General discussion about EAA messier contest

[StarHugger]

Curious what codec opens the image format being used?

The images from this little scope have been surprisingly good I would agree!

[Ben Cartwright SASS]

Gordon
I have a question about editing a post and the XLS files. I clicked on your XLS and had to download it to look at it. Ok that is fine as I can click on the hyperlinks and see the images.

the question I have is how do I edit my original Post on this contest to update the XLS or do I have to post a reply and a new XLS in the post each time I add another Messier Object to the XLS file?

I can't find anyway to replace the XLS with a new one.

Let me play, I will respond here.

[Ben Cartwright SASS]

A question for you, I see a lot of green in the images from the Seestar, I have heard it uses the Bayer Matrix of GRGB, two greens, not sure if that is true.

The question is, we should be only using the internal Seestar processing, so either the Seestar stacked image, or have Seestar process the fits images and upload the resultant image Seestar creates, there is a little editing ability on the Seestar, Light/dark, contrast, saturation and denoise only.

is that correct?

[jrkirkham]

Thank you for posting. I have been interested in knowing what the new generation of smart scopes can do. I am curious about the experience. How does it compare to more traditional telescopes. Will these be good starter scopes?

[Ben Cartwright SASS]

Thank you for posting. I have been interested in knowing what the new generation of smart scopes can do. I am curious about the experience. How does it compare to more traditional telescopes. Will these be good starter scopes?

I think they are great starter scopes, or like me a fun scope to use for outreach and when I don't want to drag out a ton of gear or filling my Jeep half way up with gear. You can use the seestar and supplied tripod alone or like me I added a full size lightweight tripod as I can't get down to the ground and might not have a table around. I have a camera bag, smallish one where I keep my extra battery (powertank) charger and wires and the filters and other parts for the S50, not really needed but make it easier.
You can simply look at the image on a phone or tablet or you can download the stacked image it generates.

Some say you don't learn the sky using it and you have to do star hopping well were I live in a Bortle 7.5 zone I can see only about 20-30 stars across the sky, no complete constellations except Orion, even the big dipper is missing a couple stars.
You can bring out binoculars and see where the Seestar is pointing and try to see the object for yourself in the binos. You will learn the sky by using its charts etc.

I think the Seestar is good for all levels!

[Gordon]

A question for you, I see a lot of green in the images from the Seestar, I have heard it uses the Bayer Matrix of GRGB, two greens, not sure if that is true.

The question is, we should be only using the internal Seestar processing, so either the Seestar stacked image, or have Seestar process the fits images and upload the resultant image Seestar creates, there is a little editing ability on the Seestar, Light/dark, contrast, saturation and denoise only.

is that correct?

SeeStar sets the Bayer Matrix correctly when stacking, I think most of the 'aftermarket' software has issues stacking that matrix. I've found the images stacked by SeeStar come out pretty good.

[Ben Cartwright SASS]

A question for you, I see a lot of green in the images from the Seestar, I have heard it uses the Bayer Matrix of GRGB, two greens, not sure if that is true.

The question is, we should be only using the internal Seestar processing, so either the Seestar stacked image, or have Seestar process the fits images and upload the resultant image Seestar creates, there is a little editing ability on the Seestar, Light/dark, contrast, saturation and denoise only.

is that correct?

SeeStar sets the Bayer Matrix correctly when stacking, I think most of the 'aftermarket' software has issues stacking that matrix. I've found the images stacked by SeeStar come out pretty good.

I am very happy with the Seestar, have gotten shots that I never did before

[Ben Cartwright SASS]

Tried to open your google sheets spreadsheet, wanted access so I will check out your gallery instead

[Gordon]

Tried to open your google sheets spreadsheet, wanted access so I will check out your gallery instead

I fixed it so it's shared to everyone.

[Ben Cartwright SASS]

Can you check my spreadsheet in the contest thread to make sure mine is right?

[Gordon]

Can you check my spreadsheet in the contest thread to make sure mine is right?

@Ben Cartwright SASS

I usually put just one object per line, but what you've done is fine.

Gordon

[Gordon]

Here you can ask questions or discuss methods for your Messier EAA image journey.