We all tried Smart Telescopes for the ECLIPSE!

Thanks to @GalacticHunter and @SarahMathsAstro for collaborating with me on this video! In this one, we share our thoughts and RESULTS from using smart telescopes to capture the Total Solar Eclipse on April 8th, 2024. Specifically we talk about the DWARF II, the Vaonis Hestia, and the ZWO Seestar S50.

=============================
❤️ Patreon ❤️
=============================

=============================
Contents
=============================
0:00 Intro
0:28 DWARF II
1:22 Vaonis Hestia
4:35 ZWO Seestar S50
7:02 Tracking during totality
9:03 Would we use them for next eclipse?

[CuivTheLazyGeek]

Awesome guys! I had only the Dwarf 2 and it worked rather well, I could capture the prominences but not Bailey's beads. I liked how easy the filter was to take off and on.
In terms of tracking, I never even thought it used computer vision, I think it was just mechanical, old school like Goto altaz mounts

[UncleJimmy-txzk]

I was in Wapakoneta, Ohio for the eclipse and I had good success using my Canon60D with a 250mm lens riding an iOptron SkyGuider Pro. I found Nico's videos on the eclipse extremely helpful and constructed a filter per his instructions using the Baader solar film. I have also enjoyed Sarah's videos. I've only been doing astrophotography since January of 2022 and both of you have been a tremendous help to me. Thank you both for all you do and keep up the great work!

[johndaley]

Used my S50. Stayed in Delaware and was able to get 86%. Clouds before, clouds after. Total blue sky for entire event. Cleared cache and emptied drive. Did time laps, singles and videos. Stayed with auto. Perfect tracking. Had to deal with a little wind. So much fun. Sold on smart. Waiting for S60 or S100 release.

[jonteefey]

Purchased a SeeStar S50 in February just prior to the eclipse and was completely happy with it during the event. Timelapse, tracking, and other functions worked flawlessly. Battery was charged to 100% and never ran out during the 3+ hours of use. I watched it from Port Clinton, OH on the shores of Lake Erie and we were fortunate to have great weather during the event. Saw 100% totality!

[mikehardy]

This was a very kool follow up. Unfortunately I wasn't in the path of totality.
I used a Tamron 150-600 with no mount on a 7D MKII. Internal intervelometor. Moving it as required. And a 70-200 mm f4 Tamron on a T7i. Mouned on a SW SA. The solar filter blew off. It was pointed at a bright sun for several minutes, while I searched for the filter. No damage to equipment. I contribute this to the sun being small in the frame?
Imaged with Seestsr, TL, which worked well, but drifted, at least on my phone screen. I think if I wouldn't have corrected, it still would have been fine. I say this because the resulting video seemed to self correct, jumping occasionally, but staying centerd.

[AstroCorgi-]

I used the SeeStar as well, and I thought it performed really well without intervention. However, the tracking went a bit haywire around totality, with the algorithm seemingly having a hard time deciding what to center on. I left the filter on during totality so I could focus more on the moment and not struggle with removing it. Overall, it performed amazingly well.

I purchased an Askar 103APO for the eclipse and deep sky astro, after watching Sarah’s review of it. I used it during the eclipse and was absolutely blown away by what I could see in the video an photos.

I also setup a live stream so my mom could watch remotely since she couldn't make it.

[calabrais]

8:05 I actually like the extra drama provided by the violent shaking, it gives a better feel to just how epic the event is 😂

[zygmuntziokowski]

Good Information and thanks for sharing.

[mikelockwood]

Love this video - Heavy Hitters all together ! 😎

[mikelouiselle]

I was at my sons apartment in Perrysburg Ohio for the eclipse and we used the Hestia and Seestar. Had thin cloud cover but was able to get some incredible shots. My son was able to take a video with the Hestia from c2 to c3 and get the baileys beads and diamond ring. I actually came up with custom filters for the ease of taking on and off for both of these scopes and they worked really well.

[Jupisevenfive]

I also used the Seestar, just for the ease of use and letting me do my own viewing at the same time. I tried messing with my 80mm doublet and I could just captured the whole thing with it, but I had focusing issues that I couldn't figure out, so I just stuck with the seestar to make images and time lapse videos.

[wdj]

I took a Hestia and a Vespera to Kerrville, TX and hoped the clouds would part. Both were very difficult to initialize with only glimpses of the sun when the clouds allowed. The solar finder on the Hestia is very small so a really bright image is needed for easy locating. The Vespera seems to need full sun to establish location and tracking but managed on my 6th attempt.

The Hestia was on a Benro Polaris for tracking so I could take some photos each time the clouds parted, would not have been possible without a tracker. Miraculously, they opened up for the first 20sec of totality so I did get some shots of that. The Gravity app for Hestia would be greatly improved if they enabled a bluetooth remote shutter or allowed programmed automatic shutter timing.

The Vespera jpegs were unusable. Initial images of the partial were ok but somehow only dark images were captured from about midway between C1 and C2 to the end. Unclear if it lost tracking due to clouds but clearly doesn't meet the needs unless there are clear skies.

[middleloopvideo]

You guys are great... thank you for sharing. I was shooting once/minute. Timelapse from stills is pretty easy in PS. But... What method have you found is best for aligning the images first? Thank you!

[srinathsudunagunta]

Hi Guys, Thank you, I am glad you could get good photos and time lapse with your Smart scopes.
I carried a Seestar S50 to Mazatlan, Mexico from the UK. It was easy to transport a had no problem with airline security. It had taken great pictures of the sun at home in England. Eclipse day was a huge disappointment.
Just would not connect to the Wifi, the digital compass failed and it was a wasted effort. It was too late to try it manually and I did the next best thing, put it aside and enjoy the visuals.
I should have carried a DSLR and used that instead. I did not factor in poor internet connectivity. Also ( maybe) steel in the hotel construction ( were on the roof top of Holiday Inn) may have interfered with the telescope digital compass?.? We live and learn !

Saw a brilliant Eclipse C1 through to C4 and a great 4 min 17 sec totality.
Wishing you all Clear Skies 😊
Srinath

[shadowOrgon]

I traveled up to Ohio from Virginia to see the totality and brought my S50 with me. I noticed about 15-30 mins before totality that the seestar was wiggling in its tracking and would actually lose the sun. Once I turned off the 'higher precision tracking' option on the screen it seemed to do a lot better. Was able to take a video from a few mins before to about a min after totality completely without intervention on my part (minus the filter) so I could enjoy the event myself. Have the whole video on my channel for any interested, you can see scrolling through it it was slowly losing having it centered but it did really well.

[NatarajanGanesan]

Ease of removal of solar filter while ensuring a good snap on to the scope is key. Better still if the filter comes of by itself seconds before totality, it would ensure no shake. I envision future designs to have preprogrammed exposure settings for eclipses.

[catherinegrimes]

I saw the eclipse in Waco after flying from the UK and joining a British tour. It looked doubtful about 5 minutes before totality but it cleared just before second contact.
I used the Fujifilm X-S20 with the 70-300mm lens and a 1.4X teleconverter that was mounted on an AZ-GTI mount that had been converted to an equatorial mount. The mount was roughly polar aligned by levelling the mount and using a real magnetic compass with magnetic declination tables. The alignment turned out to be surprisingly accurate and the eclipse was in the frame all the time. An intervalometer was used to control the camera, but I made a mistake with the interval setting and took the images about every second and it filled up the 64GB card, but I had spares.
Afterwards we went to New Mexico and Arizona and I managed to take a very clear handheld photograph of the Moon from the Lowell Observatory at Flagstaff. It was at a elevation of around 2, 200m and the clear sky certainly helped to give a good image.

[KingLoopie]

I also used the seestar for our partial here in the Denver area. I don't know if I got lucky, but when using the dew shield /hood (from Luke) with the standard seestar solar filter it fits about perfect Goldilocks fit!
I don't have that much experience with the seestar so I was more or less saving manually then trying out the video feature and the time lapse feature along with using the auto focus and exposure controls. Basically just using the eclipse time for familiarizing in the daylight since it's was only a 65%eclipse. I was impressed with the seestar s50 capabilities! Yeah it lacks some features but for what you pay, it's incredible! Later that night I got pics of m191, the pinwheel galaxy and was further impressed by the ease. I literally did nothing more than plop it on the picnic table, leveled it and shot away! Perfect gotos and more resolution than I thought possible for such a low $$$ 'toy' (No, it's not a toy! I was able to capture SN 2024ggi in NGC 3621 the next week from the peak of my roof!) Great fun! /Dave 👍

[steveallen]

I used my Seestar and got an awesome video during totality. I was in upper state Vermont

[ddsiver]

I brought a Dwarf 2 with me to Maine for the total eclipse. Was really excited as I have used it for a lot of deep sky objects and it has performed wonderfully. Unfortunately, where we went in Maine, another 1000 people had the same idea. This meant there were 100's of cell phones and wireless devices sending signals that completely messed up my Dwarf 2's wireless connection. It kept disconnecting and I had to keep my ipad 3 inches from it to maintain a wireless signal. If it did disconnect it took a miracle for it to reconnect to my Ipad. I think others were having similar issues as I connected to a couple other smart telescopes there without even trying. This probably created problems for the smart scope users. I never had an issue like this at my home, but I have limited wireless competition there. Hopefully I will figure out a way to avoid this in the future as I was not extremely fimiliar with the Dwarf 2 at the time and may have been making a Newbie mistake. Anyway, it did ruin some of my eclipse moments as I had to leave my group, get as far away as possible from people and stress out about reconnecting and making manual adjustments to catch a one in a lifetime experience. It did provide nice images but will take a lot of editing to adjust for the lack of tracking when I lost connection. I do love the size and ease of the smart scopes and really love setting in my living room, playing my guitar as my Ipad shows me, unseen, deep sky objects in sub zero weather where my Dwarf bravely resides.