Seestar Mosaic Manager — User Guide

Seestar Mosaic Manager is a desktop app for macOS and Windows. It keeps the mosaics you planned — in Telescopius or with the Mosaic Planner for Stellarium — as projects on your computer: with the Seestar model and field of view, the imaging progress of every panel and links to your results. For a ZWO Seestar S30 Pro or S50 Pro it turns the panels into custom objects in your Seestar account and into imaging plans you add to the Seestar app with a QR code, and it lets you manage the custom objects already in your account.

Because custom objects are stored in your Seestar account, panels you upload here show up among the favourites in the Seestar app on your phone or tablet, ready to observe.

Contents

1. Before you start
2. Installing and opening the app
3. The main window
4. Logging in
5. Mosaic projects
6. Imaging plans
7. The custom objects on your account
8. Observing with your Seestar
9. Troubleshooting
10. About, terms of use and privacy

1. Before you start

You need:

• A Seestar account — the same email and password you use in the Seestar app. You only need it to upload panels, to create plans and to manage your custom objects; projects work without it.
• An internet connection for the account. The app talks to your Seestar account online; it does not connect to the telescope itself, so you don't need to be on the telescope's Wi-Fi.
• For mosaics: a mosaic plan exported as a Telescopius mosaic CSV file, from Telescopius or from the Mosaic Planner for Stellarium (see 5.1).

2. Installing and opening the app

macOS

1. Copy Seestar Mosaic Manager.app into your Applications folder (or anywhere you like).
2. The first time, right-click the app and choose Open, then confirm with Open. macOS asks this once because the app isn't distributed through the App Store. After that, open it normally.

Windows

1. Copy the whole Seestar Mosaic Manager folder to your computer (keep all files in the folder together).
2. Start Seestar Mosaic Manager.exe. If Windows SmartScreen shows a warning about an unknown publisher, click More info → Run anyway. This appears once.

3. The main window

The window title shows the app's version, e.g. Seestar Mosaic Manager 1.0. The window has three parts:

• Seestar account (top): log in and out. On the right, Help opens this guide and About shows the version and the terms of use.
• Two tabs:
  • Projects — your mosaic projects: create them from a mosaic CSV, track the imaging progress, upload the panels to your account and create imaging plans.
  • Account objects — the custom objects on your account, with tools to export, import and delete them. The tab shows how many there are, e.g. Account objects (12).
• Status line (bottom): what the app is doing or just did.

While the app is talking to your account, the mouse pointer shows a busy cursor and the buttons are disabled until it's finished. If a button is greyed out for another reason — for example because you aren't logged in yet, or nothing is selected — point at it and its tooltip tells you why.

Getting help

Click Help, press F1, or choose Help → User Guide in the menu bar to open this guide in its own window, next to the app. In the guide window:

• ◀ Back, Forward ▶ and Contents move around the guide; the links in the contents list jump to each section.
• Open in browser opens the guide in your web browser.
• Download PDF… saves the guide as a PDF, e.g. to print it.
• Download Markdown… saves the guide as a Markdown text file. Its screenshots are saved in a folder of the same name ending in -images, next to the file.

4. Logging in

1. Enter your Seestar account's email and password.
2. Optional: tick Stay logged in to start the app already logged in next time. The app then keeps your login in your computer's secure password store (the macOS Keychain or the Windows Credential Manager), never in a plain file. Your password is never stored — the app forgets it right after logging in.
3. Click Log in (or press Return in the password field).

When you're logged in, the top right shows logged in until a date — the login stays valid until then — and the Account objects tab fills with the custom objects on your account.

Logging out. Click Log out to end your login on this computer, e.g. before someone else uses it. Unticking Stay logged in removes the saved login from the password store at once. To use another account, just log in with it.

If a saved login has ended in the meantime, the app says so; log in again.

On macOS you may be asked whether the app may use your keychain the first time it reads the saved login. Choose Always Allow to not be asked again.

5. Mosaic projects

A project is one mosaic: its panels from the mosaic plan, the Seestar model and field of view, and for every panel how far you've got and where the results are. Projects are stored on your computer (or in a synced folder you choose, see 5.10); your Seestar account only receives the panels when you upload them or create a plan.

5.1 Plan the mosaic

Plan the mosaic with your Seestar's field of view, then export it as a Telescopius mosaic CSV:

• Telescopius — in the mosaic planner, set a custom field of view of the Seestar's native size (table below), choose the grid, overlap and rotation, and export the panes as CSV.
• Mosaic Planner for Stellarium — set the camera up in the Oculars plug-in (or as manual framing) in portrait, i.e. with the short side as the width, and use Export CSV (Telescopius)….

Recommended for a start: portrait panes at a position angle of 0°, and in the Stellarium plug-in Same rotation for all panels ticked. In the Seestar app every target is then framed the way the plan expects, without setting an angle (see section 8).

The Seestar can also enlarge its field of view for a target (the framing factor, 1× to 2×). If you plan with larger panes — say 1.5 × the native size — the app sets the factor to match.

5.2 The project list

The Projects tab lists your projects with their Seestar model, number of panels, progress (e.g. 2 / 4 panels done) and when they were last changed. Click a column header to sort.

• New from CSV… — create a project from a mosaic CSV (5.3).
• New… — an empty project; import the CSV later in the editor.
• Open (or double-click) — open the project in the editor.
• Duplicate… — a copy with the same plan and settings, e.g. to image the mosaic again with the other Seestar.
• Export… / Import… — save a project to a file, or add one from a file (5.11).
• Delete… — remove the project (see 5.10 for how to get it back).
• Projects folder… — where the projects are kept (5.10).

5.3 Create a project from a CSV

1. Click New from CSV… and choose the CSV file.
2. Enter a name for the project.

The app reads the panels and recognises the Seestar model from the pane size. If the panes are a multiple of the native field of view, choose the model yourself; the app then names the framing factor that fits.

5.4 The project editor

• Name and Description — for you.
• Mosaic plan — how many panels the project has; Import mosaic CSV… loads the panels (again).
• Short name — the panels are named short name P1, P2, … (e.g. M31 P3). The Seestar app takes at most 20 characters, so keep it short. Empty = the project name.
• Seestar — the model you image with.
• Field of view — the framing factor (1× = native) and the resulting field of view.
• Rotation — the framing angle the plan's panes need, in whole degrees from −90° to 90°. plan: …° shows what the mosaic plan asks for; Use plan takes it over.

If the panels don't match the model, factor or rotation, an orange note explains what to change:

The panel table lists every panel with its name as it appears in the Seestar app, its coordinates (RA/Dec, J2000), position angle, place in the grid, status, links, and a ✓ in Account when a custom object of that name is on your account.

5.5 Imaging status and links

Select panels and use Set status to mark them open, planned, imaging or done. The project list shows the progress. When you mark a single panel done, the app offers to add a link to its results. Links… (or a double-click on a panel) keeps any number of links per panel, e.g. to a stacked image in Google Drive, and opens them in your browser.

5.6 Saving

Changes are kept in the editor until you click Save (⌘S / Ctrl+S); Revert discards them. The title shows ● Unsaved changes meanwhile. Leaving the project or quitting the app with unsaved changes asks first.

5.7 Copy the panels

Copy (or ⌘C / Ctrl+C) puts the selected panels on the clipboard — one line per panel with its name, RA and Dec, written the way the Seestar app's custom object form asks for them. Copy all copies every panel. Useful to enter a few panels by hand, or to keep a list.

5.8 Upload the panels to your account

Upload to account… adds the panels as custom objects to your Seestar account (you need to be logged in). The app shows how many it will add and skips panels whose name is already on the account. Afterwards the Account column shows a ✓ for each, and the panels appear among the favourites in the Seestar app on all your devices.

5.9 Changing the mosaic plan

Import mosaic CSV… in the editor loads a changed plan into the project. Panels that keep their number and position keep their status and links. Custom objects already uploaded are not changed; delete the old ones on the Account objects tab and upload again if the positions changed.

5.10 Where projects are stored

By default the projects are kept on this computer. Projects folder… under the project list lets you keep them in iCloud Drive or another folder (Dropbox, OneDrive, a NAS, …) to use the same projects on several computers. Each computer remembers its own choice.

• When you switch, the app can copy your projects to the new place (projects already there are kept).
• If a project was changed on another computer while you had it open, Save asks whether to overwrite it with your version or to reload the other one.
• When the window comes to the front, the list is read again, and an open project without unsaved changes is reloaded if it was changed elsewhere.
• If a sync service made a conflict copy of a project (the same project twice), the list says so; compare them and delete the one you don't want.

Deleted projects are moved to the trash folder inside the projects folder; move a file back to restore the project.

5.11 Sharing projects

Export… saves the selected project with its panels, status and links to a file, e.g. to send it to a friend or as a backup. Import… adds a project from such a file; if it is already in your list, you choose whether to replace it or to import it as a copy.

6. Imaging plans

An imaging plan in the Seestar app images several targets one after the other, each for a set time. The app makes such a plan from a project's panels and shares it as a QR code: scan it with the Seestar app and the plan is added there, ready to run.

1. Open the project and, if you only want some panels, select them.
2. Click Create plan… (you need to be logged in).

3. Set the plan name, the start time (local time at the telescope), the time per panel (at least 10 minutes, the shortest the Seestar app offers), the exposure and the LP filter, and whether to use all panels or the selected panels. The line below shows when the plan starts and ends.
4. Click Create and share. The app shows the plan's QR code:

5. In the Seestar app, scan the QR code to add the plan.

The plan is kept in the project: Plans (N) lists the plans of the project and shows their QR codes again. In the QR window, Copy link copies the plan's link, Save image… saves the QR code as a picture, and Remove from project… forgets the plan here.

A shared plan is stored on ZWO's server and can be read by anyone who has its link or QR code. It contains only the plan name, the target names, coordinates and times. Removing it from the project doesn't remove it there, nor from a Seestar app that added it.

Each target in the plan is framed the Seestar app's default way (see section 8); plans don't set a framing factor or angle yet.

7. The custom objects on your account

The Account objects tab lists the custom objects on your account — the ones you entered in the Seestar app and the panels uploaded from here — with their coordinates and when they were added. Click a column header to sort; select several with Shift or ⌘/Ctrl, or all with ⌘A / Ctrl+A. Refresh reads the list again.

Export

Export selected… saves the selected objects (names and coordinates) to a file — as a backup, or to give them to a friend.

Import

Import… adds the objects of such a file to your account. A preview lists them first; Skip objects whose name is already on the account avoids duplicates.

Delete

Delete from account… removes the selected objects from your account — and so from the favourites in the Seestar app on all your devices, the next time the app syncs. Before deleting, the app saves a copy of them in the folder deleted objects next to its projects folder; Import… brings them back. If the account didn't take a deletion, the app says so.

8. Observing with your Seestar

• From the favourites: uploaded panels are among the favourites in the Seestar app. Open one and go to it like any other target.
• With a plan: add the plan with its QR code (section 6) and start it in the Seestar app.
• Framing: without a framing angle, the Seestar app frames every target portrait, with its long side north–south, square to the sky's grid at the target. A mosaic planned with portrait panes at a position angle of 0° therefore fits without changes. For other plans, set the target's framing in the Seestar app to the factor and angle this app shows in the editor.
• EQ and Alt-Az: in EQ mode the field doesn't turn during the night. In Alt-Az mode it does; image the panels with the framing set, and check the overlap of your results.

The framing angle's exact meaning in the Seestar app (its zero point and direction) is still being checked with real images. Check a panel's orientation in its first image before you image the whole mosaic.

9. Troubleshooting

"Login failed" / "The account refused the login" Check email and password — they're the same as in the Seestar app. If a saved login ended, log in again.

A button is greyed out Point at it: its tooltip says what's missing. Upload to account… and Create plan… need a login and a project with panels; Copy, Set status and Links… need selected panels; Export selected… and Delete from account… need selected objects on the Account objects tab.

"All panels are already on the account" Every panel's name is already a custom object on your account. To upload changed positions, delete the old objects first.

The panels don't appear in the Seestar app Open the Seestar app again (or go to its home screen) so it reloads your account, and check that you're logged in with the same account in both apps.

"Could not read CSV" Choose the mosaic CSV exported from Telescopius or the Mosaic Planner for Stellarium (the Telescopius format), not another file.

"⚠ The mosaic plan uses panes of …" The mosaic was planned with another field of view than the project's model and framing factor. Choose the right model, set the factor the note names, or plan the mosaic again with your Seestar's field of view.

"⚠ The mosaic plan's panes need a framing rotation of …" Click Use plan to take the plan's rotation.

"Panel names like … are longer than the 20 characters …" The Seestar app takes panel names of at most 20 characters. Choose a shorter Short name.

"… was changed elsewhere since you opened it" Another computer saved the project in the shared projects folder. Choose Overwrite to keep your version or Reload to take the other one.

"project file(s) could not be read" / "conflict copy" Point at the red note to see which file and why. Conflict copies come from a sync service; keep the right one and delete the other in the projects folder.

Decimal comma On systems set to a language that uses a decimal comma (e.g. German), numbers may be shown with a comma. That's just the display; it works the same.

10. About, terms of use and privacy

Click About (or choose About Seestar Mosaic Manager — on macOS in the app menu, on Windows in the Help menu) to see the app's version, its developer, MiceInSpace Development, its website and the terms of use.

Seestar Mosaic Manager is donationware: it's free. If it is useful to you, please consider a donation — every donation goes to the Smart Sky Survey project, the citizen-science sky survey this app is a spin-off of. The website smm.smartskysurvey.com has the downloads, this guide, the full licence and the donation links.

Terms of use

These are the main points; the full licence is on the website and in the file LICENSE.md that comes with the app.

• Donationware. The app is free; donations are voluntary and don't buy support or features. All donations go to the Smart Sky Survey project.
• Private use only. Seestar Mosaic Manager is provided for private, non-commercial use.
• No redistribution. You may not copy, share, publish, sell or otherwise distribute the app, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from MiceInSpace Development.
• Use at your own risk. The app is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind. MiceInSpace Development is not liable for any damage or loss resulting from its use, including changes to or loss of custom objects or plans on your Seestar account. Check your targets and plans before you observe.
• Independent project. The app is not made, endorsed or supported by ZWO. It uses the Seestar account service the way the Seestar app does, without ZWO's approval; ZWO may change or block that at any time. ZWO and Seestar are trademarks of their owner. Telescopius and Stellarium are trademarks of their owners.

Privacy

• The app connects only to your Seestar account — to log you in, to read, add and delete your custom objects and to share the plans you create. Nothing else is shared with anyone.
• Your password is never stored. It's sent only to the Seestar account service, to log you in. Only if you tick Stay logged in does the app keep your email and login in your computer's secure password store.
• Shared plans can be read by anyone who has their link or QR code; they contain only the plan name, target names, coordinates and times.
• Projects are stored on your computer, or in the synced folder you choose; they're never sent anywhere else. Project files and object files you export contain no account details.
• The app doesn't collect usage data and doesn't talk to any other service.