Review of ZWO Seastar S50 Telescope

Hello everybody, Tegan here with High Point. Today we're bringing you a video on the brand new smart telescope by ZWO, the Seastar S50. Here at High Point, we love smart telescopes. When our non-commissioned team full of visual and astrophotography experts work with customers one on one for the first time who are looking to buy their first telescopes, smart telescopes inevitably. come up more often than not. Now keep in mind there is definitely something to be said about viewing through an eyepiece with a traditional type of telescope. However with the advent of new technology, ease of use, overall image quality, smart Smart telescopes really do set the bar for the ideal first telescope. Unfortunately, affordability really puts smart telescopes out of reach for budding amateur astronomers who weren't sure they wanted to invest the time and money into a dedicated imaging setup to see what they wanted to see. With the Seastar S50, ZWO brings us the best of smart telescope technology at an incredibly affordable package. So with all that being said, we are going to provide you a full experience and review over the ZWO Seastar S50. Stay tuned. As always with these full experience video reviews let's take a look at what comes in the box. This is the ZWO Seastar S50, a smart telescope that uses a 50 millimeter triplet refractor with a focal length of 250 millimeters and a focal ratio of f5. Integrated with this telescope is wi-fi, bluetooth, a uv filter. a dual narrowband filter, and a highly sensitive IMX462 Sony camera sensor. The included tripod is extremely stable. It's made of carbon fiber and it is fully extendable as well. ZWO also includes a solar filter for solar photography and a simple USB-C cable for charging and downloading your data onto your computer. Lastly, the entire scope is packaged in a nice hard case. So if you have done any... research at all on the Seastar S50 besides the fact that it is a smart telescope. Its main draw is its different imaging modes. We're going to take this scope through its paces and explore each one of these. To start it off, let's take a look at the scenery mode. As far as the scenery mode experience, this scope is much more capable than predicted. Spending lots of time out with this scope can yield some pretty awesome nature photos. Simply clicking on scenery mode and moving your telescope around is really all that it takes. This is really cool if you like to take photos of birds or wildlife or just even plants and trees way off in the distance. Now, Insert solar filter. Now, solar photography is one reason that this telescope is becoming so popular amongst beginner amateurs. On top of the solar eclipses coming in 2023 and in 2024, the sun is nearing a solar maximum and there is... a lot of activity to view. The Seastar so far has produced some awesome videos and photos of the Sun showing several sunspots in great detail. The included solar filter is a Bader film filter and the live views coming from your smartphone are sharp, they're crisp, and they are bright. It is simple and it just works. Next up, let's take a look at the moon. Like solar photography, photographing details on the lunar surface is extremely appealing, and this scope can get the job done. The waxing crescent moon was setting in the late evening, and the sea star was able to track it as it set by a few nearby houses. The craters look amazing, and if you look very closely, Earth's shine is even lighting up the other half of the moon. The views are bright, the details are sharp, and the craters are visible. This is everything that you could want when imaging the moon with the Seastar S50. We move from scenery to solar and then from solar to lunar. Let's take a look at how this does with planets. There are a lot of questions surrounding these types of smart telescope with planetary imaging. It does, in fact, use a very popular sensor that's used in planetary cameras. Since there is no planetary imaging mode, you have to search... for the planets through the sky atlas and when the scope goes to the planet, it takes a photo as if it would be taking a deep sky photo, so 10 second exposures. And from that result, you get a very blown out photo of whatever planet it is you are imaging. Even if we switch to scenery mode and bring the brightness all the way down, you can still see that the planet is completely blown out and you can't see any surface detail at all. The planets in the night sky are extremely bright and it doesn't seem like the sea star is compensating correctly for that brightness. So last but definitely not least, what these smart telescopes were initially designed for? Deep space astrophotography. In a Bortle 7 zone, I pointed to several deep sky objects on that first night out with this telescope. I spent about 10 minutes or so on each target that night just touring the night sky with the Seastar. Again, this scope just works and it's incredibly intuitive. So in a Bortle 7 zone, the light pollution is pretty bad, but nonetheless, this scope did what it came to do. Let's take a look at some of the photos that it took that night. The next night I really wanted to push the scope to its limit so I spent the entire night collecting images on a single target rather than 10 or 15 minutes on multiple targets. Typically these telescopes are used for touring the night sky and taking just a short amount of data on several different targets during the night. But if you like this scope and you really want to start improving your photo quality, this is who that test is designed for. Let's take a look and let's see how much better the results are when you spend several hours using the Seastar on a single target. Next, I grabbed this data and I put it into PixInsight. I worked a little magic to see what I could really pull out of this data set and these were the post-processed results here. This image was photographed using the integrated dual narrowband filter. You can see how much of a difference it makes when you compare it to the same amount of data taken without the filter. So after using the scope over a period of several nights, we come to the part of the video where we boil down and come to a profound conclusion as to who this telescope is designed for and we have concluded that it is designed for... everyone. The Seastar S50 really ticks just so many boxes that it is hard not to recommend it to a beginner amateur astronomer or a veteran. If you like astronomy, whether or not you are a dedicated astrophotographer who has a $10,000 imaging setup, the Seastar has its place in your home. If you are somebody who's never owned a telescope before and you are curious about the night sky, the Seastar has its place as well. So, so far we have done a... full experience and review of the actual telescope itself and the results and pictures that it produces. We have yet to talk about the application and that part of the video starts right now. So let's start this off by downloading the application. After downloading the app, navigate to the home page. You can make sure you're there by clicking the star button on the bottom left. On the home page is where you can start connecting your phone to your Seastar S50. This is when you're viewing sessions. starts. Below this you will find the local weather and the rising and setting times of the moon and sun. Expand this box and you can even find the future forecast. The section below this is where you'll spend most of your time. During the day you can click on scenery mode and simply move the telescope about. and photograph whatever it is you'd like. You can increase or decrease the brightness as well as auto focus on the object in view. Back on the home screen, the next mode is the solar imaging mode. This is what you will use to photograph the sun. Here you must use the included solar filter. This feature has an auto go to function where it finds the sun by itself with near perfect accuracy and this is a great way to protect yourself from looking up at the sun and trying to search for it manually. The lunar mode is similar to the solar mode and this is where you photograph the moon. You also have an auto focus function here. to ensure nice sharp details on the lunar surface. The next mode is the stargazing or the deep sky mode. And this is where you'll be spending your time taking deep space astrophotos. After clicking the stargazing mode, the sky atlas button on the bottom right allows you to choose virtually any spot in the night sky to photograph. You can either search the sky survey manually, you can use the compass function to point to an area of the sky to image, or you can search for a particular object and or choose any of the recommended targets available to you. If you want to do a quick photography session, back on the homepage, the app offers a tonight's best where they feature the recommended objects viewable from your location. Below this, they also have a recommended section for any notable astronomical events worth viewing. The second tab down at the bottom is where you can access the Sky Atlas. Again, an incredibly immersive sky survey that gives you access to any area of the night sky to photograph. Here you can search for and center your object of choice or choose any of the recommended targets from the list. Back on the homepage, ZWO has offered the Community Sharing Platform, a location where you can share all of your photos with other Seastar users around the world. Directly next to this tab you will find the Nearby tab and this you can use to find approximate locations of your photos. of other Seastar users around you or around the country or the globe. And the last tab to the right is how you access and create your profile so that you can share your experience with all of those who use the Seastar. So that is it for our review over the Seastar S50 from ZWO. The single best thing about this smart telescope and something that I can honestly attest to, seeing that I was able to use it over a period of several nights. is the fact that in almost every regard, this telescope is flawless. As far as connecting the telescope, setting it up, the application, the app interface, the UI, the Wi-Fi, everything about it works as designed. I didn't have a single issue at all during the process. It is set up, take pictures. So with all that being said, if you have any questions, please let us know in the comments below. We will be more than happy to assist. Make sure you like and subscribe to our YouTube channel so you do not miss any future content over astrophotography or astronomy. Again, my name is Tegan with High Point. Thank you so much for staying tuned and clear skies.

come up more often than not. Now keep in mind there is definitely something to be said about viewing through an eyepiece with a traditional type of telescope. However with the advent of new technology, ease of use, overall image quality, smart Smart telescopes really do set the bar for the ideal first telescope.

Unfortunately, affordability really puts smart telescopes out of reach for budding amateur astronomers who weren't sure they wanted to invest the time and money into a dedicated imaging setup to see what they wanted to see. With the Seastar S50, ZWO brings us the best of smart telescope technology at an incredibly affordable package. So with all that being said, we are going to provide you a full experience and review over the ZWO Seastar S50.

Stay tuned. As always with these full experience video reviews let's take a look at what comes in the box. This is the ZWO Seastar S50, a smart telescope that uses a 50 millimeter triplet refractor with a focal length of 250 millimeters and a focal ratio of f5. Integrated with this telescope is wi-fi, bluetooth, a uv filter. a dual narrowband filter, and a highly sensitive IMX462 Sony camera sensor.

The included tripod is extremely stable. It's made of carbon fiber and it is fully extendable as well. ZWO also includes a solar filter for solar photography and a simple USB-C cable for charging and downloading your data onto your computer. Lastly, the entire scope is packaged in a nice hard case.

So if you have done any... research at all on the Seastar S50 besides the fact that it is a smart telescope. Its main draw is its different imaging modes. We're going to take this scope through its paces and explore each one of these.

To start it off, let's take a look at the scenery mode. As far as the scenery mode experience, this scope is much more capable than predicted. Spending lots of time out with this scope can yield some pretty awesome nature photos. Simply clicking on scenery mode and moving your telescope around is really all that it takes. This is really cool if you like to take photos of birds or wildlife or just even plants and trees way off in the distance.

Now, Insert solar filter. Now, solar photography is one reason that this telescope is becoming so popular amongst beginner amateurs. On top of the solar eclipses coming in 2023 and in 2024, the sun is nearing a solar maximum and there is... a lot of activity to view. The Seastar so far has produced some awesome videos and photos of the Sun showing several sunspots in great detail.

The included solar filter is a Bader film filter and the live views coming from your smartphone are sharp, they're crisp, and they are bright. It is simple and it just works. Next up, let's take a look at the moon. Like solar photography, photographing details on the lunar surface is extremely appealing, and this scope can get the job done. The waxing crescent moon was setting in the late evening, and the sea star was able to track it as it set by a few nearby houses.

The craters look amazing, and if you look very closely, Earth's shine is even lighting up the other half of the moon. The views are bright, the details are sharp, and the craters are visible. This is everything that you could want when imaging the moon with the Seastar S50. We move from scenery to solar and then from solar to lunar. Let's take a look at how this does with planets.

There are a lot of questions surrounding these types of smart telescope with planetary imaging. It does, in fact, use a very popular sensor that's used in planetary cameras. Since there is no planetary imaging mode, you have to search... for the planets through the sky atlas and when the scope goes to the planet, it takes a photo as if it would be taking a deep sky photo, so 10 second exposures. And from that result, you get a very blown out photo of whatever planet it is you are imaging.

Even if we switch to scenery mode and bring the brightness all the way down, you can still see that the planet is completely blown out and you can't see any surface detail at all. The planets in the night sky are extremely bright and it doesn't seem like the sea star is compensating correctly for that brightness. So last but definitely not least, what these smart telescopes were initially designed for?

Deep space astrophotography. In a Bortle 7 zone, I pointed to several deep sky objects on that first night out with this telescope. I spent about 10 minutes or so on each target that night just touring the night sky with the Seastar. Again, this scope just works and it's incredibly intuitive. So in a Bortle 7 zone, the light pollution is pretty bad, but nonetheless, this scope did what it came to do.

Let's take a look at some of the photos that it took that night. The next night I really wanted to push the scope to its limit so I spent the entire night collecting images on a single target rather than 10 or 15 minutes on multiple targets. Typically these telescopes are used for touring the night sky and taking just a short amount of data on several different targets during the night. But if you like this scope and you really want to start improving your photo quality, this is who that test is designed for.

Let's take a look and let's see how much better the results are when you spend several hours using the Seastar on a single target. Next, I grabbed this data and I put it into PixInsight. I worked a little magic to see what I could really pull out of this data set and these were the post-processed results here. This image was photographed using the integrated dual narrowband filter. You can see how much of a difference it makes when you compare it to the same amount of data taken without the filter.

So after using the scope over a period of several nights, we come to the part of the video where we boil down and come to a profound conclusion as to who this telescope is designed for and we have concluded that it is designed for... everyone. The Seastar S50 really ticks just so many boxes that it is hard not to recommend it to a beginner amateur astronomer or a veteran. If you like astronomy, whether or not you are a dedicated astrophotographer who has a $10,000 imaging setup, the Seastar has its place in your home.

If you are somebody who's never owned a telescope before and you are curious about the night sky, the Seastar has its place as well. So, so far we have done a... full experience and review of the actual telescope itself and the results and pictures that it produces.

We have yet to talk about the application and that part of the video starts right now. So let's start this off by downloading the application. After downloading the app, navigate to the home page. You can make sure you're there by clicking the star button on the bottom left.

On the home page is where you can start connecting your phone to your Seastar S50. This is when you're viewing sessions. starts.

Below this you will find the local weather and the rising and setting times of the moon and sun. Expand this box and you can even find the future forecast. The section below this is where you'll spend most of your time. During the day you can click on scenery mode and simply move the telescope about. and photograph whatever it is you'd like.

You can increase or decrease the brightness as well as auto focus on the object in view. Back on the home screen, the next mode is the solar imaging mode. This is what you will use to photograph the sun.

Here you must use the included solar filter. This feature has an auto go to function where it finds the sun by itself with near perfect accuracy and this is a great way to protect yourself from looking up at the sun and trying to search for it manually. The lunar mode is similar to the solar mode and this is where you photograph the moon. You also have an auto focus function here.

to ensure nice sharp details on the lunar surface. The next mode is the stargazing or the deep sky mode. And this is where you'll be spending your time taking deep space astrophotos. After clicking the stargazing mode, the sky atlas button on the bottom right allows you to choose virtually any spot in the night sky to photograph.

You can either search the sky survey manually, you can use the compass function to point to an area of the sky to image, or you can search for a particular object and or choose any of the recommended targets available to you. If you want to do a quick photography session, back on the homepage, the app offers a tonight's best where they feature the recommended objects viewable from your location. Below this, they also have a recommended section for any notable astronomical events worth viewing. The second tab down at the bottom is where you can access the Sky Atlas. Again, an incredibly immersive sky survey that gives you access to any area of the night sky to photograph.

Here you can search for and center your object of choice or choose any of the recommended targets from the list. Back on the homepage, ZWO has offered the Community Sharing Platform, a location where you can share all of your photos with other Seastar users around the world. Directly next to this tab you will find the Nearby tab and this you can use to find approximate locations of your photos. of other Seastar users around you or around the country or the globe.

And the last tab to the right is how you access and create your profile so that you can share your experience with all of those who use the Seastar. So that is it for our review over the Seastar S50 from ZWO. The single best thing about this smart telescope and something that I can honestly attest to, seeing that I was able to use it over a period of several nights. is the fact that in almost every regard, this telescope is flawless. As far as connecting the telescope, setting it up, the application, the app interface, the UI, the Wi-Fi, everything about it works as designed.

I didn't have a single issue at all during the process. It is set up, take pictures. So with all that being said, if you have any questions, please let us know in the comments below. We will be more than happy to assist.

Make sure you like and subscribe to our YouTube channel so you do not miss any future content over astrophotography or astronomy. Again, my name is Tegan with High Point. Thank you so much for staying tuned and clear skies.

Transcript for:Review of ZWO Seastar S50 Telescope

Transcript for:
Review of ZWO Seastar S50 Telescope