ZWO Seestar 50

[Oortraged]

22 minutes ago, LDW1 said:

And I hate to say this but daytime solar ha astronomy is another great branch to get into, with the way night skize have been for the last several years it extends your astro activity considerably !  If you haven't already, your 80mm refractor together with a wedge or Baader film filter will put you into some great WL viewing also while your S50 is working away doing its thing.  As they say ' the sky is the limit ' !

Argh, this is exactly the sort of encouragement I don't need, haha! I've been following the Quark since release, and have had it in the basket on more than one occasion, and have managed to rationalise not bending the plastic based on the variable performance reports. At some point I will have to bite the bullet, especially as I have already talked myself up from a Lunt LS40 to an LS50 whilst pondering the starting point... if I wait much longer, I'll be into LS60 territory and needing to sell my organs, haha! I think the measured response is to see how much use the S50 sees in the daytime (I suspect quite a lot), before trying to justify the next expenditure to myself! Really appreciate your feedback @LDW1.

[Beardy30]

I wonder how one of these would compare to the Seestar https://www.firstlightoptics.com/rowe-ackermann/celestron-origin-intelligent-home-observatory.html

[LDW1]

12 minutes ago, Beardy30 said:

I wonder how one of these would compare to the Seestar https://www.firstlightoptics.com/rowe-ackermann/celestron-origin-intelligent-home-observatory.html

Price wise not very well ie $6000 C vs $700 C, lol !

[Beardy30]

Sorry I meant price aside capabilities wise and quality wise obviously- be interested to see if it’s worth the upgrade 

Edited March 10 by Beardy30

[LaurenceT]

4 minutes ago, Beardy30 said:

Sorry I meant price aside capabilities wise and quality wise obviously- be interested to see if it’s worth the upgrade 

I think I'd be more inclined to buy 6 Seestars for that money and establish The Large Back Garden Seestar Array.

Edit: Actually I wouldn't 😄

[Beardy30]

1 minute ago, LaurenceT said:

I think I'd be more inclined to buy 6 Seestars for that money and establish The Large Back Garden Seestar Array.

Edit: Actually I wouldn't 😄

No me neither but having a Seestar myself I’d still be tempted at some point by the celesteon 

[LaurenceT]

Looking at the specs of the Celestron I'm sure it would be a  fantastic instrument.

 

[Elp]

IF you ignore the prices, the Celestron will be far more capable:

Scopes - Celestron/Seestar

Aperture - 150mm Vs 50mm - higher resolution and light gathering capability so faster pixel saturation on camera sensor

Cameras - IMX178/IMX462 - Sizes - slightly larger and more MP count on the Origin so higher resolution coupled with the scopes aperture images

Focal length - 335mm/250mm - Origin will be able to see smaller objects better but there's not that much difference in it

BUT the Seestar is much much smaller, light, portable, likely easier to setup and get going. If you then factor in the price, no other setup comes even close to the Seestar.

The Origin really should have been supplied on an equatorial mount especially for the price they're asking for. If you're good with your product sourcing (IE mixture of new/used) you can likely put together a Rasa8 setup for similar or less and that would be far better still.

If you want to see what the Origin will likely be like look to images taken with a C6 and Hyperstar, a setup I own and use though I use mine for long hours AP rather than EAA type shorter captures.

[LDW1]

39 minutes ago, Beardy30 said:

Sorry I meant price aside capabilities wise and quality wise obviously- be interested to see if it’s worth the upgrade 

Price aside or not are you going to get almost 10x the performance or even 5x vs the ease of use, I think not !  It all remains to be seen, for sure !  Many have their faith in ZWO, Celestron have to prove themselves in this field and they are starting out big, lol !  I mean big $'s !  PS:  I bought 2 s50's I'm keepin' the faith, lol !

Edited March 10 by LDW1

[Elp]

Zwo are also in a unique position to react to the market far quicker as they now supply all the kit you'd need for this purpose having years of experience with the asiair and astro cameras. It won't be long until they release a successor but that may be in 2025/2026, the Seestar as I see it it selling reasonably well at the moment so no need to rush a new one to market.

[LDW1]

2 minutes ago, Elp said:

Zwo are also in a unique position to react to the market far quicker as they now supply all the kit you'd need for this purpose having years of experience with the asiair and astro cameras. It won't be long until they release a successor but that may be in 2025/2026, the Seestar as I see it it selling reasonably well at the moment so no need to rush a new one to market.

It still remains to be seen how long before a new, larger model pops up but if the price is reasonable my wallet is ready to fly open, lol !  But it will really have to be worth while ie wider fov  but not an EQ mode I am not an eq astronomer since the first year in the hobby, 30+ yrs. ago !

[Elp]

If it's automated eq/alt az shouldn't really matter. What would be unique is whether they can manage to release an auto polar aligning EQ version (or some sort of advanced telescope system), now that would be something. Agree with the FOV, the current one seems kind of restricted which is why I stick with my camera lenses for now for wide shots.

[LDW1]

7 minutes ago, Elp said:

If it's automated eq/alt az shouldn't really matter. What would be unique is whether they can manage to release an auto polar aligning EQ version (or some sort of advanced telescope system), now that would be something. Agree with the FOV, the current one seems kind of restricted which is why I stick with my camera lenses for now for wide shots.

An eq  /  az capability could very easily escalate the $'s which I personally may not want to finance without other worthwhile selling features, in my opinion, from my pocketbook, lol !

[GasGiant]

55 minutes ago, LDW1 said:

Price aside or not are you going to get almost 10x the performance or even 5x vs the ease of use, I think not !  It all remains to be seen, for sure !  Many have their faith in ZWO, Celestron have to prove themselves in this field and they are starting out big, lol !  I mean big $'s !  PS:  I bought 2 s50's I'm keepin' the faith, lol !

Can I ask, why did you buy two ?

[paulastro]

I'm very happy with the S50.  I think to throw £4k at the Celestron now would be a huge gamble.   I'll stick with what I've got - certainly until Seestar Mk 11 is unveiled.  If Seestar can market the S50 for £500, just think what  we might get for eight or even twice the price 🤗.

[GasGiant]

What would people like to see in its current version with regard to firmware updates ?

Me

1) For the app to flip to landscape 

2) Have a dedicated Windows app so we can lounge about on our PCs 🙂 

3) More editing features built in, curves, noise etc etc 

 

I agree with @LDW1  when MK2 comes along Im ready with my wallet. These things are just too easy lol 

[LDW1]

53 minutes ago, GasGiant said:

Can I ask, why did you buy two ?

I bought 2 because when sky conditions improve, hopefully,  I can compete them against each other, I have several thoughts about that, things I want to try.  The price was right and selling my D2 paid for a good part of the second one.

[GasGiant]

24 minutes ago, LDW1 said:

I bought 2 because when sky conditions improve, hopefully,  I can compete them against each other, I have several thoughts about that, things I want to try.  The price was right and selling my D2 paid for a good part of the second one.

I did think it would be something technical.  I suppose you could then stack those two sets of images?

[Geoff Lister]

19 hours ago, LDW1 said:

 I bought 2 s50's I'm keepin' the faith, lol !

I was thinking that with four S50s, a decent sized garden, and the right software, we could start to have "Very Large Telescope" capabilities.

Geoff

[LDW1]

3 hours ago, Geoff Lister said:

I was thinking that with four S50s, a decent sized garden, and the right software, we could start to have "Very Large Telescope" capabilities.

Geoff

LOL !

[LaurenceT]

First clear night at about 23.00 so I chanced my luck and tried some lunar. I've only had the Seestar a few days and managed to image the sun within a few hours of opening the box without problems. Last night was a different matter however, it simply couldn't find the moon even after levelling and compass calibration.

So I tried selecting some random nebula which it slewed to immediately and did a 3 star calibration. I backed out of that and tried the moon and it found it perfectly so I took a few videos during which it tracked perfectly. I still have to work out the finer details of AF when the green box is not on the moon. The sky looks clear right now so I might try some more solar.

Image is a 1 minute video processed in Pipp, AutoStakkert and Dxo Photolab 3. It had a green tinge so I converted it to mono in Nik.

[GasGiant]

Seems there is an firmware update for the SStar, I dont think its on Android yet though.  Keep your eyes peeled 

 

 

Edited March 18 by GasGiant

[LaurenceT]

I haven't yet watched the video, maybe he mentions it but I've read that the sync button has disappeared because it's now being done automatically.

Edit: yep, it's in the video! 😳

Edited March 18 by LaurenceT

[paulastro]

2 hours ago, GasGiant said:

Seems there is an firmware update for the SStar, I dont think its on Android yet though.  Keep your eyes peeled 

 

 

Thanks for posting.  I'll check if it works on Android.  I've watched the video and from what I saw it seems all about having more control over the exposure in solar mode.  A shame, I was hoping for the mosaic feature.  Am I correct re the contents of the update??

Edited March 18 by paulastro

[GasGiant]

It would look that way..  @30 seconds shows what being updated. 

 

It would be interesting to see if they have rolled it out for US first due to the upcoming solar eclipse ? 

 

Any IOS users here have it yet ?