Indeed, winter is coming. There’s no news in this headline, but for those of use who enjoy the expanding, wide windows of night sky, winter is the best time of the year.
I’m clearing leftover photos off the screen of my desktop computer and I’d thought I’d share them.
On the morning of October 10, the SeeStar S50 stacked six minutes worth M42 data to produce this post’s picture window photo. It’s always fun to view M42 with a telescope, or with a camera, or with a telescope/camera, which is what the SeeStar really is.
In the predawn sky of Oct. 8, 2025, on the western shore Lake Winnebago, I shot Comet Lemmon, which, if memory serves, was playing in or near Leo Minor. I am eager to venture West to shoot Lemmon again along with Comet Swan, but the post-sunset sky has not cooperated for at least a week.
On the night of Sept. 15, both the Dumbbell and Crescent nebulae appeared in front of the 2-inch, 250mm focal length lens of the S50. These are driveway pictures under a Bortle 6 light dome.
SetiAstro Soars
My prime photographic software is PixInsight. A developer who goes by the brand name SetiAstro developed software that folds nicely into the many things that PixInsight does. I first used one item in SetiAstro’s bag two days ago. SetiAstro’s Astro Depth Image Enhancer really turned my Sept. 29 photo of Messier 31, the Great Andromeda Galaxy, into a sparkler.
I’ll be searching SetiAstro’s menu for more goodies in the future.
Happy Halloween.
Cosmic 
2 responses to “Winter is Coming”
HI Roger
I love reading your blog post with creative stories and the wonderful pictures by Seestar S50
I am a Newbie and also have Seestar S50 location in Bortle 9 New Jersey. I go to Bortle 6 farm closeby
I loved the sparkle in the Andromeda M31 for which I need some advice to shoot similar shot
Did you take in M31 in Mosaic mode
How long was the shooting for in 10 sec exposures?
I have used little of Siril and not ready to pay for PI
Please send me link of SetiAstro, if I can use and how much to pay for it. If processing it is easier in this software then Siril on desk top PC or Android phone app if possible.
Frank – Subscriber frankn365@gmail.com
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Thank you for your kind words. One of the things I like most about the SeeStar S50 is that it’s our best weapon against light pollution. Yes, a Bortle 6 sky, or a Bortle 9 sky like you have in Jersey, negates some of what we might be able to see and shoot in say a Bortle 2 or 3 sky, but the SeeStar S50 really reduces the pain of living under a light dome. And with a lot of noise-limiting software out there, that helps doll up our pictures to remove some of the detrimental effects of light pollution. Yes, I used mosaic mode for M31 and other objects that can quite fit in the S50’s field of view. For that shot of M31 posted today, to get 145 minutes of stacked images I think the scope was working for 2 1/2 to three hours. I used 10 second exposures.
SetiAstro stuff can be found here: https://www.setiastro.com/
Best of luck with your next shoot, and all shoots going forward.
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