A pix from our backyard of the Sun Storms which are causing our Wondrous Aurorae

[SorellaLaBefana]

About 2 weeks ago bought the “AstroPhotoScope” which used for the pix. It’s been cloudy here ever since! Even the Sun has only briefly been visible and the above was taken through a layer of thin, high clouds on the 10th.

When in Solar Mode this AutoTelescope will only take JPEG. Stacked 6 in PS6, Lightly sharpened (Unsharp Mask) and cropped (since the aspect ratio is designed for cellphones)

Here's a review of the AstroScope I used (SeeStar S50).
https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/reviews/zwo-seestar-s50
The camera does all the magic. I basically just pushed the shutter—indeed, the instrument is designed for us beginners to astropix

Was Very Skeptical that it would be any good (since costs $500—less than many lenses for SLR/DSLR). Live in Texas, am sure the (welcome!) cloudy skies will soon be gone until late next Autumn and so will be able to take some Deep Sky images (from my light-polluted site).

APOD (Astronomy Picture Of the Day) had an image taken just about the same time as the above
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240511.html

Today's APOD has this current pix [breaking the APOD tradition of Sunday's Pix being an APOD from the past] of the sky from Poland.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240512.html

So far the Geomagnetic Storms (although rated at the most damaging G5 level) have apparently caused little damage to infrastructures but brought much wonder to the sky.

[3auld6phart]

1. Awesoome

Thank you.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. Thank you for this amazing image! It's gorgeous. nt

[moonshinegnomie]

3. i use the same scope

as well as a "real astrophotography rig" (an astrotech 72 edII with an astro modified sony a6300 on a zwo am5 mount). the seestar does an amazing job especially for what it costs.
if you really want to try your hand at processing seestar photos Siril is a free program that has a special mode for teh seestar (i know it exists but dont use it). i use Pixinsight to processes my photos

where in texas? im just outside austin (pflugerville)

[SorellaLaBefana]

4. Thanks. Siril does even have a custom script to process SeeStar pix

However, it will only process FITS. Solar mode only saves JPEG.

One day soon expect to have some FITS to try in Siril! Tho not anxious for the coming months of clear skies and hundred degree days. Gently mizzling here in San Antone this morn.

Know little of astrophotography (other than unguided wideangle and short exposure telephoto shots).

Have long had a 4inch Schmidt-Cass to look at the sky, for even longer have been a photographer—but the leap to combining telescope and camera has always seemed too far to me.

The SeeStar is an Alt-Az which takes lowrez 2MP images—but, at the moment, these are enough to WOW me!

Have tried it as a telephoto (35FF equiv ~1750/5) in 'Scenery' mode. The result is dreadful! Likely this is because am much more familiar with those types of images. Expect astrophotographers have the same reaction to the quality of SeeStar astro images!

[moonshinegnomie]

5. ive used it on deep sky,th emoon and the sun

for the moon i prefer my nikon z8 with a 150-600mm lens. its sharper even cropped down
for deep space i have teh seestar save the individual fits and stack them in pixinsight. same procedure i use for deep space with my astrotech.

honestly im amazed by the quality of seestar photos considering the cost of it and ease of use. i wish it had a coupl eother features which i expect will come along in teh not to distant future.
a better camera
an easy way to use it equatorially so i can take longer subs. i usually aim for 5 miute subs with my astrotech unless its something really bright like M42