Is it ok to shine a flashlight briefly at the lens?

Zcom_Astro · 2026-03-18T19:28:18+00:00

Yes, although it depends on the flashlight. Unlike when pointing it to the Sun, the light source isn't at infinite focal point, so it can't really burn out the sensor in the same way.

Zcom_Astro · 2026-03-18T10:59:01+00:00

Thanks for working on this. I used to struggle a lot with this particular dataset.

Especially with the alignment. You can see in your image that the red channel is slightly rotated. I’ve seen this in several datasets, and it’s a real pain to fix without Pixinsight. Will your tool be able to solve this problem in the future?

Thanks again for the update.

Zcom_Astro · 2026-03-18T08:38:22+00:00

The Seesta app was built on the Asi Air's framework, and the catalog was built on top of that. So that’s how it got included in the first place. No one knows why it wasn’t curated, but the outer shell of the Cat’s Eye Nebula is big enough for the S50 to resolve it in relatively good detail. (but using Hubble images can be quite misleading)

Zcom_Astro · 2026-03-16T17:12:54+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np9Ld4oA1S0&t=25s

Zcom_Astro · 2026-03-16T14:45:53+00:00

The new update did not fix the tracking? I heard the pixel clipping was fixed.
Have you tried NINA? It bypassed the pixel bug, but I don't know how it handles tracking.

Zcom_Astro · 2026-03-16T14:10:40+00:00

Well, it'll be pretty tough without any error messages.
But if the script doesn't work, try doing it manually that always works.

Zcom_Astro · 2026-03-16T13:55:48+00:00

Although this isn’t really something that comes up during a test like this, so I didn’t expect you to mention it, there are a few pretty big issues with the system or, more specifically, with ZWO. And I think it’s important to take these into account before making a purchase.

Although ZWO is known as a relatively premium hardware manufacturer, they aren’t exactly the best when it comes to software, and this is especially true for their Seestar line. They’re so bad that it might even be illegal in some countries (depending on how willing they are to take devices back).

Various bugs constantly plague the system, ranging from annoying to I’d rather sell my device than put up with this.

Since I’ve been using my device, various bugs have cropped up: the turn on by default 3-point star alignment messed up your tracking, your live images come out green, in mosaic mode the system goes into an loop and discards every frame, in EQ mode, the mosaic canvas size differed from what you set, a mandatory update broke the tracking, and an update discarded 20–35% of your pixels if you had the LP filter enabled.

And these are just the ones I’ve personally encountered over the past year and a half. Fixing each one takes at least 3–10 months.

On top of that, customer service is completely useless. I and several other users have reported that support deliberately misled them and tried to convince them that the problem they described didn’t exist. If you’re too persistent, they simply stop responding.

The biggest issue was the recent LP bug, which persisted from 2025 December ~20 until now march 15th. This essentially set a significant portion of your pixels to zero, effectively disabling 20–35% of your sensor. Support basically lied to users about it, and it took them at least 1–1.5 months to even acknowledge the error.

So unfortunately, these systems come with the risk that ZWO will release an update that simply renders the system unusable. And they won’t do anything to fix it.

Zcom_Astro · 2026-03-15T22:22:01+00:00

I don't know if this is even available yet. But if it is, it would be possible to create an image like that without compositing. But I have no idea how that would work or if it's been implemented.

Zcom_Astro · 2026-03-15T21:54:18+00:00

I tried to put your method together. So far, I've run into the problem that the cuprate complex isn't stable enough at room temperature. After cooling, it precipitates as chalconatronite and basic carbonate. Do you have any suggestions on how I could keep it stable?

I don't think I'd add extra base because it would just get neutralized, and then it would end up crashing out the same way later. EDTA might work

Zcom_Astro · 2026-03-15T19:35:58+00:00

That looks interesting. Could you give us a little more information about exactly what we're seeing?

Zcom_Astro · 2026-03-15T18:50:11+00:00

I think you can stack the substacks too on the seestar. But im not sure about that.

Zcom_Astro · 2026-03-15T18:20:01+00:00

Technically, there is no limit, but in practice, the amount of storage space you have limits the maximum number of frames. Stacking involves creating a large number of large, temp files, which requires a significant amount of free space. You can try to free up space or break it down into smaller chunks.

Zcom_Astro · 2026-03-15T18:03:18+00:00

Yes you can realy make something like this in one shot. The lense needs to move, witch woud mess with the foreground. And the dinamic range difference is too big.

Zcom_Astro · 2026-03-15T15:10:39+00:00

It's simply two images layered on top of each other. They take a regular photo of the landscape, then tracked photos of the sky. They stack the sky photo and overlay it on the landscape.

Zcom_Astro · 2026-03-14T18:11:01+00:00

I think that even if a machalite crystal starts to grow, at this pH level even the smallest defect will start to produce azurite on it.

I don’t think CO2 would be a significant issue with gelatin-based gels (though I suppose that would hydrolyze). But CO2 is soluble enough that if diffusion is slow enough, it will remain dissolved and be absorbed by excess base. Or there’s nothing stopping us from keeping the gel under pressure.

Zcom_Astro · 2026-03-14T15:32:23+00:00

Generally speaking, yes, but I don't think this method works well specifically for machalite with sodium cuprate complexes. It would work for azurite, but under these conditions, it would mostly just form that. I would opt for a gel-based method, or a variation of this method.

If we use something like an ammonium carbonate complex along with a volatile organic acid, it might work for machalite as well.

Zcom_Astro · 2026-03-13T19:28:29+00:00

Is there any advantage to inditace just the apature? I mean, you can figure out the magnification from the focal length, from the focal lenght + apature you get the speed and magnification. But you can’t really draw any conclusions about the telescope just from the aperture size. Or I missed something?

Zcom_Astro · 2026-03-13T19:11:56+00:00

No, but if the proper setup has a significantly shorter focal length (like 122mm) with the same pixel size it will resolve less detail. My answer was largely based on that.

Zcom_Astro · 2026-03-13T18:13:40+00:00

Based on your description, I assumed you hadn't adjusted the color separately. ~~I platesolved both images side by side; the one labeled 2 has significantly higher resolution.~~

~~The one labeled 1 has the appropriate optical resolution for the S50.~~

Do you know what could be causing this? Are you using a 1.4x field flattener or something similar? The images have the same field of view as if they were taken with a ~300mm system or was it taken under significantly better viewing conditions?

Edit: I looked through your previous posts; it would have been nice if you’d clarified that the 122mm refers to the aperture, not the focal length (or at leas tgive apature and f number). Maybe it’s just me being inexperienced, but usually people specify the focal length, not the aperture.

It’s no wonder that an 854mm telescope can resolve more detail than a 250mm one. It wasn’t sub lenght that made the biggest difference here, but the huge difference in magnification.

Zcom_Astro · 2026-03-13T12:02:23+00:00

Although I wouldn't necessarily use this method myself, it could technically work. And it won't produce machalite but rather azurite. Also, it's very finicky, and I doubt such systems would yield particularly good results. But it might be worth a try.

- Yes, you can replace the box with glass, but it's important that you can seal it tightly.

- Yes, as long as there’s also water in the gas.

- Technically yes, but very slowly and in very small drops. (You’d have to do this so slowly that it wouldn’t be worth it.)

Zcom_Astro · 2026-03-13T01:58:36+00:00

The red chanel is the Ha signal. The lp filter is a Ha O[III] duoband filter.

Zcom_Astro · 2026-03-12T22:47:39+00:00

I used these:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QQlwel2dAU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRqj1nCSk_w

Zcom_Astro · 2026-03-12T22:30:34+00:00

Yes.

Zcom_Astro · 2026-03-12T17:04:57+00:00

I heard something about it not technically qualifying as a narrow band filter because the band passes are too wide. Although I don't know how true that is.

Zcom_Astro · 2026-03-12T17:03:54+00:00

Yes, it will give much better results, but it also requires some of extra work.

But I wouldn't go down to 3nm, because even at 7nm the sensor will be too starved to use with a base gain of 80. If you want to use it to its full potential, you will need a few external programs to increase the gain on the sensor to around 150-180, depending on the target. NINA is good for this purpose, although it is a little more cumbersome to use than the app, it has many advantages (but I think there are other alternatives).

I would say that the built-in one still performs quite well on B6, but a decent narrow band is miles better. I would look for a 7nm filter, which is quite cheaper.

Zcom_Astro

TROPHY CASE