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The Telescope Net turns your donated Seestar nights into real science. Once the Node Agent is running on your computer, it connects to your Seestar over your home WiFi, receives nightly observation plans from the cloud scheduler, processes every FITS frame through a calibrated photometry pipeline, and submits measurements to AAVSO under your name — completely automatically, no manual intervention required. This guide gets you from an unopened box to your first scheduled observation in about fifteen minutes.

​
Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure you have everything on hand:

Seestar S50 or S30

Your donated telescope. It must be running the official Seestar app and connected to your home WiFi in Station Mode (not Access Point / hotspot mode).

Host computer

Any Windows, macOS, or Linux machine that can stay on overnight. A spare laptop on charge works well. The Node Agent is lightweight — it runs alongside anything else on the machine.

Home WiFi

The host computer and the Seestar must be on the same subnet so the Node Agent can discover it via ALPACA UDP broadcast on port 32227.

Node Activation Code

A one-time code in the format BS-YYYY-XXXXXXXX, issued from your member account. See Getting an Activation Code below if you don’t have one yet.

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Step-by-Step Setup

1
Download the installer for your operating system
2
Go to thetelescope.net/download and download the installer for your platform:
3
  • Windows — BoundlessSkiesNode-Setup.exe (NSIS installer, ~60 MB)
  • macOS — BoundlessSkiesNode-X.Y.Z-macOS.pkg (.pkg, ~60 MB)
  • Linux — one-line install script (see Installation for details)
    • 4
    The installer bundles the ASTAP plate-solver binary. The G18 star catalogue (~6 GB) is downloaded on first run via the dashboard setup wizard, so the initial installer download is fast.
    5
    Run the installer and enter your Activation Code
    6
    Launch the installer and follow the on-screen prompts. When asked for your Node Activation Code, enter the BS-YYYY-XXXXXXXX code from your member account page.
    7
    The installer writes the code to config.yaml and registers the Node Agent as a background service so it starts automatically at boot. Sleep prevention is configured automatically for your OS.
    8
    Activation codes are single-use. Once the Node Agent sends its first registration request to the cloud, the code is consumed and can never be reused. If you suspect your code was shared or leaked before use, generate a replacement from your account page.
    9
    Enable Station Mode on your Seestar
    10
    Open the Seestar app on your phone and navigate to:
    11
    Settings → Network → Station Mode
    12
    Enter your home WiFi credentials and let the Seestar reconnect. Once it shows an IP address on your local network (visible in the Seestar app or your router’s device list), it is ready for ALPACA discovery.
    13
    Do not try to connect while the Seestar is in Access Point (hotspot) mode. The ALPACA HTTP service is only active in Station Mode. If you attempt to connect in AP mode, the Node Agent will return the error: Seestar is in Access Point (hotspot) mode — ALPACA is not active.
    14
    Start the Node Agent
    15
  • Windows / macOS: the service starts automatically after installation. Open a browser and go straight to step 5.
  • Linux: run sudo systemctl start telescopenet (or it auto-starts at boot if you used the install script).
  • Dev mode (from source): python3 main.py
    • 16
    On first start, the Node Agent:
    17
  • Reads config.yaml and finds your activation code.
  • Sends a POST /api/v1/nodes/register request to https://api.thetelescope.net with your hardware payload.
  • The cloud validates the code, creates a node_id and api_key, and returns them.
  • Credentials are saved to data/cloud_state.json — registration never repeats.
  • Begins broadcasting ALPACA UDP discovery on port 32227 to locate your Seestar (timeout: 5 seconds per scan).
    • 18
    Once your Seestar is found, the Node Agent connects telescope and camera devices and mounts the Seestar SMB share so new FITS files trigger the photometry pipeline automatically.
    19
    Open the dashboard at http://localhost:5173
    20
    The local dashboard is a Flask web app served on port 5173. Open it in any browser on the same machine:
    21
    http://localhost:5173
    22
    You should see all systems green: telescope connected, camera connected, cloud registered, and a heartbeat timestamp updating every 60 seconds.
    23
    The dashboard gives you full visibility and manual control:
    24
    TabPurposeTelescopeSlew, park, unpark, tracking toggle, RA/Dec readoutCameraManual expose, image history, live previewScheduleView the current cloud plan, start/stop manuallyPhotometryLast measurement result, history, pipeline statusConfigEdit config.yaml in-browserLogsLive log stream (Server-Sent Events)

    ​
    Getting an Activation Code

    If you do not yet have a Node Activation Code, create a member account at thetelescope.net and then request a code either from your account settings page or directly via the API: 
    curl -X POST https://api.thetelescope.net/api/v1/me/activation-code \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer <your_member_token>"

    {
  "code": "BS-2026-ABCD1234",
  "expires_at": "2026-09-08T00:00:00Z"
}
    Codes expire in 90 days by default. If your code expires before you complete setup, request a fresh one from the same endpoint.

    ​
    Dry Run — Testing Without Hardware

    You can run the full dashboard, browse the object catalogue, edit config, and test cloud connectivity without a physical Seestar attached. Set these four flags in config.yaml before starting: 
    cloud:
  enabled: false

image_watcher:
  enabled: false

photometry:
  enabled: false

aavso:
  dry_run: true
    Then start with python3 main.py. Everything in the dashboard works — object catalog, config editor, log stream, and all API endpoints — except hardware control and live FITS processing.
    Dry-run mode is also useful for validating your AAVSO observer code and submission format before your first live night. Set aavso.dry_run: true even with hardware connected to preview exactly what would be POSTed to AAVSO WebObs.

    ​
    What Happens Next

    After your node is registered and the dashboard shows a green cloud status:
    • Every 60 seconds — the Node Agent sends a heartbeat to the cloud with your current telescope status, schedule state, and safety readings.
    • Every 300 seconds — the plan poller checks for a new ObservationPlan from the cloud scheduler.
    • At dark — if auto_run_plans is true, the Node Agent begins slewing to targets automatically, capturing frames, and running photometry.
    • After each frame — the photometry pipeline plate-solves the FITS, measures differential magnitudes against AAVSO/Gaia comparison stars, and submits the result to AAVSO under your observer code.
    For detailed OS-specific installation instructions, service management, and sleep prevention configuration, continue to Installation. For a complete reference of every config.yaml option, see Configuration.

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