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Trying to choose instrument for Astrophotography

ZWO Seestar S50 Equipment Beginner Buying Advice Deep Sky
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1986AD avatar
1986AD avatar
Need help, as I am trying to chose between below mentioned three setup, mainly for photographing deep sky objects ( i am very much beginner ). I lived under a Bortle 6 sky.

1. ZWO Seestar S50
2. Kson 80-720 refractor with dual axis MD mount
3. Sky Watcher Virtuoso gti 150p

for Kson, its an f9 setup, though its EQ mount, but not goto. Whereas, optics of the Virtuoso is best among them, but its an alt-az goto mount ( I dont have any kind of experience of this thing ).
andrea tasselli avatar
andrea tasselli avatar
None of the above would probably be the best answer. A tracker and a camera+stock lens for starters seems to me your best intro to astrophotography. For casual visual browsing then the SW might be an option.
Nico Gärtner avatar
Nico Gärtner avatar
Agree with Andrea… none of those.

Whats your budget and what do you want to image?
1986AD avatar
1986AD avatar
@Nico Gärtner , thanks for guiding.
my budget is around 500-600 USD. and I wish to take images of Deep Sky Objects.
Oskari Nikkinen avatar
Oskari Nikkinen avatar
Hmm, at this budget i actually think the Seestar might be your best option but its not without compromise. The problem with that path is that the setup is not upgradeable should you wish to do so in the future (but you can probably sell it for a good fraction of what you bought it for).

The optimal budget setup is probably a second hand DSLR and a lens of some kind + a star tracker. The tracker alone, for example a Skywatcher Star adventurer eats up at least half of your budget here, so not much left for the rest but the upside is that you can easily upgrade in the future to maybe a better lens or even a small telescope.
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tjm8874 avatar
tjm8874 avatar
Seestar S50 is not bad for learning "messier catalog", but only for bright objects. not for galaxy or faint nebulas.

Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer 2i $350 is single motor mount, you can try Landscape and MilkyWay, Meteor shower, comet etc

Sky Watcher Star Adventurer GTI Mount $550 (Head only) + your own tripod + DSLR + wide to mid tele (up to around 200mm), will work for basic wide field astrophoto. you can step up to… 250-300mm telescope with guiding.
SoDakAstronomyNut avatar
SoDakAstronomyNut avatar
Spend $25 and join a local astronomy club. Go to some of their star parties and have them show you what they use - if you are lucky they have setups similar to what you are trying to compare.

Deep sky targets come on all sizes and brightnesses. As others have said your budget will limit what you will be able to capture. That’s okay if you set your expectations low and work your way up the AP ladder, if you decide to stay on it.

Start slow, save up and get the setup you can afford based on your favorite targets based on your experiences viewed on others’ rigs.

CS & GB!

kip
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dummieastro avatar
dummieastro avatar
If you only have $600.00 to spend and are in bortle 6 get the Seestar. Watch youtube videos to learn the tricks to get the best out of it you can. At least you will get pictures of lots of objects and see if you want to take the next step. If you can stretch the budget get a skywatcher or ioptron star tracker and tripod, a used dslr and used lens. That is how I started. I learned the basics and then upgraded.  Do a search on Astrobin under equipment to see the quality of pictures that are possible with these star trackers and dslrs.  All the best. CS
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Georg N. Nyman avatar
Georg N. Nyman avatar
If your budget allows only for about 500-600$, your probably best option is the Seestar. But keep in mind, at that low budget, you must accept many compromises and can´t expect much… 
Have you considered to look at Astromart.com for a second hand system? 

Rgds
Georg
Kyle Cerniglia avatar
Kyle Cerniglia avatar
andrea tasselli:
None of the above would probably be the best answer. A tracker and a camera+stock lens for starters seems to me your best intro to astrophotography. For casual visual browsing then the SW might be an option.

It's 2024, unless OP already has a camera on hand they can use, go straight into dedicated cameras. The low end ones are cheap as dirt nowadays and will save lots of headaches.
andrea tasselli avatar
andrea tasselli avatar
The OP funds are limited so mine is the least expensive option, considering the possibility of the OP having already a camera. And frankly I don't see any headache in a consumer camera as long as it can expose up to 30s.
Norman Tajudin avatar
Norman Tajudin avatar
Not necessarily advice on the optimal setup, but perhaps a path on your journey…  I got into astrophotography with a Celestron 5SE I picked up on Craigslist for $300 that included the mount.  I already had a DSLR at the time and eventually hooked that up to the telescope to get me on my way.  Over the years, I've bought and sold my equipment on Astromart, Cloudy Nights, Craigslist, and Facebook Marketplace,  parlaying my profits into better equipment over time as I learned what worked best for me.  The key is to be patient as deals always pop up so it's not hard to end up net positive when you decide to upgrade. Also, with Craigslist and Facebook marketplace, oftentimes people are just trying to liquidate stuff without knowledge of its value so you can occasionally find deals on quality equipment.  Examples for me include a 14" Meade SCT on Craigslist that I sold for a $1,000 profit or a Televue Nagler 17mm eyepiece that I picked up for $120.

Think about what you are trying to image.  I still bust out the 5SE OTA when I want to do some planetary or lunar imaging.  DSO's are where you start needing to upgrade your equipment.  That said, the SeeStar is interesting as it's completely self contained and can image some large, bright nebula like Orion. You can also get deals on that unit in the used market now that the Solar Eclipse has passed as there were a lot of casual observers that bought equipment like the SeeStar just for that event. 

Good luck and clear skies!

Norm
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GTom avatar
GTom avatar
None of those. If budget is of concern, I'd start with a second hand Skywatcher 72ED + Star Adventurer GTi.
DavesView avatar
DavesView avatar
Find an astronomy group or someone close already into it.
Learn and play while you stick money back. This hobby is expensive.
Get an idea of exactly what you want for a decent first rig, sans the compromises.
Search for the right deal to come along and even buy one component at a time.

From the looks of your three considerations, there is a lot more research you need to do.
Don't jump now. It's a long way down. smile
DavesView avatar
DavesView avatar
Don't know why it double posted.
Charles Hagen avatar
Charles Hagen avatar
My recommendation is to get anything but the SeeStar if you actually want to progress with the hobby. If the end goal is (mediocre at best) images of space and nothing more, the SeeStar is undoubtedly the best bang for your buck, but there is a very subtle tradeoff that makes it very detrimental to the hobby in my view. When you are using a SeeStar you do not gain any of the practical experience that you would with some other beginner rig, you never learn the basics that are foundational to progression in astrophotography. I often see SeeStar owners get stuck in a pit where they do not want to spend more money to abandon the simplistic workflow that they become accustomed to. 

As for an actual recommendation, I would recommend a Rokinon 135mm f/2  lens and a budget DSLR. This will get you started taking excellent images and will give you room to grow without getting trapped in ZWO's ecosystem.
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Ed Dixon avatar
Ed Dixon avatar
For many, the Seestar represents a good place to start.  It’s low cost and will give you good results right away.  It includes filters for Solar and DSO things when light pollution is a problem.  The automatic features make getting images quite easy.  The app they provide has good info about the night sky and what you can see from your location on any date/time.  If you don't already know the night sky, it will help you learn.

Getting into AP is a great hobby, but tends to get pricey as one moves further into gear and software.  There are many levels and options.  Many do start with a DSLR and then move into more camera and scope options. For any DSO targets there are a few basics to consider:

 DSO targets tend to be faint
 Multiple long exposures are generally needed
 The Earth rotates and gear has to adjust for that

The most basic setup might be a DSLR, longer focal length lens (100-200mm) and a rotator mount.  That combo is probably already over the 500-600$ range.  Others have already mentioned this combo.

For reference, I have a Seestar and 5 other telescope combos.  I have both a rotator mount (iOptron SkyGuider Pro) and a very good EQ mount (iOptron HEM27).   Last night I had both the HEM27 out and the Seestar.  This is the image I got with the Seestar of M31.


Stacked_44_M 31_10.0s_IRCUT_20240824-024010 (1)B2.png
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Bill McLaughlin avatar
Bill McLaughlin avatar
Big  question is what are your goals?

If all you want is basic "happy snaps" of some of the brighter objects or just do  neighborhood or family "EAA" sessions and don't need print-worthy or post-worthy images then something like SeeStar is probably the best bet.

If you want more than that ( and I suspect you will eventually if the experience of others is any guide) the blunt truth is that nothing anywhere close to that price range will be adequate. You are better off buying data (as much as I hate that concept :angrysmile, or downloading professional data and learning to process.

Short and rude version is that although the hobby has gotten both cheaper and easier, it is still not that cheap nor that easy (at least not if done well).
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Ed Dixon avatar
Ed Dixon avatar
When I was out last night (8/24/24) I had two rigs running five feet apart.  One was the Seestar referenced in my earlier post.  The second was one of my conventional telescope setups.  This is the image of the same target (M31) taken at the same time.


masterLight_BIN_1_6248x4176_EXPOSURE_300_00s_FILTER_NoFilter_RGB_integration_ABE-3B (1D) (1)_GraXpert (1)B3.png


This was from a William Optics GT71 scope and a ZWO ASI2600MC Pro camera.  The mount was an iOptron HEM27 and a 30mm guide scope was also used with a second ZWO camera.  Post processing was with the same software (Pixinsight) for images.  The approximate cost for the gear in the second rig is about $7000, not including the Pixinsight software (used for both images) at about $500.


Good gear gets you better images…at a considerably higher cost.
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GTom avatar
GTom avatar
You don't need to break the bank to get decent results. A venerable 4/300 telephoto, a DIY converted Canon 2000D and a tracker all sourced 2nd hand won't cost you far more than a seestar. But it will TEACH you tremendously more on just about every aspect of the hobby.
Tommi Liinalampi avatar
Tommi Liinalampi avatar
The biggest question is, what is your purpose for photographing? If you're doing it for your own enjoyment and want to see a bit more of the universe than with the naked eye, then Seestar could be a good option. However, if your goal is more serious photography (high-quality web publications, prints, etc.), you might want to look for a used, affordable equatorial Goto mount, a small doublet refractor telescope, and a DSLR camera that fits the telescope. Assembling such a setup can be challenging with your budget. Quite often, the price of amateur equipment is several thousand euros/dollars.
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peng155 avatar
peng155 avatar
I thought I'd just throw my .02 cents in, for what it worth…. in your original post you didn't mention if you had a camera (DSLR) avalible to you.. I'll make an assumption that you don't..
I've seen post on other places where this quaetion comes up… I'm new, i'd like to start taking photo's of deep sky objects, where do i start???  Should I get a Seestar??  or ??

In my opinion and it's just that… I think a Seestar is a good place to start "IF" you have budget limitations and just starting out…  A Seestar has the following specs for about $449.00 USD currently:

Sensor: IMX462
Resolution: 1080x1920
Aperture: 50mm
Focal Ratio: f/5
Focal length: 250mm
Optical: Apo Triplet

Now if you were to price out what something similar would cost in individual components….
Camera with IMX462 sensor: ZWO ASI462MC - $249.00 USD
Telescope with roughly same specs: Sharpstar 50mm f/5.5 ED Triplet Apo - $399.00 USD

Already we are at $648.00 USD, not including a tracker ( iOptron SkyGuider Pro EQ Camera Mount - $398.00) and than you'll need to add a PC with the software to capture and process the images. And a tripod for all of the gear to be mounted on…. You probably be looking at somewhere around $1000 - 1300'ish for a full beginning rig…. And obviously this cost can go down if you by used, or up if you go with something with more features…

I "had" a Seestar and just recently sold it…. because I have three other wide field telescopes and the Seestar was just going to collect dust in the corner…. BUT it was a great first scope "for me" becaues once I saw my first stacked image of the Orion Nebual taken from my Bortle 6 backyard, that pretty much hooked me on astrophotography…

Too be clear, I out grew the Seestar and what it was capable of doing…. but it clearly fueled my interest in astronomy…… Astrophotography is not a cheap hobby by any means, and if you're on tight budget, the Seestar migt not be a bad place to start, to see if this is a hobby you can really get into… A used Seestar can be had for anywhere between $350 - 400 if you look at the Cloudy Night classifieds, some can go for more depending on the supply and demand at the time you look…
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