High Point Scientific just did a pretty good review of the new all-in-one EA telescope by ZWO, the Seestar S50. I’ve seen one in operation and it looks like it delivers what they say it will, and all for a very reseasonable price! I’ve got one on order, but it hasn’t arrived yet.
This review doesn’t get into the how to setup and use so much as it talks about the capabilites and features, and results. If you’re thinking of getting one, watch this first! There are many other videos on YouTube on this too, but I think this is one of the best.
Here’s another really good review of the Seestar I found. Not as technical as some of them are, just a good review of what you can do with the Seestar and how easy it is to get images with.
As I thought it might, the ZWO Seestar S50 is blowing up the all-in-one EA market. Vaonis ard Unistellar are reacting slowly. I hope they react enough to stay in business! I love their telescopes too, but for $500 the Seestar is the one to get in this market right now. The improvements in quality you can get with the more expensive scopes is just not worth the thousands of dollars difference in price. IMO.
The one exception being, if you want to participate in easy Citizen Science projects, you must get a Unistellar scope right now. I recommend gettig the eQuinox 2 for that. If you’ve got the money, the eVscope 2 is nice, but the main difference between them is the eyepiece, and while it’s great for outreach, personally I hardly ever use it. Especially in the winter, when I mainly sit in my truck and control them from there.
I’ve seen a lot of posts from folks that have run F2.2 RASA scopes and they’re doubtful about the Origin. Apparently RASA’s are very sensitive to wind, focus, and temperature changes. Most are holding off to see how it performs before jumping on the bandwagon. Plus the price is pretty high, even with it being a 6”.
Unistellar announced their new scope, Odyssey, just before Celestron did. It’s a lighter, smaller version of the eV2 and eQ2, for about the same prices. I’ve seen reports from the beta testers. It apparently does what they claim it does, but I think the price is a bit high in today’s market.
My recommendation, if you’re thinking of jumping into the all-in-one EA market, is to get the ZWO Seestar S50 for $500. Results may not be quite as good as the big boys, but the price is right and I don’t think anyone will be disappointed.
