Smart Telescope?

[FowlersFreeTime]

This $479 Smart Telescope Lets Anyone Shoot Beautiful Astro Photos

One of the most affordable "smart telescopes" out there.

petapixel.com

"The device uses Sony Starvis 2 image sensors (IMX678), Type 1/1.8 8.3-megapixel sensors built explicitly for low-light, high-sensitivity shooting applications."

"There’s not just one camera on the Dwarf 3, though — there are two. There’s a wide-angle camera and a telephoto camera. Considering crop factors, the lenses are equivalent to 45mm and 737mm, respectively. The cameras also include built-in filters for astrophotography, including a visual infrared filter for daytime photography, an astro filter that extends the infrared range (430 to 690 nanometers), and a dual-band filter that targets explicitly OIII (500.7nm), Hβ(486nm), and Hα (656.3nm) wavelengths, which reduce the impact of light pollution on night sky photos and helps ensure clearer emission nebula images."

I'm really impressed by the technology at play here. For less than the price of a big zoom lens, I could have a new toy capable of shooting the stars and other celestial objects. Astro nerds, what do yo guys think of this thing?

 

[GvilleRick]

I've had one for a few months now. I'm looking forward to winter and some clear skies to try it more with nebulas. Here are some examples of shots straight from the SeeStar with no additional processing.

M51 - Whirlpool Galaxy

Leo Triplet (M65, M66 and NGC 3628)

M13 - The Hercules Cluster

Solar Mode showing the sunspots that caused the Aurora Borealis much further south than usual.

Lunar Mode

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

Pretty interesting Rick, are you happy with it, or would you rather invest in a star tracker for your tripod so you can use your camera?

 

[GvilleRick]

I'm pretty happy with it. It's certainly easier to set up and find the target than using my camera. I need to try and set up my camera and compare shots. I've mainly used a camera for Milky Way shosts in the past which the SeeStar can't do due to smaller field of view. I've only shot in the past with relatively short shots stacked. I did take some shots with my Pentax K1 and K3 cameras using the Astrotracker feature to get longer times.

 

[Richard A]

They are lovely photos. Are they processed on the device? There are some tutorials I have seen on YouTube showing how to get even better results by processing them yourself. I have been thinking about buying one of these for a while. There is even a shop here now which stocks them. I have a Pentax K-3ii that I tried Astrotracer with, with good results, but I found it was very easy to over expose the stars with a long exposure & loose all the colour. I actually got better results with stacking multiple images.

 

[GvilleRick]

All of these shots were directly from the SeeStar with no further processing. I have played around a little with Siril software and have seen some really nice processed shots. I want to get some nebula shots once I get some clear nights. I also hope they will add a mosaic mode at some point to allow capturing larger objects like the Andromeda Galaxy or the Orion Nebula.