Smart Telescope
Smart Telescope
I’ve wanted to buy a camera and equatorial digital mount for my telescope for maybe over 10 years, but it’s always been far more money than I’ve been willing to spend, and it’s an extremely time consuming hobby.
However in the past few years smart telescopes have been coming out which I’ve been watching keenly. At first they were £3k, then £2k and then the one I bought direct from China was £350. A Seestar S50.
It’s a wonderfully constructed device. Carbon fibre tripod, nice knurled bits, built in anti dew heater, built in anti light pollution lens which it automatically uses if needed. 60gb hard drive and puts out its own WiFi which you connect your phone to. And it talks you through what it’s doing.
Started off with the sun:
Took a picture of the moon earlier, you can see the limitations of the 2mp sensor and there was also a lot of heat haze.
Going back to yesterday at twilight it recommended a galaxy, I was sceptical given it was still so bright you could only see about 4 stars with the naked eye. When it pictures deep space objects it takes 10s exposures, moves itself to counteract the rotation of the earth, takes another 10s exposure, analyses it and if it’s good it adds it to the stack. Yesterday I was getting a 50% rejection rate not helped with being under a flight path. But 15 minutes later I had an image of M51
Getting pretty dark and I fancy trying the Crescent nebula
I think my mind is blown almost as much at that nebula. Bloody heck that’s good.
Tried the M33 galaxy after that but I got too cocky, messed with the focus and it’s not as good. It’s really hard to focus and I’ve bought a lens to help with that for my next try.
Still, captured all that on a hot hazy night here, where it isn’t truly dark until after midnight. Amazing little bit of tech and my pictures are crap compared to what others are putting out so there is a learning curve to get the best out of it.
However in the past few years smart telescopes have been coming out which I’ve been watching keenly. At first they were £3k, then £2k and then the one I bought direct from China was £350. A Seestar S50.
It’s a wonderfully constructed device. Carbon fibre tripod, nice knurled bits, built in anti dew heater, built in anti light pollution lens which it automatically uses if needed. 60gb hard drive and puts out its own WiFi which you connect your phone to. And it talks you through what it’s doing.
Started off with the sun:
Took a picture of the moon earlier, you can see the limitations of the 2mp sensor and there was also a lot of heat haze.
Going back to yesterday at twilight it recommended a galaxy, I was sceptical given it was still so bright you could only see about 4 stars with the naked eye. When it pictures deep space objects it takes 10s exposures, moves itself to counteract the rotation of the earth, takes another 10s exposure, analyses it and if it’s good it adds it to the stack. Yesterday I was getting a 50% rejection rate not helped with being under a flight path. But 15 minutes later I had an image of M51
Getting pretty dark and I fancy trying the Crescent nebula
I think my mind is blown almost as much at that nebula. Bloody heck that’s good.
Tried the M33 galaxy after that but I got too cocky, messed with the focus and it’s not as good. It’s really hard to focus and I’ve bought a lens to help with that for my next try.
Still, captured all that on a hot hazy night here, where it isn’t truly dark until after midnight. Amazing little bit of tech and my pictures are crap compared to what others are putting out so there is a learning curve to get the best out of it.
How about not having a sig at all?
Re: Smart Telescope
Yeah that's very fucking cool.
Re: Smart Telescope
Astonishing images for that price
Re: Smart Telescope
That's ace, I want one!
-
- Posts: 3005
- Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2018 3:58 pm
- Currently Driving: Ferrari F430 Spider
BMW M4 Comp
Mini Cooper
LR Evoque P300e - Contact:
Re: Smart Telescope
If that’s not just a gps, compass and access to a Chinese database then it’s an incredible piece of kit!
Guess we’ll find out when they offer a subscription service for better quality pics!..
Guess we’ll find out when they offer a subscription service for better quality pics!..
Cheers,
Ian
Ian
Re: Smart Telescope
Damn I need one of these! Now that British Steel and most of the ICI sites have closed there is significantly less light pollution up here. Link to purchase?
Re: Smart Telescope
https://store.seestar.com/?_src=ssos
Took a week to come from China and I got lucky with customs but even then it’s still cheaper than buying from a UK seller.
Took a week to come from China and I got lucky with customs but even then it’s still cheaper than buying from a UK seller.
How about not having a sig at all?
Re: Smart Telescope
Problem in my neighbourhood is that the streetlights are always on, it's lit up like a Christmas tree every night. Not good for stargazing.
Re: Smart Telescope
It will work better than you imagine, one reason I bought this was because I saw a vid from a guy who lives in an apartment in Tokyo, he managed to get good results despite it being pretty bright outside
Re: Smart Telescope
This is pretty cool and interesting to see the price point of these has fallen so much - as you say they were always 4 figure bits of kit.
I'm a bit of a sucker for actually seeing something through a viewfinder though and if I was effectively exposure stacking to produce deep sky images I should probably just pull my finger out and work out how to do it with the 45mp full frame mirrorless camera I have already which in theory can produces images like this...
I do admit though that having something that can do it with minimal effort is very appealing.
I'm a bit of a sucker for actually seeing something through a viewfinder though and if I was effectively exposure stacking to produce deep sky images I should probably just pull my finger out and work out how to do it with the 45mp full frame mirrorless camera I have already which in theory can produces images like this...
I do admit though that having something that can do it with minimal effort is very appealing.
Re: Smart Telescope
Peseid meteor shower tonight; https://www.kentonline.co.uk/kent/news/ ... gh-311191/
- 16vCento
- Posts: 1155
- Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2018 6:06 pm
- Currently Driving: XFS Portfolio
V60 D3 SE
Xantia Activa
Re: Smart Telescope
That is absolutely ace, first thing on the list when we move house!
Re: Smart Telescope
Had a few more goes at this.
Pillars of creation:
M13: a cluster of several hundred thousand stars. Some of the bigger blurrier objects are entire galaxies
2 galaxies for the price of one here:
Dumbbell nebula:
Iris nebula: the lack of stars in a distinct four leaf clover pattern is due to a thick dusty cloud which won’t let light through.
And the Eye of God:
Pillars of creation:
M13: a cluster of several hundred thousand stars. Some of the bigger blurrier objects are entire galaxies
2 galaxies for the price of one here:
Dumbbell nebula:
Iris nebula: the lack of stars in a distinct four leaf clover pattern is due to a thick dusty cloud which won’t let light through.
And the Eye of God:
How about not having a sig at all?
Re: Smart Telescope
As I always think when I look at images like these, - how can anyone look at them and think that we are the only civilisation out there.
Even Prof Brian Cox thinks so! It's really odd.
Even Prof Brian Cox thinks so! It's really odd.
The artist formerly known as _Who_
- Swervin_Mervin
- Posts: 5206
- Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2018 8:58 pm