• The move to the new server is done. There are some software and database maintenance updates in process. This has us passing the hat around to help out. We appreciate any donations. Seriously, even a dollar helps. The payment page may be found here - https://www.audiokarma.org/support.html

Moving from ZWO Seestar S50 Telescope to the ZWO S50 Pro

sanford12

sanford12

Old Stuff New Stuff As long as it's Good Stuff
Subscriber
Always wanted to do astrophotography but the expense the the time and effort it was just too much. Same with a 8" Celestron with a equatorial mount that even as a GoTo scope it was such a heavy PITA to haul around and set-up for me it wasn't worth it. Then the Seestar S50 comes out at a surprisingly low price for it's capabilities. It arrived this morning and after making sure it arrived in working condition went about setting it up

Downloaded the app to the phone turned on the scope. In about 10 seconds it said it was ready to connect. Yes it talks to you. Connection was quick and simple then immediately wanted to update the firmware. Once done it was time to take a look at the Sun. It's an overcast day so it wasn't going to be that great but was interested to see how it did with overcast skies. Once on the deck selected Solar System then sun. Asked if the filter was on then asked to find the sun so sent it on it's way. It failed. Was at the right height but looked to be an hour behind. Slewed the scope over and after some searching got it in view hit auto focus. Even with the cloud cover it worked. Took some photos which looked better than they should. Did this with the charge it came with and was ready to be recharged. Best thing is you can set it up go back in the house control from inside and watch the scope take and stack pictures on your laptop. I'll be able to see things better, farther away than even the 8" scope. People are doing wonerdful things with this 5lb wonder.

This is untouched straight from the scope. On a good day and stacking a few dozen shots it could come up with some really good stuff.
54203165412_6d24372fdb_o.jpg
 
Last edited:
Register to hide this ad
Got a perfect sky tonight. First time setting up for night viewing took a little bit but this thing is ridiculously easy. Just finished with 40 minutes stacking photos of M31 and starting on the Pleiades star cluster. Best thing is you watch from inside a warm house. Looking forward to learning post processing. 6 minutes in can see some of the veils in the Pleiades, Have to say this is what I've been waiting for in a telescope.
 
That's the way it came out of processing just didn't flip it back. The image is a my first attempt and the session of 30 minutes really isn't enough data to get good results. I'd like to do a 3 hour session. Need to learn how to combine sessions from different nights which may be easier. The scope has a mosaic mode that will resolve the whole galaxy plus the smaller one that's nearby. There's a lot to learn but they've done a wonderful job of making things easy. The processing is where the real learning will be needed the scope does most of it's job on it's own.
 
This should give you an idea of the capabilities of the S50. I took this picture of NGC 7479. It is a galaxy that is 105 MILLION light years away from us. This is a 60 minute photo. At 10 seconds per exposure, there are 360 pictures stacked up. To give you an idea of the distance we are talking about with this galaxy, when the dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago, the light from the galaxy had already been traveling through space on its way to my S50 for 40 million years.
 

Attachments

  • NGC 7479.jpg
    NGC 7479.jpg
    53.1 KB · Views: 39
chris35745 said:
This should give you an idea of the capabilities of the S50. I took this picture of NGC 7479. It is a galaxy that is 105 MILLION light years away from us. This is a 60 minute photo. At 10 seconds per exposure, there are 360 pictures stacked up. To give you an idea of the distance we are talking about with this galaxy, when the dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago, the light from the galaxy had already been traveling through space on its way to my S50 for 40 million years.
Click to expand...
Did a 3 hour shoot of M78 reflection nebula. It was cold so had to run the dew heater. The lens hood came so used it and put a a battery pack on it. Battery pack lasted for the whole 3 hours. Here's a picture of as it came from the scope. Might have actually been too long and introduced some more noise.

54220263752_9f1d49b430_c.jpg
 
Horse Head Nebula. Took the dog out about 11 and was surprised. It was a perfectly clear night where you had faint impressions of the nebulae in Orion. Wasn't planning a shoot that night but it takes so little time to set up the scope grabbed it and 15 minutes or a little less I was watching the pictures being stacked. Little over an hour later wrapped it up. The next day processed the image. Still a lot left to learn about processing. Next time going to try shooting something in mosaic mode.

54237010368_dcd600e91d_c.jpg
 
Best yet. Straight out of the scope. 5+ hours of 10 second photos stacked. This is 2 sessions that the scope combined. 2hours from the1st session 3 from the 2nd. If I do the post processing right it has a chance to be a damn fine photo. I can only imagine a clear night in a dark area at 7,000 feet

54295794982_5fb1c8ba6f_o.jpg


Here's it after a quick bit of processing.
54297783728_c2443970a4_b.jpg
 
Last edited:
M81 Bodes Galaxy. Got about 6 hours of 10 second shots. It's to the north which is the most light polluted area which hurts with more noise. Luckily the house blocked most of it.
Next clear night I'll stack another 6 hours on top of the previous session which I thick will make it go from good to excellent.

This straight out of the scope except for denoising and a crop.
54303475770_b72faa1cb4_c.jpg


This cropped with post processing.
54311335159_002ebd5693_o.jpg
 
toddalin said:
You loose the detail in the processing.
Click to expand...
Just learning processing so not the best that's for sure. That's why you need multiple sessions stacked for more detail. Also should have used the light pollution fillter which I'll use next time.The other photos in the thread show what can be done with processing. When color starts to show in the scope you know your getting some good stuff.
 
Last edited:
KingBubba said:
Is there an automatic compensation for the movement of the earth?
Click to expand...
There is. When a photo shows to much in the way of star trails it's rejected. Usually the reject rate is around 50% but have had it be as low 30%. With a sky that is crystal clear like the M42 post you don't need as many stacked shots. How high in the sky what area of the sky in relation to rotation plays a big part. There is a an update coming out that will allow the use of an equatorial mount. That will help a lot with tracking but makes it more of a PITA to set up. I will definitely give it a try but the charm of the scope is how quickly it can be setup. Sold a really nice Celestron 8" polar alignment scope because the weight and amount of time for setup sucked all the fun out of it. It should be a lot easier since the Seestar only weighs 5.5 pounds.
 
Last edited:
The Seestar S50 received a firmware update the gives it equatorial mode and from what I've seen it's a huge leap. When the S50 came out it was alt-azimuth which is ok for viewing with your eye but for astrophotography not great because of "field rotation". The longest you could image was 10 seconds and even then the scope at times would reject 50% or more of you photos. With equatorial mode you can do 20 and 30 second photos which which lessens the noise and some have said they had no rejected pictures. That means you get much superior results in less time. Saw a photo of the Whirlpool that was 7 hours of 30 seconds photos. It was stunning. That's a lot of hours but well worth the time. You really don't spend more than 10-15 minutes setting it up, turn the S50 loose. Head back to the house and watch it do it's magic.

Was disappointed yesterday. I had it all ready to go and then clouds rolled in at dusk. Looking better for today.
 
Impressive! Thank you for sharing, sanford12. It seems that as often as not, nature will impose herself on sky-viewing.

I'm not even an amateur with my Orion 4" refractor. It's an old "manual-shift" and I don't know if I should purchase auto-correction for it.
 
oldflame said:
Impressive! Thank you for sharing, sanford12. It seems that as often as not, nature will impose herself on sky-viewing.

I'm not even an amateur with my Orion 4" refractor. It's an old "manual-shift" and I don't know if I should purchase auto-correction for it.
Click to expand...
You might want to check out Celestron 6se GoTo scope. Small enough to be easy to handle. With a little use setup becomes pretty quick. Add the wifi dongle and use your phone to pick what you want to look at, punch the button and the scope slews to your choice. Or you could go with the Seestar S50 for 550 bucks. What it can do for that kind of money is truly amazing and set up is so easy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom