The Amazing Little Seestar S50

I never thought I would be writing a review of a $700 smart telescope, let alone actually giving it some credence. The Seestar S50, in my opinion, represents the best value available today in an imaging rig.

Are there better rigs? Yes. Are there better smart telescopes? Yes, there are. But pound for pound and dollar for dollar, the little Seestar S50 has proven itself as a durable and capable rig.

My Celestron Origin can deliver better quality images. It can deliver them faster and cleaner. But at 10 times the cost to the S50 (at least), it doesn’t deliver 10 times the results. And Celestron has been slow in releasing many of the things we are getting used to very well on the S50. Important things like dithering, a mosaic mode, equatorial mode. 4K mode, Alpaca support and more. What really makes the S50 shine is what it delivers for its price point.

I’m going to go out on a limb. If you wanted to have all the fun in astronomy and do it on a budget, an S50 and an 8-or 10-inch Dobsonian telescope would be a great budget friendly entry point into a wide array of telescope needs. Youi could view the planets, record eclipses and the moon in general, enjoy sunspots, capture deep sky objects, engage in the visual thrill of astronomy and more. If you bought used, you could have it all for less than the cost of a budget imaging refractor and get more out of it.

I don’t care which rig you use, I think the S50 is like having a 5 in 1 screwdriver in your toolbox. Self contained in a small carry box, great for grab and go nights, great for outreach and more. It has become a workhorse and it is becoming widespread. It could well become the best-selling telescope of all time shortly.

You can’t go wrong.