The Seestar app you downloaded is what helps you manage the Seestar and provides the tools to find, capture, and process images. The app was clearly designed for use with a tablet, although works fine with a phone although some menu items will be hiding off the screen.

The app’s Home screen will show your Seestar and battery level, provide a local weather forecast, offer five observation modes you can choose from (one hides off the screen to the right on an iPhone), offer some observing recommendations, and displays a bottom menu that includes a Home button and, among other things, an awesome Sky Atlas.

This mode really should be called DSO (Deep Sky Objects) because it is designed for exploring and capturing galaxies, nebulae, star clusters, comets, asteroids, and double stars.

Seestar's GoTo system automatically locates and tracks celestial objects based on your selection from the home screen suggestions or from extensive database in the Seestar’s Sky Atlas.

Plate solving technology ensures quick identification and centering of the target object in your field of view, while image stacking combines multiple exposures to reveal faint details and reduce noise. Light pollution and UV/IR Cut filters are automatically applied to enhance the results.

Happily, one thing that makes the Seestar so much fun is that in minutes you will begin to see objects that are simply invisible to an observer without a large telescope. In less than an hour you can produce an image good enough to post on social media or send to your friends.

Seestar's GoTo will find the Moon (even during the daytime), automatically keep the Moon centered in the frame, as it travels across the sky, while the telescope and camera capture lunar features like craters, mountains, and valleys with 2x and 4x views.

Video recording capabilities (MP4 or AVI) allow you to use other software to collect a bunch a frames in close succession and then select the sharpest frames in the movie so you can process them later.

ZWO’s ASIstudio software is easy to use and produces decent results. AstroEdit is my choice for iPhone post processing if you don’t want to spend a lot of time because it has special features, yet is quick and easy to use—and its only $2 (iOS only so far). Lightroom and Photomator, both subscription products, are popular, too.

PIPP, AstroStakkert!3, Registax and waveSharp are the weapons of choice in battle against noise in the Windows world. Turns out VLC will extract frames from an AVI, according to this video.

You can safely observe and photograph the Sun's dynamic surface with Seestar's Solar Mode. The telescope's tracking system will find and follow the Sun's movement throughout the day, making it easy to capture Sunspots and other solar features in detail….it can be fun even on cloudy days.

A built-in reminder insures you install the solar filter before observing the Sun to prevent accidental damage. You won’t ruin your eyes with this scope if you leave the filter off, but you will fry the camera sensor if you don’t put it on or if you take the filter off while the scope is still pointed at the Sun. It’s easy to just yank off the filter knowing you’re going to turn the scope off, but it will still be pointed at the Sun unless you move the Seestar first.

Seestar's planetary mode is designed to help you enhance the visibility and details of planets by allowing you to adjust the gain and exposure to prevent overexposure and bring out subtle details.

You can reduce the camera’s gain so the bright planets aren’t entirely blown out (over exposed). This image combines two images, one exposed for the surface of Jupiter and one exposed to show the four inner Galilean Moons.

The planets are tiny, thanks to ,ss short focal length, and they're very birght against a black backgroynd. You can, however, lower the camera's gain to prevent overexposure so you can see the stripes on Jupiter or the rings around Saturn.

To capture Jupiter's moons, you can increase the gain until they become visible. Using GHIMP, Photoshop, or other image processing software you can combine an image expsoed for Jupiter with an image exposed for the moons.

Seestar isn't just for celestial wonders; it also doubles as a capable terrestrial telephoto camera. In Scenery Mode, the Seestar will track an object but you also have full manual control over the camera's direction and settings. Video and Time-lapse functionality offer some interesting ways to capture the world around you, too.

I live close to the Pacific Ocean near big Navy and Marine Corps bases and have had some fun taking pictures and videos of ships and boats. I even managed to get video of a unique unmanned robot ship launching a kite for a better view over the horizon.

— Tom Harnish 2024/06/23 15:06