Banner image: M81 82 -Collaboration processed by Mike Christie. Data from Mark Sansom, Neil Martin, Larry Cable, Dougie Smart, Pat Devine, and Mike Christie

Over the past year, a small group within the society has been experimenting with a simple but powerful idea: what happens if several ZWO Seestar S50 telescopes all observe the same object and we combine the data?

IC405 Collaboration processed by Pat Devine. Data from Pat Devine, Larry Cable, Mike Christie, Gary Pillay, and Mark Sansom

The answer, as it turns out, is impressive. 

Many  members now own Seestar S50 smart telescopes (27 at the latest count). These compact instruments are designed to make astrophotography easy, automatically tracking and stacking images to produce impressive results.

One Target, Many Observations

In our collaborative sessions, each participant images the same deep-sky object. After the session, stacked files are uploaded to a google drive. You can use the stacked file created by the Seestar or process the individual frames to create a stack using the processing software of your choice. These are then aligned and combined into a single master stack, which is available for all to process further. 

A typical session might include: 

  • 5–6 individual observers 
  • 1–5 hours of imaging per observer 
  • 15–20+ hours of total integrated exposure 

That is a level of integration time that we would struggle to achieve alone in a single night. 

An Invitation to ASE Seestar Owners 

If you are an ASE members and own a ZWO Seestar S50, we would love you to take part. Participation is easy. Just keep an eye on the WhatsApp ASE Imaging & Observing Group, where we will agree a target and instructions on where to upload your stacked file.  

With enough observers, we can routinely build 20+ hour integrations, revealing detail that a single Seestar could never capture on its own. 

Pat Devine