Pre-Order Links for the ZWO SEESTAR S50! tinyurl.com/3n62hpzx (Direct from Maker/ZWO) bit.ly/3Mf9pAU (Agena Astro) tinyurl.com/53suzkw5 (All Star Telescope) bit.ly/45k7J1b (High Point Scientific) My initial impressions and first light: th-cam.com/video/Nt29_kHV1Fg/w-d-xo.html The competing Dwarflab Dwarf II Smart telescope: amzn.to/47Ztwxf or bit.ly/3SyChXu Support me on Patreon!: www.patreon.com/cuivlazygeek If you're planning on buying equipment (or anything from Amazon), it will help me if you first click the affiliate links in the description!
That software is amazing, but the price is crazy. Have you tried using Open Source software for the job, and if you have, what can be achieved with the more budget-friendly apps? Thanks Cuiv.
I’ve been following your channel for years and still have never taken a single Astro photo. Watching your videos covering the SeeStar I think I’m finally going to take the plunge and start my journey here. Thanks for your hard work!
@@CuivTheLazyGeekI woke up one morning and saw your first impressions with the Seestar S50, after a week of searching about it I bought it! Thanks for your videos.
Astrophotography is advancing super rapidly lately. Maybe not the really high end stuff, but it's getting so much more approachable for casual hobbyists and that's excellent in my opinion! In astrophotography you can always improve and getting better is a never ending quest, but the starting point is much easier now than it was even just a few years ago and that's great. The more of us there are, the more people appreciate the night sky and can try to limit the amount of light pollution.
Forty years ago only the wealthiest or most dedicated amateur astronomers had tracking mounts. Thirty years ago only wealthy or extremely dedicated amateurs had goto mounts. Twenty years ago only wealthy amateurs had plate solving. Ten years ago only wealthy amateurs had auto-focus. What we have today is amazing, and amazingly affordable. ZWO just brought it all together at an almost miraculous price.
I agree. I bought a Dwarf 2 recently, although I have another more powerful fairly small widefield set based on the Skywatcher 50ED and ZWO533MC Pro. However, it is the Dwarf which accompanies me during next weeks hiking holidays in the Alps or on bicycle tours in the future.
The last time I posted a reply, it was to say how much I enjoyed the channel even though I’ve never taken an Astro photograph and likely never would. Now I have. I got my SeeStar 3 days ago, and there were clear skies the first night (though not since), so I got a chance to play for an hour or so on several objects the first day. As a complete newbie to all this, the ease of use was impressive. I was concerned about stability in wind as I'm imaging from Shetland, UK, not known for its tranquil nights, so I wanted something I could set up and use quickly between the frequent clouds and move in the car to more sheltered sites if I needed to. The SeeStar fitted the bill and turned out to be so easy to move and setup as needed I was pleased with the pictures I got. I need to decide what targets to concentrate on and give them more time. Tonight, I'll try these two and see how I get on.
@@CuivTheLazyGeek Thank you. I managed 12 minutes on the Veil before the clouds came in, and that was that, so I’ll pick up in a day or so. I did try doing a solar image yesterday, but that was an epic failure. The Solar Go To didn’t work, and I had issues trying to manually guide the scope around - it seemed to go too fast at times, and not move at all at others. If I looked at the SeeStar to see if it was moving, I’d lose the little circle guider. Unless I improve with practise, that’s an area that feels like it could with improvements, for example some kind of high speed/low speed modes. So I couldn't find the sum, which was a little embarrassing considering hw big and bright it is. The autofocus seemed fine, but a manual focus would be nice. This has definitely piqued my interest, and I think it will provide a lot of knowledge and experience for when I do eventually upgrade.
Really interesting video Cuiv. I love the fact that you can do so much from such a light polluted zone, which really gives hope to the rest of us. Keep up the good work.
Having been an on /off visual astronomer since a department store 50mm reflector in the 60's to a 250mm sct and a 330mm reflector now, it just amazes me to see what you can pull out of that little 50mm smart telescope! 😲 👍
This just proves that your processing skills (and time spent doing it) are just as important, if not more so, than the gear you use to take your data. Nice vidio!
beginner astronomer here, cuiv has helped me so much. i love the seestar and i cant wait to use it again. also tysm for showing me how to navigate siril :D
Thanks so much for continuing to work with the little SeeStar. I pre-ordered mine, here in the US, in late July, but I don't expect it until mid- December. Hopefully, the firmware updates will be further along in that batch. Question please.... Are the image files transfered by bluetooth or wifi from the SeeStar to your phone? I don't recall any removable storage on the scope. Thanks for your thoughts, Michael
The Seestar processed images appear on your phone and in the app automatically, the raw fits files can be taken off the scope by plugging it into the computer via USB-C
Somehow I found myself on this video, even though I'm not too interested in this astronomical stuff I watched the video till the end because I was infected by your immense passion. 👍
The 30 minutes to get 20 minutes of exposures is due to a 5 second delay between each sub-exposure. Presumably the Seestar can’t start the next sub-exposure until the previous one has been added to the stack. Hopefully ZWO can improve that. I didn’t see any subs getting rejected, just the 5 second delay between each sub.
The delay seems to be a bit less for me - but sometimes I see an exposure taken, a new one start... but the exposure time counter doesn't increase :) So definitely I'm seing rejected subs! But I agree, reducing this overhead will be important!
You are correct and you'd think he'd know this as it's been reported in pristine skies. Dithering likely adds to the overhead also and a wimpy CPU certainly doesn't help.
Amazing work that you have done.... Who cares if you are crazy and long as you are having fun...... Waiting for my SeeStar to arrive, then i can start to have fun.
Very nice! All-Star Telescope is planning to send me a demo version. I plan to test it in Bortle 3, comparing it against a 40mm APO. Watching all your reviews first so we don’t overlap content!
Cuiv I think you made a good point here! If you are just starting out or just plain lazy 🙂, all you need is a robotic scope like the Seestar S50 and Pixinsight with the RC Astro tools and free scripts! Basically for under $1000 USD you could have a nice astrophotography capture and processing platform and it allows you to be LAZY 😀! Great idea!
Really nice video as always. Really enjoy the enthusiasm you put into it. Two requests regarding the Seestar 1. Would you provide some basics on time duration of exposure for some different deep sky objects. Then provide an UN modified image that we could use as a reference basis. 2. With all your extra spare time (joking) could you possibly list some other software programs for editing that may be less expensive or even free? For those of us that are just casual DSO enthusiasts. The number of software available is a bit daunting (I have spent several hours working on it) and trying to make it past the advertising hype is difficult to tell reality from advertising fluff. Thanks again for all you do from sunny Arizona.
The Astro junkies have been awaiting delivery of 3 x Seestars . And after watching your videos just cant wait for them to turn up. Keep up the great work we (all 6 of us) cant get enough of your videos xxx
Love your channel! Nice that you showed what the data is capable of. I think, more realistically, that showing what a person can do with more reasonably priced or even free software might be a good idea for another video. I say this because I don’t think it makes sense for a person to spend $600 on the telescope, and half that amount of money again for the software. I hope that makes sense.
I’m tempted. I love to use my EQ6 mount with a c8 or my 90mm ED triplet. All the work to get a result. All the failures. Part of the fun, makes the successes really memorable. But I also don’t enjoy travelling with an SLR and travel mount etc. getting failure when your on holiday somewhere with Bortle 1 or 2 dark skies. I think this is where this hits the spot for me. Very tempted. This vs a Redcat 51 with all the hassle whilst travelling. Yes, very tempted. Will keep watching to see others images. Bide my time. I realise it has limitations, but as a travel rig… Thanks Cuiv
Well done Cuiv, although I wasn’t convinced about the capabilities of this little scope you claimed for it at first. Notwithstanding its limitations you mentioned, you made two decent images of the night sky. Good job with your ‘lazy geek’ processing - I love it!!
Thanks Dave! It's obviously not up to par with my main rig, that can probably take a better image in a few minutes, but it's 10 to 15 times cheaper and far more portable! :-)
@@CuivTheLazyGeek I know what you’re saying Cuiv, I have a camera that cost me three times the price of a Cstar and not had as much fun with it as you are having with the little rig from ZWO. I’ve been watching your videos about the Dwarf II device also and can easily see that although they have different specs, lens size for eg. the abilities of the Cstar tick all the unticked boxes of the Dwarf, tracking issues and focusing. Your videos are so helpful and great to watch thanks 😀
You don’t seem idiotic to me, your excitement is contagious, you make wonderful images imho. I’m very interested in a dwarf2 with the solar filters , I was checking out the scope your using though as well, so far I’m leaning toward the dwarf. I can basically use the cheap refractor I own, I upgraded the tripod from the cheap one that came with it to an old surveyors tripod, it’s solid as a rock and turned what I thought was impossible into doable. I started with the moon , Jupiter , saturn, and Venus and I was hooked. This sky viewing stuff is addictive. I’m very very interested in solar stuff, I find our star extremely fascinating, it’s simply amazing. Magnetic fields along with the current sheets and the way they connect us to literally everything else in our galaxy interests me to no end. Magnetism in general is of much interest too me as well. Im going to sub your channel , I’ve watched several videos at this point , you make interesting and informative content. Thank you!
Really enjoyed the video. What a great way of explaining field rotation! I think these scopes are a good way of getting people into astronomy/ astrophotography. Certainly a time saver but like anything at a cost of image quality. No doubt this will improve over time and these examples far exceed my first steps in AP.
Really enjoyed this episode, Cuiv. Fascinating to know that there is sufficient data in the file to allow for advanced processing if desired. And in terms of using software costing more than the hardware to process the image, that’s actually not a new concept. Ansel Adams would invest 40 hours of darkroom time to process an image it took a few minutes to capture. The analogue equivalent of your point. One of the other photographers I follow used to spend at least that much time in Photoshop finishing his architectural masterpieces - and they are masterpieces. How you finish the image is as important as how you capture it. Your results are amazing.
Wow... great and nice picture for this focal and cam. Perfect telescope for astro club or familly. I ordered it and am impatiently waiting for it. J'ai hâte qu'il arrive, ce sera un beau complément a ce que j'ai déjà. Merci Thank you
Thanks Cuiv! Great video! Exactly what we wanted to see. Of course pixinsite is crazy powerful for the little scope but it really shows this is not a toy and gives an image that you can work with. It looks like the only way you can get the files is off your phone. I guess the telescope does not have the option for a memory card. Zwo really owes you for some great tests on their product, because I think your audience is more serious than the average casual observer.
Thanks so much! And yes I was surprised by the really decent results I got :) Obviously my main rig can do far better in less time.... but it's 10 times more expensive. Oh and to get the fit files off the scope, you just plug it into a PC via USB-C
Man. I want the scope i ordered! They told us we’d get the scope in august! It’s really frustrating to see you (and others) figuring stuff out, taking great images, and I’m here with my „analog“ scope, watching the night sky, wishing i could take some pictures myself… 😢
@@CuivTheLazyGeek that's very kind of you! Well, nothing to do as wait 😉 - the only thing strange is that some shops say they have the scope in stock while we wait...
Great video, I am definitely going to get one of these, but I heard on the grapevine that they are planning and working on an upgraded model MKll ( with a wider field of view and other improvements ) that will be available soon, 🤔so I’m wondering if I should wait for that to come out tbh.
Would be nice to see you take same subjects on the Dwarf, same post processing and see how images compare. If same crop is used obviously Dwarf images will have more dark sky, but would be fantastic real life comparison. Love the final S50 edits
I'm picking up the Dwarf this week only because the ship dates for the S50 are into November at this point. On paper the S50 seems to be the better scope but the Dwarf 2 daylight Ai tracking almost justifies having both and using them for different things.
I have a Dwarf II now. Its telephoto optical lens is 100mm compared to 250mm on the S50. If so, then blowing up the 100mm to an equivalent 250mm, would result in more grainy and less sharp images. If that is how their images are compared, then the S50 will look better at default magnification. Otherwise, D2 is WA, S50 is more telephoto-ish. Their default focal length images should be compared. Dunno, maybe I’m looking at it wrong. Yer right about S50 availability. “5. Customers who place orders after May 15th will have their shipments processed gradually starting in November. At this time, we are unable to provide specific shipping dates for post-May orders, but we will update you as soon as we have more information”.
@@beegood I wouldn't suggest enlarging Dwarf image, sorry for misunderstanding. I just meant crop a similar amount from each if you have field rotation, but don't zoom on dwarf image. The main subject will definitely be much smaller on dwarf image. So far I have only seen Scottcastrophotography do a real image side by side, no one else has done it yet. Hope this is a comparison you can do. Thanks for great videos
@@colinhill Sorry about my message intentions. It wasn’t intended for you, nor necessarily the persons on this TH-cam site. My message was meant for an FYI for anyone who would view a direct comparison between those two smart telescopes, and make image comments on how superior the S50 is; based on the S50 image size dwarfing the dwarf. 🙂 It indeed is a nice system, maybe nicer than the Dwarf II, but at the current time, still harder to get.
Hi Cuiv, love your videos so much that I just became a Patreon member of yours :-) Here is a question I can´t get my head around. As a seasoned photographer - totally new to astro photography - I wonder what you can do with the incredible images you create with the S50. After cropping to roughly 1x1 you are left with 1080 x 1080 pixel resolution, am I right? Can you still print any of this (through upscaling?) or are you limited to sharing in social media?
Thanks for the great videos, they are very helpful and entertaining. I got into this hobby with the Dwarf less than a month ago, but I'm already two weeks into my free trial of Pixinsight and the "X" tools, and I know I won't be able to live without them. In regards to the cost of "expensive" software, as a former software engineer, when I think about buying software, I think about how many hours it would take me to write it. I used to bill out at between $80 and $120/hour. Currently the price of Pixinsight is about $326 US. So could I write Pixinsight from scratch in 3 or 4 hours? Not very likely! So really, when you think of the work behind it, $326 is a bargain for what you are getting. Thanks again for your continued efforts. Clear skies!
Cuiv, have to say I really like you man, love how you present yourself, and find your videos very helpful. I’ve been doing astrophotography for a long time as well and I am impressed by this little scope, i just ordered one partially based on your videos. Looks like the perfect device to drag around when you have dark skies and free time, like when I am often out camping under beautiful dark skies. Thanks for the video, I’m a Astropixel processor and star tools user but all these AI tools are making me want to take the plunge into piximsight
Thanks so much for this feedback! I think it will be an amazing little scope under pristine skies! The best skies I can have within 2 hours of my place are Bortle 4 so I'm jealous:) PixInsight is amazing, but the learning curve will be brutal...
Brilliant video!! I am even more excited to receive my SeeStar seeing what you can do with it in Pixinsight (which I am currently learning to use 🤯🤣) Keep up the great work Cuiv ✨
My one seems to drop half a dozen images in a row due to star trails and gives me a message about it each time it does it. Appears to happen more when it is looking almost straight up as opposed to closer to the horizon.
I love my seestar. I got a 31 min photo of rosette nebula tonight. Yes.. I love everything about this scope. But the failed stacks gets very frustrating. I've done 30 mins for like 5 mins of stacks before. But still amazing
@CuivTheLazyGeek yes. It's still an amazing scope that has gotten me back into the hobby. So I can't be too mad. Inspired to set up a legit astrophotography rig. Btw great videos keep them coming
First, I'm concern about the image quality because I have no time to go up country for now in Thailand. This set is Amazing! and the output after process from PixInsight is acceptable. I'll try to find out for output from SEESTAR S50 with Bortle 4-5 sky for my decision to buy it. Superb job and Thank you for review.
Thanks for the videos on the capabilities of these small / "point and shoot" scopes! I picked up the Dwarf II back in April, but have only just started playing with it in my backyard in Las Vegas, NV -- another heavily light polluted city. aside - it looks like chapter markers from your earlier video got applied to this one.
Yeah the chapters seem to have been a TH-cam bug, no idea why they ended up on the video... I've fixed it by adding a single 00:00 vid marker on it. Thanks for notifying me, I hadn't noticed!
Looking at sub frames on my SeeStar I can confirm about 25% of them have trails in altitude axis (I was imaging wizard about 30m after meridian). So tracking to NW. looking at experimental menu (hold down SeeStar icon to open) default is dithering every 5 frames. I suspect they haven’t included backlash correction (yet). Azimuth dithering is much better. Hope they can measure and then use backlash correction. That will hopefully help eliminate star trails. It’s not due to regular tracking inaccuracy, it’s apparently linked to when dither asks to move in direction opposite to tracking. Then failure to remove backlash after dither. ❤
I am so excited about the images coming from the SeeStar. Particularly considering where you took the images in Tokyo. Now time for you to head to a dark area and see what comes from it. Field trip.
Inspiring to see what you can achieve with a $500 scope and software: I remember my struggles to get the same results using equipment costing $$ thousands!!
Looks great. Thanks for the tutorial but, will it do comets? These are often seen in the Southern sky through my scope and would look better if I upgrade to astrophotography. Cost has been an issue for me.
Thank you for this information. Looks like you are having a lot of fun with this device. I'm thinking about getting one as a gift for someone. I hope ZWO comes out with a few of the enhancements that you've mentioned in your videos on this. 👍
I have a 6" skywatcher dob, but was thinking of going into some basic astrophotography, and needing a few thousand euros of new gear and a new scope. But based on all the coverage of the S50 in your excelent videos, I might just rather take this smart scope instead. Would this be a good scope to take the first steps into astrophotography, and to see if this even is my "game" before starting so spend thousands on gear that I might rarely use?
What script did you use to stretch the image? Like you, I'm lazy and don't want to use the STF and drag it to the Histogram process. I've been using EZSoftStretch but I understand that as soon as I update PI to a new version I'm going to lose the EZ suite of tools. Is there another lazy stretch script that you'd recommend?
That was a bitt too techy for the rookie folks who are thinking about taking the plunge with the SeeStar 50... I did enjoy your other reviews of this new wonder. It does make me wonder though if we are doing reality or a computer generated reality.... (JWST and HST are obviously all processed) but it takes a bit of the wonder out of live viewing with grandkids which is what I want to do. Do you have a different suggestion for such a scope or is the SeeStar still the best, economic way?
Right now it's only Seestar or Dwarf II! If portability isn't high on your list, I'd likely recommend the Seestar. If you want something more portable, the Dwarf II it is
@@CuivTheLazyGeek I was thinking maybe a cheap dobsonian instead of one of these fancy Riggs? That was the whole point about the live reality versus the computer-generated reality! Thoughts?
That is a nice compact EAA-worthy telescope. I think though that I'll wait and see if they make the individual subs available before buying it. Thanks for the great video.
Hi, the video is awesome, thank you for posting. I have a question, will the image have better quality, if taken like 1 hour daily for a week or two weeks and then stack them? I understand there are parameters that has to be met like every night the same position will start from 4 minutes prior to the last night, cloudy night will lengthen the process and all. But still, will that provide better results?
@@CuivTheLazyGeekLooking very much to that video .... Keep up the good work. (All schools should own one or these little scopes. Imagine if the children of this world studied astronomy as well as simple math, & grammar .... )
Hi Cuiv!! Enjoy your vlogs very much and always looking forward to your informative astro nuggets. One question about Seestar, can you mount a Dslr on top of the unit and grab your own set of deep sky shots?
Part of me thinks this is really cool, but with so much processing it seems we're getting closer to "artist's rendition" than a real image. Next thing will be software to overlay with JWT images to really make em pop.
Hi Cuiv - I love astrophotography and your channel. I am lazy like you but not even a Geek but more of an artist . I do have PI and the RC plugins you use in this great video. All great but a bit of a struggle to master it without getting into all the technical details.Wondering what script you used to do your Easy Script- I was using EZ stretch but that is now discontinued with the latest PI update. And finally would like to support your Patreon channel - can you pls provide the link?
PI really has a steep, steep learning curve... You can find the script I used here: th-cam.com/video/em9IQzbkBuU/w-d-xo.htmlsi=XzrwBKmTF4XGWy7H My Patreon is here! www.patreon.com/cuivlazygeek Thank you for your support!
Love your videos. What Bortle level did you have for those samples? I'm trying to decide if Galaxy and Nebulae images would be good enough in a Bortle 7 area. And I would not want to spend lots of money on software just to make them look acceptable. It would be amazing to have a basic video showing post processing with free/cheap software.
Pixinsight is not expensive; Photoshop with their subscription is. Yeh, your channel is the best. Those videos with Vixen Newton were essential for my development.
I guess that depends on how you look at it. Initial outlay for PixInsight is much more expensive, but in the long term, you are correct. It would take 27 months for the Adobe Photographer’s plan to equal the same expenditure as a PixInsight license.. and then there are the paid plugins on top of that. I think it would be hard to recommend PixInsight to someone who picks up a SeeStar as their first imaging rig. That doesn’t apply to a lot of us here though.
@@pauljrix Yes, for SeeStar is hard to recommend. However, I know astrophotographers with 5-10 years experience who are persisting with free software for processing and constantly generating poor pictures.
Honestly PixInsight is by far my best astro purchase ever - it's worth every penny and more... And I do appreciate they have resisted the subscription approach!!
Thank you for your videos on the S50. I have always wanted to take my own astronomy pictures but thought the process was so expensive and technically complicated that it was something I would never try. After seeing your review I placed an order for one right away. The only problem now is having to wait on it to arrive :) I had some questions I hoped you might help with. I travel often on vacation in the US to some fairly remote areas and thought it would be a lot of fun to bring the S50 along. I expect to be on the road for 7-10 days, without a laptop, but will have my phone and a tablet. I think most of my usage will be for long exposure nebula pictures (just guessing I wont do videos very often) with some daytime scenery shots. My questions: Do you think hard drive space will be a issue? if so would you suggest a laptop to store the images or is there a way to use a usb drive or portable hard drive if space becomes an issue? If needed can the S50 be charging from a battery bank while in use?
Cuiv, thanks for the incredible content! I don't know why but all images I see from the Veil nebula seems to bit soft (not refereing particularly to the Seestar). Is there something to do with this specific region of the sky or maybe just an impression?
Hi Cuiv. Thanks for this video that I'm using as a basis to work with my own images with my Seestar. In the processing you use SPCC with L-enhanced filters, are these the closest to the filters in the S50? I'm also interested on the script you used to do the stretching. Was it the easy stretch from the now unavailable Easy Processing Suite? What do you recommend as a replacement?
Last few times I used scope I chose northern sky targets. Then when switching to image to the south I found 90% of frames rejected. Between asking the scope to switch directions the leveling went from near perfect to off by 5 deg! Releveling may have thrown tracking off. But this happened 3 times! And in the last update, only the stacked frames are saved for inspection making verification and explanation impossible. I’ve passed these “bugs” on to ZWO SeeStar developers!❤
Thanks Cuiv, just your explanation on field rotation alone did wonders for me as I have been trying to figure what it meant for the longest time. If so, why not just adjust and point the little Seestar to Polaris and this should offset the field-rotation issue, no? I appreciate your videos so much!
As the Seestar is not an equatorial mount, you cannot adjust / point it at polaris. It is an alt-azimuth mount. Pro: you do not need polar alignement. Con: you get field rotation.
Glad the explanation helped - and in theory yes with both software updates and a beefy tripod and wedge you could theoretically do that, but I don't think that's part of ZWO's plan
I was really sad to hear from Astronomics that they can't give any concrete shipping dates for S50 orders placed after May. They alluded to potential ship dates in November but that means I'll miss out on at least two months of observing. I'm going to pickup the Dwarf 2 in the mean time.
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Pre-Order Links for the ZWO SEESTAR S50!
tinyurl.com/3n62hpzx (Direct from Maker/ZWO)
bit.ly/3Mf9pAU (Agena Astro)
tinyurl.com/53suzkw5 (All Star Telescope)
bit.ly/45k7J1b (High Point Scientific)
My initial impressions and first light: th-cam.com/video/Nt29_kHV1Fg/w-d-xo.html
The competing Dwarflab Dwarf II Smart telescope: amzn.to/47Ztwxf or bit.ly/3SyChXu
Support me on Patreon!: www.patreon.com/cuivlazygeek
If you're planning on buying equipment (or anything from Amazon), it will help me if you first click the affiliate links in the description!
Got mine today truly amazing well built super worth the wait Thanks for all your work on the review
That software is amazing, but the price is crazy. Have you tried using Open Source software for the job, and if you have, what can be achieved with the more budget-friendly apps? Thanks Cuiv.
I’ve been following your channel for years and still have never taken a single Astro photo. Watching your videos covering the SeeStar I think I’m finally going to take the plunge and start my journey here. Thanks for your hard work!
Woohooo another convert to the hobby! It's so cool you've been following the channel but now you'll get in the hobby proper... enjoy the journey!
@@CuivTheLazyGeekI woke up one morning and saw your first impressions with the Seestar S50, after a week of searching about it I bought it! Thanks for your videos.
Can confirm, subscribing to Cuiv makes your images *at least* 10% better. Probably more, Cuiv is just being modest.
Hahaha thanks Dennis!
How does subscribing do this ?
Astrophotography is advancing super rapidly lately. Maybe not the really high end stuff, but it's getting so much more approachable for casual hobbyists and that's excellent in my opinion! In astrophotography you can always improve and getting better is a never ending quest, but the starting point is much easier now than it was even just a few years ago and that's great. The more of us there are, the more people appreciate the night sky and can try to limit the amount of light pollution.
Forty years ago only the wealthiest or most dedicated amateur astronomers had tracking mounts.
Thirty years ago only wealthy or extremely dedicated amateurs had goto mounts.
Twenty years ago only wealthy amateurs had plate solving.
Ten years ago only wealthy amateurs had auto-focus.
What we have today is amazing, and amazingly affordable. ZWO just brought it all together at an almost miraculous price.
@@cmahar3 And with further software updates the Seestar will become a true remote observatory capable of take wide angle Milky Ways. 😁
Couldn't have said it better!
@@MikeViker Right? And this is just the S50. What will the S100 do? Or the S1000?
I agree. I bought a Dwarf 2 recently, although I have another more powerful fairly small widefield set based on the Skywatcher 50ED and ZWO533MC Pro. However, it is the Dwarf which accompanies me during next weeks hiking holidays in the Alps or on bicycle tours in the future.
The last time I posted a reply, it was to say how much I enjoyed the channel even though I’ve never taken an Astro photograph and likely never would. Now I have.
I got my SeeStar 3 days ago, and there were clear skies the first night (though not since), so I got a chance to play for an hour or so on several objects the first day. As a complete newbie to all this, the ease of use was impressive. I was concerned about stability in wind as I'm imaging from Shetland, UK, not known for its tranquil nights, so I wanted something I could set up and use quickly between the frequent clouds and move in the car to more sheltered sites if I needed to. The SeeStar fitted the bill and turned out to be so easy to move and setup as needed I was pleased with the pictures I got. I need to decide what targets to concentrate on and give them more time. Tonight, I'll try these two and see how I get on.
Wooohoooo congrats, and welcome to the hobby! It's so cool to see you have such a good experience with this :)
@@CuivTheLazyGeek Thank you.
I managed 12 minutes on the Veil before the clouds came in, and that was that, so I’ll pick up in a day or so.
I did try doing a solar image yesterday, but that was an epic failure. The Solar Go To didn’t work, and I had issues trying to manually guide the scope around - it seemed to go too fast at times, and not move at all at others. If I looked at the SeeStar to see if it was moving, I’d lose the little circle guider. Unless I improve with practise, that’s an area that feels like it could with improvements, for example some kind of high speed/low speed modes. So I couldn't find the sum, which was a little embarrassing considering hw big and bright it is.
The autofocus seemed fine, but a manual focus would be nice.
This has definitely piqued my interest, and I think it will provide a lot of knowledge and experience for when I do eventually upgrade.
I finally got my Seestar 50. I just need clear skies and free time! Thank you for sharing your experiences and expertise. 😊
Really interesting video Cuiv. I love the fact that you can do so much from such a light polluted zone, which really gives hope to the rest of us. Keep up the good work.
Yeah that thing will be a killer in dark zones
Great Video again, dear Cuiv! My Seestar is going to arrive here in Germany on Friday. Can't wait to check it out. Best regards and CS! Olaf
Woohoo! Very soon! Congrats!
Having been an on /off visual astronomer since a department store 50mm reflector in the 60's to a 250mm sct and a 330mm reflector now, it just amazes me to see what you can pull out of that little 50mm smart telescope! 😲 👍
Tech is crazy lol
Thanks. You've addressed my main reservation. .. the trade off between ease of use and post processed image quality.
Glad I could help :)
This just proves that your processing skills (and time spent doing it) are just as important, if not more so, than the gear you use to take your data. Nice vidio!
Thanks!
beginner astronomer here, cuiv has helped me so much. i love the seestar and i cant wait to use it again. also tysm for showing me how to navigate siril :D
Very impressed! Thanks for pushing it to the limit! Finally got my Seestar and am loving it! Thanks for all your tips!
Thanks so much for continuing to work with the little SeeStar. I pre-ordered mine, here in the US, in late July, but I don't expect it until mid- December. Hopefully, the firmware updates will be further along in that batch.
Question please.... Are the image files transfered by bluetooth or wifi from the SeeStar to your phone? I don't recall any removable storage on the scope. Thanks for your thoughts, Michael
The Seestar processed images appear on your phone and in the app automatically, the raw fits files can be taken off the scope by plugging it into the computer via USB-C
@CuivTheLazyGeek Thanks, Cuiv!
Somehow I found myself on this video, even though I'm not too interested in this astronomical stuff I watched the video till the end because I was infected by your immense passion. 👍
Hahaha welcome to the channel and video, happy you watched despite not being so interested! :D
The 30 minutes to get 20 minutes of exposures is due to a 5 second delay between each sub-exposure. Presumably the Seestar can’t start the next sub-exposure until the previous one has been added to the stack. Hopefully ZWO can improve that. I didn’t see any subs getting rejected, just the 5 second delay between each sub.
The delay seems to be a bit less for me - but sometimes I see an exposure taken, a new one start... but the exposure time counter doesn't increase :) So definitely I'm seing rejected subs! But I agree, reducing this overhead will be important!
You are correct and you'd think he'd know this as it's been reported in pristine skies. Dithering likely adds to the overhead also and a wimpy CPU certainly doesn't help.
Amazing work that you have done.... Who cares if you are crazy and long as you are having fun...... Waiting for my SeeStar to arrive, then i can start to have fun.
Thank you!! And hope you get yours soon!
Very nice! All-Star Telescope is planning to send me a demo version. I plan to test it in Bortle 3, comparing it against a 40mm APO. Watching all your reviews first so we don’t overlap content!
Oh wow! That will be a super cool test, so jealous of a Bortle 3!
Thanks for these videos, they are holding me over until mine arrives lol! Cheers and clear skies!
Cuiv I think you made a good point here! If you are just starting out or just plain lazy 🙂, all you need is a robotic scope like the Seestar S50 and Pixinsight with the RC Astro tools and free scripts! Basically for under $1000 USD you could have a nice astrophotography capture and processing platform and it allows you to be LAZY 😀! Great idea!
Exactly! And easy to carry to dark sites!
Not so much lazy as expedient
Wow! Such a huge difference in these photos!
Yes! Although the straight out of scope images aren't bad either
Really nice video as always. Really enjoy the enthusiasm you put into it.
Two requests regarding the Seestar
1. Would you provide some basics on time duration of exposure for some different deep sky objects. Then provide an UN modified image that we could use as a reference basis.
2. With all your extra spare time (joking) could you possibly list some other software programs for editing that may be less expensive or even free? For those of us that are just casual DSO enthusiasts.
The number of software available is a bit daunting (I have spent several hours working on it) and trying to make it past the advertising hype is difficult to tell reality from advertising fluff.
Thanks again for all you do from sunny Arizona.
really great to see you working ZWO to add flexibility to this cool product (FITS download)! Also great to see you back in the saddle / making videos.
Wow. Data from that little telescope must be quite good to allow you to unlock those beautiful hidden images.
It's really decent data, especially from Tokyo :)
The Astro junkies have been awaiting delivery of 3 x Seestars . And after watching your videos just cant wait for them to turn up. Keep up the great work we (all 6 of us) cant get enough of your videos xxx
Hopefully you'll get them soon, so you junkies can get your fix!
@@CuivTheLazyGeek
Keep up the "lazy" work we all love it
@@CuivTheLazyGeek
Amazing! Will try the same steps in Shanghai to see how the limit can be!
Good luck!!
Love your channel! Nice that you showed what the data is capable of. I think, more realistically, that showing what a person can do with more reasonably priced or even free software might be a good idea for another video. I say this because I don’t think it makes sense for a person to spend $600 on the telescope, and half that amount of money again for the software. I hope that makes sense.
PI + $ Plugins could exceed $500
That was a great explanation of field rotation!
Thanks!
I followed you twice….do I get 20%. 😂😂😂thanks for a super tutorial clear skies
Yes, it's cumulative! It even compounds, so that would be 21% :p
I’m tempted.
I love to use my EQ6 mount with a c8 or my 90mm ED triplet. All the work to get a result. All the failures. Part of the fun, makes the successes really memorable.
But I also don’t enjoy travelling with an SLR and travel mount etc. getting failure when your on holiday somewhere with Bortle 1 or 2 dark skies. I think this is where this hits the spot for me. Very tempted. This vs a Redcat 51 with all the hassle whilst travelling.
Yes, very tempted.
Will keep watching to see others images. Bide my time. I realise it has limitations, but as a travel rig…
Thanks Cuiv
Oh wow, the Seestar in a Bortle 1-2 would likely produce incredible results...
Well done Cuiv, although I wasn’t convinced about the capabilities of this little scope you claimed for it at first. Notwithstanding its limitations you mentioned, you made two decent images of the night sky. Good job with your ‘lazy geek’ processing - I love it!!
Thanks Dave! It's obviously not up to par with my main rig, that can probably take a better image in a few minutes, but it's 10 to 15 times cheaper and far more portable! :-)
@@CuivTheLazyGeek I know what you’re saying Cuiv, I have a camera that cost me three times the price of a Cstar and not had as much fun with it as you are having with the little rig from ZWO. I’ve been watching your videos about the Dwarf II device also and can easily see that although they have different specs, lens size for eg. the abilities of the Cstar tick all the unticked boxes of the Dwarf, tracking issues and focusing. Your videos are so helpful and great to watch thanks 😀
You don’t seem idiotic to me, your excitement is contagious, you make wonderful images imho. I’m very interested in a dwarf2 with the solar filters , I was checking out the scope your using though as well, so far I’m leaning toward the dwarf. I can basically use the cheap refractor I own, I upgraded the tripod from the cheap one that came with it to an old surveyors tripod, it’s solid as a rock and turned what I thought was impossible into doable. I started with the moon , Jupiter , saturn, and Venus and I was hooked. This sky viewing stuff is addictive. I’m very very interested in solar stuff, I find our star extremely fascinating, it’s simply amazing. Magnetic fields along with the current sheets and the way they connect us to literally everything else in our galaxy interests me to no end. Magnetism in general is of much interest too me as well. Im going to sub your channel , I’ve watched several videos at this point , you make interesting and informative content. Thank you!
Great ❤....love from India 🇮🇳
Wonderful tutorial. With this basically you have it all.
Cool telescope, great results right out of the gate!
Really enjoyed the video. What a great way of explaining field rotation! I think these scopes are a good way of getting people into astronomy/ astrophotography. Certainly a time saver but like anything at a cost of image quality. No doubt this will improve over time and these examples far exceed my first steps in AP.
Really enjoyed this episode, Cuiv. Fascinating to know that there is sufficient data in the file to allow for advanced processing if desired. And in terms of using software costing more than the hardware to process the image, that’s actually not a new concept. Ansel Adams would invest 40 hours of darkroom time to process an image it took a few minutes to capture. The analogue equivalent of your point. One of the other photographers I follow used to spend at least that much time in Photoshop finishing his architectural masterpieces - and they are masterpieces. How you finish the image is as important as how you capture it. Your results are amazing.
Completely agree, and thanks for pointing that out! Cheers!
Wow... great and nice picture for this focal and cam. Perfect telescope for astro club or familly.
I ordered it and am impatiently waiting for it.
J'ai hâte qu'il arrive, ce sera un beau complément a ce que j'ai déjà.
Merci
Thank you
On croise les doigts que ca arrive bientot!
'Software that costs more than the telescope itself because I'm an idiot'... I never related to a comment so much as this one you said! LOL
Hahaha yes indeed - but to be fair, PixInsight has been by far my best, most valued, longest lasting, and overall most amazing astro purchase :)
Thanks Cuiv! Great video! Exactly what we wanted to see. Of course pixinsite is crazy powerful for the little scope but it really shows this is not a toy and gives an image that you can work with. It looks like the only way you can get the files is off your phone. I guess the telescope does not have the option for a memory card.
Zwo really owes you for some great tests on their product, because I think your audience is more serious than the average casual observer.
Thanks so much! And yes I was surprised by the really decent results I got :) Obviously my main rig can do far better in less time.... but it's 10 times more expensive.
Oh and to get the fit files off the scope, you just plug it into a PC via USB-C
This is exactly what I needed to see. Excellent video thank you. I am going to get one.
Great update! This is exactly what I was hoping to see. Thank you!
Thanks!
Man. I want the scope i ordered! They told us we’d get the scope in august! It’s really frustrating to see you (and others) figuring stuff out, taking great images, and I’m here with my „analog“ scope, watching the night sky, wishing i could take some pictures myself… 😢
Oh man, sorry... I really hope you get yours soon!!
@@CuivTheLazyGeek that's very kind of you! Well, nothing to do as wait 😉 - the only thing strange is that some shops say they have the scope in stock while we wait...
Great video, I am definitely going to get one of these, but I heard on the grapevine that they are planning and working on an upgraded model MKll ( with a wider field of view and other improvements ) that will be available soon, 🤔so I’m wondering if I should wait for that to come out tbh.
Would be nice to see you take same subjects on the Dwarf, same post processing and see how images compare. If same crop is used obviously Dwarf images will have more dark sky, but would be fantastic real life comparison. Love the final S50 edits
I'm picking up the Dwarf this week only because the ship dates for the S50 are into November at this point. On paper the S50 seems to be the better scope but the Dwarf 2 daylight Ai tracking almost justifies having both and using them for different things.
Yeah I know... It's just a lot of work and I do have a full time job besides TH-cam, I'll see what I can do :)
I have a Dwarf II now. Its telephoto optical lens is 100mm compared to 250mm on the S50. If so, then blowing up the 100mm to an equivalent 250mm, would result in more grainy and less sharp images. If that is how their images are compared, then the S50 will look better at default magnification. Otherwise, D2 is WA, S50 is more telephoto-ish. Their default focal length images should be compared. Dunno, maybe I’m looking at it wrong.
Yer right about S50 availability. “5. Customers who place orders after May 15th will have their shipments processed gradually starting in November. At this time, we are unable to provide specific shipping dates for post-May orders, but we will update you as soon as we have more information”.
@@beegood I wouldn't suggest enlarging Dwarf image, sorry for misunderstanding. I just meant crop a similar amount from each if you have field rotation, but don't zoom on dwarf image. The main subject will definitely be much smaller on dwarf image. So far I have only seen Scottcastrophotography do a real image side by side, no one else has done it yet. Hope this is a comparison you can do. Thanks for great videos
@@colinhill Sorry about my message intentions. It wasn’t intended for you, nor necessarily the persons on this TH-cam site. My message was meant for an FYI for anyone who would view a direct comparison between those two smart telescopes, and make image comments on how superior the S50 is; based on the S50 image size dwarfing the dwarf. 🙂
It indeed is a nice system, maybe nicer than the Dwarf II, but at the current time, still harder to get.
Hi Cuiv, love your videos so much that I just became a Patreon member of yours :-) Here is a question I can´t get my head around. As a seasoned photographer - totally new to astro photography - I wonder what you can do with the incredible images you create with the S50. After cropping to roughly 1x1 you are left with 1080 x 1080 pixel resolution, am I right? Can you still print any of this (through upscaling?) or are you limited to sharing in social media?
Thanks for the great videos, they are very helpful and entertaining. I got into this hobby with the Dwarf less than a month ago, but I'm already two weeks into my free trial of Pixinsight and the "X" tools, and I know I won't be able to live without them. In regards to the cost of "expensive" software, as a former software engineer, when I think about buying software, I think about how many hours it would take me to write it. I used to bill out at between $80 and $120/hour. Currently the price of Pixinsight is about $326 US. So could I write Pixinsight from scratch in 3 or 4 hours? Not very likely! So really, when you think of the work behind it, $326 is a bargain for what you are getting. Thanks again for your continued efforts. Clear skies!
Cuiv the legend, thanks for your effort
My pleasure!
Cuiv, have to say I really like you man, love how you present yourself, and find your videos very helpful. I’ve been doing astrophotography for a long time as well and I am impressed by this little scope, i just ordered one partially based on your videos. Looks like the perfect device to drag around when you have dark skies and free time, like when I am often out camping under beautiful dark skies.
Thanks for the video, I’m a Astropixel processor and star tools user but all these AI tools are making me want to take the plunge into piximsight
Thanks so much for this feedback! I think it will be an amazing little scope under pristine skies! The best skies I can have within 2 hours of my place are Bortle 4 so I'm jealous:)
PixInsight is amazing, but the learning curve will be brutal...
Brilliant video!! I am even more excited to receive my SeeStar seeing what you can do with it in Pixinsight (which I am currently learning to use 🤯🤣) Keep up the great work Cuiv ✨
Great video, as always! And it's very funny!
My one seems to drop half a dozen images in a row due to star trails and gives me a message about it each time it does it. Appears to happen more when it is looking almost straight up as opposed to closer to the horizon.
I love my seestar. I got a 31 min photo of rosette nebula tonight. Yes.. I love everything about this scope. But the failed stacks gets very frustrating. I've done 30 mins for like 5 mins of stacks before. But still amazing
Yep, I agree here - it can be frustrating. It happens far, far less when in equatorial mode, but that's unsupported and has its own limitations....
@CuivTheLazyGeek yes. It's still an amazing scope that has gotten me back into the hobby. So I can't be too mad. Inspired to set up a legit astrophotography rig. Btw great videos keep them coming
First, I'm concern about the image quality because I have no time to go up country for now in Thailand. This set is Amazing! and the output after process from PixInsight is acceptable. I'll try to find out for output from SEESTAR S50 with Bortle 4-5 sky for my decision to buy it. Superb job and Thank you for review.
Bortle 4-5 should really start to show nice results, next full moon I want to travel to such a zone with the scope!
Thanks for the videos on the capabilities of these small / "point and shoot" scopes! I picked up the Dwarf II back in April, but have only just started playing with it in my backyard in Las Vegas, NV -- another heavily light polluted city.
aside - it looks like chapter markers from your earlier video got applied to this one.
Yeah the chapters seem to have been a TH-cam bug, no idea why they ended up on the video... I've fixed it by adding a single 00:00 vid marker on it. Thanks for notifying me, I hadn't noticed!
Awesome video man! I’m loving my S50 too. Just so easy and quick to set up
Thanks so much Christian!
That's a stunning result
Thank you!
Thanks for the video very informative for now, when I eventually get my Seestar, I will try out the free post processing software!
Thank you. ZWO telescope is so cool! Better than the $100 telescopes that do not track really well.
Looking at sub frames on my SeeStar I can confirm about 25% of them have trails in altitude axis (I was imaging wizard about 30m after meridian). So tracking to NW. looking at experimental menu (hold down SeeStar icon to open) default is dithering every 5 frames. I suspect they haven’t included backlash correction (yet). Azimuth dithering is much better. Hope they can measure and then use backlash correction. That will hopefully help eliminate star trails. It’s not due to regular tracking inaccuracy, it’s apparently linked to when dither asks to move in direction opposite to tracking. Then failure to remove backlash after dither. ❤
I am so excited about the images coming from the SeeStar. Particularly considering where you took the images in Tokyo. Now time for you to head to a dark area and see what comes from it. Field trip.
Yesssss, field trip as soon as my wife returns with the car from a road trip she's doing haha
I really like the SeeStar, hope they incorporate backlash compensation/take-up which should reduce Star trailing after the default dithers
Inspiring to see what you can achieve with a $500 scope and software: I remember my struggles to get the same results using equipment costing $$ thousands!!
Right?! Tech has gone a long way!
Looks great. Thanks for the tutorial but, will it do comets? These are often seen in the Southern sky through my scope and would look better if I upgrade to astrophotography. Cost has been an issue for me.
Thank you for this information. Looks like you are having a lot of fun with this device. I'm thinking about getting one as a gift for someone. I hope ZWO comes out with a few of the enhancements that you've mentioned in your videos on this. 👍
Yeah fingers crossed they follow through! They've been pretty good at enhancing the ASIAIR so I have hope :)
Hi. How you get NarrowbandNormalization? I have the last PIX version update (Version 1.8.9-2).
cosmicphotons.com/scripts/
I have a 6" skywatcher dob, but was thinking of going into some basic astrophotography, and needing a few thousand euros of new gear and a new scope. But based on all the coverage of the S50 in your excelent videos, I might just rather take this smart scope instead. Would this be a good scope to take the first steps into astrophotography, and to see if this even is my "game" before starting so spend thousands on gear that I might rarely use?
I'm so sorry for my late reply, but YES this is a perfect entry scope into the hobby, 100%!
Great video!👏🏼 After the scheduled updates of the S50, do yo think you could get similar results of M31 compared with the Vespera?
I'll have to try out M31 first - no idea at this stage! Hardware wise they're very similar scopes so I'd expect it's possible!
What script did you use to stretch the image? Like you, I'm lazy and don't want to use the STF and drag it to the Histogram process. I've been using EZSoftStretch but I understand that as soon as I update PI to a new version I'm going to lose the EZ suite of tools. Is there another lazy stretch script that you'd recommend?
That was a bitt too techy for the rookie folks who are thinking about taking the plunge with the SeeStar 50... I did enjoy your other reviews of this new wonder. It does make me wonder though if we are doing reality or a computer generated reality.... (JWST and HST are obviously all processed) but it takes a bit of the wonder out of live viewing with grandkids which is what I want to do. Do you have a different suggestion for such a scope or is the SeeStar still the best, economic way?
Right now it's only Seestar or Dwarf II! If portability isn't high on your list, I'd likely recommend the Seestar. If you want something more portable, the Dwarf II it is
@@CuivTheLazyGeek I was thinking maybe a cheap dobsonian instead of one of these fancy Riggs? That was the whole point about the live reality versus the computer-generated reality! Thoughts?
That is a nice compact EAA-worthy telescope. I think though that I'll wait and see if they make the individual subs available before buying it. Thanks for the great video.
Good strategy, always buy a product based on what's available now rather than expected future development
Hi, the video is awesome, thank you for posting. I have a question, will the image have better quality, if taken like 1 hour daily for a week or two weeks and then stack them? I understand there are parameters that has to be met like every night the same position will start from 4 minutes prior to the last night, cloudy night will lengthen the process and all. But still, will that provide better results?
I am wondering what would the images be like if it was taken from a dark site away from all the light pollution?
Much, much better - next new moon if the weather allows I want to try going to a darker area...
@@CuivTheLazyGeekLooking very much to that video .... Keep up the good work.
(All schools should own one or these little scopes. Imagine if the children of this world studied astronomy as well as simple math, & grammar .... )
Hi Cuiv!! Enjoy your vlogs very much and always looking forward to your informative astro nuggets. One question about Seestar, can you mount a Dslr on top of the unit and grab your own set of deep sky shots?
No that would put too much stress on the motors, I wouldn't recommend it
Part of me thinks this is really cool, but with so much processing it seems we're getting closer to "artist's rendition" than a real image. Next thing will be software to overlay with JWT images to really make em pop.
I STILL can't buy one! Waaaaa!!! Great video!
Always great information, thank you.
You bet!
Hi Cuiv - I love astrophotography and your channel. I am lazy like you but not even a Geek but more of an artist . I do have PI and the RC plugins you use in this great video. All great but a bit of a struggle to master it without getting into all the technical details.Wondering what script you used to do your Easy Script- I was using EZ stretch but that is now discontinued with the latest PI update. And finally would like to support your Patreon channel - can you pls provide the link?
PI really has a steep, steep learning curve...
You can find the script I used here: th-cam.com/video/em9IQzbkBuU/w-d-xo.htmlsi=XzrwBKmTF4XGWy7H
My Patreon is here! www.patreon.com/cuivlazygeek
Thank you for your support!
Woooooow. Very impressive. But maybe also show what is possible with a “normal” software. (so us normal people Can see what we Can expect).
Thanks! Will look into it for sure :)
Love your videos. What Bortle level did you have for those samples? I'm trying to decide if Galaxy and Nebulae images would be good enough in a Bortle 7 area. And I would not want to spend lots of money on software just to make them look acceptable. It would be amazing to have a basic video showing post processing with free/cheap software.
Pixinsight is not expensive; Photoshop with their subscription is.
Yeh, your channel is the best. Those videos with Vixen Newton were essential for my development.
I guess that depends on how you look at it. Initial outlay for PixInsight is much more expensive, but in the long term, you are correct. It would take 27 months for the Adobe Photographer’s plan to equal the same expenditure as a PixInsight license.. and then there are the paid plugins on top of that. I think it would be hard to recommend PixInsight to someone who picks up a SeeStar as their first imaging rig. That doesn’t apply to a lot of us here though.
@@pauljrix Yes, for SeeStar is hard to recommend. However, I know astrophotographers with 5-10 years experience who are persisting with free software for processing and constantly generating poor pictures.
Honestly PixInsight is by far my best astro purchase ever - it's worth every penny and more... And I do appreciate they have resisted the subscription approach!!
@@CuivTheLazyGeek Definitely! Worth every penny. RC scripts worth every penny as well.
I wonder if the Seestar S50 can feature using redundant S50s stacking images twice as much?
I just won one of these through a giveaway so I’m rewatching this now to prepare! Haha
Thank you for your videos on the S50.
I have always wanted to take my own astronomy pictures but thought the process was so expensive and technically complicated that it was something I would never try. After seeing your review I placed an order for one right away. The only problem now is having to wait on it to arrive :)
I had some questions I hoped you might help with. I travel often on vacation in the US to some fairly remote areas and thought it would be a lot of fun to bring the S50 along. I expect to be on the road for 7-10 days, without a laptop, but will have my phone and a tablet. I think most of my usage will be for long exposure nebula pictures (just guessing I wont do videos very often) with some daytime scenery shots.
My questions:
Do you think hard drive space will be a issue? if so would you suggest a laptop to store the images or is there a way to use a usb drive or portable hard drive if space becomes an issue?
If needed can the S50 be charging from a battery bank while in use?
If you don't take solar/lunar raw videos, and you don't save the individual subframes for Astro, it shouldn't be an issue at all!
Great video! Whats the name of the script you used to stretch the histogram? Thx!
Thanks for the support!! It's from AnotherAstroChannel (Bill Blanshan)
th-cam.com/video/em9IQzbkBuU/w-d-xo.htmlsi=yclHsK69BwC0AGRR
Thanks a lot!!!
Cuiv, thanks for the incredible content!
I don't know why but all images I see from the Veil nebula seems to bit soft (not refereing particularly to the Seestar). Is there something to do with this specific region of the sky or maybe just an impression?
I've never considered them soft, but maybe it's just the nature of the object? The faint areas tend to get very noise reduced so maybe that's it!
What stretch script are you using? Great video many thanks. This mini telescope seems really amazing.
Here's the script: th-cam.com/video/em9IQzbkBuU/w-d-xo.html
You explained in one of your last videos how to use the Dwarf with an EQ-mount.
Is it possible to do the same with the Seestar?
Unfortunately no...
Hi Cuiv. Thanks for this video that I'm using as a basis to work with my own images with my Seestar. In the processing you use SPCC with L-enhanced filters, are these the closest to the filters in the S50? I'm also interested on the script you used to do the stretching. Was it the easy stretch from the now unavailable Easy Processing Suite? What do you recommend as a replacement?
Search for Bill Blanshan stretch scripts!
Last few times I used scope I chose northern sky targets. Then when switching to image to the south I found 90% of frames rejected. Between asking the scope to switch directions the leveling went from near perfect to off by 5 deg! Releveling may have thrown tracking off. But this happened 3 times! And in the last update, only the stacked frames are saved for inspection making verification and explanation impossible. I’ve passed these “bugs” on to ZWO SeeStar developers!❤
Keep us updated! I haven't seen this issue for now!
Nice job 👌
I hope I receive my seestar soon now 😊
Thank you! Hope you get it soon!!
Are there issues traveling with the Seestar to Asia? Does TSA or airport security screening have problems with them?
you're awesome! thank you for sharing
Just found your channel today, Cuiv. How does it cope with planets? Can you try an example? Everything else seems wonderful.
Just published a video on this!
Thanks Cuiv, just your explanation on field rotation alone did wonders for me as I have been trying to figure what it meant for the longest time. If so, why not just adjust and point the little Seestar to Polaris and this should offset the field-rotation issue, no? I appreciate your videos so much!
As the Seestar is not an equatorial mount, you cannot adjust / point it at polaris. It is an alt-azimuth mount. Pro: you do not need polar alignement. Con: you get field rotation.
Glad the explanation helped - and in theory yes with both software updates and a beefy tripod and wedge you could theoretically do that, but I don't think that's part of ZWO's plan
Great work lovely images
Glad you enjoyed it
Brilliant as always
Thank you! Cheers!
Thanks Cuiv!
Thank you!
Just ordered one of these yesterday; site says it likely won't ship until next month so ...absorbing all S50 content I can in the meantime
Hope you get it soon and enjoy!
I was really sad to hear from Astronomics that they can't give any concrete shipping dates for S50 orders placed after May. They alluded to potential ship dates in November but that means I'll miss out on at least two months of observing. I'm going to pickup the Dwarf 2 in the mean time.
Well ur lucky at least guy from astronomics answered you. I am still waiting for my email after 2 weeks past.
I think ZWO is surprised by the demand - I don't think it's on Astronomics...