Is the Seestar S30 the Best Budget Smart Telescope Yet? (Full Review)

[@Naztronomy]

Get the Seestar S30 directly from ZWO: collabs.shop/kzxrrm

[@busload_uk]

Great review! Totally agree with your thoughts on the (thankfully rare) examples of gatekeeping, and the notion of smart scopes being a great introduction to the hobby for youngsters and newbies.

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

Nice first impression review! Love all the smart scopes coming out!

[@Naztronomy]

Thanks, Rich! The competition is definitely good for us.

[@adaur981]

Thanks for the review. Mine is already on order.

[@neilAneerGAmAI]

Nice preview review. A few months ago I just wanted a telescope and looked at the Seestar as something pointless. But now I realise it's just a great way of focusing on the sky, relaxing and learning. Great stuff!

[@Naztronomy]

Thanks! I admit I also had reservations when I first heard about the seestar but I was quickly convinced it was a good direction to head.

[@PandaBurrie]

👀 I'm liking the image quality, and that price point is nice too. Thanks for doing the review, Naz! If I end up buying one does the link in the description give you a commission?

[@Naztronomy]

The price surprised me the most, I was sure it was going to stay similar to the S50. Yep! I get like 3-6% 2-3 months from the order :) Thank you!

[@judd_s5643]

Regarding gatekeeping….the cost of entry into astrophotography historical has been insanely expensive AND intellectually demanding. This limits the population of customers willing to make the investment. These new smart telescopes remind me of the Kodak “Instamatic” cameras of years ago, everyone could take pictures. The millions of users cause the cost of the cameras/ consumables to become cheap. The more potential customers to the hoppy will bring innovation and cost reduction that everyone will benefit from.

[@Naztronomy]

Totally agree with this! Great way of putting it.

[@GustavoTokoroRiether]

I saw your post on Reddit and now I want one myself, just need to convince my wife

[@Naztronomy]

Just buy one for your wife and ask if you can borrow it sometimes 😉

[@chrismlodnicki]

Nice! I was thinking about the s50 for my kid. I sold the CGX, so I've got some cash for the moment.

[@Naztronomy]

Awesome! Still thinking about the S50 or shifting to the S30? Either way, I think your kid will love it. The S50 in star parties has been a hit with kids.

[@nostradukemas]

If you had to buy one, would you pick an S30 or S50? I’m debating between the two for my first step into astrophotography and trying to figure out which way to go

[@Naztronomy]

Good question and I think i'd pick the S30. Mostly because I think it would be better for outreach. Since I'm not trying to do planetary photos with either of these systems, the wider field of view, better sensor, and low price makes it attractive. The S50 is a VERY close second. If you're just starting out, a wider field of view telescope is probably the way to go. If you haven't tried yet, go to Astronomy.tools and look up the field of view of some DSO and see which one fits your needs more. Of course with the addition of the mosaic mode, the S50 also gives you a wider field of view.

[@fotoenvrossi3104]

want to see dwarf 3 vs seestar 30 comparison , so I can decide which one to buy :P , thanks for these info

[@Naztronomy]

I'll see if I can get my hand son a Dwarf 3 :)

[@g-r-a-e-m-e-]

I appreciate your comments very much.

[@tma2001]

Definitely get back to them on the Moon. I assume the S30 when on the drawing board was gunning for the Dwarf 2 given the price, wide FOV, magnetic solar filter and mini tripod (before Dwarf 3 was announced). Neither S30 or Dwarf 3 list the wide fov sensor but the latter markets it for astroimaging of the Milky Way so presumably its using something decent. Not sure about the S30 if its were they cut costs.

[@Naztronomy]

I think you're right about the S30 trying to compete with the Dwarf 2. You can take pictures using the S30 wide field but I think you're limited to its preview exposure speed (200ms if I'm not mistaken). You can theoretically do things like star trails and milky way. I'm hoping to test out both of them.

[@elsadezilva5793]

Hi can you stack together subs from S30 and S50 ?

[@fmsilva11]

Thanks you for te review. What CPU, RAM and software are ínside off s30 ?

[@Naztronomy]

ZWO hasn't published those and I don't think anyone has taken one apart yet to take a look. So we're not sure what's in there but I've seen theories that it's probably a snapdragon CPU and some kind of DDR3/4 RAM. The software is just the seestar app. It's custom built by ZWO. Same goes for the firmware that's in the Seestar itself.

[@JLEBELGE]

Mosaic mode doesn't fade out light trails (airplane sat etc.) I think it's a minus for the option

[@Naztronomy]

Ah interesting. The limited control options in the Seestar's live stacking is definitely its weakest point. I posted a video a few days ago about live stacking using Sharpcap instead which give you control over trails. Not sure if that'll do well with mosaics but I'm hoping to try it one day.

[@rapoker847]

the moon looks over processed indeed

[@matforsbon]

Beside the smartness, it's still only a tiny 30 mm Telescope (1,18 inches) and you will only get images with that of a Telescope with a tiny 1,18 inch lens no matter what.

[@MagicalWingLT]

So the quality for the Moon and Sun photos is worse? I don't care about the other planets but I at least want good photos of the Moon and Sun along with the deep sky stuff. Would the videos of the Moon look better?

[@Naztronomy]

I think it's just the moon. Cuiv looked at the sun in his video and it looked okay. I plan to test this out with the sun tomorrow so I'll see. Deep sky stuff is normal. Just the moon is messed up. And video would definitely look better if you take it in RAW mode. Then you can debayer and process it yourself after the fact.

[@MagicalWingLT]

@Naztronomy It has that new AI feature to edit it in the app right? From what the info says on the site. Maybe that might help with the Moon photos. We'll have to see what happens

[@Naztronomy]

I'm imaging right now and there's nothing in the controls that I can see. I recorded my screen so I'll post that later on. But I did notice something interesting. The moon picture in this video was taken after I clicked '2x' on the seestar app to get closer and it looks overcooked. But when looking at the moon on the default 1x, it looks fine. At least it does on my phone screen. I'll have to transfer it to a computer later and confirm but it's very strange. It could be a programming error where at 1x, it's doing some ai sharpening but the moon still looks realistic but at 2x, it doubles the sharpening/contrast. The moon looks pretty bad at 4x too but the atmosphere is very turbulent at that magnification so I can't tell if it's worse than 2x. I'll review the photos and videos and confirm later. About the new AI editing feature, there is an option now to do a 'deep sky stack' in the app directly. You can pick individual images from the seestar and then stack them yourself. This may give you the AI controls. I'll have to test this out as well but this is the only place where 'AI Editing' makes sense to me. I'll hopefully get a chance to test with the sun tomorrow.

[@MagicalWingLT]

@Naztronomy I'm looking forward to your findings and results.

[@Gaz1969uk]

Great video Thankyou, I hope we get our hands on it soon.👍🙏

[@Naztronomy]

Thanks! I hope ZWO starts to send them earlier than they are planning. Good timing for Orion season though!

[@BeverlyBamburyA]

Definitely overprocessed on that moon image.

[@davidstearn1342]

I think the new AI enhance software may have over processed the lunar image a bit. The same AI enhance software should be available for the S50 as well.

[@Naztronomy]

Yeah I think you're right. I'm about to do some tests with the S50 as well and then I'll send an email to ZWO about it.