Stars / Astronomy / Astrophotography / Telescopes / Astro

https://www.widescreen-centre.co.uk/zwo-seestar-s50-all-in-one-smart-telescope.html

Apparently somebody got this out of their Seestar, amazing.

Five minute edit in Appleseed, allegedly, most of the heavy lifting done by the Seestar.

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New RMG astronomy exhibition just dropped https://www.rmg.co.uk/whats-on/astronomy-photographer-year/exhibition

Quite samey as previous years but still full of mindbending shots, especially the galaxies section

Potentially really dumb question, but can you look through it and view, or just view on the phone app?

It's totally digital, no eyepiece to speak of, so you won't get the same experience you do when you look through a traditional telescope.

I'm considering it due to space. I dearly want a true telescope and for that price, if you look around, you could get an awesome one. But...

... Fuck London

Depends where you are, I was able to see the rings on Jupiter & the red spot from Crystal Palace with my pretty basic 130mm telescope (https://www.harrisontelescopes.co.uk/acatalog/skywatcher-heritage-130p-flextube-dobsonian-telescope.html).

Also managed to get some excellent sights of Saturn and its rings looking out the window of my kitchen in Peckham!

I'm very much a bit of a sceptic when it comes to the sorts of smart telescopes that have recently been posted in this thread. I do see the appeal, and it's cool that they're a sort of all-in-one image capture + image stacking device. But for me, I just want to look through a lens and/or mirror and see something, for lack of a better word, real.

Yeah, it's a bit annoying that my simple Dobsonian needs rotated in two different axes to keep track of a planet at any reasonable magnification, and there's always a bit of shaking as a result of moving it. But, seeing these things that are significantly larger than our own planet fall through space in real time is part of the magic IMO.

For me, and I don't want to come across all "Old man yells at cloud", but if you're using something like that just to take pictures of a nebula or whatever, it's probably a safe bet that someone with much better equipment has already taken much better photos of the very same thing you're looking at.

Again, absolutely horses for courses. But I'm very much on the simple/basic side of things, getting the planisphere out and trying to figure out what the hell I'm looking at is part of the fun.

You make some good points. The smart telescopes (particularly the Seestar) are very attractive to me because of the relative simplicity, but I wonder longer term whether a 'proper' telescope would be better. As a rank amateur with an interest it's hard to know what to go for

Space is also a a premium so I. Quite like that this does this :

Yep, that was a big draw for me too. Was able to pop it in the backpack (with the base strapped onto the rear rack) and cycle from Peckham to Crystal Palace. Honestly I don't think there was as big a difference in viewing between the two, but it was nice to at least be somewhere with a lot less direct light so my eyes weren't having to constantly readjust.

A 'proper' telescope gives you the thrilling sensation of actual photons from a distant planet hitting you square in the eyeballs, that is a pretty fucking awesome experience. If you never have I suggest you try it ASAP, local amateur astronomy club maybe?

My Pixel 5 has an astrophotography mode and I've had a lot of fun with just a tripod and my phone. The results weren't incredible but it did give me a taste for something a bit more. And the price on the Seestar is so tempting!

'proper' telescope gives you the thrilling sensation of actual photons from a distant planet hitting you square in the eyeballs,

You (possibly) can see the Andromeda galaxy and its about 2.5 million light-years away currently. I mean, fuck me! Its travelled without hitting anything else, for 2.5 million years, to finally hit these balls of goop.

My 'real' telescope has had a broken tripod for what seems like forever, I need to 3D print a replacement piece for it (or try a plastic repair hack on it). Haven't used it in ten years, it's in storage. 😬🥺

While stacking has uses for decreasing noise it will not increase resolution.

You definitely can as long as the PSF is bigger than one pixel. You can't decrease noise and resolution at the same time (well you can, but you're trading one off against the other). You obviously can't do better than the diffraction limit

Any way to get a tripod for it?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/256073487273

Lovely view as the moon is about to occult Venus

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Lovely, Kubrick vibes. 🤩

Just watched Venus blink out behind the moon. My colleagues now know I am a geek.

I saw them very close together this morning, didn't realise an occultation was imminent. v cool

Lots of stars tonight (not London)

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And Milky Way!! 🤩

Absolutely stunning

Amazing Aurora live
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG4pb20EqJc

Just in case anyone is up, amazing show on now. New page fail

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG4pb20EqJc