Seestar Ingest

Seestar Ingest listing Seestar sessions and quality scores
Seestar Ingest - overview of Seestar sessions with targets, filters and quality metrics.

Seestar Ingest is the bridge between your ZWO Seestar S50 and the rest of Astro Imaging Toolbox. It scans Seestar output folders, groups files into sessions, parses target names, filters and exposure times, and gives you simple quality metrics so you can decide what to keep and what to reprocess.

Quick Start (5 min)

  1. Open Seestar Ingest from the main dashboard or Tools menu.
  2. Point it to the root folder where your Seestar stores data (or where you keep copied sessions).
  3. Let the tool scan and group sessions by target/date. Each row typically corresponds to one Seestar project or stack.
  4. Use the columns to review target name, exposure count, filters, integration time and quality score.
  5. Select the sessions you want to take further and use the available actions to open them in Live Stacking PRO, Image Converter, or export them.

Controls

Control Default / Range What it does When to use
Root Seestar folder - Base directory where Seestar sessions are stored. Set this once to your Seestar data location; adjust if you move or archive sessions.
Rescan / Refresh Manual Scans the folder tree again and updates the session list. Click after copying new Seestar data or changing folder contents.
Auto-watch Off Periodically watches the root folder for new sessions. Enable while a Seestar is actively writing data to keep the list in sync.
Search / filter bar - Filters sessions by target name, date, filter or other tags. Use to quickly find a specific object or night.
Quality score 0-100 Simple metric summarizing basic quality indicators for the session. Use for relative ranking (good vs mediocre nights) rather than as an absolute measure.
Open in Live Stacking - Opens the selected session in Live Stacking PRO (when applicable) for further integration or processing. Use when you want to re-stack Seestar data or combine with other frames.
Export - Exports selected sessions or stacks for external processing. Use when you want to move data into another tool or archive best results.

Example workflows

Reviewing last night’s Seestar runs

  1. Set the root folder to your Seestar storage location.
  2. Rescan and sort sessions by date or quality score.
  3. Open the most promising sessions in Live Stacking PRO or another tool for closer inspection.
  4. Flag or export the clear winners and archive or delete obviously poor runs.

Combining Seestar data with a main rig

  1. Use Seestar Ingest to locate stacks of the same target from your Seestar.
  2. Export them and combine with data from your main rig in your usual stacking workflow.
  3. Use Gradient Hunter, Auto-StarMask Studio and Plate Solver on the combined data if needed.

Tips & notes

  • Quality scores are intended as a relative ranking, not a scientific measurement. Always validate promising sessions visually.
  • Keeping a consistent folder structure for Seestar data makes rescans and filtering much easier.
  • If you rename folders, trigger a rescan so Seestar Ingest doesn’t reference stale paths.

Troubleshooting

  • No sessions appear → verify the root folder, check that it contains Seestar data, and ensure you have read permissions.
  • Wrong target names → confirm your device naming convention; some fields are parsed from filenames or Seestar metadata.
  • Sessions listed but cannot be opened → check that files haven’t been moved/deleted since the last scan.

Updated 2025-11-15