At Seestar, we believe the beauty and mystery of the universe should be within reach for anyone driven by curiosity and wonder—not just for seasoned astronomers. That's why we're so excited to share the story of Mattia Vessecchia, a 17-year-old Italian computer science student who also enjoys drone photography in his spare time.
With a deep love for the night sky, Mattia picked up the Seestar S50 to bring the distant stars in his heart into clear view. Thanks to this affordable, high-performance telescope, he's been able to capture, process, and share stunning images of deep-sky objects—shots that once seemed out of reach.
As he puts it, astrophotography isn't just about mastering techniques, it's a profound dialogue between science, art, and nature. We're proud to stand beside explorers like Mattia, working to bring astrophotography out of the professional realm and into everyday life, so more people can uncover the hidden wonders that await in the night sky.
Hi, I'm Mattia Vessecchia and I'd like to share my experience and some of my shots using the Seestar S50.
I've always had a deep curiosity for the night sky and what it had to offer. Upon looking up I couldn't help but think what was beyond whats obviously visible, what was beyond the veil of light pollution and what it meant. I live in a Bortle 6, a suburban sky. Here its easy to think that the celestial vault is all about the few brightest stars you can just barely see, and for some people its even hard to believe the beautiful astro photos seen on the internet are real at all and not just the byproduct of a purely artistic process, not whats really out there.
But its one thing to just scroll through the beautiful images taken by the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes, and another it is to take and process them yourself, and get to know the raw data and process behind the craft, so that you really get to appreciate the photos, the targets and the science behind the software that makes it all possible, so that its not "magic" anymore, but something real that you can do.
And what I really appreciate about tools like the Seestar is that they are finally making astrophotography accessible for most people. I always wanted to get into the hobby but budget and time was a big limiting factor for a student like me...it makes me appreciate how important it is to create opportunities for people that have the talent but are limited by practical factors, especially money, in this hobby.
As I've got into capturing and processing photos, I understood its not all about getting the sharpest, highest quality images, but also what it means to you and all the things it makes you learn along the way. Not just processing the image, but also analyzing it, dive deeper into catalogues like SIMBAD and getting to know something extra about the cosmos.
Here are some of the images I think came out the best with my current processing skills. Mainly the Rosette and Dreyer(15hrs integration) nebulas, M51 galaxy(24 hrs) and the Pleiades (9.8 hrs total across 1.5x frame).
Mosaic mode: Rosette (using ForaxX palette), Pleiades (M45)
Software for Rosette/M51/Dreyer: PixInsight(BlurX, StarX), Siril, GraXpert, GIMP, Darktable.
Software for M45: Siril , GraXpert, GIMP, Darktable, Seti Astro's Suite (CosmicClarity sharpening)
— Mattia Vessecchia
Rosette Nebula
Dreyer's Nebula
M51
The Pleiades