First light and first images tonight with my new Seestar S50 that I got this morning:
I’m very impressed with it! Got a few quirks I need to learn, but I really like it.
OK Mitche, we’re ready for your compare/contrast analysis!
That is amazing for a $500 unit! I noted from the YouTube review it only has difficulty with planets.
Very nice Mitche.
from last night
m39 m31 and moon after just some cleanup of the stacked image with google pixel software.
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Brad, yes, as with all of the all-in-one EA scopes, Saturn/Jupiter don’t turn out well. Dave tried to get Saturn on Wednesday and it didn’t look good.
But it did a pretty decent job with the Moon.
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Very nice. And simple to use too.
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I’m impressed! Nice work, Mitche.
Very impressive Mitche; very nice indeed.
Hi Mitche,
Very nice images, especially from a small all-in-one scope. I might be tempted to go for one of these.
I see your M16 image had a total integration time of 62 minutes. What was the exposure time for each sub in the stack? Does this scope give you control over the number of subs and/or the sub exposure time?
Also, concerning the planets. This scope will probably not produce satisfying images of Mars, Jupiter, or Saturn. The focal length of this scope is 250 mm. You really need focal lengths around 3000-4000 mm to get decent images of these objects.
I think the subs are 10 sec each. As is the default setting for the Stellina. The eV2 default is 4 sec. I haven’t found how to change the length of time, if that’s possible. The total number is whatever it is when I save the image for the autostacked image. In the raw data, it saves until I stop the session. I can’t set it for a set number of subs. On any of my EA scopes. One nice feature on the Seestar is that it will continue the session is I stop it.
Yeah, the images of planets are tiny. No details, even I I get the exposure right. And that’s very difficult. I saw on a YouTube video the trick is to use the lunar setting for Jupiter and Saturn. Otherwise they’re completely washed out. I haven’t tried for planets yet. And the forecasts are horrible for the next two weeks, so doubt I’ll get to try for a while.
Mitche,
That’s impressive for a stack of 10 second subs. Too bad there is so little flexibility with exposure settings. Nevertheless, for EAA, it seems like an excellent portable rig.
It was very clear, tonight, but the wind and the humidity was high, so I wasn’t going to out tonight. But Joel wanted to get out of the house, so we met at Bluff Creek. Winds were high, 13-20mph, so didn’t set up my Stellina or eV2. But decided to see how the Seestar did in the wind. We set it up between our vehicles, but don’t think that blocked much wind. Watching, I could see it dropped a lot of subs, presumably because of the wind, but it still moved right along most of the time. Didn’t let anything run too long, but I was impressed it got these in that much wind. No post processing, just the auto stacking on the DSOs.
I’m more and more impressed with the Seestar every time I use it.
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I was waiting for your first images with your Seestar S50 and I’m impressed! The Westmoore High School Astronomy Club students just purchased two of these for their club and I think they are going to be quite excited when they finally get them in.
What solar filter did you use for that first image? Their astronomy teacher (who also works in the planetarium) borrows our small Lunt quite often for their labs, and I’m sure they would love to use it for solar imaging as well.
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thanks Mitche, I really like your reviews and post on the all-in-one EA scopes. It should be very beneficial to those interested in getting one. You are one busy guy.
Thanks…
Stan
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Really nice; so far have only used mine near city lights; from cro these really look good.
Have you figured out the touch for the centering tool?
Waylon, Sorry, I missed your question somehow. The Seestar comes with a solar filter and that’s what I used.
Stan, thanks for the compliments! Don’t know if it’s my reviews or advocacy or not, but a lot of club members are getting the Seestar. I think we’re up to at least 8-10 of them in the club, maybe more.
Bill, thanks! When I used my other all-in-one EA scopes at Okie-Tex (i.e., really really dark skies!) I was both elated and disappointed. I was disappointed in that although exposure time was less, the images I got I didn’t think were all that much better than what I was getting in the city. I was expecting really spectacular images! And the improvement was less than I hoped I’d get.
I was elated, however, because that meant I was getting really good images right here in the metro area under Bortle 8/9 skies with those scopes!!!
I know they’d be even better if can ever learn how to process the raw data. Someday.