ZWO Seestar 50

[powerlord]

I stopped watching his videos as he kept deleting my comments. I'll wait for another reviewer, much as I'd like to view.

[RobertI]

Hope no one minds, here are a few popular DSOs to demonstrate the FOV of the SeeStar 50 (red box - ignore the fact the FOV label says ASI290), hopefully I’ve got the calcs right but feel free to correct me.

Edited August 24, 2023 by RobertI

[Icesheet]

14 hours ago, powerlord said:

I stopped watching his videos as he kept deleting my comments. I'll wait for another reviewer, much as I'd like to view.

He’s always came across as one of the more open and honest YouTuber’s out there (unless it’s something that competes with NINA). Curious as to what kind of comments he deleted if you’re willing to share. 

[powerlord]

just regular ones - - nothing contentious. question about this or that, sometimes pointing our a feature he'd missed or something.. it happened again and again so in the end I just lost respect for him. Obviously you expect rude comments, etc to be deleted but not ones simply giving another point of view, etc. hey ho - lots of alternative youtubers out there.

[LDW1]

12 minutes ago, powerlord said:

just regular ones - - nothing contentious. question about this or that, sometimes pointing our a feature he'd missed or something.. it happened again and again so in the end I just lost respect for him. Obviously you expect rude comments, etc to be deleted but not ones simply giving another point of view, etc. hey ho - lots of alternative youtubers out there.

Maybe your thoughts are because you know more than he does !  I always found him fairly knowledgeable. But then again just my honest opinion, what makes any others any better in this new world of ours ?   PS:  And I have heard / seen some pretty wishy-washy posters on many subjects, lol.

[DaveL59]

I decided to throw in an order to FLO for one of these today. Sounds good from the reviews on youtube tho time will tell IRL once it arrives, whenever that'll be. For me I'm visual but not-so-dark skies, aging eyes and a day working on a screen leaves the eyes a bit jaded these days, so it'll be a handy EEVA tool perhaps and some fun for my daughter and grandkids to be able to see stuff they'd not manage on the Starsense LT70 etc., esp from SE London.

[PeterW]

As shown above the ability to mosaic will enable the larger objects to be framed nicely. I’m interested in the likely limiting magnitude with different integrations from city - country skies…. Shaping up to be a very nice tool for a quick look at stuff, find the odd comet etc…

 

peter

[roelb]

Must the app on the phone remain connected to the Seestar while a recording is in progress?

Are all operations (like stacking) done in the Seestar itself or on the phone app?

Can the phone be disconnected while the Seestar is recording & stacking and later on be connected again?

Can I use a PC to connect with the Seestar via WiFi? The app is installed on the PC.

[roelb]

Asked ZWO & received prompt answer:

All operations, including stacking, are done in the Seestar S50 itself.

While recording & stacking is in progress the phone may be disconnected.

The app is designed for mobile we havent tested on mac or windows android sub system.

[LDW1]

On 26/05/2023 at 06:52, Mike Q said:

I would disagree, as at our outreach programs, once the image on Stellina comes in the lines at the scopes get much shorter and everyone is standing around the monitor we use to display Stellina's images. 

You hit it right on the head !  Why would it be any other way if you love all aspects of astronomy ? There are dreamers in every crowd !

[Guest]

1 hour ago, LDW1 said:

You hit it right on the head !  Why would it be any other way if you love all aspects of astronomy ? There are dreamers in every crowd !

I can't knock the Stellana, it is a great tool and easy to use, so easy my wife bought one 

[M40]

Delivery update from flo, first shipment is landing at flo next week with April orders fulfilled soon after; with the next shipment expected late September.

[powerlord]

I ordered direct from zwo before flo had em on website. Be interesting to see when mine arrives. 🤔

[Seme]

OK Just seen one in action at the Festival of Astronomy.

Just Take My Money one ordered.

 

[DaveL59]

I see a new vid has been put on the tube just 30 mins ago

 

[PeterW]

No note on the local light pollution (though the near full moon was up) and boy did they let it accumulate for a LONG time… as a visual observer I’d have got bored after 5mins! Would be good to see what additional enhancement you can do in app, so you could run through a reasonable number of things in an evening. Playing with stuff on the computer is nice for when it’s cloudy though.
 

peter

[LDW1]

35 minutes ago, PeterW said:

No note on the local light pollution (though the near full moon was up) and boy did they let it accumulate for a LONG time… as a visual observer I’d have got bored after 5mins! Would be good to see what additional enhancement you can do in app, so you could run through a reasonable number of things in an evening. Playing with stuff on the computer is nice for when it’s cloudy though.
 

peter

Why would you be / get bored, while it was doing its thing why wouldn't you be doing your thing with another one of your scopes ?? Every nite project is different, when it comes to astronomy no one should get bored unless maybe ......

[LDW1]

I watched the first 13 min. of the vid and its potential is better than I expected, much better than my D2. I can hardly wait to work with mine in another month or 2.  PS: And I sure won't get bored, lol !  PPS: If I was younger I would probably buy 2.

Edited September 5, 2023 by LDW1
new wording

[DaveL59]

55 minutes ago, PeterW said:

No note on the local light pollution (though the near full moon was up) and boy did they let it accumulate for a LONG time… as a visual observer I’d have got bored after 5mins! Would be good to see what additional enhancement you can do in app, so you could run through a reasonable number of things in an evening. Playing with stuff on the computer is nice for when it’s cloudy though.
 

peter

He did mention that he'd heard a mosaic function may be in the plans which may be handy for some. Like you I'd not be wanting to spend an hour or more on one target, esp if I was using it for EEA, tho getting some images would be a bonus. I'm sure the grandkids would be bored after 10 mins on the same target too lol.

On the moon I did wonder given its not that wide a FoV could we maybe add some form of lens hood to cut the off-axis interference, tho if tis atmospheric glow it wouldn't help much.

I recall a comment earlier in the thread about humidity and I've been wondering on that too, as it's rarely been below 70% here lately. Hopefully it'll cope OK 🙂

[LDW1]

9 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

He did mention that he'd heard a mosaic function may be in the plans which may be handy for some. Like you I'd not be wanting to spend an hour or more on one target, esp if I was using it for EEA, tho getting some images would be a bonus. I'm sure the grandkids would be bored after 10 mins on the same target too lol.

On the moon I did wonder given its not that wide a FoV could we maybe add some form of lens hood to cut the off-axis interference, tho if tis atmospheric glow it wouldn't help much.

I recall a comment earlier in the thread about humidity and I've been wondering on that too, as it's rarely been below 70% here lately. Hopefully it'll cope OK 🙂

I thought they said there was a built in dew heater, if not rig up an after market dew heater, not a big deal !  Dew has been around before astronomy was invented, lol.   PS: Not my business but with an instrument like this grandkids boredom should be the least concern, they will have the oportunity to grow into it as they grow / mature.

Edited September 5, 2023 by LDW1

[Louis D]

On 05/09/2023 at 16:45, DaveL59 said:

I'm sure the grandkids would be bored after 10 mins on the same target too lol.

That's kind of what I observed at a recent public star party where the unwashed masses stood around for a few minutes watching a nebula's image grow brighter and more detailed on a large monitor in a similar setup, but with a 10" reflector.  However, well before 10 minutes had passed, they had moved on to see what other scopes were aimed at.  Perhaps if it were the only scope available, they'd have stuck around.

[LDW1]

6 minutes ago, Louis D said:

That's kind of what I observed at a recent public star party where the unwashed masses stood around for a few minutes watching a nebula's image grow brighter and more detailed on a large monitor in a similar setup, but with a 10" reflector.  However, well before 10 minutes had passed, they had moved on to see what other scopes were aimed at.  Perhaps if it were the only scope available, they'd have stuck around.

Its good to see you may have figured out that the SS50 is not for you, its a modern world, lol !   And I'm 75 yo, lol !  As a great singer / songwriter once penned ' the times they are a changin'  ' .  PS:  I guess I am just one of the unwashed masses and I love every minute of it !

Edited September 6, 2023 by LDW1

[RobertI]

On 05/09/2023 at 19:55, DaveL59 said:

I see a new vid has been put on the tube just 30 mins ago

 

Another interesting video. He seemed to be more focussed on using it for full blown astrophotography than EAA, although I get that many of the buyers of this product will end up using it primarily for long integration astrophotography (you’ve only got to look at the posts on Unistellar Facebook page to see this). Personally I would be more interested in seeing  the images build up over 4 or 5 minutes as that is usually the maximum I go to when I am doing EAA, not the 60 minutes plus he was showing. From what I could see from pausing the ‘accelerated’ image capture video of the Pacman, you can see it starting to emerge after the first capture and it looks ok after 5 minutes, but pretty dim. I would be interested to see how much of Stephan’s Quintent is visible after 5 minutes. I imagine without a full moon, things would have been better. I think Cuiv’s short images of the Dumbell and M13 from central Tokyo were more useful in showing its capabilities for EAA. 

[DaveL59]

one on solar put up not long ago too

 

I can see that being useful for me, since looking at very bright targets isn't something I'd ever do normally, too much chance of poking the migraine bear when its as bright as the sun.

[M40]

55 minutes ago, RobertI said:

Another interesting video. He seemed to be more focussed on using it for full blown astrophotography than EAA, although I get that many of the buyers of this product will end up using it primarily for long integration astrophotography (you’ve only got to look at the posts on Unistellar Facebook page to see this). Personally I would be more interested in seeing  the images build up over 4 or 5 minutes as that is usually the maximum I go to when I am doing EAA, not the 60 minutes plus he was showing. From what I could see from pausing the ‘accelerated’ image capture video of the Pacman, you can see it starting to emerge after the first capture and it looks ok after 5 minutes, but pretty dim. I would be interested to see how much of Stephan’s Quintent is visible after 5 minutes. I imagine without a full moon, things would have been better. I think Cuiv’s short images of the Dumbell and M13 from central Tokyo were more useful in showing its capabilities for EAA. 

My thoughts as well and looking at the solar video, I thought it looked pretty good in the first few moments. Certainly something I will be trying. Another interesting point I noted was that Cuiv had to align the ss50 with sun by using shadows but in the video it self aligned, hopefully we shall soon find out 👌