Hi All… The June 28th event at Perth museum was very enjoyable. I also had some time to experiment with the Seestar S50. Conclusions thus far: Very useful. Can be used for viewing of bright images — moon, or terrestrial (at distances 30m+).
For starfield or cluster observations, it is an astrophotography scope. For instance, Polaris, viewing for 2 minutes with 10-second exposures, then allowing the scope to stack 12 exposures, gave a good star field. Can easily be transferred to the tablet used to control the scope. One can operate the scope in “station” mode, which means it is accessed via one’s home WiFi router, so from the tablet one has access to internet and to the scope, via the Seestar app. Likely useful if one want to checks email or play chess while waiting for image capture.
The star map is convenient for identifying objects to search for. Have not yet mastered alignment fully, but it was pretty good. Field of view is fixed, big enough to capture full circle of the moon. Typical orientation 0.7 degree wide and 1.2 degree high. AltAz mount does not allow good navigation / observing near local zenith, but of course celestial zenith (Polaris) is no problem as it is about 45 degree altitude locally.
Using a 10-sec exposure is advisable, and produced good images on stacking. Using a 20-sec exposure degraded the image, creating blacked-out streaks on stacked image. Not sure if it is algorithmic or mis-understanding on my part. Anyway, scope is good, keep learning, keep looking UP !! Best, Ken R.
