ZWO Seestar S50 Review
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- Опубликовано: 24 июл 2024
- ZWO are bringing out a new product....a Smart Telescope that anyone can use to take images of the Sun, the moon, Galaxies and Nebulae. In this video I get to grips with the Seestar and see what it can do. It's an amazing piece of kit!
If you are going to purchase a Seestar, please use one of the affiliate links below. It will help my channel to grow.
for ZWO:
collabs.shop/vwczjc
for 365Astronomy:
www.365astronomy.com/zwo-sees...
#ZWO
#Seestar
#Review
#Astrophotography
Music Credits : Andrew Ev - Closer (Mixkit)
------------------ Video Chapters -----------------------
00:00 - Introduction & What's in the Box
01:03 - Initial Setup process
05:09 - Taking it outdoors in the Daytime
05:38 - Astrophotography (The Sun )
07:33 - Astrophotography (Andromeda Galaxy)
14:14 - Astrophotography (Wizard Nebula)
15:50 - Astrophotography (Bubble Nebula)
18:38 - Astrophotography (Great Orion Nebula)
22:39 - Summary and Verdict (with Seestar Image Gallery) 
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I have one on order and have seen a lot of reviews but yours is the best. Well done
Great info as I just opened up my seestar today. Thank you and clear skies
Awesome that you are back!!!
Thank you!!! I really appreciate that. It’s been a crazy, and very cloudy year… I have so many ideas for videos…but I work full time and it’s difficult to get everything done that I want to.
Martin, I really appreciate your video. My Seestar s50 will be here in about 4 days and your video so far is the best I've seen for the quick up and running of the Seestar. Very clear and concise explanation of how to get it setup and going. Thanks.
Thank you so much for taking the trouble to comment, and for your kind words. Enjoy your Seestar!!
Thank you one the best reviews I've seen. Definitely interested in this product.
Thanks for the great feedback. If you do decide to buy one, please use the affiliate link in the description. It won’t cost you any more but it will help me develop the channel. Thanks, and clear skies!!!
Thanks for this, sir. I was an amateur astronomer before joining the Navy in 1974 and as I've just retired, I was looking for a hobby, when I saw this video. Looks to me like a great way to get back into the hobby and once I've learned more and moved, I'll invest in more serious gear if I still have the itch. Ordered thru High Point Scientific because of all of their good reviews. I'll use this device to practice post processing.
Thank you David. Enjoy!!!
This telescope is so amazing! I have to get one! Thank you so much for this impressive video!
Thank you. Please use the affiliate link in the description to make your purchase. It will help me to grow the channel. Clear skies!!
What a great, informative video. Thank you. The first i have watched which shows what can be achieved straight out of the box without editing. I am very tempted
Thanks for the great feedback!! Clear Skies!
If you do decide to buy one, please use the affiliate link in the description of the video. It won’t cost you any more but it will help me develop my channel. Thanks.
@@martinsastrophotography will do, thanks
Excellent video. My Seestar is supposed to arrive next week and your video demonstrated what I hope is what I need to know to get up and running. Your images were vantastic especially when you consider the total expense of the Seestar compared to a "real" telescope and the assorted accessories necessary to get images like these. Thanks
Thank you Stuart. Enjoy your Seestar…and Clear Skies!!!
Fantastic review Thanks!
Thank you so much for the great review
excellent review. Well done! mine is arriving tomorrow after a 6 month wait.
Enjoy!!
My good friend has just taken delivery of a SeeStar S50 and I stumbled across your review as part of my research. In doing so I have watched a few of your other videos and have now dusted off my old Helios 130P Newtonian, bought and RA drive for my EQ2 and a T ring for my Micro Four Thirds camera. I’m gonna give this a go before going down the SeeStar route, wish me luck 😂. PS I’m a long time HantsAstro lurker and live in Hampshire Uk. Cheers for the inspiration.
Thanks for the message. I’m delighted to have inspired you. Clear skies and enjoy yourself, whichever way you go.
good to see you Martin. it's been a tough 2023 for a lot of us. great video, but it looks way to easy. it seems our hobby is going that way...where's the pain, frustration, anger? LOL.
That’s why it’s fun….but not for me personally. I’m a technophile all day long. I live for the pain and frustration …and then finally for the reward..it’s a personal choice for everyone so it’s not for me to judge who wants one and who doesn’t.
Hi Martin, just discovered your channel. Sure is nice when good folks like you take the time to give back with an informative and professional review ! Seestar is fortunate to have you on their side. One question Sir, for those of us just trying to learn how to get through all the steps and the learning curve......can you please give us a quick tutorial on the how-to's of "imaging", capturing and processing ? Also what inexpensive processing software is best for those of us just getting started. Thank you in advance !
Thank you for your nice comments. Wow, that’s one question with a potentially very long answer!! Did you mean in the context of Seestar or just in general? On the software side I recommend folks start with DeepSkyStacker for stacking and calibration processing. Then if you have Adobe Photoshop or something similar that enables cropping, curves adjustment, levels adjustment, saturation adjustment etc… then that’s the place to start on the post-processing side. If you check out my other videos you will find all sorts of tutorials on things like mount setup, polar alignment and processing steps. I hope this helps. Clear skies!
Terry from New Zealand here, thanks for your very comprehensive video regarding the Seestar, well done. I have one on order at the moment, but a bit of a delay because of the solar eclipse in the US. However, 40 years ago when my family emigrated from the UK to live in Brisbane in Ausi, I bought a set of super-nova search charts from my friend Greg Thompson, they are still relevant today as they were then. The one thing that has not been mentioned on any of the many RUclips videos I have watched concerning this telescope type, is the possible use as a supernova spotter, it looks like it could image stars to well below 12th mag in a very short time. This means I could track recent supernova discoveries, and perhaps discover one of my own! I do realize there are many automated searched around the world today, but being in NZ does give us a unique perspective in that we are in the night sky before anybody else on earth, being 12 hours ahead of GMT. I am the president of our local Astronomical society, but have been interested in the hobby ever since my Dad took me outside one night when we lived in Farnborough to watch the Sputnik go over in 1957, wow!
Hi Terry. Thanks for your kind words and interesting message. There’s no reason why you couldn’t use a Seestar to go Supernova hunting. I think the best method would be to image galaxies that are relatively large in the field of view and keep a reference image for each one so you can do a blink comparator like the one that was used by Clyde Tombaugh to discover Pluto. The problem you may have though is field rotation as this is an alt/az mount. However, Cuiv the Lazy Geek has recently posted some videos showing how to fix that by effectively converting it into a German equatorial using a wedge (angled tripod). Happy hunting…and do let me know if you find one!!!
Great review of this interesting little smart telescope.
Thank you!
I’m eagerly awaiting my Seestar from Hi Point Scientific. It’s going to be a hoot capturing DSO photos of the objects I’ve enjoyed visually over many decades. Thanks for an informative and helpful video. 🔭
Enjoy it…and ‘Clear skies’!
ZWO is working on adding a Mozaic mode!
Hello Martin, Couldn't agree more with RetiredFE below-yours is the best of all the reviews/set-up guides I've watched in the past couple of months. And relaxed! Thank you! The heavens, despite their unimaginable forces, are a source of calm for most of us who bother to look up, and your modest approach (which seems it must reveal who you are at base) is just perfect for me.
My Seestar should arrive (in northern Iowa, USA) next week, and as you might well imagine I'm quite excited. This review has me even more so! One question, though, which I may have missed in other posts, has to do with sharing the live feed with one's television.
I am aware that the feed may be shared simultaneously with a tablet. But if shared with my laptop I believe I'd be able to project what's building up via Apple TV, and my wife would be more easily able to appreciate what all the fuss is about. I'd be grateful for any and all suggestions around this topic.
I've taken enough of your time. And I'll surely enjoy poking around on your channel. Thanks eversomuch for all you've shared to date, and best of luck with your efforts in future. Fred Halgedahl
Hi Fred. Thank you so much for taking the time to give me feedback, and of course positive feedback is always the easiest type to receive! Since you have gone to the effort of sending me such a welcome and well written comment, I want to do a good job of answering your query. There are multiple ways to get a smartphone or tablet screen onto a TV screen, but before I describe any of them can I first ask you to detail the make and model of both your mobile phone (or tablet) that you will be using with the SeeStar, and if the Television you wish to link the screen to? I will then do a bit of research and get back to you with my recommendation.
So kind of you, Martin! I have an iPhone SE, second generation, running ios 17.1.2. The television, while an "older" one, is an LG, LH 40 series, with full 1080P resolution. The version of Apple TV I have on my computer is pretty old, but seems to work for many things, still. (We're retired classical musicians, so don't spend a lot of time connecting to movie sites, but stick with Acorn TV--for Doc Martin; MediciTV and the Berlin Phil's Digital Concert Hall for European music making.) And no rush! Only at your convenience, please. (And obviously, great thanks!) FH
@@frederickhalgedahl8725 So am I right that you already know how to mirror your laptop screen to the TV via Apple TV? If so, then you either just need a way to stream the iPhone screen to the laptop, or a way to stream the iPhone screen directly to the TV.
Yes, laptop to screen via Apple TV no problem. Just haven't a clue of how to go iPhone to laptop, or, TV. (But I probably could figure this out by simply asking Google and following the responses of the community of users that would pop up. My university students taught me to do this years ago. No need for you to do this for me. I just thought if you knew off-hand, I could take advantage of that.)
Additionally, though, what's you opinion of the various "tripod levelers" that have been written about recently. It would seem the scope has adequate leveling abilities built in, but…? @@martinsastrophotography
Martin, Bingo! It turns out that from the control center on the iPhone one may choose ""screen mirroring," which, once turned on, absolutely transfers images on the phone to the tv (provided, of course, Apple TV has been activated). Now even MORE excited. Thanks so much for encouraging me with your generosity. And clear skies to you in England! FH@@martinsastrophotography
ah, was thinking getting one. And the ending you said its not really for planets... Now in 2 minds. Got a Celestron AstroFi and I thought this might replace that. Great piece of kit though. Thinking it woujld have been great to mount on top of my campervan when I camp and run it from up there. Taking scopes out when I camp take a lot of space
Planets are much much smaller in the sky than Nebulae or Galaxies, in general. They require very long focal lengths and are a tricky business to image well. That said, you can get an image of Jupiter or Saturn with their moons using the Seestar…just don’t expect to see significant details on the planet itself. They will be small and very bright.
Great to see you back Martin.. your monthly sky guide has been essential.
I've been looking at one of these to take to dark sky site in Borneo, but the 10s limit and image quality put me off... is this just a compression issue with youtube or do you think the image quality would satisfy an astro photographer?astrophotographer?
Thanks Andy! Glad the monthly sky guides are helpful for you. The 10 second limit is only on the exposure time of a single sub. You can stack as many subs as you like. You will get some field rotation as the total exposure time increases due to it being Alt/Az rather than equatorial, especially close to Zenith but that can be cropped out. All of my images are fairly short exposure times, so significantly better quality (SNR) can be achieved with more exposure time (and darker skies!). Whether the quality is good enough to satisfy you is a very subjective question…it depends what satisfies you personally, so I wouldn’t presume to answer that question.
Cuiv (the lazy geek) got some decent images after processing in pixinsight, which I would do...
The software looks very similar to the ASIair interface, which I use anyway.
I guess the decision is down to portability vs quality.....
Keep up the good work...
@@AndyUkLeic I struggle with the idea of imaging using this and then processing in PixInsight. It just feels wrong to me. This is aimed at inexperienced astrophotographers in my opinion. An experienced astrophotographer will likely use a cooled sensor, a bigger aperture, an equatorial mount with autoguiding, etc, etc.. assuming they can afford it…or am I just being old fashioned? People can do what they like with it, obviously. It just feels weird to me to do that. But then I also don’t like the idea of being driven by an autonomous driverless car!!! Showing my age I guess.
I understand, but this would be purely for travelling with... My wife and family are from Borneo, so I'm there 2 or 3 times a year... 20miles out of town its Bortle 1, so really want to take some gear out there...
As its close to the equator, polar alignment would be a pain, so ease of setup and portability would be a great advantage.
I have a decent setup here, but access to dark sky's and southern targets are irresistible.
@AndyUkLeic I totally understand your thinking. If you get a Seestar and image from Bortle 1 I would love to see your images!!
Great review...can you landscape the image being taken or is it just portait? If you could landscape you could have got more of M31.....Curious..
Thanks. I had the same thought, but sadly you can’t. If they added a sensor rotator to the design to enable a choice of framing orientation then you would be able to, but that would increase the cost and might not fit inside the unit.
Hi Martin, great video. I have watched several reviews of the Seestar over the last few weeks and all of them have been favourable. I have a minuscule amount of experience of what could be very loosely termed astrophotography and I am quite tempted to buy the Seestar. My one concern is that I would just be capturing images of something that the person down the street could capture as well with the same kit and that it will be all down to post processing. This has a massive learning curve by what I have seen on RUclips and so I would probably have to be very satisfied with the images direct from the Seestar. In your humble, experienced opinion, what do you think of the unprocessed images? I hope you do more on the Seestar in the future which might help my decision to buy or not.
Thanks for that. I understand your thinking. Astrophotography inevitably results in people comparing their images with other people’s and it can be frustrating when you take an image you are really pleased with and then you see someone else’s image and it’s ‘better’ than yours. It then becomes somewhat competitive. How you react to this is a personal thing. If you think you are going to end up trying to improve your images by doing all sorts of clever post processing to them like star removal, noise suppression, curve stretching etc… then I would probably say this isn’t the right product for you, and you should start your journey with a DSLR on a tripod, learn the basics of focusing, exposure settings and stacking images, and then move on to a tracking mount of some kind and learn how to polar align it, and how to find targets etc… Eventually you will add a telescope and a dedicated Astrophotography camera with filters, autoguiding, focus motors etc… Taking this route, you will learn many skills in both the hardware and software side of astrophotography. It will be rewarding and frustrating in equal measure, and I guarantee you will spend a lot more money than you initially intended, but you will also end up with better images than with a Seestar. If that ‘rabbit hole’ is not for you, and you want to take the occasional image with minimal fuss and frustration, amazing your friends and family that you took the photos, then the Seestar could be the right product for you. If you do go for a Seestar can I ask that you use the affiliate link in the description of the review video..it will help me to grow the channel. If not, and you want to take the longer, slower, more technical route to eventually produce better images, then do look at the tutorials on my channel, as well as other channels. They will help you enormously. I hope this helps your decision. Clear skies!
Thanks Martin, I turn 60 in April next year so I don't really think I have the time for the long route🤣 but I could treat myself for the big birthday🤣@@martinsastrophotography
@@wasdaletimelapse7658 I’m not far behind you (57)! If you do purchase a Seestar can I ask a favour….would you please use one of the affiliate links in the description, as it will help me develop my channel (no extra cost to you of course). Clear skies!! (Not much sign of those in the U.K. at the moment!!!)
Hi Martin, i will certainly use one of your links if I purchase the Seestar. No problem@@martinsastrophotography
@@wasdaletimelapse7658 Thank you so much. I really appreciate that.
Thanks for this! Sorry if I missed it, but can you say what Bortle sky you shot from? Many thanks
Sorry for not including that! Great question….it was a Bortle 5 sky.
Great Review, i am a complete novice and would love to buy this, but i also want to photograph the planets (with some detail) which this cant do. i ponder on.
Thanks David. Yes, planets are very small in the sky and require very long focal lengths (more than 4000mm!!) to get good details. I use a Schmidt Cassegrain telescope with 2800mm focal length and a 2x Barlow lens to get to 5600mm. Even then, you need a very stable atmosphere to get half decent images! It’s an expensive undertaking requiring significant amounts of money and patience! If you have such resources…go for it! I mostly do Deep Sky Astrophotography, which is a lot easier (but still challenging!).
Thanks very much for the response, unfortunately i do not have that sort of money, however based on your response i am probably expecting too much, so i think i will buy the seestar s 50. Thanks...@@martinsastrophotography
For watching the sun it would be good for me.
Awesome - BUT: any chance to reframe (change the angle) for Andromeda 90° horizontaly for example
Orientation is fixed on the Seestar, you could wait until Andromeda has rotated 90° and image then, but other than that, it's not possible.
That’s correct. A built in rotator of the sensor would be a very useful improvement, but we have to remember the selling price impact that would have.
Thanks mate nice demoe i just bought this nice telescope but not started yet by the way how to know how to point it? may be pointing it to wrong direction & will it take many photos during that time or only one?
It works out where to point on its own…just choose a target and let it do its thing!
@@martinsastrophotography Thanks so much
Can you tell me what a dark clear night is please? I haven't seen one for ages...
Ha ha!!! Tell me about it. 2023 was the worst year for clear skies since I started Astrophotography. However, it’s now 2024 and here in the U.K. at least there are some clear skies forecast this coming week!!!! I would love to do a tutorial on getting rid of clouds but it would probably just say “move to Namibia”!
Im curious mate. I know its dsrk out butyou could have filmed the device in action along side the phone screen share. I would have liked to see the actual sky and light levels you were located in, at the time of filming 👍💡
Sorry if you wanted to see that, but my camera settings combined with your display screen characteristics and settings would have made any representation of the light levels very misleading. It was a dark clear night in my Bortle 5 back garden, if that helps at all.
@@martinsastrophotography lol. I guess it will have to do. Im awaiting the arrival of mine and im hoping for some great horizon captures of the sun rising over the sea where i live. Great equinox moons rise over a local castle a few times a year. And campervan journeys are going to be more fun now 😁
So sad my Seestar can’t locate the Sun. It’s level and I calibrate the compass correctly. After six tries from the start, I gave up. Hopefully it does better under dark skies.
I have experienced this problem. I just steered it myself. Took a few minutes but was quite easy. Don’t worry, it uses a totally different method ( the stars ) to find objects under dark skies and does a great job of that.
I cannot use an ordinary telescope scope because I have cataracts from a long term health condition.
I fancy getting a smart scope like this, would you recommend this Seestar over the Dwarf II ? Or perhaps something else maybe?
Seestar seems better
Apologies…I only just saw your question! Seestar is better mostly because of the software, but it does have a significantly narrower field of view. The andromeda galaxy and great Orion Nebula are too big to fit in a single shot, whereas they fit nicely on a Dwarf II. Objects with a smaller apparent size like the Whirlpool Galaxy will be much bigger in the field of view with Seestar. Overall I prefer the Seestar.
How does it compare with Dwarf? I am not yet sure I should have either yet. I have seen some more critical reviews, the aperture is after all modest and the chip is not that good. I can see convenience of quick setup
Main differences are that Dwarf is significantly smaller and has a significantly wider field of view. I prefer the Seestar app..it’s very good indeed. Yes, aperture is small and so resolution and speed of the optics are both limited. Setup time is almost zero!!!
can this be used with a laptop or? many kids do not have cell phones
Good question! It can be used with an iPhone or Android phone or with an iPad or Android tablet but not with a laptop as far as I know.
My seestar is defective, it will not track well or photograph objects above 40-50 degrees and when it decides to work it throughs out 70% of images. I paid over 70 dollars to ship now I will have to pay far more to replace it and then again to have another one sent. I think ZWO were rushing their production lines to meat demand, what bummer.
I’m sorry to hear that. I have actually experienced similar issues recently and I am currently in conversation with ZWO about it. If I get any conclusive outcome I will let you know.
So essentially there's no limit You could just keep coming back to a Target and improving it until you see you're not getting any more improvements, And once they add Mosaic moves oh my god it's going to be amazing.
Pretty much true, except that you need to watch out for the field rotation that occurs as the target crosses the sky due to the mount being Alt/Az rather than German Equatorial. Mosaic mode will be really interesting!!!
Ok so you can only buy one which do you buy: Seestar or Dwarf II?
I recommend you choose primarily on the basis of field of view and portability as these cannot change. The Dwarf II has a significantly wider field of view that means you can image M31 Andromeda Galaxy and M42 Great Orion Nebula in a single shot. The Seestar will need to form a mosaic to do this. The Dwarf II is MUCH smaller and so is much easier to take on holiday with you. The main down side with Dwarf II is that the software is not as good, but it is getting better over time, and at no extra cost. If the Dwarf II software was as good as on the SeeStar then I would go with the Dwarf II, but the SeeStar is just a better user experience due to its superior software. Over to you to decide based on your priorities.
@@martinsastrophotography thanks for your thoughts Martin. Do you think the field of view can be corrected in the Seestar with firmware updates or is it limited by the optics?
These (kinds of) contraptions make sense only for those who are advertising them so they can recieve one gratis by the manufacturers, for the others they can get (far much) better pictures in the internet.
I completely agree that we can get better pictures on the internet. Some people want to take pictures themselves though, even though they will not be as good as Hubble or James Webb telescope images, for example. Each to their own. For me personally, it’s the challenge of trying to get as good an image as possible, which is why a Smart Telescope is not really for me…but for lots of people it’s a great gadget that they will thoroughly enjoy. Incidentally….I was invited to review the Seestar on the basis that I returned it afterwards.
Why did you not mic yourself up properly?
I did the best I could with the equipment I have. I played it back and the audio sounded fine to me. No-one else has commented on the audio in over 5000 views, but maybe you are the first to be brutally honest. I do not have a clip microphone. I could get one but I have already spent a lot of money on different microphones in the past only to then still receive occasional comments like yours anyway. I’m sorry if my video disappointed you. It was a huge amount of work to produce, as all my videos are, and it is never nice to receive negative comments, but I accept that I will never please everyone. Clear skies.
@@martinsastrophotography the review was great.. and being an audio person myself I thought I’d make the comment. I’m not interested in what ‘other people’ have commented, I’m just being honest. Again, the review itself was great. Personally I welcome constructive criticism because it makes me better and prompts me to do things that sometimes need prompting!