My SeeStar S50 Full Review. Is It Worth The Hype?

In this video I try out ZWO's SeeStar S50 smart telescope. ZWO loaned this to me for review, but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

@zwoastro

[dougolson]

Thanks for the review. Your comparison of alt-az to equatorial was the clearest simplest one I have seen. Thanks.

[stephencase]

A friend of mine has one and it is so simple to use and impressive I said to him a few months ago that some people would dismantle it and improve it and now they are they are putting in far better sensors and producing incredible images. For the price this is a game changer in Astro photography. Buy one

[RR-zqmk]

This thing got me laid. Was just minding my own business in the forest taking pics when a girl comes walking through. She was interested in what I was doing. So we talked and showed her the pics I had taken. She was very interested, we exchanged numbers. Met up a few other times to star gaze and hang out. We started dating a little later on and here we are. 😂

[TheDJMeyer]

I just ordered this and it’ll be here next week. I’m super excited. It’s so hard to take good pics with your phone through a telescope lens

[mikewarkentin]

Great video, I love your sense of humour. You did the best explanation I have seen in any video of alt-az vs equatorial thanks to your space mustard! I also have never seen a Seestar video cover the comparison of FOV between it and a C11. That alone along with your ending on who is it for, would convince many to buy it. Note: Can't wait for your full tutorial/review where you could cover the latest firmware including station mode and the ability to specify up to 30 second exposures and set focus manually. Great Job!

[jakedittburner]

This was one of the best reviews videos I have ever seen! Appreciate all the good info.

[andrewr]

Best review on the Seestar yet, and great explanation of the equatorial mount.

[pattimaclaughlin]

Yay! I’ve been waiting for this video!!! I just received mine last Thursday. All clouds of course!!!!

[chriscarson]

I'm adding this to my collection! Great review.

[hindey]

Walt, your videos are always fun and entertaining. Keep up the great work!

[craiglowery]

Fun video Walt. You did I a great job. I believe these smart telescopes are here to stay and will get larger.

[kevinmccarthy]

I love your show, very informitive, lots of fun humor, I love it. I am getting closer to buying a Telescope now and reallize I can buy the smart scope and, a 16 inch dob. Both are very easy to stow away with out taking up much room in my future camper. I would get the DOB first. These are super special custom DOBS and can be calapseable even though they are big and around 10.000$ for a 20 inch. They are over a hundred pounds or close to it and, very bulky but no step ladder is nessacary. thank god.

[GoodGuyHeffy]

Mine will be here Tuesday I'm very excited. For the last year I rebuilt a broken telescope I got for free and have been using that for lunar photography only. I've noticed the seestar gets alot of hate for not being a "real" astrophotography setup but I have several different hobbies and if I dumped several thousand into a rig I couldn't do my other hobbies, so $500 is perfect for the quality of images you can get from the little star toaster

[michaeldymock]

That was an awesome review, i know nothing about telescopes or photography and this was all so easy for me to follow. Ive been looking at this for a while and im convinced i wanna get 1

[stevejackson]

Great info! Question, does this require internet access to use the app in the field? What about a remote observing site with no internet?

[mgrantom]

I just received an S 50 for Christmas. I am a complete noob however so far I love it. I wanted it to shoot SpaceX launches, since the launchpad is only about 5 miles away. I just wish that the compass mode that is available in the celestial mode Would also be available in the scenery mode. That way I could use the iPhone to spot the target and have the S 50 move to the Target. I can’t wait until the next launch to see how well it works.

[droid_ex]

I started doing astro around 2 years ago with my phone and DSLR. When I started looking for a tracking mount, it looked so like there's a huge monopoly going on; I just couldn't understand why a basic tracker costs $500. With smart scopes coming out, there's no point for a casual person to buy a tracker when you can have all in one tool for astrophotography for around the same price. Of course, it's not the same learning curve and quality as a dedicated setup, but it gets close. And the existing smart telescopes look very worthy of the prize, and with improvements in the future (an EQ mount would be amazing, but you have to manually align maybe that's why it's not implemented, but some existing ones can be aligned to the polar axis, which will reduce field rotation.), it will be the most economical way for starters to explore the sky (other than planets ig).

[caspermarks]

Thanks for the info man just ordered one for my girl she's been interested in telescopes and things like that and this would be great for her

[srinathsudunagunta]

Hi, great review, thanks . i bought mine a couple of weeks ago at the London Astrofest (European astrofest really!) 2024. Carried it home on the London Underground and a short bus ride as well!
That in itself is brilliant and it does everything you described so eloquently ! I am primarily a visual amateur astronomer using a push to Dobsonian.My refractor telescope and the Go to mount are parked indoors as I have not really learnt their use well.
ZWO Seestar s50 has made me an Imager. The simplicity of use is incredible.
I have imaged M42 with ease and also the Sun.
Waiting for Clerer skies now.

[ragaadin]

I really like how you explain everything with easy way, it's so much easier for me to understand. thanks a lot, you already got one sub!