Seestar S50 Exposure 10 sec v 20 sec v 30 sec - Rooster Inn Observatory - 23 December 2023

[@kenm4958]

👍 very informative vid as usual thank you

[@PompeyObservatory]

You are welcome.

[@Starman280z]

Thank you for doing this test.My Seestar saw first light last night

[@PompeyObservatory]

I wish you many sleepless nights imaging the heavens.

[@itskraz3yivanhere850]

30 sec exposures depend where in the sky the object is. Some places you can barely get past 10 secs. If the object is directly west or east with the Alt-az mount you could get over a min easy.

[@PompeyObservatory]

M5 was at azimuth 97 degrees when I imaged it. It was a limited experiment that I plan to repeat with other targets.

[@DanParryPhotography]

Will be nice to see more comparison on other targets with more data if you manage to find the time :)

[@PompeyObservatory]

That's the plan! Time, I have. Clear nights, totally different matter.

[@DanParryPhotography]

@@PompeyObservatory Hopefully i will be around to catch the streams

[@UrbanStarman]

Interesting thanks for this.

[@PompeyObservatory]

I will post the videos for on-demand watching as well.

[@PompeyObservatory]

You are welcome @urbanstarman

[@dennisrogers6786]

Have had 30 secs with perfectly round stars, so have to be longer than 2 mins. The longer the more tgd stars become round. Have had 16 mins and more at 30 and perfect stars

[@PompeyObservatory]

I ran out of night when I tried two minutes. I repeated with 10 minutes, and the stars looked much rounder - kzbin.info/www/bejne/bJWzgGWJn6aJfKssi=TX_PL7u4sFoqNlwb

[@dangerousaltoids]

Rooster, so I started experimenting with the 30s subs tonight and the SNR is way better for sure (almost no background noise from the get go) also, at the beginning of two of my sessions the stars were egg shaped as well but round out to normal shape the further I went into the session. Not sure if it corrects this during the length of the session or what but I would give it another try. So far much cleaner image and more data quicker for me. (conducting my test on Orion for the evening, but did try the heart nebula for a bit and it was pulling in details pretty quickly)

[@PompeyObservatory]

No doubt longer exposures give better SNR and work better on nebulae than star clusters. During my brief experiment, Seestar did not go beyond 3x30-sec frames on M5. I plan to repeat the 10-20-30 experiment on more targets clouds permitting.

[@dangerousaltoids]

@RoosterInnObservatory I thought it was doing the same thing as well, but it started stacking quite a bit, I think the enhancing feature takes longer to populate the subs when at 30s. Mine would do the 30s then another and another and then it'd randomly pop up with an extra 1m30s of data in the frame.

[@PompeyObservatory]

Uh, OK. I did not wait long enough. Thanks for the tip.

[@peeb2896]

As you expose longer, the chip would create heat and this is where the noise comes in....So 30 seconds would create more noise and this would be compounded with lots of exposures....Try and image with a DSLR....a 30 second exposure would turn into a 60 second exposure if you didn't turn off the darks ......

[@PompeyObservatory]

I have taken much longer exposures with dedicated astro cameras and autoguiding scopes - longer exposures tend to give a better SNR. The trade-off with Seestar is unguided alt-az mount vs. exposure SNR.

[@cdlp8131]

10 s is definitely the best choice.

[@PompeyObservatory]

I plan to run more tests on a galaxy (M33?), nebula (M42) and M45

[@epos79]

I can do 20 or 30 secs depending on the object location in the sky in equatorial mount mode :-)

[@PompeyObservatory]

proper tracking in eq mode reduces star trails for sure.

[@peeb2896]

I think choosing a globular for the test is ideal, other objects would not give enough detail and the exposure difference is minimal, 30 secs appears to produce eggy stars? And it would do...given the design of this scope, 10 seconds is still overall sharper, 20? About the norm... I would personally stick with the 10 secs as its design, better signal to noise given its uncooled and field rotation...My two bobs worth..... Nice testing!

[@PompeyObservatory]

Thank you. I plan to repeat the test on galaxies and nebulae for thoroughness sake.

[@grahambohl5205]

Great comparison. Do you ever sleep?

[@PompeyObservatory]

Only when it is cloudy

[@grahambohl5205]

@@PompeyObservatory Ha ha. I was hoping for this answer!

[@PompeyObservatory]

😊

[@nightwaves3203]

10 seconds setting is most likely to prevent over heating noise when going for long captures.2 minutes figures no problem but keep it up for an hour or more ehhhhhh

[@PompeyObservatory]

After more experimentation, I tend to stay with 10-sec for most targets, but I use 20-sec for Comets and fainter nebulae.

[@TheDigitalMD]

Very interesting, however the results will vary depending on both viewer and target location. 10 sec exposures are safe for most, 20 seconds may or may not work well for some targets, 30 seconds is stretching the limits of the S50 capabilities and will fail or result in issues for many targets.

[@PompeyObservatory]

I repeated the tests on M45 and M42 kzbin.infoEZpukbLPWkc?si=26m8Z8_CSOYs3g1Z

[@AK-cl4mx]

I think 20 seconds is better. I couldn’t get the 30 seconds work.

[@PompeyObservatory]

20-second exposure seems like the sweet spot

[@hyperionsixzeroeight5064]

audio muffeled.

[@PompeyObservatory]

Sorry about that. It sounds good on my end. I used a professional grade microphone.