M31 with the Seestar S50

[Andy Elliott]

The Andromeda Galaxy
I usually image our amazing galactic neighbour at this time of the year. This time I used my little smart scope (you can carry it around under one arm!). Its such a great little scope to use, hardly any setting up needed, you just tell it what you want to look at and it just does it's thing.

Taken over 5 consecutive nights in September, and shot using EQ Mode and Mosaic Mode, this little scope continues to impress.

Total light frames = 2400
Exposure time 10s
Stacked in Pixinsight
Processed in Pixinsight and Photoshop

 

[JimFox]

Hey Andy, I am not sure how I missed this. I am traveling, but still try to keep up.

This is super cool! That's some really great work with M31. I would say it turned out really nice.

5 consecutive nights is really awesome!

Any reason why you are using 10 sec subs with EQ mode? I run mine now at 30 secs. I guess with Mosaic Mode 10 sec subs would let it finish it's first pass faster. I know at 30 secs it took over 3 hours just to finish the first pass. It had me thinking that maybe I should go with shorter subs to get that first pass done. I know when it was approaching 3 hours I was hoping it would finish before it go too close to the horizon. With 10 sec subs it would take maybe an hour for that first pass?

I am not sure if I answered my own question? Or maybe you just like 10 min subs?

 

[Andy Elliott]

Hey Andy, I am not sure how I missed this. I am traveling, but still try to keep up.

This is super cool! That's some really great work with M31. I would say it turned out really nice.

5 consecutive nights is really awesome!

Any reason why you are using 10 sec subs with EQ mode? I run mine now at 30 secs. I guess with Mosaic Mode 10 sec subs would let it finish it's first pass faster. I know at 30 secs it took over 3 hours just to finish the first pass. It had me thinking that maybe I should go with shorter subs to get that first pass done. I know when it was approaching 3 hours I was hoping it would finish before it go too close to the horizon. With 10 sec subs it would take maybe an hour for that first pass?

I am not sure if I answered my own question? Or maybe you just like 10 min subs?

Hi Jim, tbh I have not really looked into the differences with longer exposures, although I would say that with the few I have done at 20 or 30s, the stars tend to look a bit elongated, even though I'm in EQ mode. Also as you say, with 10s on a mosaic you get more or all of the mosaic frame covered in each session. I guess if I was using 30s over several nights then there might be some areas of the mosaic frame where the number of frames would be fewer; not sure if this would impact ion the final stacked image. I guess I'm a bit of a creature of habit. A bit like with my main imaging rig, where I tend to image at 150s (I know some use 300 or even 600s), but for me I think 150s is the sweet spot, and there is less chance of losing many frames due to clouds etc.

 

[Mike Lewis]

Lovely result!

ML

 

[Kooky_Bottomry]

Im trying to do a multinight project on Andromeda too, my problem being that the Seestar seems to not get as many exposures on the outer edges, resulting in a more detailed and contrasting look towards the middle and more washed-out and noisy towards the outer edges. Do you have any tips on how to get the Seastar to cover the outer edges more? I do 20-second exposures with little rejection, but should I be doing 10 seconds?

 

[Andy Elliott]

Im trying to do a multinight project on Andromeda too, my problem being that the Seestar seems to not get as many exposures on the outer edges, resulting in a more detailed and contrasting look towards the middle and more washed-out and noisy towards the outer edges. Do you have any tips on how to get the Seastar to cover the outer edges more? I do 20-second exposures with little rejection, but should I be doing 10 seconds?

Hi there, firstly I would say, try not to make the mosaic frame any larger than you need to, so that you are not spending imaging time on areas of sky you might well crop out anyway. Also, I do tend to stick to 10s exposures on mosaics, as that way you get the full field of view covered in less time, and therefore those outer areas have more frames. Good luck!