ZWO SeeStar S50 Smart Telescope

The ZWO Seestar S50 is poised to be the next revolution in astronomy.

Say hello to the ZWO Seestar S50.  What exactly is the Seestar S50?

Is it a telescope?

Is it a camera?

Does it have electric focus?

Does it have computer GoTo?

The simple answer to all of the above is yes.  It is and it does.

The Seestar S50 looks like a disruptor for the astronomical corner of our galaxy.  This gadget has the potential to revolutionize the way people interact with astronomical gear and how they share their passion for the night sky.

The engineers at ZWO took all their knowledge from years of astronomical imaging and put it this perfectly portable package.  It seems like they sat around and said how can we make this easy to use, make it a fancy piece of tech, and make it fun?  It sure looks like they achieved all of that.

The Seestar S50 looks like a friendly robot from the future to be honest.  It's compact 5.5x5x10” body weighs in at only 6.6 pounds making it a breeze to take out quickly.  On a full charge you can get up to 6 hours of “viewing” under the night sky.

How does one “view” without an eyepiece of any sort?  Glad you asked.  The Seestar S50’s triplet apochromatic lens does a fantastic job of creating crisp images for you to view on your smart device.  It does this by using a live stacking mode.  Basically it continuously collects images and puts them together live on your device.  More images, means more data.  More data means more color and detail.  You will gradually unveil details in celestial objects that your naked eye would have never picked up.

Your smart device will become mission command for the Seestar.  The app does some amazing things.  It can make recommendations for what is good to view that evening depending on weather conditions.  It is very intuitive and makes it easy to capture objects like the Moon, galaxies, nebula, and the Sun if you have proper filtering.  Read this part again.  You will need proper filtering to take images of the Sun.  I think having the Seestar would make eclipse chasing an absolute blast.

The Seestar S50 is really a breeze to use.  You will connect your smart device with the built-in WiFi/Bluetooth and the Seestar will start doing its little dance.  The built-in sensors and star maps will work in conjunction with your GPS on your smart device to self-calibrate and align.  ZWO has really tried to make the Seestar as user friendly as possible.  From auto focus so you images stay in focus to computer GoTo and tracking.  All you have to do is find the object on the database of the app and press.  The Seestar does the rest.

This instrument really has the possibility to change the way we all observe.  In the end it allows us easier access to share our passion with people all around the world, and that is a good thing.

Tech Details: