M81/M82 with SeeStar in EQ mode

Observation Notes

The SeeStar S50 by ZWO is an interesting so-called smart telescope. It has its virtues for outreach activities but also can be a nice device to get into astronomy and overcoming the "first view through a telescope" barrier (some people are excited (they are "sold" anyway  - others not impressed at all, but these one may be able to hold on to - pretty bimodal in my experience). Astrophotography is also an application but in the standard (AZ) mode my experiences have been only mixed: owing to a poor detector choice (1:2 axis ratio), field rotation is a major draw back, and the efficiency is also not the best, to say the least, the number of thrown out frames is quite considerable, in particular for 30s exposures. Too bad, as it is really very handy for traveling and in principle, optics and detector should be quite powerful considering its size and weight.

The situation changes completely with the new EQ mode: Taking some 600 frames over the past two nights I only had 1 frame which could not be integrated into the stack (in AZ its is more like 20-30%, if not more). The S50 comes with two filters, an UV/IRCut and a fairly broad narrow band filter (called light pollution filter) not unlike the iOptron L-enhance. So I took two images of the M81/M82 pair, one in RGB and one with the L-enhance to work out Ha emission. I stacked the individual frames in PI, did some basic image processing and then blended the two images . With some 300 frames per filter, drizzling is also an option. So I ended up with this shot  -  not the greatest image but considering the investment of time and money, I think the outcome really is quite impressive.

Data were taken on 2025 March 28 and 29

Technical Details

View the full-resolution image together with complete acquisition and processing details on AstroBin.