Keep in mind that the night sky is not pure black.

If you use PixInsight:

• Stack in WBPP with local normalization.
• Use ABE with degree 1 to handle linear gradients such as moon or other LP.
• If you have to use a higher degree, you should know why.
• If you have a relatively complex scene and ABE just isn't cutting it, go the whole hog and use GraXpert.
• Use NoiseXterminator or GraXpertDenoise with enthusiasm.
• If the background is particularly colourful after all that, RangeMask the shadows and throw some desaturation and darkening in with curves. That's sorta a last resort, but also a fair way to guarantee imposing your will on the image.

Whatever subsequent processing you do, do not expand contrast within the shadows. Be careful of curves, CLAHE and DarkStructureEnhance - these are good and favourable tools when used in the right places with care, but will exacerbate noise or other quantization effects at the blackpoint.

Be mindful of the order in which you do initial steps. Either ABE(1)+NX or GX+GXDenoise should be the first two things you do while linear (before stretching).

Two tips: 1) Run BlurXterminator first so the stars aren't egg shaped, which confuses things, and 2) if you're using drizzle, make sure you adjust your sensor pixel size (e.g. 2X drizzle means your pixel size should be divided by two, 3X by 3, etc.).

If the Bahtinov mask was made for the Seestar then it should fit into the lens opening in the same way as the orange solar filter.

But before you place it over the lens, do two things. First, go into the Seestar tutorials by tapping on the “Tutorial” icon in the upper right corner of the Home screen.

Then scroll down to the section titled “Turn On Manual Focus”. Read and follow the instructions in the tutorial to turn on manual focus.

Then read the tutorial section titled “Find & Shoot Objects” and follow the instructions to find a field of view that contains one or more bright stars more or less centered in the field of view.

Then tap the AF icon at the lower right side of the screen. Once auto focus says that it has finished, check on the left, lower side of the screen. You should see the “Manual Focus” panel. Take note of value displayed there. This is the proper focus setting that the Seestar has determine with it's autofocus algorithm. Moon, Solar, Planetary, and Scenery each may have a different focus point.

Next, carefully insert the Bahtinov focus mask in front of the Seestar lens and observe that now the individual stars shown on your phone or tablet will appear to have an X across them. The Bahtinov focus mask causes diffraction spikes to form from the star images. In addition there will be a diffraction spike that splits the X somewhere.

The goal is to center the diffraction spike so it crosses exactly in the center of the X. If if it doesn't, use the manual focus panel buttons to adjust the focus so that the spike is perfectly centered across the X.— Murray Foster 2024/06/25 10:59

Finally, remove the mask! I know a guy who has forgetten to do that twice (me).

GoTo your target and then select SkyAtlas.

The blue rectangle is where you're pointed.

Drag the red rectangle to where you want your second mosaic image and then GoTo (overlap at least 50% to accommodate field rotation).

Take a screen grab or make a drawing so you can keep track as you build the mosaic.

Rinse and repeat.

Siril's Go Register and PixInsight Star Registration processes will help you put the mosaic together.

Initial Setup

• Update your Seestar app to the latest version (at least 2.2) to access the framing feature
• Open the Seestar app and navigate to the sky atlas

Capturing Process

• Select your target object in the sky atlas
• Tap the “Framing” button located on the right side of the screen
• Use the adjustment controls to customize your frame:
• * Adjust the magnification slider (1x to 4x)
• * Set the rotation angle to your preferred orientation
• * Press the “GoTo” button to begin imaging

During Imaging the telescope will:

• Start capturing from the center of the target
• Spiral outward with overlapping sections
• Automatically stitch images together as it progresses
• Discard poor-quality frames affected by clouds or star trails
• Important Notes

The process can take several hours depending on your selected frame size For best results, avoid imaging when your target passes through zenith (10 minutes before and after) The final mosaic can cover an area up to 6 times the width of the moon

Open (top menu): Tap leftmost icon and select an image to process

Bottom menu

Tweak:
Black Adjust the darkest parts of your image
(Note: the night sky is not pure black!).
Bright Control the overall brightness
Saturate Enhance the color
Temp Create a warmer or cooler look
Tint Refine specific hues

Curve:
The histogram displays the distribution of dark (left) and bright (right) pixels.
The higher the peak the more pixels are that bright.
Click and drag the numbered points for precise adjustment
Point 1 will brighten the first 20% of the curve
Point 5 will brighten from 80% to 100% of the curve

Wavelet:
Enhance the crispness of details.
Control the amount of sharpening for each layer with the slider
Fine sharpens tiny detail such as stars
Coarse sharpens large details such as entire nebulae

Denoise:
Eliminate unwanted grain for a clearer image
Be careful, too much denoise removes details
Fine denoise removes small noises artifacts
Coarse denoise removes large noise artifacts
AI tries to fix everything but some tweaks with other controls might help

Crop: (top menu)
Trim image to reduce size or remove stacking and field rotation artifacts

Save your image (top menu):
Once you're happy with your edits, tap the down arrow box in the top menu
You will save a new version of the original image (which won’t be changed)