SeeStar S50 in Bortle 8 Samples / Experience Help?

[Vinnyvent84]

Hey all! I hope I’m putting this in right section as I’m new here!

 

Im new to astronomy and purchased a Nexstar 6SE and some equipment for it. I was informed (here and through online reading) that my location of Brooklyn NY (Bortle 8) would provide some serious limitations to my scope. It was suggested that getting a SeeStar S50 would be a good compliment to my scope for observation / images so I took the leap of faith and was able to order one being delivered on Jan 2nd. 
 

I looked for samples / YouTube videos specifically on its use in high Bortle zones like mine (8 or 9) and I ran into videos from Cuiv which although informative did not really help in my situation. He admits he “cheated” by adding additional filters through 3D printer mods that cost the same price of the unit itself. In addition he uses software to further enhance. Both these “cheats” are out of reach for me right now and I was just looking for some samples and experience with the unit “out of the box” in high Bortle zones. Any assistance is greatly appreciated!

Edited December 23, 2023 by Vinnyvent84

[Giles_B]

Hi! There is a specific Seestar thread in the "complete setups" section, and another in the imaging section. You might get more feedback there on Bottle 8, however so long as you want to get images of galaxies and nebula, the sun and the moon, I would expect the Seestar would give you impressive results.

As far as Cuiv's videos from Tokyo go, I believe he used an l'extreme filter, and used pixinsight for post-processing. Both these are hardcore astronomy tools but for a more casual observer the internal "light pollution" filter with the Seestar will give you comparable results to the l'extreme, and if you want to try your hand at post processing the Seestar images, free software Ike SIRIL will get you into the same ballpark as Pixinsight.

I hope this reassures you.

[Vinnyvent84]

2 hours ago, Giles_B said:

Hi! There is a specific Seestar thread in the "complete setups" section, and another in the imaging section. You might get more feedback there on Bottle 8, however so long as you want to get images of galaxies and nebula, the sun and the moon, I would expect the Seestar would give you impressive results.

As far as Cuiv's videos from Tokyo go, I believe he used an l'extreme filter, and used pixinsight for post-processing. Both these are hardcore astronomy tools but for a more casual observer the internal "light pollution" filter with the Seestar will give you comparable results to the l'extreme, and if you want to try your hand at post processing the Seestar images, free software Ike SIRIL will get you into the same ballpark as Pixinsight.

I hope this reassures you.

Thank you so much!