ZWO Seestar 50

[IB20]

On 06/12/2023 at 13:36, Neil27 said:

Arrived as expected, great service from Zoltan @365 Astronomy. Charging and hoping for a clear (ish) night tonight!

The app is so easy to set up, connected first time, could move it around in Scenery mode. Only thing I would have expected is a lens cap just to keep the dust out, anyone know where to get one, thanks.

Clear skies everyone.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/astro-essentials-seestar-s50-push-fit-lens-cap.html One of these?

[Dave scutt]

Just managed to use it for 50 second's before clouds rolled in.

How do I view the stacked image it's taken.

[Dave scutt]

Not to worry I've found it

[squipper]

Hi would this Honor pad X9  tablet run the S50 app  as my galaxy tab 3   does not run it 

[Giles_B]

Seestar specifies a minimum of android OS 8  - the Honor x9 is Android 11, so should work fine.

Not sure how handy you are with tech, but it's possible there is a custom rom you could use to update you Galaxy tab to a more recent version of Android: https://xdaforums.com/f/galaxy-tab-3-10-1-android-development.2405/

[squipper]

 thank you for that info  i don't that techy  incase i do it wrong and it ends up as a wall decoration 😁

[happy-kat]

Just a thought the honor you mention on argos says Android 14 but in the questions and answers I see that it doesn't have GPS, to those with an S50 does this matter do you think please?

[M40]

41 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

Just a thought the honor you mention on argos says Android 14 but in the questions and answers I see that it doesn't have GPS, to those with an S50 does this matter do you think please?

Interesting question and worth resolving. It shouldn't matter to the seestar but it may affect the apps performance. The seestar has an integral compass and doesn't need to have a continuous connection to your tablet/phone to work but the app needs to know where you are to provide best tonight and probably other stuff. I don't have anything to test it out on, but I might be able to pinch one of the grandkids phones over the weekend to try it. All the best.

[Giles_B]

I'm using a Xiaomi MiPad 4 (running a custom ROM) - no GPS and works fine with the SeeStar. The tablet gets location data from other sources. Not as fine grained as GPS but fine for astronomy.

[M40]

26 minutes ago, Giles_B said:

The tablet gets location data from other sources.

👍 @Giles_B does this mean you need to have a wifi connection or data for it to work?

looking at the blurb the only way I can turn off the gps in the tablet is by turning off location services, so I did and the app threw a tantrum.

Ps the simple act of taking the seestars outside took the clear night sky to 100% cloud in less than 5 minutes 🤦‍♂️ I managed 3 minutes on ic5146 before it stopped stacking. Classic

Edited December 8, 2023 by M40

[DaveGarland]

11 minutes ago, M40 said:

👍 @Giles_B

Ps the simple act of taking the seestars outside took the clear night sky to 100% cloud in less than 5 minutes 🤦‍♂️ I managed 3 minutes on ic5146 before it stopped stacking. Classic

I had this. Also within half an hour it had managed to move the whole of one side of my house in between itself and M33. Powerful bit of kit 😂 Funny what you don't notice when you're sat indoors with a wine isn't it. 

[LDW1]

The talk of gps and pinpointing location for best views is not considering  / taking into account the distance from earth of the dso targets ie in light years, so unless one is going half way around the earth for the evening or to another hemisphere what is the concern about maybe not having a good angle of view on a given nite !  Did I miss something ?

[Giles_B]

7 hours ago, M40 said:

👍 @Giles_B does this mean you need to have a wifi connection or data for it to work?

looking at the blurb the only way I can turn off the gps in the tablet is by turning off location services, so I did and the app threw a tantrum

I guess location service covers any location finding method. I usually connect the Seestar to my home WiFi in base mode, but the app works when I connect my tablet direct to the Seestar WiFi, so location services must store recent location data.

I presume location is used for the weather forecast and the compass and plate solving are used for object location.

[Dave scutt]

First proper night using the seestar last time only lasted a minute before clouds rolled in

[DaveGarland]

I was taking a pic of the Rosette nebula last night. It was looking quite good when suddenly it was 4 hours later... I had fallen asleep. The Rosette nebula was completely gone. No pic on my phone or on the Seestar itself. Has anyone else had this? If the pic becomes terrible for some reason, does it get deleted? 🤷‍♂️ 

 

 

 

[M40]

I've found the seestar will stop stacking if it can no longer plate solve the target and should save the last stacked image. The only time I had a challenge was when I chose a target that was the other side of a roof top and it couldn't find the start point. Do you think something could have blocked the target so it went instantly from plate solve to nothing? 

[Cosmic Geoff]

37 minutes ago, DaveGarland said:

I was taking a pic of the Rosette nebula last night. It was looking quite good when suddenly it was 4 hours later... I had fallen asleep. The Rosette nebula was completely gone. No pic on my phone or on the Seestar itself. Has anyone else had this? If the pic becomes terrible for some reason, does it get deleted? 🤷‍♂️ 

I did have one image stored on the Seestar only. That night I was experimenting with taking the Iphone indoors and out of range of the Seestar wifi.  If you don't complete the target setup I would not expect it to store anything.

[DaveGarland]

It could've gone into the side of my house. I'm just surprised it didn't save the good images. It was looking quite nice before I nodded off. I'm left with nothing though. 

[Giles_B]

5 hours ago, DaveGarland said:

I was taking a pic of the Rosette nebula last night. It was looking quite good when suddenly it was 4 hours later... I had fallen asleep. The Rosette nebula was completely gone. No pic on my phone or on the Seestar itself. Has anyone else had this? If the pic becomes terrible for some reason, does it get deleted? 🤷‍♂️ 

 

It will have stored the subs on the Seestar, just not stacked them. I've had the same happen to me when I left the Seestar enhancing an object overnight and it had run out of battery and powered down. 

[DaveGarland]

5 hours ago, Giles_B said:

It will have stored the subs on the Seestar, just not stacked them. I've had the same happen to me when I left the Seestar enhancing an object overnight and it had run out of battery and powered down. 

You were right! Thanks Giles 👍 It only got 33 mins though which is also odd. I'm guessing maybe I've tapped my phone when I nodded off. I guess the main lesson to learn here is not to sleep on the job lol. Thanks again

 

[DaveL59]

Came across this vid, not tried to see if it still applies but might be interesting to play

ack, just read the comments and apparently it was disabled/removed in the last update. Oh well...

Edited December 12, 2023 by DaveL59

[DaveL59]

Found this re the planetary mode too, looks quite handy being able to adjust exposure so show the bands on jupiter etc

 

[squipper]

Hi  any ideas please what caused this while setting up my seestar S50 trying to adjust the pointing ,the circle is stuck in the nine oclock position and wont move .Have delated and reinstalled the app and it still did it  am at a loss 

Edited December 13, 2023 by squipper
hit the wrong button fat fingers

[DaveL59]

1 hour ago, squipper said:

Hi  any ideas please what caused this while setting up my seestar S50 trying to adjust the pointing ,the circle is stuck in the nine oclock position and wont move .Have delated and reinstalled the app and it still did it  am at a loss 

I didn't think the circle moves, you just pop your digit on the circle and slide it in the direction you want the scope to move and you get an arrow confirming and the scope should move. Can you post a screenshot of the problem to help us see what you are seeing?

[squipper]

that's the problem move my finger around but the circle stays put

Edited December 13, 2023 by squipper