multiple night mosaic stacks

Support@Seestar

Arriba Sorry for the misunderstanding. What I meant was regular stacking mode. Regarding mosaic mode, you cannot just throw all the mosaic images into stacking; you can only stack the corresponding parts, which is quite time-consuming.

AstraObscura

I second this. I think we need mosaic stacking resuming much like single frames. A simple firmware update could solve this - I use the term "simple" loosely. I am only saying a software update could implement this feature.

Having the ability to resume a mosaic over multiple nights is paramount. As of right now, you're limited to a single night - which the SS fails half of the time therefore cutting your total exposure time down significantly. If we were able to "resume" a mosaic over multiple sessions we would all benefit from the much greater results.

I understand this can be achieved via third-party software but doesn't that defeat the entire point of this telescope? A new user isn't going to want to spend countless hours trying to learn extra software - and yet they can get easily discouraged to know they can only create a mosaic from ONE single session. Imagine having a week worth of mosaics stacked for something like the veil or horsehead nebula. It would be amazing!

Support@Seestar

AstraObscura
Actually, this request has always been present. You want to use the mosaic function to shoot the same target over multiple nights, but due to the varying environmental conditions and weather, successful continuous stacking may not be possible. Therefore, further evaluation is likely needed.

AstraObscura

Support@Seestar Shouldn't that be our problem though and not decided by the software? Seems like it is our problem if we chose to continue a mosaic on nights that weren't clear. That is a rookie mistake anyway and who decides to image during bad weather?

It should work just like anything else, pick up where it left off. If conditions aren't ideal, it just won't accept them and you have to try continuing on a clearer night.

Daemon42

Support@Seestar Or your devs could add the feature, and we'll figure out how the best way to use it. Yes, obviously we would choose good (or even better) conditions to resume the mosaic. Please read my post earlier in this thread to understand why it would be useful. Mosaics fail all the time and I'm pretty sure it's due to combination of sky rotation and the need for mosaics to image at the very edge of the frame (half in/half out), which causes alignment issues after an hour or so of real time has passed. If we could resume the mosaic starting back at the same time of night the first mosaic was started, the next night, then the alignment issues can be minimized. But it has to start exactly where it left off.

Support@Seestar

AstraObscura Our newly introduced schedule mode allows you to use mosaics, first choose to save a single shot (in advanced features), you can schedule the same target to be shot at the same time over a few days, connect the device and it will shoot at the specified time, as long as you don't switch off the camera in between (you can disconnect after the shot has been initiated), the
As long as you don't switch off the camera in between (you can disconnect it after the shooting starts), the scheduled shooting will be fully automatic for you. Then you take the resulting mosaic of individual shots and stitch them together in post.

Since this is just an idea we have, I haven't tested it yet, you can try it and see if it works. Looking forward to your results.

AstraObscura

Support@Seestar Right but I think the issue is that you cannot resume a mosaic over multiple nights? It doesn't do any good limiting you to a single night if using Mosaic mode. With all the dropped frames and limited time in a single night, you're just wasting time. Having the ability to add more data to mosaics from previous sessions is imperative especially for those of us that use third party software to post-process the data.

Support@Seestar

Daemon42
I will, I'm already giving feedback, trust me.

Serge

AstraObscura It really depends on the object being imaged. Below is a single night's image using an S50 in mosaic mode under Bortle 7 skies, stitched together with PixInsight. Adjusting stacking rejection tolerances, I was able to retain more than 94% of the images taken. Professional software is crucial in supporting the hardware used and should not be underestimated.

Support@Seestar

AstraObscura
I understand your concern, but since you want to do the processing in post.
You could use a scheduled shot on several consecutive good days to mosaic stacks of the same target, select the time of night, set it later to shoot each night later than the previous night, and then select a single save. Then process the saved images in post-processing software.

AstraObscura

Serge Not all of us can afford PI, nor have the skillset ready yet for PI 🙂 I've been enjoying Seti Astro Suite for now.

Support@Seestar

AstraObscura
I understand that it's not an easy thing to do.