Technical
notes
Announcements, methods and field reports from the studio
Logbook
Studio publications: sensors, firmware, measurement methods
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0023 November 2025Technique
Measuring seeing without a dedicated camera
How to estimate seeing from the intensity standard deviations of a guide star: method, limits, field validation
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Estimating seeing usually requires a dedicated sensor (DIMM, MASS). In the amateur field, a useful approximation can be obtained from the intensity standard deviations of a guide star.
This article describes the method, its limits, and presents results from a validation campaign comparing the software estimate to a reference DIMM.
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00321 September 2025Method
Why a C firmware for such a simple sensor
Field report on choosing a bare-metal C firmware over MicroPython for a sky-quality sensor
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It is a recurring debate: for a sensor that reads three I2C buses and publishes over MQTT, MicroPython is more than enough. Why pick a bare-metal C firmware?
Three reasons: deep-sleep power consumption (ESP32 deep sleep measured at 12 µA), I2C timing predictability, and a smaller OTA payload, critical for isolated battery-powered stations.
A technical question, a field report: the studio responds to precise exchanges