The Taos Astronomer / Hands-On Observing Sessions and Instruction

offering local "hands-on" observing
(visual and imaging) sessions and instruction
viewing and imaging from Rabbit Valley Observatory
a dark sky location on the mesa just west of Taos, NM

initial Lunar photo -- May, 2025

initial Solar photo -- May, 2025

Sunspots

Aurora

Solar photo -- late May, 2025
Taken at a time of plentiful Solar activity signified by many sunspots and Solar storms, often also creating the conditions for Aurora as observed from Earth (and space, too!).

Solar detail and Aurora -- late May, 2025
This is a close-up of the sunspots seen to the left, and to the right of the sunspot photograph is a local evening shot taken by friend and fellow astrophotographer. ©Jay Shaffer

Lunar photo -- early June, 2025
this image was slightly tinted -- detail below
Some have stated that the Moon is, in fact, not black and white but some sort of bluish or even tannish shade, mostly, they state, because of mineral deposits. So, in accordance with some astro mythology, I did indeed run this image through a simple coloring routine in Photoshop to produce this slightly tinted tone.

Solar photo -- early June, 2025
this image was shot with a more precise filter
The Seestar comes with quite a fine Solar filter, however astro mythology suggests a more precise Baader filter, the industry standard. Such a filter renders the Sun quite white, so I ran the image through a simple coloring routine in Photoshop to produce this hopefully more pleasant shade.

Solar photo -- August 28, 2025
this image was taken through the Baader Solar filter and slighted tinted in Photoshop -- note granulation of the Sun's surface
Both images presented here are of the exact configuration as downloaded from the Seestar S50 -- no cropping. You can't turn the camera or the telescope for a better angle, sometimes preferred when shooting deep sky objects, as the cluster or nebula may unfortunately be presented with an odd perspective. Cameras that are connected to a more typical telescope allow for the astronomer to turn the camera for a more pleasing (perhaps a horizontal) configuration. That is not possible here, as all components are inside the protective case of the telescope, automated mount, and attached camera.

Lunar photo -- August 29, 2025

Per the previous Moon photograph, this photo was also slightly tinted (differently) in post-processing, mimicking a terrestrial camera filter.

At this point I had learned the basics -- figured out how to aim the telescope at the Sun (rather difficult, as it turned out) gleaned much information and knowledge on the ZWO Seestar S50, including the illuminating reviews below -- and, of course, there is far more discussion and particulars online, just click around!

AI Overview from Wiki

“The Seestar S50 is a smart, all-in-one telescope integrating a 50mm f/5 apochromatic triplet refractor, a Sony IMX462 sensor (1920x1080 resolution), Alt-Azimuth mount, and internal dualband filters for light pollution. It is controlled by a smartphone app, offers automatic alignment and object finding, features a 6-hour battery, 64GB of internal storage, and connectivity via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and USB-C. Key features include image stacking, built-in dew heater, and a mobile app for weather updates and a sky atlas.” -- from the internet

Stargazer Man's review

High Point Scientific's review

Trevor Jones' review

Astronomy Magazine's review

Uncle Rod's (Rod Mollise's) S30's review as seen in Sky and Telescope Mag -- important because he's an engaging writer and the software issues are quite similar. Check out his entire blog -- totally informative and funny as well!

Cuiv -- the Lazy Geek's review -- he's a fan of this 'scope too, and an expert, just like the others above -- also a very approachable guy -- check out all of his excellent and informative reviews

My overview -- it's a winner, and has renewed my lifelong interest in astrophotography! Why -- because it has a relatively easy learning curve, takes great pics of the Sun and Moon as above, and also does a remarkable job on deep-sky objects, as demonstrated below with a sampling of my initial shots! Further, because of its size and sensitivity, an observer does not have to stay out all night to image one object. For an old guy like myself, sleep and warmth are important factors. Also, because of it's size and on board filters, the Seestar is not adversely affected by light pollution (the Lazy Geek lives and images from the top of his apartment building in Tokyo!). The ZWO Seestar S50 IS a winner!

P.S. I get paid nothing for this recommendation and purchased the telescope on my own. Thankfully, I am not an internet influencer, but I once had a star party for such influencers. They were more interested in taking selfies of themselves looking through the telescope (not this one) than actually looking through it. The flashes of their devices didn't help. They'd love this unit though;, it take pictures all by itself! And even talks! Oh yeah, it's also incredibly affordable. Don't fret -- the reviews above are also from online influencers, very informative, as is often the case.

Below are images obtained from the Seestar S50 during my initial deep-sky imaging run. The clusters and nebulae are labeled, and if you click any of the images or text you will be linked to additional information on the object. Seestar's vast onboard database includes star maps and interesting information on all objects, and even recommends objects based on the local time and astronomer's location!

It should be noted that I downloaded these initial trial images not from the Seestar S50 itself but instead from the tablet I was using in the field to control the Seestar. Tutorials involving that process and details of the impressive yet easy-to-learn software are within the reviews linked above and here from this text.

I have recently learned that one interesting issue is that these images, both individual and stacked, are available also from the rather large (64GB) internal drive onboard the Seestar itself. It turns out that those files are much more complete, including not only smallish .jpg images but also large .fit files (the gold standard of scientific imaging) as well as stacks, both of the .fit files and of enlarged .jpg files. This allows the user to publish the files instantly from their device using the tablet's or 'phone's .jpg files or instead taking advantage of the larger files and either re-stacking them or just using the .fit stacked file to manipulate the image (color, brightness; even sharpening, etc.). This is the method I used not for these smaller .jpg first images but the ones just below the initial group, as linked here.

M27 Planetary Nebula in Vulpecula
30 10-second exposures in Alt-Azimuth mode
minor quick and dirty post-processing with Photoshop and other astronomically-based software

M11 Open Star Cluster in Scutum
30 10-second exposures in Alt-Azimuth mode
minor quick and dirty post-processing with Photoshop and other astronomically-based software

M13 Globular Star Cluster in Hercules
30 10-second exposures in Alt-Azimuth mode
minor quick and dirty post-processing with Photoshop and other astronomically-based software

M16 Eagle "Pillars of Creation" Nebula in Serpens
30 10-second exposures in Alt-Azimuth mode
minor quick and dirty post-processing with Photoshop and other astronomically-based software

M8 Lagoon Nebula in Sagittarius
30 10-second exposures in Alt-Azimuth mode
minor quick and dirty post-processing with Photoshop and other astronomically-based software

As noted above, below these comments are the images as obtained from an imaging session in the early morning hours of September 16, 2025. The files used were downloaded from the Seestar units' "main frame" (Ha!) onto a Windows 10 desktop computer. I simply used the .fit stacked files, and did a minor quick and dirty post-processing procedure on each image.

It is worthy of some comment as to what these individual files look like straight out of the Seestar. An example is:
Light_M 1_20.0s_LP_20250916_034501
which means a light frame of M1 of 20 seconds employing a light pollution filter was taken on September 16, 2025 at 03:45:01 MDT

To access the stacked version (which I did) the .fit file name used was:
Stacked_45_M 1_20.0s_LP_20250916_040935
which means after combining (stacking) 45 photographs of 20 seconds each and employing the light pollution filter -- the final stacked image was created at 04:09:35 MDT on September 16, 2025

I used this nomenclature for my final adjusted images:
Stacked_45_M 1_20.0s_LP_sharpenbetteradjust.jpg
Stacked_45_M 1_20.0s_LP_sharpenbetteradjust.tif
which refers to the files that I modified the color and applied denoising, sharpening, etc. to create "final" .tif and .jpg files of some detail and size (35 to 60 MB) which would be OK to print!

I think in the future I will also include the date and time -- I just now figured out what those funny numbers mean!

It's important to remember all these great images were created by a 50mm (2-inch) telescope (the lens size of most lowly, decidedly modest finder scopes) that costs about $600 bucks! Remarkable!

C-9 Cave Nebula in Cepheus
23 30-second exposures in Equatorial mode
Equatorial mode allows for longer exposures as the telescope tracks more accurately after being aligned quite precisely with the North celestial pole -- all professional astrophotography is accomplished using this strategy -- longer exposures sometimes still display star trails -- Seestar rejects these errors automatically and announces as it discards that exposure
minor quick and dirty post-processing with Photoshop and other astronomically-based software

M1 Crab Nebula in Taurus
45 20-second exposures in Equatorial mode
minor quick and dirty post-processing with Photoshop and other astronomically-based software -- I have found that the sweet spot for exposure length with the Seestar in Equatorial mode is probably 20 seconds (very few rejected exposures)

NGC 7380 Flying Horse/Wizard Nebula in Cepheus
45 20-second exposures in Equatorial mode
Equatorial mode allows for longer exposures as the telescope tracks more accurately after being aligned quite precisely with the North celestial pole -- all professional astrophotography is accomplished using this strategy -- longer exposures sometimes still display star trails -- Seestar rejects these errors automatically and announces as it discards that exposure
minor quick and dirty post-processing with Photoshop and other astronomically-based software

NGC 7635 Bubble Nebula in Cassiopeia
45 20-second exposures in Equatorial mode
minor quick and dirty post-processing with Photoshop and other astronomically-based software -- I have found that the sweet spot for exposures with the Seestar in Equatorial mode is probably 20 seconds (very few rejected exposures) -- although I like these two images, I would say that it was difficult to get the reddish tinge I desired, due partly I think, to the LP (light pollution) filter employed, due primarily to a bright Moon nearby, and used by all images in this session other than the Cave nebula, which was farther away from the bright Moon

M33 Galaxy in Triangulum

60 10-second exposures in Equatorial mode
IR-CUT filter used
"In astronomy, a UV/IR cut filter is an essential accessory that blocks unwanted ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) light from reaching a camera's sensor, thereby improving image quality by increasing sharpness and reducing star bloat." -- from the internet
One thing we do not see here are the often-present most distinctive features; they are ionized hydrogen clouds, also "called H-II regions, which are massive regions of starbirth." Usually appearing red, they are certainly present in this exo-Milky Way galaxy's arms. A longer exposure and better post processing (sic) would likely reveal these areas.

M13 Globular Star Cluster in Hercules
12 20-second exposures in Equatorial mode employing the internal IRCUT filter.
Compare this slightly sharper image to the one above. There are several reasons for the differences -- 1 -- this image was obtained using the new drizzle tech in the Seestar software, which doubles the image size and apparent resolution -- but with the caveat of more noise. This phenomenon can be countered by exposing more subs, all with 20-second exposures due to the quality tracking in EQ mode. Because of the lack of exposures (12 is certainly NOT enough) the image still does not have the quality it should and because of that 2 -- extra care with post-processing with Siril, Photoshop and other astronomically-based anti-noise software was required.

NGC 869 & NGC 884 Double Cluster in Perseus
42 10-second exposures in Equatorial mode employing the IRCUT filter. There is much less background noise in this rendition, generally due to the unexpected non-use (I forgot to turn it on!) of the 4K feature in Seestar's software. Although the 4K feature doubles the apparent size of the chip in the software, the price of more noise is the result. This image had much less shot noise -- because of this I am somewhat hesitant to use the 4K option in the future. The color of the stars also came out more vividly with very much less post-processing necessary.
I have found that the sweet spot for exposures with the Seestar in Equatorial mode is probably 20 seconds (very few rejected exposures).

NGC 6888 Crescent Nebula in Cygnus
45 20-second 4K exposures in Equatorial mode employing the internal Light Pollution filter. As before, more noise was present in this original stacked image -- however, not as much as before. The several reasons for that are 1 -- more exposure data and 2 -- object was higher in the sky, rendering a brighter, more complete image on each sub frame. Most of the data had a green twinge, not typically present in astronomical objects other than comets. I employed both the Topaz Labs Photo AI and Deep Sky Colors Hasta La Vista, Green! (HLVG anti noise color correction filter) to this and many of the images, which magically removes the green tinge. Remarkable!

NGC 6888 Crescent Nebula in Cygnus
"The Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888) is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, about 5,000 light-years from Earth, formed by the colliding stellar winds of a massive Wolf-Rayet star (WR 136) with earlier ejected stellar material, creating a bright, filament-filled shell. Discovered by William Herschel in 1792, it is also known as Caldwell 27 and is roughly 25 light-years across but is not visible to the naked eye." -- from the internet
45 20-second 4K exposures in Equatorial mode employing the internal Light Pollution filter. This image is just an enlargement of the original one to the left, as the 4K process allows for more enlargement, albeit again with some increase in shot noise.

NGC 891 Outer Limits Galaxy in Andromeda
60 10-second 4K exposures in Equatorial mode employing the internal IRCUT filter. As before, more noise was present in this original stacked image -- however, not as much as previously seen, probably due to more images taken. I rather like this image, which suggests the vast size and loneliness of the cosmos. I employed both the Topaz Labs Photo AI and Deep Sky Colors Hasta La Vista, Green! (HLVG anti noise color correction filter) to this and many of the images, which magically removes the green tinge. This image did not require much green removal adjustment, so I changed the setting to weak as opposed to medium or strong. Remarkable!

NGC 891 Outer Limits Galaxy in Andromeda
60 10-second 4K exposures in Equatorial mode employing the internal IRCUT filter. This image is just an enlargement of the original one to the left, as the 4K process allows for more enlargement, albeit again with some increase in shot noise. The nickname comes from the use of this galaxy's image in the opening rant from the original "Outer Limits" TV show.
Note the "companion" galaxies also present, above and to the right of the bright star in this rendition.

NGC 6960 Western Veil Nebula in Cygnus

36 20-second 4K exposures in Equatorial mode employing the internal Light Pollution filter. As before, more noise was present in this original stacked image -- however, not as much as previously seen, probably due to more images taken.
"The Western Veil Nebula is a supernova remnant consisting of oxygen, sulfur, and hydrogen gas. This area of Cygnus is densely populated with stars and includes regions of heated gas that make up the Cygnus Loop. As APOD so eloquently puts it, the Western Veil Nebula is 'an expanding cloud born of the death explosion of a massive star'. NGC 6960 (Caldwell 34) is often referred to as the Witch’s Broom as its delicate filamentary structure resembles this memorable shape"
I employed both the Topaz Labs Photo AI and Deep Sky Colors Hasta La Vista, Green! (HLVG anti noise color correction filter) to this and many of the images, which magically removes the green tinge. This image did not require much green removal adjustment, so I changed the setting to weak as opposed to medium or strong. I changed the greenish tone to a more proper blue. Remarkable!

NGC 7293 Helix Nebula in Aquarius

84 10-second 4K exposures in Equatorial mode employing the on board Light Pollution filter.
"The Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) is a planetary nebula located in the constellation Aquarius, roughly 650 light-years away, and is one of the closest such nebulae to Earth. It appears like a large, glowing 'eye' due to the gases ejected by a dying sun-like star, which form a large ring structure. This dying star's remnant is a white dwarf, and the nebula's vibrant colors are caused by glowing gases like oxygen (blue) and hydrogen and nitrogen (red)." -- from the internet Much more noise was present in this original stacked image -- likely due to the objects low trajectory in the sky. This was the most difficult photograph to process in this session, due to this low altitude. However, the 84 stacked images did help, even though much shot noise was visible. I employed both the Topaz Labs Photo AI and Deep Sky Colors Hasta La Vista, Green! (HLVG anti noise color correction filter) to this and many of the images, which magically removed the green tinge. Remarkable!

NGC 7293 Helix Nebula in Aquarius
This rendition is just an enlargement of the previous image to the left, since after the extensive post-processing, the image is quite clean and can take quite a bit of enlargement.

Comet C/2025 A6 Lemmon
“Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) is a nonperiodic comet, which means it has a variable orbital period that spans over a millennium and is hard to predict. Observations hint that the comet currently orbits the sun every 1,350 years and spends a majority of this time lurking within the Oort Cloud — the giant shell of comets and other icy objects at the very edge of the solar system. Lemmon was first spotted on Jan. 3 by researchers at the Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter observatory in Arizona's Santa Catalina Mountains as the comet was speeding toward the inner solar system at up to 130,000 mph (209,000 km/h). But it has largely gone under the radar until now, thanks to other more notable comets, such as SWAN R2 and the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, which are in the midst of their own solar flybys.” -- from the internet

72 10-second exposures in Equatorial mode employing the on board IRCUT filter, taken on the early morning of 10/03/2025.
I employed both the Topaz Labs Photo AI to this and many of the images, additionally post-processed the image in Photoshop. Comets are commonly and obviously green , so I DID NOT use the HastaLaVista Green filter!

Comet C/2025 A6 Lemmon
After a restack in ASIStudio and reviewing AND removing the offensive satellite subs, this rendition is essentially an enlargement and horizontal presentation of the previous image seen to the left. The original image was rather difficult to process, mostly because the object appeared very low in the sky and the background was quite flawed and noisy. Further, several satellites sadly ran through the original stacked image near the end of the stack. I previously used Photoshop's clone stamp to essentially erase the satellite tracks in the former vertical presentation, which turned out to be mighty difficult. Therefore, I restacked the RAW data after reviewing each sub in ASI's Fits Viewer (part of ASIStudio, see review link above) and discarded the offending images. As a result, this image was far easier to post-process. In the future, I will first review all of the original data and remove any offending subs before proceeding with the post-processing of the final .fits image. This image uses 65 of the original 10-second subs.

NGC 457 Owl Open Star Cluster in Cassiopeia
45 20-second 4K exposures in Equatorial mode employing the on board IRCUT filter.
I employed both the Topaz Labs Photo AI and Deep Sky Colors Hasta La Vista, Green! (HLVG anti noise color correction filter) to this and many of the images, which removed the green tinge. Note the beautiful colors of the stars, generally not seen visually but obvious with stacked time-exposure astrophotographs. Magnificent!
"The Owl Cluster is located 7,900 light years away and is thought to have formed about 20 million years ago. The Owl Cluster was discovered in 1787 by astronomer William Herschel and is a favourite target of astronomers observing the region around Cassiopeia with a telescope. It's included in the famous Caldwell Catalogue, compiled by the late Sir Patrick Moore." -- from the internet

M45 Pleiades Star Cluster and Reflection Nebulae in Taurus
72 10-second exposures in Equatorial mode employing the on board IRCUT filter.
This is a close-up of the famous Seven Sisters star cluster that dominates the early winter sky. It was up and prevalent in the neigh-dawn sky of October, so I thought I would give the cluster a try. It could use more exposure, but this one is also quite nice.


	To correctly and accurately view images such as those seen on this website, it is important to adjust your computer or device's monitor to the neutral gray scale above. First of all, every sector seen above should appear to be shades of a neutral gray -- gradually moving from black to white -- further, each segment should be independently visible, not "oozing into" one another. When your device is correctly calibrated (not so difficult) you will be able to view the images as they were created and intended to be seen.