Armchair astrophotography with the Seestar S50

 The Seestar S50 is a self-contained robotic astro-imaging system.   Once the telescope is physically setup and powered on, it can be controlled via an app on a smartphone or tablet.  I use an iPad mini.  A wifi connection allows the telescope to be controlled from indoors.

When the Seestar was first introduced it operated in Alt-Az Mode only.  This mode works quite well for short exposures, but field rotation begins to limit the exposure length.  ZWO later introduced software upgrades that allowed the telescope to be set up in Equatorial Mode, which is much better for long exposures.   Over the last two nights I setup the Seestar in Equatorial Mode.  I am impressed with the results.

Seestar S50 configured for Equatorial Mode operation.

 

M45, the Pleiades. 13.5 min

This image of the Pleiades illustrates one of the drawbacks of the Seestar, which is the narrow field of view.  It is too narrow to fit this cluster into a single frame.  However, it is possible to program the telescope to produce a mosaic of images in order to achieve a wider view.  This requires longer acquisition times, of course.  I have tried the mosaic-mode  in the past and it works quite well.  I did not use this extended mode for any of these images.

Here are some additional images obtained over the past few nights.  Exposure times are noted in the captions.  All images were processed with the AI-denoise feature within the Seestar app. Sky brightness was generally in the range of 21.3 to 21.4 mpsas.

M33, the Triangulum Galaxy.  25.3 min

 

M32 (lower), a satellite galaxy of the Andromeda Galaxy. 14.5 min

M110, another satellite galaxy of Andromeda. 15.2 min

M101, the Pinwheel Galaxy in Ursa Major. 10.2 min, Alt-Az mode.

NGC 6888, the Crescent Nebula in Cygnus. 20 min

NGC 6946, the FIreworks Galaxy in Cygnus. 23.5 min