ZWO Seestar 50

[LDW1]

2 hours ago, powerlord said:

Well, I'm afraid I have got to report a complete lack of success with autofocus on terrestrial targets.

every single time, the autofocus routine goes past the focus point - you will see in the video one frame of sharply focused video as it moves backwards, then it moves forwards again and overshoots it. everytime.

I have yet to manage to focus a single subject even after several attempts. I tried the wall as it is flat, thinking maybe it was having trouble with certain targets - sloping roofs, the antenna, etc - but it is not that  - it just misses the focus point every single time.

I've not had a chance to see if this is the same with night targets yet, but it does not bode well. I'm hoping this is a software fix, or else I am going to be feeling the pain of ordering direct from ZWO.... argggg

Here's a video showing me several times pressing the autofocus.. you will see a sngle 'sharp' frame every routine before it 'finishes' somewhere totally different.

 

My Dwarf II did the same I always had to fine adjust it, maybe its the nature of the beast !

[powerlord]

LDW1: can't manually focus.

Anyway, raised a case with ZWO, they got back to me - turns out v1.8 of app is out, but not in play store yet - I downloaded from their website direct, and its fixed it! yeh!

So - daylight use wise a few observations:

1. didn't realise sensor is mounted in portrait mode. weird choice.

2. how to get to save on S50? or does it just save astro fits to s50 ? all scenery shots just saving to phone - nothing on s50 when I connect to computer.

3. quality of video and jpgs is rubbish. focus is there now, but jpgs are compressed to within an inch of their life as are the 15fps 1080x1920 portrait videos. They could be much higher quality. Also - surely the sensor can shoot 30fps ? I get maybe not trasmitting to phone but why not save on S50? seems a rubbbish decision. I mean, I know terrestrial use is an edge case, but still, they have really handicapped what it could do here

Looks like might be some stars visible tonight, so will give it a go at night and see how it performs - might try an optolong L-extreme on it too.

stu

[powerlord]

Just read the 'manual'. God that is terrible. How can they have spent all that time and effort on a product, but produce that - unbelievable. Absolutely abysmal.

[powerlord]

Oh also annoying - is that you can't set the wifi to join your home wifi. Hence, I can't sit upstairs cosily in my bed and control it like I can with my asiairs, etc but have to be in range of the seestar wifi.

yes, I know.. maybe this is an edge use case - but come on - it's basic stuff. there's no good reason why they have not done this. quite annoying. humph.

I've at least worked out if I focus on something in scenery mode, then select moon mode, I can shoot raw video which is stored on the S50 - still just 15fps but at least its raw avi - so I imagine if you wanted to shoot wildlife, that'd be the way to do it. stills are still rubbish jpgs though.

Edited September 29, 2023 by powerlord

[M40]

9 minutes ago, powerlord said:

Oh also annoying - is that you can't set the wifi to join your home wifi. Hence, I can't sit upstairs cosily in my bed and control it like I can with my asiairs, etc but have to be in range of the seestar wifi.

yes, I know.. maybe this is an edge use case - but come on - it's basic stuff. there's no good reason why they have not done this. quite annoying. humph.

I thought I read somewhere that the 1.8.1 version enabled connection to your router? I  will have a search for it.

[M40]

17 minutes ago, powerlord said:

Just read the 'manual'. God that is terrible. How can they have spent all that time and effort on a product, but produce that - unbelievable. Absolutely abysmal.

I take it you've not read a zwo manual before 🤪 they remind me of old technical literature that came free with the product, just enough info to let you hang yourself.

[Cosmic Geoff]

8 minutes ago, powerlord said:

Oh also annoying - is that you can't set the wifi to join your home wifi. Hence, I can't sit upstairs cosily in my bed and control it like I can with my asiairs, etc but have to be in range of the seestar wifi.

One of the early testers claimed that he could connect to his home wifi, and (I think the same one) said it had manual focus.  Some say the Seestar saves FITS files separately (i.e. not stacked) in astro mode.  It is difficult to know what to make of such reports when none of these people report what app revision and Seestar firmware revision they were testing.

I have not tried testing the range of the S50 wifi yet.

Mine is currently at v1.7.1 Ios and v1.5.1 S50.

[powerlord]

I might offer to write them one. I wrote one for the OCAL collimator.

[DaveL59]

2 hours ago, powerlord said:

 

Anyway, raised a case with ZWO, they got back to me - turns out v1.8 of app is out, but not in play store yet - I downloaded from their website direct, and its fixed it! yeh!

 

Useful to know, thanks. With mine arriving this afternoon I've just updated both my Lenovo tablet and Sammy note-10 with 1.8.0 in anticipation 🙂

[powerlord]

does sunspots ok anyhoo.

[DaveL59]

Just got mine and unboxed it. Anyone find that the tripod fitting has a slight play in it? Screwed up tight but there's a tiny movement if you rock the fitting/tripod in the screw/unscrew direction. No rock per se at least not that I noticed. Might not be much to worry about but would certainly affect its aim in a breeze I'd think.

Other than that, its charging. Power-up test went well, even spoke English so no settings to change for me and focused on the trees just fine 🙂

Edit: only disappointment is - no lens cap for when its parked. Will see if I have anything that'll fit as I prefer to keep lenses protected when not in use. Sure it'd be in its case stored but leaving it out charging and with kitties, good chance some hairs will find their way onto the lens. If not, once the 48mm filter attachment arrives I can likely use a spare low-profile 49mm camera lens cap.

Edit2: simple temp solution, using the mask that I'd ordered off the bay-of-e with the protective paper film that was covering the lens during shipping. Fits nicely and will happily park with it in place 🙂 

Edited September 29, 2023 by DaveL59

[tooth_dr]

Jeepers this is the first I've heard of this scope, it looks phenomenal!  Looking forward to all the images and updates on the thread.

[powerlord]

51 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

Just got mine and unboxed it. Anyone find that the tripod fitting has a slight play in it? Screwed up tight but there's a tiny movement if you rock the fitting/tripod in the screw/unscrew direction. No rock per se at least not that I noticed. Might not be much to worry about but would certainly affect its aim in a breeze I'd think.

Other than that, its charging. Power-up test went well, even spoke English so no settings to change for me and focused on the trees just fine 🙂

Edit: only disappointment is - no lens cap for when its parked. Will see if I have anything that'll fit as I prefer to keep lenses protected when not in use. Sure it'd be in its case stored but leaving it out charging and with kitties, good chance some hairs will find their way onto the lens. If not, once the 48mm filter attachment arrives I can likely use a spare low-profile 49mm camera lens cap.

Edit2: simple temp solution, using the mask that I'd ordered off the bay-of-e with the protective paper film that was covering the lens during shipping. Fits nicely and will happily park with it in place 🙂 

Ha, yeh that'll work.

The play in tripod is just the motor play. Azgti has the same. It doesn't affect anything.

 

[LDW1]

Just got word here in Ontario, Canada that mine is being shipped today from my dealer, 200 miles away south. I will likely get it Tues via UPS. I ordered mine on Apr 25, so they have arrived in Canada !

[powerlord]

Aha! Found some features - hidden a bit. So - about shows changelog for v1.9.. which is weird since it's not available... however v1.8 added stuff so did previous versions.

station mode is there - and it's now connected to my observatory wifi - so I can now happily control it from my bedroom like the rest of the obsy mounts. Also manual focus is there, so thats good too. Plus an advanced options you can turn on to save all individual frames, so can stack yerself later or do multi sessions, etc - I assume this will also save the darks it takes... no flats are taken.. but if it's saving the frames now, no reason why I can't take my own - though without bias maybe not that useful ?

So, a bit cloudy tonight but not looking too bad till midnight at least so will try as many targets as I can - the wall, iris, elephant trunk, m33, crescent. might also have a go with an L-extreme vs the inbuild dual band and see if it's useable or just too dark.

Oh - tip wise - IF you want to shoot terrestrial video best quality, yer best option is to:

1. scenery mode, focus on target.

2. swap to moon mode and select video and raw (raw not an option in scenery mode).. and no option to save FIT or raw images in scenery mode either.

3. start videoing

Now you'll have the raw video (2MB per frame, 30MB/s vs about 1MB/s in H264 video it delivers to phone.

You then have to grab it off device (raw 8 bit avi), and can do what you want with it. As I'm on a mac, I have to use PIPP on windows to save out the individual frames as PNGs, then can use quicktime on the mac to create a lossless mov from the frames then I can edit in final cut pro, etc.. all a bit of a palaver and can't imagine I'm gonna do that very often, but if you happen to want to video a lesser-spotted squirrel warbler with your FF DSLR equivalent of a 1600mm lens (so pretty useful telephoto really), you'll want to shoot in raw to tease those details of the multi coloured plumage around it's 6 eyes, and sharpen those bright yellows in its furry legs...

 

Edited September 29, 2023 by powerlord

[powerlord]

Thought this might be useful for folk.

Here's a video from my phone, starting in regular 35mm equiv or so, zooming in with my phone a bit to the roof antenna in the distance, then swapping to the video shot with the seestar.

 

 

[happy-kat]

Is that with the newer version looks sharper then previous

[powerlord]

3 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

Is that with the newer version looks sharper then previous

yeh, as I said earlier in thread the focus issue I had was solved updating the app from v1.7.1 from v1.8. pin sharp now.

[tooth_dr]

Do these scopes include build in filters?

[DaveL59]

26 minutes ago, powerlord said:

Aha! Found some features - hidden a bit. So - about shows changelog for v1.9.. which is weird since it's not available... however v1.8 added stuff so did previous versions.

station mode is there - and it's now connected to my observatory wifi - so I can now happily control it from my bedroom like the rest of the obsy mounts. Also manual focus is there, so thats good too. Plus an advanced options you can turn on to save all individual frames, so can stack yerself later or do multi sessions, etc - I assume this will also save the darks it takes... no flats are taken.. but if it's saving the frames now, no reason why I can't take my own - though without bias maybe not that useful ?

So, a bit cloudy tonight but not looking too bad till midnight at least so will try as many targets as I can - the wall, iris, elephant trunk, m33, crescent. might also have a go with an L-extreme vs the inbuild dual band and see if it's useable or just too dark.

Oh - tip wise - IF you want to shoot terrestrial video best quality, yer best option is to:

1. scenery mode, focus on target.

2. swap to moon mode and select video and raw (raw not an option in scenery mode).. and no option to save FIT or raw images in scenery mode either.

3. start videoing

Now you'll have the raw video (2MB per frame, 30MB/s vs about 1MB/s in H264 video it delivers to phone.

You then have to grab it off device (raw 8 bit avi), and can do what you want with it. As I'm on a mac, I have to use PIPP on windows to save out the individual frames as PNGs, then can use quicktime on the mac to create a lossless mov from the frames then I can edit in final cut pro, etc.. all a bit of a palaver and can't imagine I'm gonna do that very often, but if you happen to want to video a lesser-spotted squirrel warbler with your FF DSLR equivalent of a 1600mm lens (so pretty useful telephoto really), you'll want to shoot in raw to tease those details of the multi coloured plumage around it's 6 eyes, and sharpen those bright yellows in its furry legs...

 

I'd noticed the save individual frames options when I quickly went thru setting mine up but then had to return to work mode so didn't get to investigate other options further. Hooking to your own WiFi sounds handy tho I'd have to add it into the permitted MAC's list etc. Was it 2.4 or 5 GHz band out of interest?

 

[powerlord]

13 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

I'd noticed the save individual frames options when I quickly went thru setting mine up but then had to return to work mode so didn't get to investigate other options further. Hooking to your own WiFi sounds handy tho I'd have to add it into the permitted MAC's list etc. Was it 2.4 or 5 GHz band out of interest?

 

ooo, can't remember sorry

[powerlord]

13 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

Do these scopes include build in filters?

yeh, they have a dark which it uses automatically at the start of each session, and a quite wide dual band. I think it was tested at around 30nm for each oiii and ha.

And in the box is a clip/push on solar filter.

stu

[tooth_dr]

6 minutes ago, powerlord said:

yeh, they have a dark which it uses automatically at the start of each session, and a quite wide dual band. I think it was tested at around 30nm for each oiii and ha.

And in the box is a clip/push on solar filter.

stu

Thanks Stu. Seems perfect for a wide range of uses. 

[DaveL59]

Sky here at the mo had a lot of thin cloud, a couple bright stars trying to peek thru the gaps but not looking good. Hopefully things will clear a bit later and there's always Bella Luna when she finally shows. Kinda figures tho huh, new glass and all that 😉 

One thought dawned on me tho, wonder how my security IR illuminators will affect it?
Guess I'll find out - eventually.

Edited September 29, 2023 by DaveL59

[powerlord]

30 mins on the elephant trunk. Just the 'as stacked' . With the lp filter. Trying iris nebula now with no lp filter.

Edited September 29, 2023 by powerlord