This is freaking INCREDIBLE !! I love my SeeStar and I'm very happy with it's capabilities. But this video brings it to another level. Not just fun astrophotography, but actual science work ? 🤯🤯🤯 BTW, have you considered modifying your SeeStar for EQ mount? I did on mine, now waiting for the clouds to go away to finalize alignment and test.
A common step involving multiple nights is that one must apply lighttime correction and (H-G) correction in order to have the datasets line up on the graph. The software does this automatically once the object data has been applied to the photometry sets. However, a further complication can arise if one does not use solar color comparison stars, or for other reasons the comp stars deviate from night-to-night, requiring what is commonly referred to as a "nightly offset" to line up the dataset. I did have to apply a nightly offset, but doing so was easy enough because each night captured a full or nearly full rotation, so it was possible to simply compute the offset as being the difference between the median (absolute) magnitude values.
This is awesome. I have a SeeStar and also have a 9.25 Schmidt Cassegrain -- but i know very little about the software and the "smart" features. What software are you using for the photometry?
Will you make this dataset available for download? I went to take a second look at my old asteroid data, but I deleted it at some point. I keep filling up my hard drive with all this Seestar data. I'd like to run through this process again with a nice dataset.
The four nights of data adds up to about 12GB, so if you send an email to the Contact page on the Tycho website I can generate a download link for you that way.
Tycho comes at a cost - is there an open source / free option? Also, what would you suggest for 2024 MK - to determine it's rotation period, for example. What range of rotation periods would you expect and would this method be best for it, or perhaps a long exposure in siderial tracking? Also, how would you track this fast moving object on June 29th when it zips through the sky using Seestar? I do have other telescopes and EQ mounts as well, so ideas for them would be nice too. Best aperture / focal length - what would you suggest? Tx!
There are other free software, however I find Tycho to be the best and easiest to use option, combined with routine updates and support. And it also now supports operating natively on macOS computers. As for 2024 MK, as it makes a close approach and moves fast in the sky, one option is to use shorter exposures, provided that the SNR is kept adequate, while another is to use half-rate tracking such that both the stars and the object itself are somewhat streaked (but still avoiding too long of an exposure). The latter option would only apply to the other mounts, while Seestar should be capable of supporting the object motion with its 10 second exposures.
@@tychotracker Thanks! However, since this asteroid is likely to be fairly dim, would the Seestar even be sufficient to capture it without stacking? Magnitude 11+ and traveling through the frame. Also, the fairly narrow field of view given the rate of movement - one would need to track the asteroid by reframing sky targets it will cross "leap ahead" style... what would be the minimum aperture and ideal focal length you think could be good for capturing the asteroid as a streak (in Bortle 8 skies)?
@@TalGivoly In decent skies the Seestar would still see a mag 11 object, however indeed the SNR at that magnitude would likely be low enough that it would be difficult to identify an accurate rotation period. As for minimum aperture, hard to say because it is a combination of camera sensitivity, aperture, and sky conditions that lead to the resulting conversion from photons to electrons. Same with focal length, as it depends on the size of the camera sensor. But probably one example configuration that could do it is a RASA 8 paired with a ZWO 2600. This would offer a field of view of 3.3 x 2.2 deg^2, which would ensure that the object is visible in the field for a reasonable amount of time. And the 200mm of aperture would certainly be capable of magnitude 11.
@@tychotracker Well, I have Bortle 8 skies, and tonight this asteroid will be going straight from the Eastern horizon towards the zenith. I'll try to recreate what you have just suggested. I do not have a 8"m RASA. However, I do have an 8" Quattro F4, but that would be 800mm focal length and too narrow a field. Instead, I'll use a Canon 200mm F/2.8 lens and ASI294mc Pro on one rig, the Seestar, as another, and an 8" Dobsonian for visual viewing of the rapid movement. The nearest object of interest it shall be passing is M15 - and the widest rig should be able to capture that... let's see what I come up with. I might also pull out the Quattro to try to capture the asteroid buzzing by, perhaps with an APS-C sized sensor... that should give high resolution and if it has a high orbital rotation period, it might even be caught in the frame... Thanks!
If the images do not have a plate solution (WCS information), then it is easy to enough to add one -- navigate to "Action->Plate Solve Images" from within Tycho and it can proceed to attach WCS information from the solution it finds.
May i know how to collect the fit files? Shall I point the seestar to M20 for example for couple hours? Or video 10 mins of M20? Coz I don't understand how the tycho tracker knows my location and where my seestar is looking at. By the way, I really want to use my seestar to discover any new Near Earth Object or new space junk. Thx
Yes, you will first want to make sure that the Seestar has been configured to save the individual FITS images (the 10 sec exposures), rather than just the stacked image. Then, identify an asteroid for which you would want to generate a lightcurve. This can be tricky because there are not too many that are bright enough, have a reasonably short period (less than 8 hours ideally), and sufficiently resolvable amplitude (at least 0.5 mag would be good for Seestar). You can use the Lightcurve Database in Tycho do a search with criteria and help identify an initial list of candidates. Once you have selected an asteroid, you can generate ephemeris for it to determine where it will be in the night sky at your location at certain times... Using this information you then know the RA/Dec coordinates of where to point the telescope to start the image collection process. Since the Seestar does not accept RA/Dec coordinates (this is something they ought to add!) then you will have to simply bring up the sky chart in its app to point it at the coordinates. Good luck! That's why this is called a "Challenge"!
@@tychotracker Hi, I am still learning, there are many terms that's new to me >_< ... seestar can add RA/DEC coordinates now. :> it will be good if there is a step-by-step video tutorial... Thx
Hi, is there any known bright asteroid I can track these days? Is there any website I can get more info.? Not sure if seestar has the asteroid database... Or can I just track the M31 and treat it like a moving object in Tycho for testing? Thx
@@AndyKong51 I used the lightcurve database in Tycho as a starting point. This is available from Tools->Lightcurve Database. You can then apply filters on magnitude and rotation period. Once you have a few candidates, you can use the Session Planner tool to generate ephemeris for each, and determine when they might be at decent viewing elevations.
@@tychotracker I'm actually surprised at the results! I mean you got almost everything stacked against you ... alt az mount, tiny scope, tiny sensor, colour, light pollution... I can't wait to get a 3d printer and play with my C11 and a coma corrector wit a tiny camera on top... should be interesting 🤔 that's a really inspiring video! well done 👍
This is freaking INCREDIBLE !!
I love my SeeStar and I'm very happy with it's capabilities.
But this video brings it to another level.
Not just fun astrophotography, but actual science work ? 🤯🤯🤯
BTW, have you considered modifying your SeeStar for EQ mount?
I did on mine, now waiting for the clouds to go away to finalize alignment and test.
What challenges are faced when capturing images over multiple nights?
A common step involving multiple nights is that one must apply lighttime correction and (H-G) correction in order to have the datasets line up on the graph. The software does this automatically once the object data has been applied to the photometry sets. However, a further complication can arise if one does not use solar color comparison stars, or for other reasons the comp stars deviate from night-to-night, requiring what is commonly referred to as a "nightly offset" to line up the dataset. I did have to apply a nightly offset, but doing so was easy enough because each night captured a full or nearly full rotation, so it was possible to simply compute the offset as being the difference between the median (absolute) magnitude values.
This is awesome. I have a SeeStar and also have a 9.25 Schmidt Cassegrain -- but i know very little about the software and the "smart" features.
What software are you using for the photometry?
Thanks! I used the Tycho software to generate the photometry measurements.
Where can you submit these light curves?
Asteroid lightcurves can be submitted to the ALCDEF database.
Will you make this dataset available for download? I went to take a second look at my old asteroid data, but I deleted it at some point. I keep filling up my hard drive with all this Seestar data. I'd like to run through this process again with a nice dataset.
The four nights of data adds up to about 12GB, so if you send an email to the Contact page on the Tycho website I can generate a download link for you that way.
Tycho comes at a cost - is there an open source / free option? Also, what would you suggest for 2024 MK - to determine it's rotation period, for example. What range of rotation periods would you expect and would this method be best for it, or perhaps a long exposure in siderial tracking? Also, how would you track this fast moving object on June 29th when it zips through the sky using Seestar? I do have other telescopes and EQ mounts as well, so ideas for them would be nice too. Best aperture / focal length - what would you suggest? Tx!
There are other free software, however I find Tycho to be the best and easiest to use option, combined with routine updates and support. And it also now supports operating natively on macOS computers. As for 2024 MK, as it makes a close approach and moves fast in the sky, one option is to use shorter exposures, provided that the SNR is kept adequate, while another is to use half-rate tracking such that both the stars and the object itself are somewhat streaked (but still avoiding too long of an exposure). The latter option would only apply to the other mounts, while Seestar should be capable of supporting the object motion with its 10 second exposures.
@@tychotracker Thanks! However, since this asteroid is likely to be fairly dim, would the Seestar even be sufficient to capture it without stacking? Magnitude 11+ and traveling through the frame. Also, the fairly narrow field of view given the rate of movement - one would need to track the asteroid by reframing sky targets it will cross "leap ahead" style... what would be the minimum aperture and ideal focal length you think could be good for capturing the asteroid as a streak (in Bortle 8 skies)?
@@TalGivoly In decent skies the Seestar would still see a mag 11 object, however indeed the SNR at that magnitude would likely be low enough that it would be difficult to identify an accurate rotation period. As for minimum aperture, hard to say because it is a combination of camera sensitivity, aperture, and sky conditions that lead to the resulting conversion from photons to electrons. Same with focal length, as it depends on the size of the camera sensor. But probably one example configuration that could do it is a RASA 8 paired with a ZWO 2600. This would offer a field of view of 3.3 x 2.2 deg^2, which would ensure that the object is visible in the field for a reasonable amount of time. And the 200mm of aperture would certainly be capable of magnitude 11.
@@tychotracker Well, I have Bortle 8 skies, and tonight this asteroid will be going straight from the Eastern horizon towards the zenith. I'll try to recreate what you have just suggested. I do not have a 8"m RASA. However, I do have an 8" Quattro F4, but that would be 800mm focal length and too narrow a field. Instead, I'll use a Canon 200mm F/2.8 lens and ASI294mc Pro on one rig, the Seestar, as another, and an 8" Dobsonian for visual viewing of the rapid movement. The nearest object of interest it shall be passing is M15 - and the widest rig should be able to capture that... let's see what I come up with. I might also pull out the Quattro to try to capture the asteroid buzzing by, perhaps with an APS-C sized sensor... that should give high resolution and if it has a high orbital rotation period, it might even be caught in the frame... Thanks!
How can I get an MPC code for my observatory?
This is awesome!
Which software are you using?
I used the Tycho Tracker software to process the images and generate the measurements
Why I don't have WCS information in my SeeStar S50 fits images?
If the images do not have a plate solution (WCS information), then it is easy to enough to add one -- navigate to "Action->Plate Solve Images" from within Tycho and it can proceed to attach WCS information from the solution it finds.
If I use my seestar to video the sun in raw, can tycho see the asteroid? Thx
May i know how to collect the fit files? Shall I point the seestar to M20 for example for couple hours? Or video 10 mins of M20? Coz I don't understand how the tycho tracker knows my location and where my seestar is looking at. By the way, I really want to use my seestar to discover any new Near Earth Object or new space junk. Thx
Yes, you will first want to make sure that the Seestar has been configured to save the individual FITS images (the 10 sec exposures), rather than just the stacked image. Then, identify an asteroid for which you would want to generate a lightcurve. This can be tricky because there are not too many that are bright enough, have a reasonably short period (less than 8 hours ideally), and sufficiently resolvable amplitude (at least 0.5 mag would be good for Seestar). You can use the Lightcurve Database in Tycho do a search with criteria and help identify an initial list of candidates. Once you have selected an asteroid, you can generate ephemeris for it to determine where it will be in the night sky at your location at certain times... Using this information you then know the RA/Dec coordinates of where to point the telescope to start the image collection process. Since the Seestar does not accept RA/Dec coordinates (this is something they ought to add!) then you will have to simply bring up the sky chart in its app to point it at the coordinates. Good luck! That's why this is called a "Challenge"!
@@tychotracker Hi, I am still learning, there are many terms that's new to me >_< ... seestar can add RA/DEC coordinates now. :> it will be good if there is a step-by-step video tutorial... Thx
Hi, is there any known bright asteroid I can track these days? Is there any website I can get more info.? Not sure if seestar has the asteroid database... Or can I just track the M31 and treat it like a moving object in Tycho for testing? Thx
Btw, the Tycho software introduction I found is 4 years old... Is there an introduction for V11? Thx
@@AndyKong51 I used the lightcurve database in Tycho as a starting point. This is available from Tools->Lightcurve Database. You can then apply filters on magnitude and rotation period. Once you have a few candidates, you can use the Session Planner tool to generate ephemeris for each, and determine when they might be at decent viewing elevations.
that's a real challenge 😮
I was pleasantly surprised by how well it performs, especially given that I live in Bortle 6 skies.
@@tychotracker I'm actually surprised at the results!
I mean you got almost everything stacked against you ... alt az mount, tiny scope, tiny sensor, colour, light pollution...
I can't wait to get a 3d printer and play with my C11 and a coma corrector wit a tiny camera on top... should be interesting 🤔
that's a really inspiring video! well done 👍
Wow!