ZWO Seestar S30 - NO unboxing but many pictures!!!!

I received the ZWO Seestar S30, and instead of doing the 1'000'000 unboxing I want to share with you my experience and show you the results of my first night shooting with it!
ZWO Homepage: www.zwoastro.c...
Seestar S30 at Agena Astro: bit.ly/3CvjkRM
#astrophotography #zwo
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[@jamesadams9688]

Hi there! In your video, you often refer to this telescope versus a "real rig." I just wanted to share that this is indeed a real rig-granted, it's a small one-but it's no less worthy because of its size. The great thing about these small smart scopes is that they allow anyone to go from deciding to do some astro-imaging to actually capturing images in just a few minutes. Bigger rigs can be time-consuming to set up, and here in the UK, where we mostly have cloudy nights, the clouds might have moved in by the time a larger rig is ready. That's the real strength of these small smart scopes! They're definitely useful for people who are into astrophotography for the reasons I've mentioned. They're just a different type of scope compared to traditional ones, but every bit as "real."

[@viewintospace]

Look, this is semantics and it does not help but rather confuse. The Smart-Scopes are great and have many amazing use cases as outlines in this video. I'm really happy with the S30 and will use it quite often as some side entertainment, on travels or to show my son the universe. But it is pointless or even misleading to compare it to a big, EQ mounted rig with a fullsize scope. Because when you start labeling both as a "rig", then it's fair to compare them and then obviously the smart scope results look much worse. And that is not fair because we talk here about a different price, different size and as stated much different use case....

[@ColleenVR]

I am so happy to see a realistic and balanced review of this scope's capabilities, thanks for focus on image quality but also on what its potential place is.

[@DirtyBird]

Excellent review. For years I have owned an LX200-GPS & an ETX-105. A few months ago I purchased a Seestar S50. In all honesty I have had more fun, and seen more things, with the S50 than in all the years I owned the larger scopes. Better still is I did so from the comfort of my warm office instead of freezing my butt off peering into an eyepiece. I now have an S30, along with a Dwarf 3, on preorder. I also ordered an S30 as Christmas gifts for a few family members. The Seestar is so simple to use for the absolute amateur & the price is fantastic.

[@viewintospace]

You sum it up perfectly!!!!

[@PhilW222]

Thanks for concentrating on the results, I see no reason to stray from my S50!

[@HawkASTRO]

Another well-balanced presentation Sascha. Thanks. It's a pity you haven't had the opportunity to try a Seestar S50.

[@ColleenVR]

Man, you chucked that box and I hit the subscribe button immediately - thanks for not doing yet another tedious unboxing 😂

[@Котоблог]

finally , i wanted pictures not unboxing :dd , thanks!

[@stuffybroz7936]

thank you for this video! the pictures look awesome! I cant wait for mine to come in the mail!

[@mkrous]

many thx. the moment you threw away the box I subscribed

[@TheGildenopa]

hi, i have a dwarf 3 and S30 on preorder too ^^ and i have an S50. take 10 sec picture, you will get better result. you need more pictures to stack, but it is not as blury at the side. and if you activate mosaic, you do not care about field rotation. my opinion is the same. the S50, Dwarf 3 and S30 are the best for beginners and advanced too.

[@viewintospace]

Thanks a lot for the tip, will try it out the next time I have clear sky!!!!

[@kaptkrunchfpv]

Getting back into the hobby after many years. Didnt even know "Smart" telescopes existed til a few days ago. My grandson is old enough to be interested and I really want him to see things with his own eyes, but at the same time I want to finally be able to take some cool images. Im from the school of bigger is better, so I think I will go with the S50 and maybe a 10" dob of some sort.

[@davidstearn1342]

Great review Sasha. I already have the C8 Hyperstar AVX and 2600MC Pro and process in Pixinsight. I did have the S30 on pre order but decided to go with the S50 due to the detail issues you showed of the moon. I have seen some well processed images with the S50 that come very close to a larger rig. My main use case is Lunar,Solar and using the S50 for those nights that have friends and family over or I just do not feel like setting up my astro rig. I also will be trying to see what kinds of images I can create from the S50 using the raw fits in Pixinsight.

[@viewintospace]

Makes perfect sense. If ultra-portability is not absolutely required, I think the S50 is the better choice.

[@MikeViker]

Excellent review! 🙂👏 I own a S50 but ordered the S30 because I aim to do some wide field Milky Way shots that easily.

[@shinyy187]

Space koala said that the wide lens can’t be used for astrophotography unfortunately. And the normal lens is still way too zoomed in to do the milky way unless you do one giant mosaic

[@MikeViker]

@@shinyy187 So the light pollution filter deosn't work in wide field mode?

[@azzaqmb]

As a person with more than one full rig.... and a s50 and when they start to ship the the s30 I will have on of them as well, I can say with out a drought that it is fun and very handy to have. Ok so the images you get are for social media like said in the video your not going to get a apod. When I'm imaging, I use my seestar s50 or s30 (when I get it) to have a look at other targets and work out if I want to spend time with my main on them. Now I have done some test to compare the seestar to my rigs, so if I do say a quick say 20min with it I know that I should get a image of X quality depending on my setup ie if I'm using the rasa it's like sub 5 min for something like the seestar (visual similar not quality of the image). So before any one go and says the the FOV is different yes I know but my sky conditions are the same (for the most part) and knowing the difference I get between the rigs helps decide on what setup if any I would use for said target.

[@viewintospace]

Great point and use case!!!! Thanks for sharing!

[@ABCMO-bl5pi]

Excellent review! And thank you for skipping yet another unboxing. I have a rig comprised on the AM5, AA+, and Redcat 61, and this combination is a pleasure to use and produces excellent deep space images. So as much as I want both of the Seestars to produce great images, I haven’t seen an image from them yet that I would be happy with. Given that, I will pass on both of them and devote my time this week to trying to find focus on the used Celestron 8se I bought by using the ZWO EAF set to very small increments. Wish me good mental health!

[@viewintospace]

I see you really like a good challenge 😄 Good luck!!!

[@astroashruff]

great video! People love to see more images than unboxing just for an example

[@LMGSvideos]

No unboxing, but eight minutes of you holding it and talking? Cool photos.

[@viewintospace]

It was more about the scope, not the box 😉

[@antn8387]

The lightweight form factor makes it easy for equatorial mounting.

[@davidemancini7853]

Good man!we don’t need unboxing nonsense!👍

[@raquelrodriguezmediavilla]

Thanks for your review, it's really interesting. I would like to know if stacking several photos of the sun improves the resolution of the spots. And the same thing about the moon: if you stack several photos, does the resolution of the craters increase? I do not plan to stack photos in an external program, but I am thinking of buying this telescope, I only have doubts between the S30 and the S50 due to the resolution of the sun and the moon. Thank you.

[@viewintospace]

Stacking does not really help here - the low resolution is most likely the biggest disadvantage of this scope. If ultra portability is not the main requirement for you, I would go with the S50.

[@raquelrodriguezmediavilla]

@viewintospace I have problems with lifting weights, that is why I have doubts. Otherwise I would definitely choose the S50

[@Jim-hq1sj]

How do you think it would do taking photo's of comets passing through or of asteroids like Vesta or Ceres?

[@viewintospace]

Astroids are too small and comets might be ok if you process them afterwards separately, but the live stacking will not be optimal, as it will guide on the stars hence the comet moves...

[@JJ-JJ-oc4dg]

No hace falta criticar a otros KZbinrs, además no creo que hacer o no un unboxing sea determinante, si no te gusta puedes adelantarlo. Crítica constructiva y respetuosa.

[@viewintospace]

This is not criticism as all, it is just fun. If I would have received the Seestar first, I would also have included the unboxing. But knowing myself, how sick and tired I get sometimes of everybody doing exactly the same, I decided as already so many unboxing videos were published I would skip it, and communicated that in a hopefully funny way.

[@JJ-JJ-oc4dg]

​@@viewintospacePues no es lo que parece cuando ves el vídeo, pero me alegro de que la verdadera intención no era criticar a otros KZbinrs ni pensar que Usted hace los vídeos mejor que los demás. Feliz domingo

[@spookysandwich1355]

DWARF 3 is not far away also has equatorial mode and can expose for 1min , so im gonna hold on for a while

[@viewintospace]

Sure, I believe both lines have their advantages.

[@msacco]

Tbh I expected a bit better, the results look pretty bad ^^ Thanks for the review, I thought about getting it for a moment.

[@viewintospace]

If you want it a bit better, get the S50. Size really matters when it comes to telescopes, and so the decrease in size of the S30 has its drawbacks

[@msacco]

@@viewintospace I hoped that the shorter focal length would be able to give a bit better results as there will be less field rotation, but the S50 is in my opinion pretty bad too :)

[@longhornastro]

Thanks for showing images from it instead of a silly unboxing. After watching the video I have decided that I won’t be buying one of them. I already have a Seestar s50 that I rarely use because the poor image quality compared to my big Astro rig. I think I will probably just get a Redcat 51 to use for wide field astrophotography since the image quality will be much better.

[@viewintospace]

Definitely the right choice. If the S50 has a too low image quality for you, the S30 makes no sense at all. Going then with a real telescope will be the much better option.

[@nikaxstrophotography]

It seems like every youtuber Astrophotographer is reviewing these POS's Seriously over it.

[@viewintospace]

I can very much relate! But look at it from this side - it is not about watching all of them, it is about that you have a choice of different content providers....

[@nikaxstrophotography]

@@viewintospace nah as soon as I see any seestar videos I tend to not watch them through and it's obvious ZWO are promoting them when you see them all over youtube

[@millenialfalcon8243]

So... just don't watch? 🤷‍♂️

[@nikaxstrophotography]

@@millenialfalcon8243 If I wanted your opinion I'd ask for it, don't be rude. I was talking to Sasha not you.