ZWO Seestar 50

[saac]

Just now, LDW1 said:

Make sure its the SS and not the D2 unless you want to use your engineering skills, lol !

Never miss an opportunity to use engineering in astronomy; it is after all a technical discipline.  Any bit of equipment can always be optimized and adapted else where is the fun  

Jim 

[saac]

Just now, 900SL said:

You may choose to think that, but I don't consider that to be correct. I'm pretty certain that most astro-imagers don't feel threatened or undermined by the Seestar. Many seem to find it quite cute, like a little nodding dog doing tricks and cartwheels

It has been designed to provide a quick n dirty grab and go / point and shoot experience, and appeals to many who either lack the ability or ambition to bang their heads against the wall that is astrophotography, which ultimately produces far superior results

It also appeals hugely to those who do and have.  When my hellishly expensive main rig is working away in the background I'd love to have access to one of these. Like I said, it's all about using the right tool for the right job.  

Jim 

[Stu1smartcookie]

8 minutes ago, 900SL said:

You may choose to think that, but I don't consider that to be correct. I'm pretty certain that most astro-imagers don't feel threatened or undermined by the Seestar. Many seem to find it quite cute, like a little nodding dog doing tricks and cartwheels

It has been designed to provide a quick n dirty grab and go / point and shoot experience, and appeals to many who either lack the ability or ambition to bang their heads against the wall that is astrophotography, which ultimately produces far superior results

"Lack the ability" ????? We are surely not worthy ... Honestly , you really should choose your words more carefully .

[900SL]

2 minutes ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

"Lack the ability" ????? We are surely not worthy ... Honestly , you really should choose your words more carefully .

To be fair, this wasn't a blanket catch all, and the Seestar does appeal to many visual astronomers. I chose my words quite carefully. Maybe you could too, as I noted in my earlier post.

 

[900SL]

9 minutes ago, saac said:

It also appeals hugely to those who do and have.  When my hellishly expensive main rig is working away in the background I'd love to have access to one of these. Like I said, it's all about using the right tool for the right job.  

Jim 

Indeed it does. My point was that the assertion that imagers are somehow threatened by the Seestar is incorrect. 

[saac]

Just now, 900SL said:

Indeed it does. My point was that the assertion that imagers are somehow threatened by the Seestar is incorrect. 

I agree, that is a bit of nonsense. It is a bit of kit no more intimidating than say a camera tilt adapter. Ohh, well actually maybe poor choice there  

Jim 

[GasGiant]

Crickey. Is this still going on... WE GET IT. YOU DONT LIKE THE SEESTAR. GROW UP AND MOVE ON. LOL

Its really getting pathetic now. 

Edited April 8 by GasGiant

[saac]

Just now, GasGiant said:

Crickey. Is this still going on... WE GET IT. YOU DONT LIKE THE SEESTAR. GROW UP AND MOVE ON. LOL

We do like it though it's lovely and I want one 

Jim 

[LaurenceT]

What I'm looking forward to are at least 500+ time lapse videos on Facebook Seestar pages of the eclipse. I asked my Seestar last night if it was disappointed at missing out on the eclipse, it didn't answer so I've contacted ZWO for a "chat" facility firmware upgrade.........

[LDW1]

North Bay, Ontario, Canada today, 92% covered !  I was lucky the SS shot right through the thinner cloud cover !

 

Edited April 8 by LDW1

[glafnazur]

Great shots 👍

[Beardy30]

10 hours ago, LDW1 said:

Google around there have been several on these forums incl CN / YouTube, I think SS won out based on cost vs capabilities and ease of use !

Sorry perhaps my question was poorly worded, I get the S50 wins for certain economic/ capability reason but my question was more around if anyone has tried one of these and how good it was in comparison regardless of cost ☺️

[LDW1]

19 minutes ago, Beardy30 said:

Sorry perhaps my question was poorly worded, I get the S50 wins for certain economic/ capability reason but my question was more around if anyone has tried one of these and how good it was in comparison regardless of cost ☺️

I  had the D2 as well but I immediately sold it when I got my first SS !  I could never get it to perform right, I always had a problem getting it to perform, the other high end gear after researching them throughly determined that I wouldn't pay that sort of $'s but as far as an actual usage comparison I can't help but I have read some, use google if need be !

[Beardy30]

9 hours ago, LDW1 said:

North Bay, Ontario, Canada today, 92% covered !  I was lucky the SS shot right through the thinner cloud cover !

 

Fabulous images I love the Seestar so much I do t seriously think I’ll ever use a conventional telescope again 

[LaurenceT]

2 hours ago, Beardy30 said:

Fabulous images I love the Seestar so much I do t seriously think I’ll ever use a conventional telescope again 

There's already one for sale on Facebook, used only once apparently🙄

[Geoff Lister]

17 hours ago, saac said:

Well you are now in the fortunate position to sell me one

No chance

[MonsterMagnet]

On 09/04/2024 at 00:19, 900SL said:

You may choose to think that, but I don't consider that to be correct. I'm pretty certain that most astro-imagers don't feel threatened or undermined by the Seestar. Many seem to find it quite cute, like a little nodding dog doing tricks and cartwheels

It has been designed to provide a quick n dirty grab and go / point and shoot experience, and appeals to many who either lack the ability or ambition to bang their heads against the wall that is astrophotography, which ultimately produces far superior results

I think that's a rather unfair and condescending post.

"lack the ability or ambition"

I love my full rig and use it whenever I can but that doesn't mean my Seestar doesn't have a place or that I lack ability or ambition. 

My picture above shows the SS can be used effectively with a small amount of processing ability and that for travel when I can't take my rig it's absolutely perfect.  I would have felt huge regret sitting under the dark island skies with nothing to do a bit of imaging with. 

You take a full rig around 3 large Asian cities and then to a remote island, produce an image and then come back to me about the experience of lugging it around for 12 days for that one or two nights of imaging. 

Perhaps then you'll start to see some viable use cases.

MM

[M40]

I have neither the ability or ambition for astrophotography; seestar suits me just fine thank you very much.

That excellent little device has already given me (albeit poor) images of things I never thought I would get and the other night, between the clouds, the grandkids were overjoyed to choose and then see a few wonders the night sky can offer. Enjoy.

[LDW1]

2 hours ago, MonsterMagnet said:

I think that's a rather unfair and condescending post.

"lack the ability or ambition"

I love my full rig and use it whenever I can but that doesn't mean my Seestar doesn't have a place or that I lack ability or ambition. 

My picture above shows the SS can be used effectively with a small amount of processing ability and that for travel when I can't take my rig it's absolutely perfect.  I would have felt huge regret sitting under the dark island skies with nothing to do a bit of imaging with. 

You take a full rig around 3 large Asian cities and then to a remote island, produce an image and then come back to me about the experience of lugging it around for 12 days for that one or two nights of imaging. 

Perhaps then you'll start to see some viable use cases.

MM

Remember the poster said 'many' not 'you' in particular from what I see, so if you don't have a guilty concience why would you speak for others !  I think the poster is correct in some cases. Your between the quotes might be a little out of context, there are many that call themselves astronomers but in fact make very little effort to be, lol !

[Beardy30]

has anyone use the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 for the SeeStar i wonder how it compared technically to the Ipad 2022 model - as ive always preferred the simplisity of the Ipad/Apple devices personally

[paulastro]

If anyone is thinking of buying any 'Smart Telescope', particularly the Seestar S50, you should watch this video on U-Tube if you haven't already.

If your'e one of the critics of the S50, particularly those who think it is not worthy as  being of use to anyone,   perhaps you should look away now! 😊

 

 

[Neil H]

3 hours ago, Beardy30 said:

has anyone use the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 for the SeeStar i wonder how it compared technically to the Ipad 2022 model - as ive always preferred the simplisity of the Ipad/Apple devices personally

Mines not that new tab s7 lite but works 100% never had a problem really the only thing was on play store app is not as new as the one on ZWO site so get it from there

[LDW1]

Procyon !  My stars album keeps growing, skizes were terrible last nite so I will take this one again !

 

[jjohnson3803]

On 09/04/2024 at 03:41, LaurenceT said:

There's already one for sale on Facebook, used only once apparently🙄

There were / are a few on Highpoint Scientific (US).  I guess some of the eclipse viewers felt the S* was a one-and-done.  There are a couple of DwarfStars and Vaonis also.

Edited April 11 by jjohnson3803

[Oortraged]

Heya folks, nice to see some images of the eclipse from the Seestar!

With the weather having been what it has recently, I had chance to sit down and pull the .fit files off the S50 and try and get to grips with post processing. Have been using the videos from Deep Space Astro on YouTube to get to grips with Siril.

This is my first proper effort at an image, could only convince Siril to use 40 minutes of data compared to the 53 the S50 had gathered. Utility on Siril handles colour calibrarion and removing some excessive green noise in the data. Then ran a general noise reduction on the resultant image. I used the StarNet plug in for siril to remove the stars, did a manual stretch of the data in the histogram and (perhaps excessively!) altered the saturation to bring some more colour forward in M51. Finally, stars added back in and a stretch done on those (tried to keep them a bit smaller).

There's definitely a little bit of a learning curve, but very manageable and a good way to pass a few hours when there's not much to see above! Lots of nuance and things to learn with the software, but found it genuinely really fun, and looking forward to tackling the rest of the archive!

Quick edit to add the YouTube channel I've been watching for anyone interested in learning more, apologies if it's already been linked earlier in the thread: https://youtube.com/@DeepSpaceAstro?feature=shared

Edited April 11 by Oortraged
Added link