Hawkesbury Amateur Astrophotography

Introduction

After over 20 years dabbling in amateur radio astronomy (chasing pulsars - see here) astronomy activities have migrated to visible light astronomy (i.e., I've gone over to the 'dark side' - or should that be the 'light side')... 

This change was triggered by a grandchild acquiring a small telescope for their birthday. This, in turn, led to much YouTube watching on my part of things optical astronomy - during which I came across information concerning using a Smartphone for Astrophotography. In particular information about the amazing 'Astrophotography' mode on Pixel Smartphones - of which I was previously unaware.

Then along came two 'smart telescopes' - the Seestar S50 and the Dwarf Lab II.

While some astroimaging activity was carried out with the Pixel 3a (and also a DSLR) - only results from the smart telescopes are detailed here. To cover all astroimaging actvities would be a task too onerous.

Most observing is done from the backyard in the Hawkesbury District - north west of Sydney (Australia) in Bortle 4 to 5 skies.

Smart Telescopes

The relative ease of setting up and capturing subjects has meant that virtually all astrophotography data acquisition is currently carried out via these two devices.

NOTES:

1. The recent availability (circa 2023) of relatively inexpensive smart telescopes has generated some disquiet from the existing astrophotography community. This has quietened down somewhat as the evidence mounts of the extraordinary 'bang-for-buck' capabilities of these astroimaging devices.

2. While - not surprisingly - the results from a $500 USD device cannot compete with a setup costing many thousands $$$, for the user who is interested in astrophotography primarily for the fun (i.e. is not a 'pixel-peeper'), the results are amazing for the level of investment. It is no longer necessary to spend your childrens' inheritance to get acceptable results.

Purpose and Main Focus

The purpose of this website is to track personal activities in astrophotography. In what direction and how far those activities go will evolve over time.

The main part of the information here is related to processing the image data from the 'smart telescopes' - the Seestar S50 and the Dwarf Lab II. There are a number of astrophotography processing applications available - ranging from free to breath-takingly expensive - however, interest here lies mainly with learning the basics of astrophotography by writing my own supplementary utilities in C# Windows Forms and working to get the best results with free software - without spending hours in front of a computer screen.

Primarily it is designed for personal use to document my own activities for later reference - and therefore is not to be taken as an authority on any subject.

 Image: Messier 83 observed with a Seestar S50.