Andromeda - M31

[Bob Israel]

I know it's been way too long since I've visited here. I have not been active online as much, and I have a lot of catching up.

I took out my Seestar S30 Pro two nights ago and figured to shoot something relatively easy . . . M31 Andromeda Galaxy to re-initiate myself to astrophotography. It was also a chance to try out AstroWizard by Lucomatico. I have to say, AstroWizard makes processing stacked images very straightforward. He's also developed a stacking component which is still in beta but already does a remarkable job.

This image is comprised of 660 images at 30s each or 5.5 hours of data collected in one evening. Images were stacked and stretched in Astrowizard and finished in Lightroom classic.

Here's hoping y'all welcome me back with open arms.

Bob

 

[JimFox]

Hey Bob!

It's great to see you back! I know you are always busy, which is great. But... we have missed you!

And coming back with this M31 is awesome. This looks super nice! Really a lot of nice detail, the right color in all the right places. So great job with this.

Yeah, AstroWizard looks great. Lukomatico has long been my favorite Astro guy with YouTube videos on Astrophotography, so it's great to see come from him, and I am not surprised. While lot's of Astro guys who do tutorial videos on Astro bury a person in detail after detail, Luke has a great way of keeping it simple, which is why I always referred him to people new in astrophotography.

So I am not surprised that he came out with a tool that is also about keeping things simple to help new astrophotographers and also perhaps those who aren't new, but simply don't have the time for a more traditional Pixinsight workflow.

I haven't downloaded Astrowizard yet, though I do plan on it at some point.

 

[Bob Israel]

Hey Jim, thanks for the (re)welcome. Yeah, I really like what Luke has done with AstroWizard. While the stacking software is still beta, it worked really well. And the rest of thte software is pretty nice. Now, should I get the S50 Pro? Thinking about selling the Celestron Origin. Seestar has come a long way on image quality and is so compact.

 

[Comet Hunter]

Outstanding,

 

[Bob Israel]

Outstanding,

Thanks!

 

[JimFox]

Hey Jim, thanks for the (re)welcome. Yeah, I really like what Luke has done with AstroWizard. While the stacking software is still beta, it worked really well. And the rest of thte software is pretty nice. Now, should I get the S50 Pro? Thinking about selling the Celestron Origin. Seestar has come a long way on image quality and is so compact.

Hey Bob,

Yep, Luke is awesome. Such a help to the Astro community.

As to the S50 Pro.... You might not want to have put a quarter into my jukebox on that one....

Since the S50 was released, all of us who got it from day one, simply had asked for 1 thing. A higher resolution sensor, but with the same FOV that is being captured in the image. So they came out with the S30 next and went wider with the same 1080p 2mp sensor. That was totally understandable. But then to me and many others, they messed up with the 1st Pro, the S30 Pro which you got. Not that the S30 Pro isn't a great smart telescope, it is. But they added the higher resolution sensor, but they didn't change the optics to match the S30 Image FoV. Had they done that, I would have gotten an S30 Pro, because the one thing killing the S30, besides the lower resolution, was the optics, they were bad in the corners, and not from Field Rotation.

So for a bunch of us, that stung. And I think ZWO is shooting themselves in the foot by referencing the Optics in the name, but this isn't a regular Scope where you could do this. No in my mind it's Optics + Sensor = Actual FoV. That's what should be represented in their numbering.

Anyway.... so a huge group of us are still waiting for the upgrade to the S50. Now they finally come out with the S50 Pro, and yes, it's higher resolution. And yes, they finally changed the gearing system which was the achilles heel of the Seestars and that was the terribly sloppy gears. But.... it's Actual FoV matches the S30 not the S50...

So still no actual upgrade to the S50. In my mind, they should have come out with the S50 Pro first, after making the S30. And it should match the actual FOV of the S50. Sure you can crop the S50 Pro image to match the S50, but since it's about 4x times wider, by the time you crop it, your resolution is no longer 4k, it's actually back to 1080p...

Yes, the S50 Pro would work great in tandem with the S30 Pro, and the S50 Pro is the best Seestar made to date I think. But as you can see, I am feeling a bit tarnished by what I see is bad decision after bad decision by ZWO.

I would have bought the S50 Pro had it simply had the same actual FOV on the image, but at higher resolution (no Cropping needed) as my S50. I would easily have bought one.

Instead.... I have the Dwarlabs Draco on pre-order. It looks to me like Dwarflabs is actually listening to customers.

 

[Bob Israel]

Hey Bob,

Yep, Luke is awesome. Such a help to the Astro community.

As to the S50 Pro.... You might not want to have put a quarter into my jukebox on that one....

Since the S50 was released, all of us who got it from day one, simply had asked for 1 thing. A higher resolution sensor, but with the same FOV that is being captured in the image. So they came out with the S30 next and went wider with the same 1080p 2mp sensor. That was totally understandable. But then to me and many others, they messed up with the 1st Pro, the S30 Pro which you got. Not that the S30 Pro isn't a great smart telescope, it is. But they added the higher resolution sensor, but they didn't change the optics to match the S30 Image FoV. Had they done that, I would have gotten an S30 Pro, because the one thing killing the S30, besides the lower resolution, was the optics, they were bad in the corners, and not from Field Rotation.

So for a bunch of us, that stung. And I think ZWO is shooting themselves in the foot by referencing the Optics in the name, but this isn't a regular Scope where you could do this. No in my mind it's Optics + Sensor = Actual FoV. That's what should be represented in their numbering.

Anyway.... so a huge group of us are still waiting for the upgrade to the S50. Now they finally come out with the S50 Pro, and yes, it's higher resolution. And yes, they finally changed the gearing system which was the achilles heel of the Seestars and that was the terribly sloppy gears. But.... it's Actual FoV matches the S30 not the S50...

So still no actual upgrade to the S50. In my mind, they should have come out with the S50 Pro first, after making the S30. And it should match the actual FOV of the S50. Sure you can crop the S50 Pro image to match the S50, but since it's about 4x times wider, by the time you crop it, your resolution is no longer 4k, it's actually back to 1080p...

Yes, the S50 Pro would work great in tandem with the S30 Pro, and the S50 Pro is the best Seestar made to date I think. But as you can see, I am feeling a bit tarnished by what I see is bad decision after bad decision by ZWO.

I would have bought the S50 Pro had it simply had the same actual FOV on the image, but at higher resolution (no Cropping needed) as my S50. I would easily have bought one.

Instead.... I have the Dwarlabs Draco on pre-order. It looks to me like Dwarflabs is actually listening to customers.

I can't argue with any of what you're saying. The Draco looks very interesting especially with a 90mm FOV. I also have it on preorder. There's a lot of tech built into the Draco and it will be interesting to see how it all executes in the field. The rotating sensor is quite interesting but I'm sure it doesn't replace EQ mode. 300s exposures puts this at the top for a smart scope too. I just watched a long video on the Draco. Looks pretty amazing. It includes images from Draco data and the results from less than an hour's worth of data are remarkable.