ZWO Seestar S50 Smart Telescope Walkthrough And First Impressions
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- Опубліковано 16 січ 2024
- Links for ZWO SeeStar S 50, Slik Tripod, and Neewer Leveling Base Below
I received my Seestar and got to try it out a couple of nights. I haven’t spent enough time with it to do a full review just yet, because conditions were not very good with high winds. I am looking forward to seeing what can be done with this smart telescope. In this video, I also cover a basic walkthrough/setup for beginners as well as my first impressions. ZWO has once again, made it as easy as… 1,2,3! #astronomy #astrophotography #space #nightsky #imaging #photography #smart #telescope #equipment #gear #zwo #seestar
If you use the Affiliate Links below, I'll receive a small commision, and it will not affect the price of the item. It's just a small way to help support the channel.
ZWO SeeStar S50: agenaastro.com/seestar-s50-al...
Slik Pro 700 DX Tripod Legs: amzn.to/49HWSR0
NEEWER Tripod Head Leveling Base: amzn.to/3wIlScc
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Great and objective explanation. Thanks a lot.
@@tomtom7963 thanks! Will hopefully be making another video on the Seestar soon.
Great video! I ordered mine and am (im)patiently waiting for it to arrive!
Thanks! I’m enjoying mine so far, and I’m looking forward to using it again! Just waiting on these single digit temps to get out of here!
I live in New Zealand and got mine today, Can't wait to image Omega centauri, Eta Carina, M83 etc etc.
Would love to image those targets one day. I’d have to get a bit closer to the equator for Omega.
Just purchased one and will start looking into it more - helped by your videos. Thanks for the review, man!
I’ve been enjoying mine still. So fast and easy to setup. I’ll hopefully be doing some follow up videos soon.
😅😅😅 I recognize your introductory song from SNL!!! My favorite skit
@@barbaraharris6102 😂 love that skit! PG-13 version! 😂
Thanks man, received mine today, subbed up, big up from Wicklow mountains Ireland 🇮🇪
Nice and enjoy it! Thanks for the sub! If it clears up tonight, I’m gonna set mine up again to try to get another hour on M13.
good job. when I bought the seestar from highpoint, they had the level widget as an addon. it's totally worth the extra $40 or whatever to get it level. great job
Thanks! It’s a great add on. I can get to about 0.5 with my tripod, and the the leveling base is just a few turns away from 0.0 or 0.1.
There's also a little dew shield for it too
I just picked one up a couple of weeks ago. It really helps a lot!
Excellent tutorial for us beginners. Thank you.
Thank you, hope it helps!
Nice Man ❤❤❤
Thanks!
Thank you for this video. I have been considering what to do. Astronomy has been my hobby for approximatrly 30 years. Many enjoyable nights have been spent on the beach in the summer sharing views of the night sky with whoever wished to join me. Some people would check to see if I was there when they arrived for their stay saying spending an evening with me made their vacation more enjoyable. I have had many telescopes over those years. My current is a Celestron Evolution 8. Unfortunately, it has been sitting unused for a couple of years. On my upcoming birthday I will be 77. The weight and setup have become somewhat unmageable for me. With age, have come some health/strength issues. Besides the weight, standing still at an eyepiece has become more difficult. This is not to complain - getting older is a priviledge I am enjoying. However, having to give up my hobby is troubling. I would greatly enjoy the astrophotography aspect of the S50. But, my question for you is this - would the S50 suit what I would find helpful - a light telescope that will show celestial wonders on my phone/ipad/laptop? For example, would a 10 second picture do justice to a star cluster to enjoy myself and/or share with others. I guess I am asking if using it more as a observing telescope would be appropriate. Side note - I understqnd some people think goto is somewhat cheating. I say whatever gets one out enjoying the sky is great. The Evolution 8 is my first automated telescope. I know my way around the night sky and have proven I can find objects manually. Besides, I am too old to care what others think. I apologize this is a long post. It is just this little gem has given me some hope that my hobby can be continued over the next number of years.
You’re welcome! I think you will love the Seestar. It’s very easy to carry outside and setup. I would recommend a taller tripod than the one that comes with it. You won’t have to get down close to the ground with a taller tripod, and it makes it easier to level for me. I have an EdgeHD 8, and I know there will come a day(hopefully I make it as far as you have) where I can’t transport the heavy rigs outside anymore. I have used the Seestar after work 4 nights in a row this week. It is so easy to carry out, set up, and start exploring the night sky. I have done a lot of target hopping with the Seestar. I took some 5 minute shots of star clusters, and they look really good to me straight out of the app. You can now edit the images inside the app with the latest update(contrast, saturation, etc.) you can definitely just gather a few minutes on brighter objects like star clusters and bright nebulae, or you can spend more time on darker targets and watch live as it slowly gets brighter with each image stacked. I have really enjoyed using mine this week to just hop around and look at different targets I’ve never imaged before. If you get one, I think you’ll really enjoy it as well, and it’s much easier to carry outside than that celestron. Clear Skies!
@@AstroDanno Thank you so much for the quick response. It is encouraging that this may help me continue observing. I do have some good tripods as I also enjoy photography. I'd play with the editing - seeing how my pictures would turn out with the app and very likely bringing them into PS. Thank you again for your response.
@@doyoulookup as far as just observing with it, it depends on how dark your skies are. I have street lights surrounding me, and I can see some stars on the live view without the light pollution filter. There’s less visible with the filter on, but if you just capture even a couple of minutes worth of 10 second exposures, you start to see much more than the eyes can see through an eyepiece. Also, if you set up close to your home, you can connect to WiFi and view from inside if it’s too hot or cold to stay outside for long.
Just got my S50. I got the leveler too, it works. From my kitchen table noticed the moon shining through some clouds. Why not, Seestar, find the moon, to my surprize it did. Took my first picture. It had reflections from the glass window, didn't care. It's been raining and snowing since then. I can see the short tripod will be an issue. Who makes yours, and where did u get it? Good video. Thanks.
Awesome and thanks! I got some photos of the sun and moon after I made the video. It went right to both fairly quick! I’m using the Slik Pro 700 DX tripod legs. I got mine on Amazon. It was $98 during the holidays but it looks like it’s back up to $120. It’s a very tall tripod, and I use it with my star tracker as well.
"A Treat" hahahah
Thank you! Very useful video!
FYI Nobody yet had made a "best practices" for the SeeStar? If you do one, please include a PDF checklist for both planning and execution.
I too use the larger tripod and leveling base and recommend them.
If ZWO keeps firmware updates adding new features, I'd like to see stitched panoramas and EQ mounting options.
EQ mounting is already possible (not official). Some guys are already doing it by using the horizon calibration which seems to work correctly for equatorial mount.
ua-cam.com/video/4L_tbcIbDZw/v-deo.html
Thanks! I don’t think I’ll be using the included tripod anymore unless traveling somewhere on a flight. It’s so much easier to level using my Slik tripod. Hoping to get a good bit more time in with the Seestar before I do a full review of it. So far, I think the leveling base and a taller tripod are must haves. I don’t know if they will ever put an equatorial mode on this thing, but you never know. If they treat it like they did the ASIAir, they definitely keep adding features with future updates.
@@AstroDanno People are already using the Seestar as EQ. It is not official supported and the internal gears seems to support it to operate under an angle but not officially yet.
@@olafbaeyens8955 have you tried it yet?
@@AstroDanno I just discovered it yesterday, but ordered 2 star finder scopes.
Both of them is to stick to the S50. One intended to polar align, the other one is intended to point to a target since without the help of the Sky atlas. Then mark the star in the Sky atlas, press the SYNC not the GOTO , and from now on the S50 will use the S50 automated horizon to calibrate and your horizon is from now in synced with EQ. I think Sky atlas is now usable again. (If I understood correctly)
I have a star adventure tripod and EQ wedge, but I don't have any clear sky's for weeks.
In this EQ mode the S50 has no more field rotation, and apparently is more accurate in guidance
This clip shows unconventional use:
ua-cam.com/video/vMCf7nFMQmo/v-deo.html
The S50 is painful to point to the moon or sun. It is never correct, so manually moving until you get lucky.
So a Star finder scope will be added soon
Yesterday I had a giant struggle and also today for 50 minutes to make it point in the correct direction. Today I think I discovered that I must pick up the scope and rotate it 180 degree so it can find its way correctly. It clearly uses star patterns as fingerprint to discover where it is pointing at the sky. But I did not have clear skies, very hazy so it may not have resolved it correctly. Once it finds the first star correctly it works perfectly for hours picking other targets.
I don't have clear skies to really test it. But moon and sun images are really great.
I tested mine on the moon and sun yesterday. It went right to both but it took a little longer to find the moon. It exceeded my expectations!
You mention running 2 rigs, and the Seestsr. You've mentioned having multiple asiair controlled systems. How do you keep track of them since they create a dedicated wifi ?
I just answered my own question. Powered my main imaging rig connected to Android tablet, all good.
Turned on my Seestsr. Opened its app on my android phone. It came up on the phone. I can slew each device separately from there individual interfaces on the phone and tablet. Huh! I thought there would be a conflict. Now to actually have a clear night (yah right), and see what happens.
@@mikehardy8247 I switch back and forth with 2 asiairs on my tablet. I’ll probably run the Seestar with my phone.
Just got my seestar , how do I save my image before shutting down, what button do I press.?
@@cindybaisley3301 you can go into the settings and save each photo for stacking in different software, but your final stacked image on the Seestar should save to your photos album. You can import that to your phone or tablet if it doesn’t do it automatically.
Thanks
is it mandatory to change the battery after 700 charge or not?
I’m not sure about that one. Maybe? That would take a lot of clear nights for me to get to 700 charges. It shouldn’t be a problem for years.
more seestar hype seriously over it
The seestar is an excellent beginners setup due to its simplicity, You will learn a lot about the stars and planets and how to set up and it's a great intro into Astrophotography. HOWEVER don't expect awesome images, yes they will look great on instagram but you are very limited with what you can do with it.
1: it is not an eq mounted device which means horrible field rotation as you use it during the night
2: the image quality is Meh compared to what you can do with a better scope, a cooled camera and an equatorial mount (obviously they do cost money)
3: If one thing breaks on it then you dead in the water. It is more or less a paperweight whereas with a dedicated Astro setup you can chop and change, the sky is the limit.
4: resale value will plummet as soon as the next incarnation comes in. Whereas you don't lose as much in resale for dedicated equipment
Don't let what I said put you off however as I still think it's great for beginners and such a great learning tool for outreach, schools and for those days when a more seasoned astrophotographer just can't be bothered setting up or is traveling.
All valid points! I think these smart telescopes are great entry point for absolute beginners with no gear. It will help them to decide if they’d like to progress further, or just toss this thing in the corner and go on with life. I think it’ll be great for outreach and getting people interested in astronomy at a very affordable price. Will this thing be able to keep up with my dedicated rig? Absolutely not, but it’s at a fraction of the price of that rig. For me, so far, it’s been the ease of use and quick setup time that I’ve enjoyed so far under less than favorable conditions. Like I said in the video, if I don’t have a solid 3-4 hour window of clear skies, I’m usually not gonna set my full rig up. This thing on the other hand, I’d definitely set up for an hour or so with clouds approaching.
I can put mine on the roof see targets I cannot see from the ground ;-)
EQ mounted is possible, however not official supported (yet?)
People are modding it like putting target scopes :-)
@@olafbaeyens8955 I’ve seen where people were putting them on equatorial mounts or wedges. That’ll be interesting to see how well that works.
I can see that people put a small observatory where the Seestar fits in on their roof and remotely control it.
No need to go outdoors, and a better view of the horizon. But it would need to be controlled through your own WiFi network, so far that does not work.
I tried station mode the first night, and it couldn’t reach my WiFi. I set it up a little closer the second night, and I imaged from inside. The WiFi range is not quite as good as the ASIair plus.
People are using the Seestar to measure asteroid rotation.
ua-cam.com/video/g5nqQgb3bB8/v-deo.html
It seems to be a very active Seestar community!
@@AstroDanno I also saw one about using the Seestar as spectroscopy. This device is more than something that shoots only pretty pictures.
@@olafbaeyens8955 that’s pretty wild!
@@olafbaeyens8955 science! The never ending quest for knowledge.
I just got mine and it will not update the firmware... I think I will return this and just get a real telescope...
iOS or android? I’ve had 3 updates since I got mine. They’ve all updated successfully with the Seestar on and phone nearby.
@@AstroDanno It's a Android, Galaxy A11. I was able to connect but when I tried to update it would briefly go to the download timer then stop and the timer would go away. It said no internet so I don't know what's wrong.. I may just get the NexStar 127SLT instead...
@@doubletapgaming1189 I update the app first with my home WiFi, and then I’ll turn on the Seestar to update the firmware. That usually works for me. Maybe you’ll get it sorted and get to use it before you make up your mind.
@@AstroDanno Thanks I'll try that...
You have a creator link to the tripod leveler and a tripod?