When the Sky Came to Andy: Capturing the Night from a Hospital Bed with Seestar

Where does a story like this begin?

For Andy Hook, it starts like many others. A 50+ year-old working in technical sales in the cybersecurity world, a busy life shared with his wife, two kids, a dog—and, as he puts it, “far too many fish tanks.” Ordinary, grounded, full.

Until it wasn't.

In mid-February, what began as a mild flu quickly turned into something far more serious. "I had been home for a couple of days… enough to make me feel queasy," he recalls. Then, suddenly, everything blurred. Ambulances. Doctors. Surgery. Six days in ICU. A body marked by survival—“a scar to end all scars,” as he describes it.

"So the bit of the story that you are actually interested in really starts when I moved out of ICU and onto the ward. A strange time, where day meets night, nurses are checking your stats every few hours, injections, drips and meds. No real routine other than waking at 6:00 and trying to walk as much as possible. Concentration was difficult, I could hold a thought for about 5 minutes, before needing to rest and recoup. That is not to say that boredom was not an issue, just spread across the day. 
 
I had a tiny view out of the window and could see a patch of sky in the Bortle 8 skies of Bristol. So how does an active astrophotographer cope when you can not get out into the garden and take the roof off the observatory? Well, I had access to the internet, and had my iPad. I was trying to think how I could make best use of my home network, sort out VPN access, login via the iPad and access my full rig via NINA, far too much beyond my mental capabilities, it would have taken much more than my 5 minutes of brain capacity. 
So how about the Seestar? Should I be able to use that? 
So that night my other half, after a hard day running back and forward to the hospital, as well as juggling her work, charged and powered up the S50. I opened the App and hit connect…… : wow it connected, and the arm opened. Success, but alas my mental battery was empty.
 
This is the lucky part, when I had last used the S50 at home, I had left the tripod in the garden, and as long as that had not moved then it should hopefully polar align. The next night thankfully was clear, the first clear night in weeks in the UK and with a fresh mental battery, we connected again, after talking Sam through attaching the S50 to the wedge.
 
So with only a minute or two left before exhaustion hit me again I needed to ensure my maximum chance of success. So I picked an easy target, the Moon, and started with a couple of lunar shots. Then dropped the exposure time to 20 sec as not sure how good the PA was and did not think I could talk Sam through adjusting, so fingers crossed it was good enough. M42 seemed a great target, big and bright. So with my last minute or so of clear thinking I started the stack. I managed to watch the first few frames start to build and then dozed off. I woke a few hours later and checked the progress, quick in App edit and about 2 hours of exposure. Then dozed off again. The S50 managed to capture a few hours more and before the battery finally ran out it managed to capture about 4 hours on target.

On the 24(th) Feb I posted on the ZWO Astrophotography site, mainly because I was blown away by how simple the remote connection was and even with my limited mental capacity I was able capture a couple of decent images. Maybe not APOD worth, but extraordinary none  the less. Thank you ZWO"

We’re grateful Andy chose to share this moment with us—and we’re wishing him a smooth and full recovery.
Clear skies, Andy.