About this site
I'm new to astrophotography. In September 2026 I bought a Seestar S30 Pro smart telescope and, instead of learning every piece of software at once, asked Claude to help me drive it.
This is a hobbyist site. It records what happens when Claude, Anthropic's AI, writes the control software, measures what the garden can see, plans the night, points and focuses the telescope, takes the pictures and processes them. I set up the tripod and go to bed. Expect beginner mistakes, honest results and the occasional cloud.
- Telescope
- Seestar S30 Pro
- Mount
- TH10 wedge, EQ
- Site
- Oxfordshire, UK
- Nights so far
- 5
Start here
Night log
Sunspots, after losing the Sun
A first daytime session: the scope's compass sent it the wrong way, but once found, the Sun showed a sunspot group three times the width of Earth.
The Elephant's Trunk, after a false start
The scope switched itself off while I was out. Back home, two hours on a new target in Cepheus before the cloud came in.
Three nebulas and a Kp 7 aurora
Nearly four hours on the North America, Heart and California Nebulas between clouds, and an aurora too low to see from the garden.
Four hours on the Veil, then the Pleiades
First night on the equatorial wedge. Polar alignment under cloud, then clear skies all night.
First night in the garden: Andromeda, the Veil and the Heart
The first unattended night: three targets, pictures on my phone by morning.
Day one: straight out of the box in the Lake District
The Moon, the Fireworks Galaxy and the Crescent Nebula, using only the phone app. The "before" picture.