The platform turns smart-telescope FITS images into calibrated photometric measurements while keeping the workflow simple for the observer.
The current pipeline is customized for Seestar S50, S30 Pro, and S50 Pro telephoto FITS products. It automatically adapts its photometry settings to the supported instrument and treats individual Bayer exposures differently from native stacked images.
The user uploads one or more FITS images and supplies the target coordinates. The pipeline reads the FITS header, identifies the supported telescope model, exposure information, Bayer pattern, and whether the image is an individual exposure or a native stack.
If a valid celestial WCS is already present, it is used directly. Otherwise, the image is plate solved with Astrometry.net. The supplied sky coordinates are then converted into a precise pixel position in the image.
The software measures the relevant detector samples near the target and rejects measurements that are saturated or close to saturation. Saturation is determined from the image data themselves rather than from a predicted magnitude.
Individual Bayer exposures are measured directly on the native color-filter-array pixels without traditional debayering. Blue pixels provide B-band measurements, green pixels provide V, and red pixels provide R. Native stacked images currently use the second image slice for V-band photometry only.
The image field is matched to catalog stars with synthetic B, V, and R photometry. Unsuitable stars are rejected based on image position, saturation, signal-to-noise, and other quality criteria. The remaining stars form the calibration ensemble.
Each comparison star provides an independent photometric zero point. The ensemble is combined robustly and applied to the target measurement. Color-term diagnostics may be inspected, but no automatic color correction is currently applied.
A single image can return one calibrated value per available band. Multiple images can be averaged, or retained as individual measurements for a time-series light curve. Observation times are converted to heliocentric Julian date and multi-band light curves are generated automatically.
When the production service is connected, uploaded files will be transferred to the processing computer, analyzed, returned to the user as values, tables, and plots, and then deleted after processing rather than retained as an archive.
Supported: Seestar S50, Seestar S30 Pro, and Seestar S50 Pro Smart Telescopes.