Taking the ZWO Seestar S50 Smart Telescope to Dark Skies

In this video we’ll explore how well a SeeStar Smart telescope performs in dark skies. We’ll capture images of nebulae from the city, and then see how they compare to images taken from Stargaze Nova Scotia.

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[MrMrduke]

Always refreshing to see the young people enjoying and learning about the night sky.

[nickroeder]

Seems like making sure its level is pretty important to the device. I think imma pick one of these up seems like a lot of fun.

[Chris.Davies]

I ordered one! I can't wait to get it into the Dark Sky Zone at Twizel, in New Zealand.
This is the kit I have ben waiting for many years to buy!

[waynewheaton]

Michael, watch this video for a second time as I just ordered a Seestar! I have a 8" dob and a C6 paired with a IOptron cem40g and Star Adventurer GTi, but with three little kids I just don't have the time for traditional astrophotography. Someday we'll look back and think, man that was crazy what we did to get photos of space. I have a degree in computer science and one in art / photography. I used to develop and print film (Back in the late 80s-early 90s). Now I all I use is a digital camera. I can see the same transformation starting now in astronomy.

[ChrisWard-wwug]

Thanks for taking this to a dark sky location. Most of the people I see reviewing this are doing it from their home near a city. Some of the other reviews also show post-processed pictures they take so you can't really get an understanding of how well it images DSOs being new to the hobby and unfamiliar with photo software.

I purchased one, but haven't received it yet, to take camping during the summer. I often go camping in Bortle 2 Wilderness Areas with no mobile service, so I was concerned it wouldn't work without a mobile connection to find itself. This answered my question and I appreciated you compared photos taken near a city with those from dark skies. Thanks!

[Lsthnbrd]

Cool video. This goes to show how well the Seestar performs even in light polluted areas. It’s obviously best to get out in the boonies but I love how well this thing does in populated areas

[void_presence]

Just ordered one of these a few weeks ago; company says should be shipping sometime next month; looking forward to it.

[michaeledmonds]

ZWO really jump-started a huge group of astro enthusiasts with their SeeStar. I pre-ordered mine, added a leveling aid, and some 3-D printed accessories. All this led to ZWO'S ASIAIR, AM5, 533 camera, guide rig, and three scopes. I'm thinking that's what they had in mind.
Meanwhile, I'll be following your observatory project. Thanks for your enthusiastic videos, Michael

[Morpheus]

This was great to see. Even the image in the city was impressive.

[itskindofemily]

Thanks for sharing! We just used our Seestar last night, captured the moon, sirius, acrux.. very cool, even with shorter-length long exposures in a very light polluted area!

[neillandscape]

Awesome Unit, great progress for beginners :)

[richardkellar]

Mine should be here in a couple of days. Can’t wait! I am sure that there is a learning curve.

[spacetechtips]

Great video! I'm glad I discovered you!

[stuartbolden]

That’s a great point and to be honest basically shamed all the doubters, of which I was !! I used the SeeStars but didn’t feel a connection with the night sky as I was not basically doing anything . But ..( there is always a but) .. I am getting another one even though I have an Astro photography rig in its early stages … I admit I was wrong dissing the ss50 .

[petervisima]

Great video, John! I'm thinking about one of these for my grandkids. Next to zero setup time, and instant gratification of images that they can share or print.

[Fractalite]

While you are stacking doing some some adjustments on brightness and contrast can make a dramatic difference to the live image . The brightness wheel is like a more extreme data stretch which may also push up the background grain, but you can make the sky dark again with just a 10 click of increased contrast . The menu for these opens up when you hit the adjust button. When you stop live stacking, your adjusted image saves to your phone or tablet, but the fits stack is also saved to the Seestar without any adjustments . You are still able then to open the fits file on the Seestar and do all these adjustments for as many versions as you want in app, and using the export button to save modified jpg versions to your phone or tablet . Its very cool .

[DK-dfhi]

Appreciate your videos. Can you demo it in equatorial mode?

[mypetscatsandfishes]

3:03 Any bears, wolves or mountain lions in that area???

[mr.miakoda]

Awesome video.. Can you work with seestar with no mobile service?

[ianenting]

One thing missing from these presentations is how dark? I have been using Seestar in Bortle 4.5 (sqm reads 20.3). I see one use is as a gentle intro to image processing. Most simply by post-process the final jpeg (i darken the sky) or download the stacked FITS file (which gives you 16 bits per pixel) and manipulate it with Siril (suggestion from Cuiv - thanks) or redo the stack.