My Patreon: www.patreon.com/cuivlazygeek Seestar S50: tinyurl.com/3n62hpzx or tinyurl.com/3n62hpzx Equatorial Wedge: amzn.to/3IzKh6t or bit.ly/49NhFCP 1/4 to 3/8 adapter (necessary if using above wedge): amzn.to/4a9kUEu With the above wedge, you may also need an M8 screw (something like this amzn.to/4a5p2Wx) Instructions on how to use the Skywatcher Wedge in this video (from 6:19 to 9:30): ruclips.net/video/xJmntIr50lk/видео.html Seestar S50 initial review: ruclips.net/video/Nt29_kHV1Fg/видео.html Amazon affiliate: amzn.to/3hTB5Ne Agena affiliate: bit.ly/3Om0hNG High Point Scientific affiliate: bit.ly/3lReu8R All-Star Telescope affiliate: bit.ly/3SCgVbV Astroshop.eu Affiliate: tinyurl.com/2vafkax8 Dwarf 2 Smart Telescope: bit.ly/3SyChXua Seestar S50: tinyurl.com/3n62hpzx
Cuiv I do not think you know what you caused. Since your video the Equatorial Wedge has been sold out from all the main distributors in the USA 😂 Now this is what I call influencing.
Kai Young and others on the Smart Telescope Underground facebook group should get a lot of the credit for coming up with the process and work around. They took a lot of hate and flak from several of the "official" seestar groups saying that it wasn't possible and that it would damage their telescopes. These guys are the ones that truly are on the cutting edge of seestar mods. It is nice that Cuiv finally did a video on it to prove it's viability though.😊
Definitely. If there was no Kai Young, most probably there will be nobody aware of or using this approach. That goes also a lot further than that as he and some other members of the underground FB group are also putting in place automation, mosaic and planning mode for the seestar. It could be nice that they are at least mentioned, and get some credit where credit is due. Nice video however to explain some of the concepts. Hope zwo is listening and officially take actions to remove the bugs or limitation that have been discovered.
@@CuivTheLazyGeek Gatekeepers and envious individuals made things incredibly difficult for him, even going so far as to ban him from the FP 'official' group simply for suggesting the idea of equatorial mounting. It's absurd, isn't it? He took however matters into his own hands in response and established the Smart Telescope Underground Facebook group to continue discussing his vision. This group has evolved into a wonderfully supportive and respectful community where innovative thinkers are actively pushing the boundaries of this remarkable equipment. They are curently prototyping planning, mosaic, and automation modes, demonstrating that the sky is truly the limit. He sincerely deserves huge recognition for his efforts and relentless work for the S50 community. Your audience loves your videos for your enthusiasm (it is true also for the members of this FB group), and you'll find that same spirit in the Smart Telescope Underground Facebook group. You should definitely join us there; it promises to be a lot of fun.
@@CuivTheLazyGeek i got hate when i bought a dwarf2 (i was one of the first to get one). i was told it wasnt a telescope by an YT astro guy who NOW promotes the device. then the same with the seestar. then you got people who dont think you should alter anything. however i think its the first group thats mad about the equatorial thing. as long as its alt az they arent too afraid of what it might be able to accomplish. eq mode on my seestar has allowed me 4-6 hour shoots without field rotation. the thing has been amazing.
ZWO has said there is no risk to the gears for EQ mode. (Examination of the castings of the housing reveals "DEC" and "RA" labels on the arms which indicates the Seestar may have been designed for EQ operation.) I suspect ZWO dropped the feature because it would have required a larger, more expensive tripod with the package.
@@JoshuaAkonomYou're overthinking it. Just do it. Lots of people have no issues. Just make sure you don't have a tripod or situation where it might fall over. That's pretty common sense
@@barrycraig1549 do you know have it been tested in low latitude? I am asking because I planed a travel to somewhere with lat. 23.3 degree. So wondering if it got overloaded in such angle. Many thanks!
Great vid! I've wondered about using my wedge from my other mount. I bought my Seestar after seeing your vids on it. The Seestar has been wonderful since I can't get out much anymore with my young kids and what not. It's been pretty slick being able to set this in up in the yard and just let it go. My other setup needs a bit more love and setup. It has really allowed me to stay active with astro despite time constraints!
Good job.  thanks for your work on this hopefully they will give us a software upgrade And by the way it was Kai Yung who “ sold me “ that it would be doable inEQ so I purchased it ,thanks both of you
Thanks for the video. After I use my S50 for some time, I might be willing to go to the next step and I appreciate these instructions in this video. I’ve only been able to use my Seestar over 4 nights because of leaving on a winter break but I stacked two different nights of the M42 and I can see from that experience how it would be beneficial to go to this method.
This is awesome! I'll be giving this a try. The field rotation seems to be worse the more light pollution that I have, so this will help stop me from having to crop the photos so much!!
Thank you - excellent video as usual. I have been wanting to try this - hopefully you will let us see the results and maybe a comparison of the SS in alt az mode? Is it important to level the tripod (not the SS50)? Id be interested in what to do if cannot find enough stars to calibrate (I have lots of trees in the garden which can get in the way)
You can use the Seestar's own internal level measurement to polar align in the declination axis. Just incline the wedge until the internal level measures 90 degrees minus your latitude.
Since the S50 operations top out at 85 degrees would it be possible in this limited scenario to deduct one’s latitude from 95 degrees, recovering the 5 degrees of loss when using the S50 in the horizontal plane? I’m a total noob so I am probably missing something important. But I had to ask. Thanks!
Ok so I have worked out that my question was dumb. If I did what I suggested I just simply be pointing NOT at the South Pole. Derrr… Thanks anyway! Sky-Watcher wedge arrives middle of next week. AU$95.92 You bewdy!
I would think that would get your physical alignment off by 5 degrees. Sure, you'd get that angle to see straight up but defeats the whole point. 5 degrees off, you'd get some field rotation in the photos. .. Edit, I as well are dumb and Didn't notice you corrected yourself...@@bronte65
If you can find a way to offset the wedge to the south a bit, it will place the centre of mass over the centre of the tripod more, reducing the “tipping” load from an unbalanced orientation.
yet another great video, i have been watching this on the facebook group for a while now but have not tried it, just ordered the wedge so i can check it out also
Brilliant! I saw the Seestar for sale, saw that it was Alt Az and was deflated a bit. However I then thought, why not add a wedge? So I searched for it and then saw this video and you confirmed my thoughts. Thank you! Liked and Subscribed
One thing that I want to try is tilting the S50 by a little bit, to shift what appears to be zenith. S50 won't track properly if ALT greater than 75 or 80, which for me at 35S was ruling out M83 at the begining of the month.
Hi there, new subscriber here. As an amateur astronomer living in Saitama Prefecture, I appreciate your work on the Seestar and this equatorial mode (kind of) looks very interesting. But I really worry about the fact that this smartscope, being designed at a low cost for azimutal mode, isn't strong enough to afford the constrains you put on its gears. This is especially true if you're low in latitude (let's say under 50°), like we are in or near Tokyo. I guess I'll wait comments from people daring to use it that way and if nothing bad is reported after some monthes, maybe I'll do it myself ? But again, I appreciate that kind of experiment.
Cuiv, maaate! Thank you for this vid. After the vid on the printable wedge I was wondering how this would bolt together and how to make it work. I totally understand now so that’s not bad for a noob! WRT the Czech wedge I was thinking I would probably need to get two of them if I wanted to do astrophotography concurrently. This might still be true since this setup with the Seestar is pretty much for specific types of objects and locations within the available plane of, in my case, the southern hemisphere. So I’ll start with just the one wedge and see how that goes. I can always buy another in the future, perhaps after the planned integration of a goto mechanism. Sorry for the long-winded post. It helps me clarify my own plans. Keep it up. You really help and inspire me. Thank you!
From what I've heard the new Dwarf 3 now officially supports equatorial mode with exposure times upto 60 seconds specifically for use in that mode. Hence ZWO will likely be forced to support equatorial mode either on the Seestar S50 or on the next version they produce if they want to maintain market share.
I have seen a large number of people do this and the results are good. However, I am concerned about the structural integrity of the gears. We are talking about plastic gears that are designed to withstand horizontal stresses but not vertical or shear forces. There will be abnormal wear on the gear edges eventually leading to slipping and failure. Unless the mechanical components have been designed to withstand this type of wear.
Zwo has said that there is no risk of damaging your seestar internal component by using it in Eq mode. But, they don't recommend to use it in that mode because the risk of fall down. Also, some people has open the Seestar and they discovered that it's internal component were originally designed to support EQ mode, and that's not a big surprise, because Zwo in their initial pre-sales announcement said that it will support EQ mode and it will come with a wedge.
@@renato892-j4i I suspect ZWO dropped the EQ mode feature because it would have required a larger, and more expensive tripod in the package and raise the price.
Cuiv, do you know if this will improve tracking for objects near the zenith? I find I get star trails if I try to image stars at high elevations. with the Seestar. The field rotation is a minor problem if you can't track in the first place.
Honestly would have liked if you had posted the results of the nebula you shot with details. What would be good to know is can the tripod legs be adjusted longer or shorter individually to compensate for the tilt and weight imbalance?
But what is the actual wedge that you are using with the Seestar in this video? It looks much more interesting than the Sky Watcher one you link to on Amazon.
Brilliant, my main concern about the Seestar S50 was the missing EQ mode, this is a nice workaround and it makes the S50 even more desirable. Can we also see the results? Is there any update regarding the horizontal limitations?
Hi Cuiv, have you ever consider mounting the bottom plane to point North instead so the switch side points North instead of the top of the unit pointing North?
Hi, the specifications of the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Equatorial Wedge Base said, "The wedge mounts on any tripod with a 3/8"-16 or 1/4"-20 screw ", why can't just use the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Equatorial Wedge Base out of the box without a 1/4 to 3/8 adapter and M8 screws? How many screws are required? Thank you!
Hi Cuiv, your shown equatorial mount (wedge) appears to be motorized (stepper ??). I guess that this motor will not drive the right ascention axis, correct ? Otherweise - I presume - one would have a system with two drives, fighting against each other in order to stabilize the image. In a nutshell; I guess your wedge is a passive element; correct ?
Thanks for this great video, I will surely want to try the equatorial mode; however, there are plenty of tall buildings around my apartment, hence cannot do the 3 point calibration. Can you please shoot a video regarding how to get around this? Thank you.
If you can do this with the Seestar, could we do the same with the Skywatcher SolarQuest. I am using the SolarQuest to perform lucky imaging of the Sun with a Lunt60 HA. The problem with the Skywatcher SolarQuest is that it is also an Alt Z mount that works great for individual lucky image videos. But if you want to create a long time-lapse using the mount, then it have the rotation problem. Any thoughts?
Hi Cuiv, thanks for the information, I for one would love to see a video on how to fool the Seestar to making it think is at the north pole. Please and thank you.
Auto polar alignment is really difficult, I'd say right now the Benro or the SA GTi are the best we got at a budget. Otherwise there's the Avalon mount with auto PA/motorized PA!
BTW, to shoot under the celestial equator, would it work to put the Seestar upside down ? Not its high part inclined at +36° in the North direction, but at -144° in the South one ?
In theory, it would work - as long as it's aligned to the celestial pole! But the horizon calibration might have issues if it ends up trying to image through one of the tripod legs. Fake GPS to South Pole + disabling horizon calibration would work better though
Cuiv. This is a strictly hypothetical question. 😁Could field rotation problems be countered if only the image capturing chip rotated, but the scope remained in its alt/az configuration? Obviously, the internals of the scope would need to be re-engineered by ZWO, but it might be a simpler (and cheaper) solution. Thanks. I love this little scope!!!
A cheap, but effective lightweight eq wedge is about 65 bucks on Amazon. Somehow, I think if ZWO put in a 3rd motorized axis - it'll raise the price of a seestar a mite more than 65 bucks. Plus, most users that would want eq mode, will be "not beginner" so, probably already have a small wedge kicking around that can be used.
Yes, it's called a field derotator. It's actually not as simple as it sounds, as the rate of field rotation depends on your latitude and the alt and az coordinates of the target you are imaging! See this paper: vixra.org/abs/2205.0085
@@CuivTheLazyGeekIts perfectly simple for ZWO CPU to calculate the rotation of the field and derotate it as its use depends on knowing exactly where it is pointed . It would be another potential source of failure though . Its an EAA device , and ZWO would hope you move on quickly to their range of cameras , scopes and mounts ;-)
When i asked last year Zwo about it they told me the Seestar S50 does not work in equatorial mod eand they do not recommend me to try it. Why you think i got this answer?
ZWO does not "support" this mode, but they have clearly said EQ mode won't harm the scope. I suspect their primary concern is the stability with the tripod supplied with the unit. So use a wider tripod. There are also bugs in the software that get in the way of EQ mode. So ZWO would have to refine the operation of their software to support EQ mode.
WHEN did you made the stars focusing? It's impossible to get the focus if the stars are drifting before horizontal calibration... and I don't think we will get a good plate solving with the stars out of focus after horizontal calibration.
ie been using eq mode to run sessions of 5-6 hours to get rid of the field rotation. without it, they are a mess when shooting for that long. alt az is good for short sessions tho.
I keep thinking about trying this, but then it's a fairly new discovery and I'm concerned about the long term effects on the added stress to the gears by the weight no longer being distributed evenly. Somebody mentioned they've been doing this since January, but no idea how many shooting hours. I know for some it's a simple expense and they don't mind fiddling, but i think I'm going to wait and see what the long term effects may be.
Yes, I believe you can and should add counter weight. Not just the fact the seestar could fall over but to keep the Tripod as stable as possible without The very slightest lean or movement towards the weight of the seestar And since the tripod/mount is not moving or rotating it's just a base with the polar angle.
@CuivTheLazyGeek @@knimrod I setup the tripod and the mount. I manually move the telescope to point roughly to the constellation Orion. I then goto the star map and move it to the rough point it is pointing to and "sync". I then go back and hit the red button to calibrate, then cancel before it goes back to the origin. I then point the star map to Betelgeuse and "GoTo". Once itwork finds it I "sync" again. I have then gotot Orion nebula or horsehead nebula and record. Has worked for me almost everytime if it can calibrate.
@@CuivTheLazyGeek I will admit that in Bortle 9 and lots of trees that I don't always get it lined up to polaris 100%, so sometime I have just pointed it as close as I can so I still get a little movement on stars but I don't get the field rotation like I use to.
I'm glad you brought up the stress on the internal gears. That was a concern of mine and probably why I won't try this (as much as I'm tempted). It's a pretty heavy unit for its size, and I'm unsure of stressing the gears and internal mounts in such a way would affect things over time. But it's so tempting!
Can someone share why you wouldn’t be able to see the Orion with this? I’m pretty much brand spankin new and wanted some info as to why it may limit this
Your review of the S50 sparked me buying one, and having a blast, thanks! Thanks too for showing this possibility. Question you might address for me, how do we charge it while it is running so we get more than 3 hours out of it?
I just use 2 power banks and continuously use/charge them so that my Seestar is always almost fully charged as its being used and by the end of the night! As I type this , I have had the Seestar observing now for 7 hours and its 93% charged and should get no lower by the time the sun rises in about 2 hours (I'm in Australia). When I am finished , I always end my Night by packing up my Seestar at or very near 100% fully charged so that the next time of use its ready to go.
@@brettcourtenay569Thanks! Good to know it's possible. When I attached it to power, it gave me messages about connecting to a computer, which it was just a power pack, so I gave up. Something in the settings maybe. Clear skies!
I use a Makita 5ah 18v cordless tool battery and their USB power adapter. Then a USB-A to USB-C cable. It will run the Seestar all night with the dew heater on. All the major cordless tool manufacturers offer USB adapters for their batteries, so others may work as well. I think I saw somewhere Seestar does not support USB-C to USB-C cables.
i use an extension cord to my house and a usb fast charger plug. works fine except in extreme cold, where then you should put a dew heater around the battery base to keep the charge up.
@@CoadyL ...I read that whatever you use to charge the Seestar it needs 5 volts with a minimum 2 amps of power going in otherwise it won't recognise the charge so a USB from a laptop or PC will usually only have 1 or 1.5 amps as well as some power banks which might not give you a choice of amps with the 5Volts. Hope that helps !
The Seestar has GPS and compass information in it. So it knows the rotation. It would be very possible for any smart telescope to just slowly rotate the sensor of the camera inside the unit. This would be such a small tiny and light change that would do the same thing. With other smart telescopes that cost 8X more I am shocked no one is doing that yet.
@@francisdestrasbourgLOL yes... just need a very smooth one. I am sure the hardware would be very low and they could almost 2X the cost of the unit and people would be happy to pay for it. Making it better than any other smart system on the market today.
So that's a field derotator - it's actually not as simple as you make it sound, as it would need to be rotated at the angular speed of (angular speed of the Earth * cosinus of observer latitude) * cosinus of target azimuth angle / cosinus of target altitude angle! So you need three motors (instead of just one in equatorial mode) and they all need to work very well with one another :)
The stacking already does digital derotation, but it can't fill in the missing data :) sensor rotation is actually not that simple, and means a third motor compared to a single motor needed when tracking in eq mode. Still would be great if they manage to add that!
Correct me if I'm wrong in my thinking but if there where stress, friction or other types of mechanical stresses on the drive system it would show up in your imaging performance. This also would include any balancing issues that would cause extra stress on the drive system. If balancing was an issue it would also show up in bad imaging. I think this whole EQ gear wear and tear concern is not going to be an issue and The benefits definitely outweigh the stress of overthinking. Just my opinion my experience so far
Hi Cuiv. As I have said previously I already own an imaging system based around a Red Cat51 and Star Adventurer GTi controlled by an ASIAir mini so I don't need a See Star C50. All I would say about using any piece of equipment in a way that it was not designed for is exercise caution. My guess is the components from which the See Star is constructed are not of the best quality and are probably just about adequate for the job they were intended to do. From what I can see the SeeStar does a pretty good job at what it's designed for anyway, the whole point was to make a simple astrograph at a very affordable price. To sum up If my budget only extended to being able to afford one of these I personally wouldn't want to risk damaging it. There are a number of people who post on U Tube who have modified their See Stars for EQ use, if they are still working ok in a year or two I might change my opinions.
You do not need to modify your Seestar to use EQ mode. You just need to align the scope to the pole. Are you sure the scope was not intended or designed for EQ mode? The castings of the two arms are labeled "RA" and "Dec". ZWO has said EQ mode won't damage the scope, just make sure it's stable. The bearings in the scope are steel.
I do mention this in the videos as this can put more stress on the scope, so use at your own risk - also as other comments say, apparently ZWO has said it's safe!
@@CuivTheLazyGeek Thanks Cuiv, forgive me if I sounded a bit negative, that was not my intention, it's just that having spent fifty years in engineering, where I spent a lot of time repairing equipment that had failed because people had decided to use it in a different way to what it was designed for, I'm probably inclined to be a bit over cautious.
the opposite i think, you don’t need to use it nor does it come with it, it’s an easy upgrade if someone wants to go a little farther into astrophotography without needing to get a whole new setup
This is actually considered as an "aftermarket mod". So this is not really how the Seestar was indended to be used, but it has the capability for EQ mode for advanced users. 👍
@@andrejflis8161 There is no modification needed to the scope. Are you sure the scope was not intended for EQ mode. The internal castings of the scope are labeled "RA" and "Dec". ZWO says EQ mode won't harm the scope, just make sure it is stable. So use a wider tripod.
So I hate to be the party-pooper, especially because so much of your content has helped me Cuiv, but the one thing I don't like about this hobby is the number of "tweaks" that are made by the elite of this hobby and shared publicly that in my view totally compromise the original design of the equipment. I've seen that with power supplies, mount gears, even clamps and cable options. Now this. If you want an equatorial mount and an image with no cropping, GO BUY the equipment that will give you that! The Seestar S50 is perfect as is for what it was designed for. And if I hear the word "work around" one more time, I will scream. Sorry, Cuiv.
That's fine, but I completely and utterly disagree with your viewpoint! I don't see anything wrong with sharing information that can help owners of equipment push it beyond what it's designed for. I'm not forcing anyone to do this, just providing the option if you have the Seestar (and it should be noted that many Seestar users got it because it is so cheap and simply do not have the budget for an equatorial mount, etc.). If ZWO provided an explicit support for equatorial mode, would this be a "tweak" or would it be a valid use case then? Using the Seestar in equatorial mode doesn't compromise the original design of the equipment at all - you want the original design? Just don't use the wedge! Why shouldn't this be left to the person who owns the scope? Why is sharing valid information wrong?
This is taking the seestar to another level, increased complexity but increased results - a worthy trade for many! 👍👍 Good on you buddy, you're always at the cutting edge!
By the way in the video you'll see I don't follow my own recommendation (have one leg of the tripod pointing North) - this was simply the position after screwing in the wedge fully, and I would have needed a spacer or something to change that :-(
You could also hang a weight from the tripod to counter balance the tilted SeeStar. I’ve seen a few photos of folks doing that to prevent it from tipping over.
Agree,d there is a bit of play in both the altitude and azimuth gears. Not enough to lose a bunch of light frames, but with a touch of wind, it can make a mess. Also if it crosses the meridian, the weight will shift from going against the gear to going with the gear, kinda like balancing a pencil on the tip.
Excellent idea! FYI iOptron also sells those wedges. Maybe one day a robo scope will come with a built in field derotator then it can stay Alt-Az. Looks like you're having fun with that scope. Sometime I forget how fun this hobby can be when you're not pulling your hair out LOL. Clear Skies Cuiv!
@@CuivTheLazyGeek i believe kai said its only a software/firmware limitation not the gears or anything physical. it CAN aim the camera below horizon it just doesnt. this is why it could be quite simple to 'fix' in its software, its a matter of if they will or not.. with that said some other seestar control apps have been being worked on, but still... would be nice. if a mode is 'too complex' for most users.. just add a 'expert' mode for other options. i visualize a Far Side comic strip with someone aiming a telescope at the ground and asking tech support why its not working.
Howdy. I'd like to request a S50 Vs D3 comparison. I have a Dwarf2 and love it and was ready to get a 3 but Id like to see if the S50 is still a good competitor
Here in the Southern Hemisphere we have no bright stars visible to the naked eye near our celestial pole... there is a small group nearby but you need to know the rotation of them on any given night to offset them to the blank spot of sky that is our pole! We use apps like PS Align Pro to find out the pattern and rough positioning
Yep, polar alignment in the southern hemisphere is impossible visually like this. Thank goodness for ASIAir, NINA and Ekos software driven three point polar alignment routines - but nothing like that is available for the Seestar. I did see one video where they glue laser pointers to the Seestar, but again, nothing visible to point at in the southern hemisphere.
From what I read on the Smart Telescope Underground Group, polar alignment doesn’t have to be super accurate. You may get away with rough polar alignment using a compass and inclinometer. In ages gone by I used an ETX 70 in EQ mode .. and a rough polar alignment was generally enough. Maybe you don’t eliminate field rotation but minimise or significantly reduce it. The alternative would be to use a Polemaster and polar align but that sort of defeats the purpose of a Seestar don’t you think?
@@CuivTheLazyGeek -Thank you, what a pity, given its superior optics it would be a winner. I will take another look at your work around. Kind Regards.😇
After I've pointed my Seestar upwards and pressed Record, I don't get anything about horizontal calibration, just "Initialization progress". Any idea what I'm doing wrong?
Great video - thank you. I gave this a try with my Seestar for the first time tonight on the Eastern Veil nebula, but it didn't work out. Every picture was discarded because of star trails. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?
Another way to align to north star is with a green astro laser pointer. Just align it with the main body and point it at Polaris. My MSM tracker comes with one. The problem I have is that I usually can't actually see Polaris from the city.
You don't need to see Polaris to align to the Celestial North Pole. A compass to align the unit true North, and you can use the Seestar software (Advanced Settings Leveling) to adjust the declination to 90-your latitude.
Instructions unclear. Cassopia is currently below horizon at 20* north at 0530 😂, Polaris is behind a hill, Oh... and I somehow have wedged my Wang in my wedge. Halp!
Another great tip! I've slways been a beliver in improvement of something And a least try out an idea, there is no Rules for using something out of box After spending much money on the Pro rig setups i will be receiving a seestar in a couple days from B&h photo, been using them for many years for music equipment and astro. Fast shipping great people to work with. I want to go to the coast and camping this year and the seestar will be easier And less time than hauling 80+ lbs Of equipment, I really like the "W" explanation of Cassiopeia constellation to explain effects of field rotation, was trying to explain to someone who cant seem to get it. From a, w to an m. Thanks! 😊
I really want to get one of these SeeStars now to try out. But I agree with you that in some of these low-cost telescopes designs, the azimuth axis is not preloaded, and not well-suited to more tilted orientations... I have not had one of these in my hands, so I don't know if it's possible, but if it doesn't fall off, the loose-ness would translate to effectively be a "hub" error in the pointing. In these modern technology telescopes, this is easily compensated. When I would test equatorial telescopes, I would sometimes need to mount one in an "anti-polar" alignment to test North vs South alignments. It was a challenge to get the clearance with my tripod, but it wasn't too difficult to overcome if supported correctly. This effectively gives it a "southern equatorial" operating configuration. This would open up the other half of the sky to the Alt axis. I think this is more achievable in the higher latitudes (I was at about 33º N) But, I understand that the azimuth axis may not be happy about it.
I’m considering buying the equipment you linked in the description, but before I do I have to ask, how do you go about taking exposures when the telescope needs to be leveled before you begin taking exposures? Is there a way you can bypass the leveling process?
Hmm. After all this, I would have thought you would be eager to display some results? I would think that better tracking and longer sessions/exposures would significantly improve the images, but from this I have to wonder. Truthfully, from what I have seen online, I am not impressed at all with the images produced by this scope, and I can't imagine anyone who is not a total beginner in the hobby being impressed. I would LOVE to get one of these, because my son has a sophisticated camper truck remotely spotted in western Colorado for expeditions to very remote locations that feature very dark skies! Think, Arches National Monument. I have seen starry skies there to die for! The SeeStar is small enough and light enough, I could fly with it to the truck and then leave it inside between trips. But I would have to see images more inspiring than any that I have seen to date. I would also process the images in PI instead of whatever live stacking the system uses.
It does rotate the images back when stacking digitally, but can't avoid the impact of the field rotation as that requires a physical solution (like the equatorial mode). Effectively, if you used the Seestar over a whole night on a target, the only area with a full stack will be the area within the inscribed circle of the chip field of view rectangle. And then when cropping you'd want to crop to the inscribed square of the inscribed circle. That's a lot of cropping!
@@CuivTheLazyGeek Ah, cool. I do understand your solution is far more precise and elegant, but the reason to buy this telescope is to avoid all that work in the first place! 😀
Does it not affect the lifetime of the mechanics? I have trying mosaics today with the Andromeda Galaxy. The Problem was the field rotation, i can't align the mosaic frames to eachother.
Others have mentioned they are imaging objects below the celestial equator using this technique from the Northern Hemisphere. Have you actually tried it on M42? What happens when you do that? Do you get an error immediately? Or does it try to go there and fail? Or does it actually work as some are saying it does? If it works then how far South can you go in declination at your latitude?
It had failed for me, but this may have been when I was testing with my first workaround (fake GPS coordinates to the North Pole and horizon calibration off), I'll have to test again!
Thanks for the video. Always enjoy your content. Do you think using an app such as ps polar algin pro's daytime/no polarscope alignment would enough to align the telescope without actually seeing the polaris and align? Reason I say is that from my driveway which faces south and my house being a 2nd story house, it's difficult to align to polaris unless I drive to somewhere else.
My Patreon: www.patreon.com/cuivlazygeek
Seestar S50: tinyurl.com/3n62hpzx or tinyurl.com/3n62hpzx
Equatorial Wedge: amzn.to/3IzKh6t or bit.ly/49NhFCP
1/4 to 3/8 adapter (necessary if using above wedge): amzn.to/4a9kUEu
With the above wedge, you may also need an M8 screw (something like this amzn.to/4a5p2Wx)
Instructions on how to use the Skywatcher Wedge in this video (from 6:19 to 9:30): ruclips.net/video/xJmntIr50lk/видео.html
Seestar S50 initial review: ruclips.net/video/Nt29_kHV1Fg/видео.html
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Seestar S50: tinyurl.com/3n62hpzx
Cuiv I do not think you know what you caused. Since your video the Equatorial Wedge has been sold out from all the main distributors in the USA 😂
Now this is what I call influencing.
Kai Young and others on the Smart Telescope Underground facebook group should get a lot of the credit for coming up with the process and work around. They took a lot of hate and flak from several of the "official" seestar groups saying that it wasn't possible and that it would damage their telescopes. These guys are the ones that truly are on the cutting edge of seestar mods. It is nice that Cuiv finally did a video on it to prove it's viability though.😊
I agree ! they paved the way !
Definitely. If there was no Kai Young, most probably there will be nobody aware of or using this approach. That goes also a lot further than that as he and some other members of the underground FB group are also putting in place automation, mosaic and planning mode for the seestar.
It could be nice that they are at least mentioned, and get some credit where credit is due.
Nice video however to explain some of the concepts.
Hope zwo is listening and officially take actions to remove the bugs or limitation that have been discovered.
I really don't understand why they would get hate overall, no one is forcing people to use the scope in equatorial mode!
@@CuivTheLazyGeek Gatekeepers and envious individuals made things incredibly difficult for him, even going so far as to ban him from the FP 'official' group simply for suggesting the idea of equatorial mounting.
It's absurd, isn't it?
He took however matters into his own hands in response and established the Smart Telescope Underground Facebook group to continue discussing his vision.
This group has evolved into a wonderfully supportive and respectful community where innovative thinkers are actively pushing the boundaries of this remarkable equipment. They are curently prototyping planning, mosaic, and automation modes, demonstrating that the sky is truly the limit.
He sincerely deserves huge recognition for his efforts and relentless work for the S50 community.
Your audience loves your videos for your enthusiasm (it is true also for the members of this FB group), and you'll find that same spirit in the Smart Telescope Underground Facebook group.
You should definitely join us there; it promises to be a lot of fun.
@@CuivTheLazyGeek i got hate when i bought a dwarf2 (i was one of the first to get one). i was told it wasnt a telescope by an YT astro guy who NOW promotes the device. then the same with the seestar. then you got people who dont think you should alter anything. however i think its the first group thats mad about the equatorial thing. as long as its alt az they arent too afraid of what it might be able to accomplish. eq mode on my seestar has allowed me 4-6 hour shoots without field rotation. the thing has been amazing.
ZWO has said there is no risk to the gears for EQ mode. (Examination of the castings of the housing reveals "DEC" and "RA" labels on the arms which indicates the Seestar may have been designed for EQ operation.) I suspect ZWO dropped the feature because it would have required a larger, more expensive tripod with the package.
Just read this after my comment, lol. Do you have s link to where this was reported? It would definitely ease my mind about giving it a go.
@@JoshuaAkonomYou're overthinking it. Just do it. Lots of people have no issues. Just make sure you don't have a tripod or situation where it might fall over. That's pretty common sense
At any rate, it would be a load on the bearings, not the gears - just like any EQ mount with a scope that's balanced.
@@barrycraig1549 do you know have it been tested in low latitude? I am asking because I planed a travel to somewhere with lat. 23.3 degree. So wondering if it got overloaded in such angle. Many thanks!
Great vid! I've wondered about using my wedge from my other mount. I bought my Seestar after seeing your vids on it. The Seestar has been wonderful since I can't get out much anymore with my young kids and what not. It's been pretty slick being able to set this in up in the yard and just let it go. My other setup needs a bit more love and setup. It has really allowed me to stay active with astro despite time constraints!
It's good to have the choice! The Seestar as a plop down and just use scope is also perfectly fine :)
Cool, I hope all the smart telescope makers start supporting this to help people move to to the next level.
It was cool to see that the Dwarf II just supported it by default :-)
Good job.  thanks for your work on this hopefully they will give us a software upgrade
And by the way it was Kai Yung who “ sold me “ that it would be doable inEQ so I purchased it ,thanks both of you
Thanks for the video. After I use my S50 for some time, I might be willing to go to the next step and I appreciate these instructions in this video.
I’ve only been able to use my Seestar over 4 nights because of leaving on a winter break but I stacked two different nights of the M42 and I can see from that experience how it would be beneficial to go to this method.
Reminds me of an equatorial platform for manual dobsonian telescopes. Enables the scope to do AP with DSOs.
It looks similar right!
This is awesome! I'll be giving this a try. The field rotation seems to be worse the more light pollution that I have, so this will help stop me from having to crop the photos so much!!
Thank you - excellent video as usual. I have been wanting to try this - hopefully you will let us see the results and maybe a comparison of the SS in alt az mode? Is it important to level the tripod (not the SS50)? Id be interested in what to do if cannot find enough stars to calibrate (I have lots of trees in the garden which can get in the way)
I can make a back to back comparison once weather allows :-)
You can use the Seestar's own internal level measurement to polar align in the declination axis. Just incline the wedge until the internal level measures 90 degrees minus your latitude.
Good point! Thanks for the tip!
Since the S50 operations top out at 85 degrees would it be possible in this limited scenario to deduct one’s latitude from 95 degrees, recovering the 5 degrees of loss when using the S50 in the horizontal plane? I’m a total noob so I am probably missing something important. But I had to ask. Thanks!
Ok so I have worked out that my question was dumb. If I did what I suggested I just simply be pointing NOT at the South Pole. Derrr… Thanks anyway! Sky-Watcher wedge arrives middle of next week. AU$95.92 You bewdy!
I would think that would get your physical alignment off by 5 degrees. Sure, you'd get that angle to see straight up but defeats the whole point. 5 degrees off, you'd get some field rotation in the photos. .. Edit, I as well are dumb and Didn't notice you corrected yourself...@@bronte65
If you can find a way to offset the wedge to the south a bit, it will place the centre of mass over the centre of the tripod more, reducing the “tipping” load from an unbalanced orientation.
What thinking outside the square can achieve, you are a fellow after my own heart. Greetings from Tasmania Australia 👍🔭😁🇦🇺
yet another great video, i have been watching this on the facebook group for a while now but have not tried it, just ordered the wedge so i can check it out also
Interesting! In April I will be in Iriomote island of Okinawa with my Seestar, will try this and see what I can got. Cannot wait!
Brilliant! I saw the Seestar for sale, saw that it was Alt Az and was deflated a bit. However I then thought, why not add a wedge? So I searched for it and then saw this video and you confirmed my thoughts. Thank you! Liked and Subscribed
My pleasure, enjoy the scope!
Excellent video! Everything explained so clearly, TY!
Glad it was helpful!
One thing that I want to try is tilting the S50 by a little bit, to shift what appears to be zenith. S50 won't track properly if ALT greater than 75 or 80, which for me at 35S was ruling out M83 at the begining of the month.
Hi there, new subscriber here. As an amateur astronomer living in Saitama Prefecture, I appreciate your work on the Seestar and this equatorial mode (kind of) looks very interesting. But I really worry about the fact that this smartscope, being designed at a low cost for azimutal mode, isn't strong enough to afford the constrains you put on its gears. This is especially true if you're low in latitude (let's say under 50°), like we are in or near Tokyo. I guess I'll wait comments from people daring to use it that way and if nothing bad is reported after some monthes, maybe I'll do it myself ? But again, I appreciate that kind of experiment.
Apparently it's not an issue due to the metal bearings, and it has been confirmed as fine by ZWO from what I'm told!
Oh great ! That's a good new ! Well, Ive got no reason to not try this at home, now :) @@CuivTheLazyGeek
Would like to see the images it takes
Cuiv, maaate! Thank you for this vid. After the vid on the printable wedge I was wondering how this would bolt together and how to make it work. I totally understand now so that’s not bad for a noob! WRT the Czech wedge I was thinking I would probably need to get two of them if I wanted to do astrophotography concurrently. This might still be true since this setup with the Seestar is pretty much for specific types of objects and locations within the available plane of, in my case, the southern hemisphere. So I’ll start with just the one wedge and see how that goes. I can always buy another in the future, perhaps after the planned integration of a goto mechanism. Sorry for the long-winded post. It helps me clarify my own plans. Keep it up. You really help and inspire me. Thank you!
It always helps to type down your thoughts!
From what I've heard the new Dwarf 3 now officially supports equatorial mode with exposure times upto 60 seconds specifically for use in that mode. Hence ZWO will likely be forced to support equatorial mode either on the Seestar S50 or on the next version they produce if they want to maintain market share.
I have seen a large number of people do this and the results are good. However, I am concerned about the structural integrity of the gears. We are talking about plastic gears that are designed to withstand horizontal stresses but not vertical or shear forces.
There will be abnormal wear on the gear edges eventually leading to slipping and failure. Unless the mechanical components have been designed to withstand this type of wear.
they use metal bearings on the axis the gears wont be under any additional load the forces will be on the bearing at the base
Zwo has said that there is no risk of damaging your seestar internal component by using it in Eq mode. But, they don't recommend to use it in that mode because the risk of fall down. Also, some people has open the Seestar and they discovered that it's internal component were originally designed to support EQ mode, and that's not a big surprise, because Zwo in their initial pre-sales announcement said that it will support EQ mode and it will come with a wedge.
@@renato892-j4i I suspect ZWO dropped the EQ mode feature because it would have required a larger, and more expensive tripod in the package and raise the price.
Yea! I think that that's a very probable reason!
Cuiv, do you know if this will improve tracking for objects near the zenith? I find I get star trails if I try to image stars at high elevations. with the Seestar. The field rotation is a minor problem if you can't track in the first place.
It definitely will, since in equatorial mode, the zenith is Polaris effectively (from the point of view of the scope)
Honestly would have liked if you had posted the results of the nebula you shot with details. What would be good to know is can the tripod legs be adjusted longer or shorter individually to compensate for the tilt and weight imbalance?
But what is the actual wedge that you are using with the Seestar in this video? It looks much more interesting than the Sky Watcher one you link to on Amazon.
It's the OG Star Tracker (turned off)
Brilliant, my main concern about the Seestar S50 was the missing EQ mode, this is a nice workaround and it makes the S50 even more desirable. Can we also see the results? Is there any update regarding the horizontal limitations?
Now that Cuiv has mainstreamed this approach, how about releasing an equatorial mode in software, ZWO?
Now THAT would be awesome.
Hi Cuiv, have you ever consider mounting the bottom plane to point North instead so the switch side points North instead of the top of the unit pointing North?
Hi, the specifications of the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Equatorial Wedge Base said, "The wedge mounts on any tripod with a 3/8"-16 or 1/4"-20 screw ", why can't just use the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Equatorial Wedge Base out of the box without a 1/4 to 3/8 adapter and M8 screws? How many screws are required? Thank you!
Hi Cuiv,
your shown equatorial mount (wedge) appears to be motorized (stepper ??).
I guess that this motor will not drive the right ascention axis, correct ?
Otherweise - I presume - one would have a system with two drives, fighting against each other in order to stabilize the image.
In a nutshell; I guess your wedge is a passive element; correct ?
Correct it is completely off, otherwise it would interfere with the S50
Thanks for this great video, I will surely want to try the equatorial mode; however, there are plenty of tall buildings around my apartment, hence cannot do the 3 point calibration. Can you please shoot a video regarding how to get around this? Thank you.
If you can do this with the Seestar, could we do the same with the Skywatcher SolarQuest. I am using the SolarQuest to perform lucky imaging of the Sun with a Lunt60 HA. The problem with the Skywatcher SolarQuest is that it is also an Alt Z mount that works great for individual lucky image videos. But if you want to create a long time-lapse using the mount, then it have the rotation problem.
Any thoughts?
What if it's M42 that you actually want to image? Or any other targets below its imaginary horizon?
Skip horizontal calibration should be RED or GRAY???????
Hi Cuiv, thanks for the information, I for one would love to see a video on how to fool the Seestar to making it think is at the north pole. Please and thank you.
Hope to see a mount like a Star Adventurer with auto polar alignment and goto. I know the Benro Polaris exists but its not that reliable.
Auto polar alignment is really difficult, I'd say right now the Benro or the SA GTi are the best we got at a budget. Otherwise there's the Avalon mount with auto PA/motorized PA!
BTW, to shoot under the celestial equator, would it work to put the Seestar upside down ? Not its high part inclined at +36° in the North direction, but at -144° in the South one ?
In theory, it would work - as long as it's aligned to the celestial pole! But the horizon calibration might have issues if it ends up trying to image through one of the tripod legs. Fake GPS to South Pole + disabling horizon calibration would work better though
Cuiv. This is a strictly hypothetical question. 😁Could field rotation problems be countered if only the image capturing chip rotated, but the scope remained in its alt/az configuration? Obviously, the internals of the scope would need to be re-engineered by ZWO, but it might be a simpler (and cheaper) solution. Thanks. I love this little scope!!!
A cheap, but effective lightweight eq wedge is about 65 bucks on Amazon.
Somehow, I think if ZWO put in a 3rd motorized axis - it'll raise the price of a seestar a mite more than 65 bucks.
Plus, most users that would want eq mode, will be "not beginner" so, probably already have a small wedge kicking around that can be used.
@@stinkyfungus Yes.
Yes, it's called a field derotator. It's actually not as simple as it sounds, as the rate of field rotation depends on your latitude and the alt and az coordinates of the target you are imaging! See this paper: vixra.org/abs/2205.0085
@@CuivTheLazyGeekIts perfectly simple for ZWO CPU to calculate the rotation of the field and derotate it as its use depends on knowing exactly where it is pointed . It would be another potential source of failure though . Its an EAA device , and ZWO would hope you move on quickly to their range of cameras , scopes and mounts ;-)
When i asked last year Zwo about it they told me the Seestar S50 does not work in equatorial mod eand they do not recommend me to try it. Why you think i got this answer?
ZWO does not "support" this mode, but they have clearly said EQ mode won't harm the scope. I suspect their primary concern is the stability with the tripod supplied with the unit. So use a wider tripod. There are also bugs in the software that get in the way of EQ mode. So ZWO would have to refine the operation of their software to support EQ mode.
WHEN did you made the stars focusing? It's impossible to get the focus if the stars are drifting before horizontal calibration... and I don't think we will get a good plate solving with the stars out of focus after horizontal calibration.
Very cool. I'm for too lazy to go through all that though. I'll just deal with the field rotation. 🙂
ie been using eq mode to run sessions of 5-6 hours to get rid of the field rotation. without it, they are a mess when shooting for that long. alt az is good for short sessions tho.
I keep thinking about trying this, but then it's a fairly new discovery and I'm concerned about the long term effects on the added stress to the gears by the weight no longer being distributed evenly. Somebody mentioned they've been doing this since January, but no idea how many shooting hours. I know for some it's a simple expense and they don't mind fiddling, but i think I'm going to wait and see what the long term effects may be.
Can't you add a counterweight to the wedge so that it does not fall when at an angle?
Yes, I believe you can and should add counter weight. Not just the fact the seestar could fall over but to keep the
Tripod as stable as possible without
The very slightest lean or movement towards the weight of the seestar
And since the tripod/mount is not moving or rotating it's just a base with the polar angle.
I have been using my S50 in this mode since Jan and have imaged Orion a lot... so it is possible. I am at 34.0232° N
How?
How?
@CuivTheLazyGeek @@knimrod I setup the tripod and the mount. I manually move the telescope to point roughly to the constellation Orion. I then goto the star map and move it to the rough point it is pointing to and "sync". I then go back and hit the red button to calibrate, then cancel before it goes back to the origin. I then point the star map to Betelgeuse and "GoTo". Once itwork finds it I "sync" again. I have then gotot Orion nebula or horsehead nebula and record. Has worked for me almost everytime if it can calibrate.
@@CuivTheLazyGeek I will admit that in Bortle 9 and lots of trees that I don't always get it lined up to polaris 100%, so sometime I have just pointed it as close as I can so I still get a little movement on stars but I don't get the field rotation like I use to.
I'm glad you brought up the stress on the internal gears. That was a concern of mine and probably why I won't try this (as much as I'm tempted). It's a pretty heavy unit for its size, and I'm unsure of stressing the gears and internal mounts in such a way would affect things over time. But it's so tempting!
Do you got to poler alignment
Can you use a laser pointer mounted on suction cups attached to the body of the Seestar for polar alignment?
That works too!
@@CuivTheLazyGeek thank you so much!! Just ordered the wedge mount too!! Shame that Orion is off the table!!
Can someone share why you wouldn’t be able to see the Orion with this? I’m pretty much brand spankin new and wanted some info as to why it may limit this
No images to show us the difference with the longer exposure images and longer imaging time? :(
I might do a separate video - this is meant to be a short(ish) howto
@@CuivTheLazyGeek yes, yes, yes - as many videos and interesting tricks as possible using ZWO Seestar 😉
Can you share any videos/photos thst hou have using this method?
Not is equatorial mode ! The geometry is different, can be little similar !
Your review of the S50 sparked me buying one, and having a blast, thanks! Thanks too for showing this possibility. Question you might address for me, how do we charge it while it is running so we get more than 3 hours out of it?
I just use 2 power banks and continuously use/charge them so that my Seestar is always almost fully charged as its being used and by the end of the night! As I type this , I have had the Seestar observing now for 7 hours and its 93% charged and should get no lower by the time the sun rises in about 2 hours (I'm in Australia). When I am finished , I always end my Night by packing up my Seestar at or very near 100% fully charged so that the next time of use its ready to go.
@@brettcourtenay569Thanks! Good to know it's possible. When I attached it to power, it gave me messages about connecting to a computer, which it was just a power pack, so I gave up. Something in the settings maybe. Clear skies!
I use a Makita 5ah 18v cordless tool battery and their USB power adapter. Then a USB-A to USB-C cable. It will run the Seestar all night with the dew heater on. All the major cordless tool manufacturers offer USB adapters for their batteries, so others may work as well. I think I saw somewhere Seestar does not support USB-C to USB-C cables.
i use an extension cord to my house and a usb fast charger plug. works fine except in extreme cold, where then you should put a dew heater around the battery base to keep the charge up.
@@CoadyL ...I read that whatever you use to charge the Seestar it needs 5 volts with a minimum 2 amps of power going in otherwise it won't recognise the charge so a USB from a laptop or PC will usually only have 1 or 1.5 amps as well as some power banks which might not give you a choice of amps with the 5Volts. Hope that helps !
The Seestar has GPS and compass information in it. So it knows the rotation. It would be very possible for any smart telescope to just slowly rotate the sensor of the camera inside the unit. This would be such a small tiny and light change that would do the same thing. With other smart telescopes that cost 8X more I am shocked no one is doing that yet.
Yes, the sensor could be rotated by the same motor installed in the wall clocks
@@francisdestrasbourgLOL yes... just need a very smooth one. I am sure the hardware would be very low and they could almost 2X the cost of the unit and people would be happy to pay for it. Making it better than any other smart system on the market today.
What you are describing is called a field de-rotator. It is a very complicated motion.
if the big companies dont.. someone else like the students that made the dwarf2, probably will.
So that's a field derotator - it's actually not as simple as you make it sound, as it would need to be rotated at the angular speed of (angular speed of the Earth * cosinus of observer latitude) * cosinus of target azimuth angle / cosinus of target altitude angle!
So you need three motors (instead of just one in equatorial mode) and they all need to work very well with one another :)
ZWO should add sensor rotation in to the next version. Or alternatively, just stack images with digital de-rotation.
The stacking already does digital derotation, but it can't fill in the missing data :) sensor rotation is actually not that simple, and means a third motor compared to a single motor needed when tracking in eq mode. Still would be great if they manage to add that!
@@CuivTheLazyGeek yes, the sensor rotation is not trivial, but I’ve worked on systems that do that so I know it’s possible and what it takes.
Intetresting.
Hi, I just received my seestar s50 recently. I stay at Singapore 1.3521° N (equator), do I need a eq wedge like this?
Hello, you only need a wedge if you want to avoid field rotation in your astrophotos.
Correct me if I'm wrong in my thinking but if there where stress, friction or other types of mechanical stresses on the drive system it would show up in your imaging performance. This also would include any balancing issues that would cause extra stress on the drive system. If balancing was an issue it would also show up in bad imaging. I think this whole EQ gear wear and tear concern is not going to be an issue and The benefits definitely outweigh the stress of overthinking. Just my opinion my experience so far
What about focusing stars before doing all this?
Yes, that's needed, just like with Alt Az
There is no issue with Leveling?
Nope, horizon calibration takes care of that
Hi Cuiv, I for one would love to see (
Hi Cuiv. As I have said previously I already own an imaging system based around a Red Cat51 and Star Adventurer GTi controlled by an ASIAir mini so I don't need a See Star C50. All I would say about using any piece of equipment in a way that it was not designed for is exercise caution. My guess is the components from which the See Star is constructed are not of the best quality and are probably just about adequate for the job they were intended to do. From what I can see the SeeStar does a pretty good job at what it's designed for anyway, the whole point was to make a simple astrograph at a very affordable price. To sum up If my budget only extended to being able to afford one of these I personally wouldn't want to risk damaging it. There are a number of people who post on U Tube who have modified their See Stars for EQ use, if they are still working ok in a year or two I might change my opinions.
You do not need to modify your Seestar to use EQ mode. You just need to align the scope to the pole. Are you sure the scope was not intended or designed for EQ mode? The castings of the two arms are labeled "RA" and "Dec". ZWO has said EQ mode won't damage the scope, just make sure it's stable. The bearings in the scope are steel.
I do mention this in the videos as this can put more stress on the scope, so use at your own risk - also as other comments say, apparently ZWO has said it's safe!
@@CuivTheLazyGeek Thanks Cuiv, forgive me if I sounded a bit negative, that was not my intention, it's just that having spent fifty years in engineering, where I spent a lot of time repairing equipment that had failed because people had decided to use it in a different way to what it was designed for, I'm probably inclined to be a bit over cautious.
Don't leave us in suspense, let's see the photos!
There's one on my Instagram:)
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
🌌💪👌
weeeeee
Isn't this making the easy start first steps into astronomy and astrophotography less easy and counter to the original purpose of the product?
Sure, but you don't have to do this?
the opposite i think, you don’t need to use it nor does it come with it, it’s an easy upgrade if someone wants to go a little farther into astrophotography without needing to get a whole new setup
This is actually considered as an "aftermarket mod". So this is not really how the Seestar was indended to be used, but it has the capability for EQ mode for advanced users. 👍
Who gives a flying f?
@@andrejflis8161 There is no modification needed to the scope. Are you sure the scope was not intended for EQ mode. The internal castings of the scope are labeled "RA" and "Dec". ZWO says EQ mode won't harm the scope, just make sure it is stable. So use a wider tripod.
So I hate to be the party-pooper, especially because so much of your content has helped me Cuiv, but the one thing I don't like about this hobby is the number of "tweaks" that are made by the elite of this hobby and shared publicly that in my view totally compromise the original design of the equipment. I've seen that with power supplies, mount gears, even clamps and cable options. Now this. If you want an equatorial mount and an image with no cropping, GO BUY the equipment that will give you that! The Seestar S50 is perfect as is for what it was designed for. And if I hear the word "work around" one more time, I will scream. Sorry, Cuiv.
That's fine, but I completely and utterly disagree with your viewpoint! I don't see anything wrong with sharing information that can help owners of equipment push it beyond what it's designed for. I'm not forcing anyone to do this, just providing the option if you have the Seestar (and it should be noted that many Seestar users got it because it is so cheap and simply do not have the budget for an equatorial mount, etc.). If ZWO provided an explicit support for equatorial mode, would this be a "tweak" or would it be a valid use case then?
Using the Seestar in equatorial mode doesn't compromise the original design of the equipment at all - you want the original design? Just don't use the wedge! Why shouldn't this be left to the person who owns the scope? Why is sharing valid information wrong?
@@CuivTheLazyGeekAs you say yourself “This is not supported by ZWO”. Enough said. But I continue to respect you and your viewpoint.
I was hoping to see an image of the California nebula after the equatorial configuration :(
This is taking the seestar to another level, increased complexity but increased results - a worthy trade for many! 👍👍
Good on you buddy, you're always at the cutting edge!
Thanks Luke! Others have pioneered this but it's fun anyway :)
@@CuivTheLazyGeekwow two RUclips stars for the price of one😂
By the way in the video you'll see I don't follow my own recommendation (have one leg of the tripod pointing North) - this was simply the position after screwing in the wedge fully, and I would have needed a spacer or something to change that :-(
No sample images?😭
You could also hang a weight from the tripod to counter balance the tilted SeeStar. I’ve seen a few photos of folks doing that to prevent it from tipping over.
You forgot to show the image you made without cropping. Thanks for sharing anyway!
Introducing the new Seestar S50-Pro. ;) I would hope if ZWO officially came out with such they'd upgrade the gears, etc. for robustness.
ZWO has confirmed there is no risk to the gears for EQ mode. ZWO's primary concern seems to be stability. That's easily solved with a wider tripod.
Agree,d there is a bit of play in both the altitude and azimuth gears. Not enough to lose a bunch of light frames, but with a touch of wind, it can make a mess. Also if it crosses the meridian, the weight will shift from going against the gear to going with the gear, kinda like balancing a pencil on the tip.
Excellent idea! FYI iOptron also sells those wedges. Maybe one day a robo scope will come with a built in field derotator then it can stay Alt-Az. Looks like you're having fun with that scope. Sometime I forget how fun this hobby can be when you're not pulling your hair out LOL. Clear Skies Cuiv!
Or autopolar alignment! Field derotation does require three motors to track instead of one :)
One of the Vaonis(?) scopes has a rotator. Pretty easy to do with a known camera module in a known enclosure.
Kai young also mentioned there was another slight below horizon tracking issue. Wonder if software update will fix this..
Do you know what the issue is?
@@CuivTheLazyGeek i believe kai said its only a software/firmware limitation not the gears or anything physical. it CAN aim the camera below horizon it just doesnt. this is why it could be quite simple to 'fix' in its software, its a matter of if they will or not.. with that said some other seestar control apps have been being worked on, but still... would be nice. if a mode is 'too complex' for most users.. just add a 'expert' mode for other options. i visualize a Far Side comic strip with someone aiming a telescope at the ground and asking tech support why its not working.
Insane that you never thought we might like to see an actual photo you took using this mode. 😂
Howdy. I'd like to request a S50 Vs D3 comparison. I have a Dwarf2 and love it and was ready to get a 3 but Id like to see if the S50 is still a good competitor
I'll do it at some point :)
See you in Texas!
Here in the Southern Hemisphere we have no bright stars visible to the naked eye near our celestial pole... there is a small group nearby but you need to know the rotation of them on any given night to offset them to the blank spot of sky that is our pole! We use apps like PS Align Pro to find out the pattern and rough positioning
Yep, polar alignment in the southern hemisphere is impossible visually like this. Thank goodness for ASIAir, NINA and Ekos software driven three point polar alignment routines - but nothing like that is available for the Seestar. I did see one video where they glue laser pointers to the Seestar, but again, nothing visible to point at in the southern hemisphere.
From what I read on the Smart Telescope Underground Group, polar alignment doesn’t have to be super accurate. You may get away with rough polar alignment using a compass and inclinometer. In ages gone by I used an ETX 70 in EQ mode .. and a rough polar alignment was generally enough.
Maybe you don’t eliminate field rotation but minimise or significantly reduce it.
The alternative would be to use a Polemaster and polar align but that sort of defeats the purpose of a Seestar don’t you think?
I‘d like to see some photos.
What improvement did you get with ploar alignment?
I wanted to focus only on the setup itself, I may do another video in the future
Which settings change caused it to not gripe about being out of level all of the time?
Horizon Calibration :)
Does it have EQ mode included yet as of Sept. 2024? Greetings from Tasmania Australia 😁🔭🇦🇺🦘
Nope :(
@@CuivTheLazyGeek -Thank you, what a pity, given its superior optics it would be a winner. I will take another look at your work around. Kind Regards.😇
After I've pointed my Seestar upwards and pressed Record, I don't get anything about horizontal calibration, just "Initialization progress". Any idea what I'm doing wrong?
Thank you for this neat idea. I always use a proper tripod, and hang a bag of heavy rocks to cement it to the ground. Cheers!
Great video - thank you. I gave this a try with my Seestar for the first time tonight on the Eastern Veil nebula, but it didn't work out. Every picture was discarded because of star trails. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?
Another way to align to north star is with a green astro laser pointer. Just align it with the main body and point it at Polaris. My MSM tracker comes with one.
The problem I have is that I usually can't actually see Polaris from the city.
You don't need to see Polaris to align to the Celestial North Pole. A compass to align the unit true North, and you can use the Seestar software (Advanced Settings Leveling) to adjust the declination to 90-your latitude.
Instructions unclear.
Cassopia is currently below horizon at 20* north at 0530 😂, Polaris is behind a hill,
Oh... and I somehow have wedged my Wang in my wedge.
Halp!
Another great tip! I've slways been a beliver in improvement of something
And a least try out an idea, there is no
Rules for using something out of box
After spending much money on the
Pro rig setups i will be receiving a seestar in a couple days from
B&h photo, been using them for many years for music equipment and astro.
Fast shipping great people to work with.
I want to go to the coast and camping this year and the seestar will be easier
And less time than hauling 80+ lbs
Of equipment,
I really like the "W" explanation of Cassiopeia constellation to explain effects of field rotation, was trying to explain to someone who cant seem to get it. From a, w to an m. Thanks! 😊
I really want to get one of these SeeStars now to try out. But I agree with you that in some of these low-cost telescopes designs, the azimuth axis is not preloaded, and not well-suited to more tilted orientations... I have not had one of these in my hands, so I don't know if it's possible, but if it doesn't fall off, the loose-ness would translate to effectively be a "hub" error in the pointing. In these modern technology telescopes, this is easily compensated. When I would test equatorial telescopes, I would sometimes need to mount one in an "anti-polar" alignment to test North vs South alignments. It was a challenge to get the clearance with my tripod, but it wasn't too difficult to overcome if supported correctly. This effectively gives it a "southern equatorial" operating configuration. This would open up the other half of the sky to the Alt axis. I think this is more achievable in the higher latitudes (I was at about 33º N) But, I understand that the azimuth axis may not be happy about it.
I’m considering buying the equipment you linked in the description, but before I do I have to ask, how do you go about taking exposures when the telescope needs to be leveled before you begin taking exposures? Is there a way you can bypass the leveling process?
Hmm. After all this, I would have thought you would be eager to display some results? I would think that better tracking and longer sessions/exposures would significantly improve the images, but from this I have to wonder.
Truthfully, from what I have seen online, I am not impressed at all with the images produced by this scope, and I can't imagine anyone who is not a total beginner in the hobby being impressed.
I would LOVE to get one of these, because my son has a sophisticated camper truck remotely spotted in western Colorado for expeditions to very remote locations that feature very dark skies! Think, Arches National Monument. I have seen starry skies there to die for! The SeeStar is small enough and light enough, I could fly with it to the truck and then leave it inside between trips. But I would have to see images more inspiring than any that I have seen to date.
I would also process the images in PI instead of whatever live stacking the system uses.
Waitaminute. The telescope doesn't compensate for that already, rotating the image?
It does rotate the images back when stacking digitally, but can't avoid the impact of the field rotation as that requires a physical solution (like the equatorial mode).
Effectively, if you used the Seestar over a whole night on a target, the only area with a full stack will be the area within the inscribed circle of the chip field of view rectangle. And then when cropping you'd want to crop to the inscribed square of the inscribed circle. That's a lot of cropping!
@@CuivTheLazyGeek Ah, cool. I do understand your solution is far more precise and elegant, but the reason to buy this telescope is to avoid all that work in the first place! 😀
Does it not affect the lifetime of the mechanics?
I have trying mosaics today with the Andromeda Galaxy. The Problem was the field rotation, i can't align the mosaic frames to eachother.
Great idea - thanks! Can you simply point the axis 180 degrees away from Polaris to image the other bits of the sky?
YES!!!!!!!
Polaris at my home only 16 degree.
Does it actually matter in which direction the Seestar is mounted on the wedge?
Did you find the tracking accuracy was better or worse when polar aligned?
Better, almost all frames get stacked
Others have mentioned they are imaging objects below the celestial equator using this technique from the Northern Hemisphere. Have you actually tried it on M42? What happens when you do that? Do you get an error immediately? Or does it try to go there and fail? Or does it actually work as some are saying it does? If it works then how far South can you go in declination at your latitude?
It had failed for me, but this may have been when I was testing with my first workaround (fake GPS coordinates to the North Pole and horizon calibration off), I'll have to test again!
Thanks for the video. Always enjoy your content. Do you think using an app such as ps polar algin pro's daytime/no polarscope alignment would enough to align the telescope without actually seeing the polaris and align? Reason I say is that from my driveway which faces south and my house being a 2nd story house, it's difficult to align to polaris unless I drive to somewhere else.
You can do a rough polar alignment using just such an app, and it's likely going to be good enough to greatly reduce field rotation!