Sam Nelson

Hobbies

Programming

You can find my programming projects on GitHub.

My most recent hobby project was the creation of a chess engine, which I called Topas (source code here). Topas is an open source UCI chess engine written in Rust that uses traditional search and evaluation techniques. It has a CCRL Blitz rating which you can find here.

Play against Topas on Lichess (running on a Raspberry Pi 5) here.

To go along with Topas, I created an open source chess GUI called Coral (source code here). This is a cross-platform GUI written in Python.

Smartphone Astrophotography

I've started experimenting with "budget astrophotography" using an iPhone 16 Pro and a 5.1" telescope (Orion SpaceProbe 130ST EQ) (unless otherwise noted), as well as free post-processing image software including GIMP, DeepSkyStacker, PIPP, AutoStakkert, and Siril. In cases where I've post-processed images, I've tried to include a link to an unprocessed, straight-from-the-iPhone (with the exception of possible cropping, zooming, and rotation) image for comparison.

I've learned a lot about image stacking and post-processing from many different websites and YouTube channels (for instance, this and this). For deep sky objects, I've tried to set the exposure to around 5 seconds per image. Everything was untracked, so longer than 5 seconds resulted in star trails. I've rotated and cropped some of the images to make them look more visually interesting.

All of these images were taken in a Bortle 5 environment in suburban Massachusetts.


Jupiter
20 images stacked + post-processing (unprocessed image)


Saturn
13 second video (400+ frames) stacked + post-processing (unprocessed frame)


Mars
Single video frame + post-processing (taken using an 8" Dobsonian) (unprocessed frame)


Venus
19 second video (559 frames) stacked + post-processing (taken using an 8" Dobsonian) (unprocessed frame)


Uranus
7 second video (198 frames) stacked + post-processing (taken using an 8" Dobsonian) (unprocessed frame)


Moon (Composite)
A 2-image composition, consisting of a darken full moon transparently overlayed and aligned on a bright partial moon (taken using an 8" Dobsonian) to provide an increased dynamic range effect. Here is an example of making these kinds of images, although I didn't follow this procedure exactly.


Full Moon ("Beaver" Supermoon)
Single, processed image, saturated to provide a "mineral moon" effect (unprocessed image)


Moon
Single, unprocessed image


Orion Nebula (M42) and M43
75 images stacked + post-processing (unprocessed image)


Ring Nebula (M57)
67 images stacked + post-processing (unprocessed image)


Dumbbell Nebula (M27)
77 images stacked + post-processing (unprocessed image)


Andromeda Galaxy (M31)
137 images stacked + post-processing (unprocessed image)


Bode's Galaxy (M81) and Cigar Galaxy (M82)
100 images stacked + post-processing (unprocessed image)


Pleiades (M45)
50 images stacked + post-processing (unprocessed image)


Double Cluster (Caldwell 14; NGC 869 and NGC 884)
74 images stacked + post-processing (unprocessed image)


Shoe-Buckle Cluster (M35)
30 images stacked + post-processing (unprocessed image)


Spiral Cluster (M34)
50 images stacked + post-processing (unprocessed image)


Beehive Cluster (M44)
30 images stacked + post-processing (unprocessed image)


Owl Cluster (Caldwell 13; NGC 457)
34 images stacked + post-processing (unprocessed image)


Christmas Tree Cluster (NGC 2264)
30 images stacked + post-processing (unprocessed image)


Satellite Cluster (Caldwell 50; NGC 2244)
30 images stacked + post-processing (unprocessed image)


Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS)
Single, unprocessed images


Satellites
Single, unprocessed images of satellite (I think) "photobombs" while shooting M57 and M27


Northern Lights in April 2024
Single, unprocessed images (shot with iPhone 12 Pro)



Northern Lights in October 2024
Single, unprocessed images


Hints of a Milky Way band
Single, unprocessed image with 30 second exposure

Fishing

I enjoy freshwater fishing, mostly in the lakes and rivers of Massachusetts. The setup I use most is:

I'll occassionally use braid to a leader, but I've found that Tatsu fluorocarbon (8lb) is not too bad with line twists. I often fish with semi-slack line and find that fluorocarbon has much greater slack line sensitivity than braid, and has the advantage of not needing the extra leader knot.

I've won two Freshwater Sportfishing Awards from the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife). These bronze pins were for a "catch and release" 21.5" largemouth bass (5lbs 9oz) and a "catch and release" 25" chain pickerel, both shown below.