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 untracked smartphone astrophotography using an iPhone 16 Pro and either an Orion SpaceProbe 130ST EQ or an Apertura AD8 Dobsonian, 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). 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, unless otherwise noted.


Jupiter
20 images stacked + post-processing (taken with SpaceProbe 130ST) (unprocessed image)


Saturn
13 second video (400+ frames) stacked + post-processing (taken with SpaceProbe 130ST) (unprocessed frame)


Mars
Single video frame + post-processing (taken with AD8) (unprocessed frame)


Venus
19 second video (559 frames) stacked + post-processing (taken with AD8) (unprocessed frame)


Uranus
7 second video (198 frames) stacked + post-processing (taken with AD8) (unprocessed frame)


Moon (Composite)
A 2-image composition, consisting of a darken full moon transparently overlayed and aligned on a bright partial moon (taken with AD8) 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 (taken with SpaceProbe 130ST) (unprocessed image)


Moon
Single, unprocessed image (taken with SpaceProbe 130ST)


Orion Nebula (M42) and M43
75 images stacked + post-processing (taken with SpaceProbe 130ST) (unprocessed image)


Ring Nebula (M57)
67 images stacked + post-processing (taken with SpaceProbe 130ST) (unprocessed image)


Dumbbell Nebula (M27)
77 images stacked + post-processing (taken with SpaceProbe 130ST) (unprocessed image)


Andromeda Galaxy (M31)
137 images stacked + post-processing (taken with SpaceProbe 130ST) (unprocessed image)


Bode's Galaxy (M81) and Cigar Galaxy (M82)
100 images stacked + post-processing (taken with SpaceProbe 130ST) (unprocessed image)


Hercules Globular Cluster (M13)
Single image + post-processing (taken with AD8) (unprocessed image)


M92 Globular Cluster
Single image + post-processing (taken with AD8) (unprocessed image)


Pleiades (M45)
50 images stacked + post-processing (taken with SpaceProbe 130ST) (unprocessed image)


Double Cluster (Caldwell 14; NGC 869 and NGC 884)
74 images stacked + post-processing (taken with SpaceProbe 130ST) (unprocessed image)


Shoe-Buckle Cluster (M35)
30 images stacked + post-processing (taken with SpaceProbe 130ST) (unprocessed image)


Spiral Cluster (M34)
50 images stacked + post-processing (taken with SpaceProbe 130ST) (unprocessed image)


Beehive Cluster (M44)
30 images stacked + post-processing (taken with SpaceProbe 130ST) (unprocessed image)


Owl Cluster (Caldwell 13; NGC 457)
34 images stacked + post-processing (taken with SpaceProbe 130ST) (unprocessed image)


Christmas Tree Cluster (NGC 2264)
30 images stacked + post-processing (taken with SpaceProbe 130ST) (unprocessed image)


Satellite Cluster (Caldwell 50; NGC 2244)
30 images stacked + post-processing (taken with SpaceProbe 130ST) (unprocessed image)


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


Satellites
Single, unprocessed images of satellite "photobombs" while shooting M57 and M27 (taken with SpaceProbe 130ST)


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



Northern Lights in October 2024
Single, unprocessed images


Milky Way
Single, unprocessed images with 30 second exposure. Taken at Shenandoah National Park.


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'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.