"I'm Joshua P. Akonom. Often in my life, I have passions that I don't strike on until the time is right.  I'm an American living in S. Korea.  I always wanted to teach, and abroad was the easiest way to do it.  It took me 37 years before I made it here, and couldn't be happier.  Just like teaching, seeing the pictures people could take of DSO's was absolutely spellbinding to me.  It's something that I thought only organizations geared towards space research could do.  Around 2015 I realized that the average Joe could take pictures of DSOs, with a large learning curve and quite a bit of capital.  I was never in a spot where I could commit to such a hobby that was so expensive.  The years went on and every 3 or 4 years like clockwork, I'd revisit the notion of this hobby I wanted to pursue.  Not much changed, the cost was still well beyond my budget, and the learning curve was frankly, daunting.  Well, fast forward to 2024 and I research again and stumble upon smart scopes.  It was my first glimpse into what they were, and they were game changers.  So I researched, and settled upon the Seestar s50 in February of 2024.  My reasons for choosing Seestar s50 were a) proven track record in astrophotography coming from ZWO b) cost vs. aperture c) robust software.  I'm sure you've heard this story over and over, but when I got that Seestar s50, plopped outside, and was imaging within 10 minutes....I'm not sure I can pinpoint a time where I was more excited.  How can I be taking quality pictures of deep space objects for such a low investment.  You guys literally became my hero. So, like anything you are passionate at, I continued to push my Seestar.  I started doing EQ mode, I started pushing longer exposures (a lot of this thanks to Seestar_alp, but you did eventually catch up to them).  When you had that first sale (August 2024?) I decided to pull the trigger on a second Seestar.  I decided that in my bortle 6, more data was key.  About 2 months later, another Seestar popped up on the used market in my area, and I felt 3 was the charm.

Here comes the game changer from Seestar, and what I want to emphasize right now.  Seestar is an amazing device, and continuously improved the software FREE OF CHARGE to make something I paid for, exponentially better.  I love Seestar....   That's all you can ask for from a company.  So when Seestar released the flats option, it completely removed my light band.  That was an absolute game-changer for me.  The light band was right down the middle on 2 of my 3 scopes.  Suddenly, I'm able to capture dark nebula with ease.  All those hours I captured on the crescent nebula, now I can finally get an Oiii signal.  It catapulted my results."

Huge thanks to Joshua P. Akonom for creating such breathtaking images with Seestar and sharing them with the community. 🌌✨