Automate Star Spectra with Seestar S30 and beyond

I did not have the intention of looking into Seestar S30, not to mention supporting it with Alp, but...

Since Seestar S30 comes with a wide FOV optical train AND the normal-ish FOV one, what if we use wide lens for star GoTo, while the normal lens used to capture star spectra!

As some of you may know, I initially created Alp mainly to automate stellar spectroscopy. One issue that I can't automate is that with a grating in front, Seestar can no longer see stars, and thus cannot platesolve. My existing solution is to platesolve first before adding the grating in front of the S50 lens. What's worse, I have to depend on reproducibility of the gears to march toward the spectra from 0th order light. This is not optimal.

So here's the proposal, and the start of a new journey...

If I can control sub modules of S30 the way I can control S50 now, I should be able to automate everything, as in...

0) provide a inexpensive diffraction grating that fits in front of Seestar without modifications

1) bring full functionalities of seestar_alp automation platform to S30

2) add automated stellar spectroscopy capture, live display, and analysis by

Your donation will help fund the purchase of Seestar S30, and the development of ALP toward fully automated stellar spectroscopy.

You can view my work on Seestar, seestar_alp, and stellar spectroscopy in my Facebook group, YouTube, and Discord server:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/373417055173095/

https://www.youtube.com/@kai_seestar

https://discord.gg/2R47pSyGy5

Kai Yung