in PixInsight using CosmeticCorrection, WBPP, DynamicCrop (for a small portion of the image), ImageSolver, GraxPert, BlurXterm, SPCC, NoiseXTerminator, HistogramTransformation (stretch), save as xisf, StarXterminator, CurvesTransform, ScreenStars, StarReduction, save as xisf, jpeg, tiff. 

 

Haven't learned how to bring out more color in galaxies.....

Attached Thumbnails

• 

Edited by marvindj, 07 July 2025 - 11:26 AM.

[Overtime]

 

Nice shot. Did you add  the color in editing or did that happen with the longer session? 

[Overtime]

You can only turn off the filter when it is not imaging. So you did the right thing.

 

I changed the option that tells it to start imaging as soon as it finds the object. That gives me time to check the focus and turn on/off the filter. Then I start manually.

Is that an option? I don't always read well so I tend to skip some instruction manuals. I also tend to scan them and sometimes get distracted with things I have read later and forget some of the stuff I read earlier on.

[marvindj]

Nice shot. Did you add  the color in editing or did that happen with the longer session? 

The only intentional color adjustment occurred with PixInsight's SpectroPhotometricColorCalibration (SPCC) process. As I understand this process, it will use the coordinates of the image and adjust colors based on externally obtained information (that is, what the color "should be")....

[marvindj]

Is that an option? I don't always read well so I tend to skip some instruction manuals. I also tend to scan them and sometimes get distracted with things I have read later and forget some of the stuff I read earlier on.

Seestar App-><Connect to Seestar>->Me->Advanced Features->Execute enhancement after GOTO

[Overtime]

I did a comparison of signal to noise a couple of months ago : 4 / 9 / 14 / 18 hours

 

https://www.cloudyni...3#entry14138600

 

IMG_1149.jpeg

 

But certainly the biggest win is from one hour to 4 hours.

Looks like I need to be a bit more patient and use my new viewing location for this target. These comparisons are just what I was looking for. THANKS! with that and the tips from others I hope to do much better. Now I just gotta get set up on a good viewing night. last night looked good but after about 30 mins I still didn't see anything but stars on my screen. Come to think about it I bet I know why now. Earlier when it was still light I was having some issues viewing the moon with my other scope. I bet there was some semi/transparent clouds that made it impossible to see the fireworks galaxy  I couldn't see any clouds with just my eyes but I bet they were there.