Experience and recording M51 Whirlpool with ZWO Seestar S50

Hello Mr. Kloß,

After some time, I'd like to write you a review of the Seestar S50.

But first, I'd like to thank you for your Sunday work and the lightning-fast delivery!

The Seestar S50 is exactly the device I was looking for to occasionally take photos of the starry sky. I experimented with it a few years ago with various equipment. And if I had a permanent spot (or rather, an observatory) in my garden where I could set up more complex equipment and calibrate it, I would probably do it that way. Or if I enjoyed setting up my equipment from scratch every time. Since that's not the case for me, the Seestar is the ideal device. It's really quick to set up. You just put it down and go (OK, I mounted it on a larger and somewhat more stable tripod with a leveling plate, although the included small one isn't bad either). It doesn't matter if it's on the balcony or if some trees are blocking part of the sky. As long as a piece is visible, everything works.

So far, due to the weather, I've only conducted a few experiments (star clusters and, of course, the sun, whose surface is no problem and captures beautifully). This week, it finally cleared for a longer period after sunset, so I was able to take pictures of the Whirlpool Galaxy. Between approximately 11:00 PM and 12:40 AM, I took 44 images of 30 seconds each, for a total exposure of 22 minutes. The Seestar is very picky with its images. Images with star trails or clouds are immediately discarded. The disadvantage is that you can't manually intervene in the image selection. The advantage is that the saved images are of good quality, and you don't really need to review them before stacking them yourself; the Seestar has already done that.

The jpg stacked/created by the Seestar is more suitable as a better preview (attached image Stacked._44_M51…jpg). However, if you take a closer look and edit the stacked image yourself (and I'm not very experienced at this), some details do emerge (attached image M51_Whirlpool.jpg). I think this is a great result considering the minimal setup and adjustment effort and the relatively low price of the device.

Thanks again for the fast delivery, I'm sure I'll be making many more interesting observations with the SeeStar S50.

Best regards,

Markus W.

Link to the ZWO SeeStar S50:

https://www.teleskop-spezialisten.de/shop/Teleskope/Refraktor/bis-80mm/ZWO-Seestar-S50-Smart-Teleskop::6297.html