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u/BlubberyGiraffe

Image 1 — ZWO are telling me that my s50 is showing signs of vibration issues
Image 2 — ZWO are telling me that my s50 is showing signs of vibration issues
▲ 12 r/seestar

ZWO are telling me that my s50 is showing signs of vibration issues

I have been in contact with ZWO the last number of weeks due to frequent issues collecting subs. Originally, I emailed them as my s50 was struggling to capture anything above 20s subs. After about 2 or 3 subs, everything would start failing.

When I ran continuous capture, I noticed every 3 or so subs, it began to go blurry and this would occur in sections. So every 3 subs it'd fail for about 3 in a row. This obviously takes up a significant portion of my captures. I have observed multiple objects and it appears in all of them.

After multiple emails and me sending over sessions, photos of my setup, environment etc, they came back to me this morning stating "After reviewing the materials you sent, we have seen clear evidence of vibration-related issues in your subs (screenshots attached). This is the most likely cause of the blurriness and inconsistent tracking you are experiencing.". They advised me to lower the legs to increase stability.

The tripod I purchased (Skywatcher Star Adventurer) is widely regarded as one of the best tripods to purchase for using with Seestar products( https://ktectelescopes.ie/collections/skywatcher-mounts/products) and they later advise that if I am still encountering issues, to pick up a sturdier one.

Has anyone else experienced this? I am getting an element of them trying to pass the blame onto my equipment. I have used three different tripods (including the stock tripod) and continue to have these issues. At this stage, I really don't know what else to tell them. However, if there is a possibility of user error, I am open to feedback from other users. I've attached photos of my setup, so please let me know where I could possibly be going wrong here.

If anyone is interested, these are the subs I captured for m16 which I sent them as an example - https://www.swisstransfer.com/d/968f734b-2f76-4e83-b682-e49c554c95d3

Thanks

u/BlubberyGiraffe — 2 days ago
▲ 2 r/seestar

Best blink tools to use?

Hi All

I have started accumulating a decent amount of subs as I have been using the Seestar and I am interested in trimming down on some of the worse subs. I usually remove any with satellites and clouds before transferring from the Seestar, but there are still some that are not to the same level as the better ones.

As I am getting better with processing, I am wondering if it's better to use 100 top quality subs instead of 100 top quality and 200 okay ones, I feel like it might be hindering me.

I have tried using the Blink tool in Pixinsight, but it's very manual and when you're looking at hundreds of subs, it becomes very monotonous.

Are there any blink tools that allow me to quickly assess which of my subs should be removed?

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u/BlubberyGiraffe — 4 days ago
▲ 2 r/seestar

Hi Guys

So I am one of the many people impacted by the annoying issues with star trails. Hearing the s50 is being discontinued does little to increase my hopes that ZWO will do much to address it.

I have spent hours tinkering with the Seestar. Buying various different tripods and doing different methods. Last night I did a level calibration first, before starting EQ and it doesn't seem to have done much. I have noticed a few odd things since I started EQ back in January and wanted to see if I am just being paranoid, or just not understanding how it all works.

  • I am finding when capturing 20/30 second subs, the Seestar will occasionally freeze at 0 seconds, add the sub to the live stack while capturing the next (but staying on 0), but because that is often followed by the first failed frame, I am paranoid that there is a software glitch?
  • I am noticing patterns where the Seestar start failing to capture 20+ second exposures. It seems that it'll either happen immediately, or in sequence. It'll do fine for 5 subs, then fail 5.
  • I was able to capture Bode's last night at 63° with barely any failures, 30 second exposures too. I then trialed a number of other objects which were higher than 30/40 degrees and they had varying levels of success, but I actually feel like I was getting more success with 30s than 20s, which makes zero sense
  • I am noticing when looking through my fits files, that every 4 or 5 frames, one of the photos always looks a little blur. It's as if the Seestar is constantly struggling to align every few photos and as a result, one or two photos will always get ruined.
  • When you remove the fit files from your seestar, do you just delete all the folders in 'MyWorks', or do you delete everything? I delete everything inside the 'MyWorks' folder, but I still have the other 2 folders left untouched (which take up very little space)

I just want to make sure that I am not causing this issue. I am beginning to get frustrated with the amount of time I spend setting up EQ, only to have to get 10s exposures.

Thanks!

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u/BlubberyGiraffe — 16 days ago