SeeStar S50 captures deep space for Astro photography newbies

I fought the idea of photographing deep space objects such as Nebulas and Galaxies other than our own Milky Way. My friend, Larry Gunn suggested I dip my toe into the genre with a device called the SeeStar S50. A reasonably priced automated telescope/camera that can navigate to targets automatically. I might be in trouble now. I missed most of last night’s sleep time probing the heavens…

Bubble nebula — NGC 7635 AKA the Bubble Nebula. “bubble” is created by the stellar wind from a massive hot, 8.7 magnitude young central star. 7100 light years away the Nebula is seven light years across. That is about one-and-a-half times the distance from our sun to its nearest stellar neighbor.

Making image in Sedona, Arizona

Last night the skies were clear in our Bortle 4 area. You end up with extremely dark skies when you point the camera as straight up as you can. The light will always be more intrusive near the horizon. Targets that I photographed were between 70 to 80 degrees above the horizon. The only processing I’ve done is to use Adobe Photoshop after the jpeg stacked was downloaded to my camera. Many folks who are not Photoshop proficient use the editing capabilities of their phone to share captured images. Even though this is a consumer camera/telescope it has some powerful features.

Finding targets

pelican nebula — IC 5070 AKA the Pelican Nebula. This is how the image comes from the Seastar if you activate the tags. It includes the name, location of the shoot and length of time the camera was recording and stacking images.

When you are looking for what to photograph there are libraries with sample images form which to choose. I’ll only talk to the Nebula’s and Galaxies which I photographed last night. I look through the library of targets to find ones that have more interest for me. I.E. shape, form and color. Checking to see which are higher in the sky is an important step if you have light on the horizon. Software built into the SeeStar S50 has all of that information and much more.

M42 in the Orion nebula — M 42 AKA the Orion Nebula. I’ve always had a soft spot for the constellation Orion. It’s only 1,500 light years away. It is one of the closet star-making areas to Earth and is studied to learn more about origins of stars.

Features

In addition to the library of things to photograph the S50 also has a built in heater which keeps the lens from fogging up in humid situations. It tracks and makes multiple images from your preferred subject. Then it stacks the images. You can watch as the image builds on your phone screen. Or, you can go really deep and once the process is in place head into the house for a bit of warmth and maybe a nap while the unit capture what is called FITS which is the RAW file created. If you want more than the created jpegs wo work with you can download all the individual frames for processing in any number of software programs. That would be for the hard core many hours capture type of person. I haven’t headed down that road as yet but can see myself working the files to tease out more info and ultimately stronger images.

horsehead nebula — IC 434 AKA the Horse Head Nebula. Looking like a knight from a chees board you can see why it is nicknamed Horse Head. Also in Orion Horsehead Nebula is a small dark nebula also in the constellation Orion. Located just to the south of Alnitak, the easternmost star of Orion’s Belt, it is part of the much larger Orion molecular cloud complex. Some pretty cool stuff up there!

Reasonable Price

For all of this capability, as of this writing, the price is $549. It comes with a solid carrying case and a small carbon fiber tripod. All you need to get started gathering images from the heavens. Here’s a link to the SeaStar S50 at BHphotovideo.

I find it pretty amazing that this machine can find and record images from objects many millions of light years away. Technology that is on display and is employed absolutely amazes me. Let me know what you think about the images I was able to make without too much post processing or too long making captures. Looking forward to learning more and spending time visiting the heavens.

Yours in Creative Photography, Bob

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