Seestar S50 vs Dwarf II Smart Telescope | Review + Tutorial

affordable telescopes like the dwarf 2 smart telescope from dwarf lab or the sear s50 from cwo are becoming more and more popular nowadays both of these telescopes are available for around $500 and I I already did some separate review videos on both these telescopes so if you're interested you can find some links in the video description below but in this video I'm going to do a diir comparison between the dwarf 2 and the sear s50 so we're going to capture the we're going to capture the moon and some interesting deep Sky objects using these two telescopes let's go the dwarf 2 is currently priced at around $419 or euros and includes a bag a small tripod a 64 gbyte micro SD card and Battery there's also a deluxe version available for $539 or Euros which comes with an extra battery and additional solar and Astro photography filters for a 5% discount on the DF 2 you can find a link in the video description below at the time of this video the sear s50 smart telescope is priced at $499 or euros and includes a small tripod a sturd case for storage a USBC cable a solo filter and a built-in Duo band light pollution filter this telescope also comes with a 54 gab internal emmc storage card you'll find links in the video description below to purchase the sear s50 directly from zwo or from reliable telescope retailers in the USA and Europe at this moment in time European retailers are selling this telescope for an astonishing 7 to800 which seems quite unreasonable however if you're open to purchasing directly from zwo you can follow the link provided in the video description below and buy the telescope for $499 this despite being labeled as a smart telescope the dwarf 2 actually uses a telephoto and a wide angle lens its telephoto lens boasts 8 megapixels with a 24 mm aperture and a focal length of 100 mm resulting in an F ratio of 4.2 this telephoto lens is paired with the Sony IMX 415 starfist sensor featuring remarkably small pixels measuring just 1.45 micromet this configuration provides a 2.7x 2° view of the night sky delivering a resolution of three Arc seconds per pixel to put that in perspective the camera's field of view covers approximately five times the moon's diameter in width with the moon's diameter spanning about 600 pixels the second wide angle lens on the dwarf 2 is a 2 megapixel lens with a 20 mm aperture and a 48 mm focal length the wide angle lens provides it's a generous 50° field of view while not designed for photography it serves a valuable purpose in locating and framing objects within the view of the telephoto lens the dwarf 2 telescope takes photos in jpeg as well as higher quality Tiff and fits formats when in Astro mode videos are recorded in MP4 format in HD unlike a traditional lens the sear s50 features a genuine triplet apoc chromatic refractor telescope with a 50 mm aperture and a 250 mm focal length resulting in an F ratio of F5 it is equipped with an integrated 2 megapixel Sony IMX 462 camera sensor boasting a 2.9 micrometer pixel size the sear provides a viewing angle of 0.7 by 1.3 de with a pixel size of 2.39 Arc seconds per pixel to put it in perspective you can comfortably fit the full move moon in that field of view with the moon's diameter spanning about 753 pixels the sear s50 offers a narrower field of view than the dwarf 2 however the moon will appear approximately 25% larger when observed through the sear s50 as compared to the dwarf 2 the telescope supports capturing pictures in JPEG and Fitz formats as well as recording videos in MP4 and Avi raw formats additionally both models can be controlled through apps on your smartphone or tablet compatible with both IOS and Android devices lastly both telescopes feature a computerized altitude asouth mount for locating and tracking celestial objects in the night sky okay let's start by capturing the Sun and remember never look directly into the sun with the naked eye and always use the dedicated solo filters that come with each of these telescopes so let me show you you how that works let's begin by showing you how I captured the sun with the dwarf 2 telescope the deluxe package includes two solar and D filters which can be attached to the adapter and placed in front of the telescope's two lenses to start power up the telescope and connect it to the dwarf lab app you can download on your smartphone or tablet the app prompts you to establish a Bluetooth connection with the camera once connected you'll need to switch to the dwarf 2 Wi-Fi signal and click on the photo button in the app to begin the app interface displays the T zoom lens view with a window in the top left corner showing the view of the wide angle lens you can easily switch between the two views by tapping on the window that shows the view of the other lens to adjust the telescope's direction use the button located at the bottom left dragging it enables movement and four arrow keys representing different directions become visible on the bottom right there's a track icon that when pressed reveals a vertical slider controlling the telescope's slow speed you can adjust the slider to control how fast the telescope moves in the Whitefield view a green rectangle indicates the T Zoom lens's field of view once the sun falls within this rectangle you can switch from the wide angle lens view to the telephoto lens view I find this method of locating objects where the Whitefield lens acts as a finest scope incredibly convenient you can fine-tune the lens settings by selecting the settings icon located on the left beneath the switch screen icon within the settings menu you have the option to adjust exposure time gain wi balance and decide whether or not to use an IR cut filter removing the IR cut filter proves particularly valuable for capturing images of deep Sky objects and we'll explore that later in the context of deep sky Sky Imaging dwarf lab suggests setting the shutter time to around 1 1200th of a second with the gain set to zero to capture the sun it's worth noting that you can zoom in on the object you're focusing on by pinching your screen to achieve precise focus on the sun click on the focus icon situated on the right the autofocus option didn't achieve optimal Focus for me and I found using the up and down buttons to achieve Focus manually more effective I focused carefully on a few visible sunspots that day and once focusing is complete you can click on the feature that displays sun in the top right corner of the screen by selecting the sun option the app prompts you to ensure the dwarf 2 telescope is placed on a flat surface and equipped with the ND solo filters after confirming these requirements the smart telescope initiates tracking the sun keeping it centered in the sky after that you can easily choose the video mode and hit the record button triggering a timer displayed on the screen I captured a few one minute videos of the Sun in photo mode you can capture a snapshot of the sun simply by pressing the shoot button located on the right side of the screen all photos and videos are stored on the micro SD card and in the album of the dwarf 2 telescope app I also captured the sun using the sear s50 smart telescope the telescope can be controlled by downloading and installing the sear app available for both IOS and Android devices in the video description below you'll find the link to another video explaining in detail how I installed the sear s50 app for the first time once you open the sear app you'll need to connect to the Wi-Fi signal of the sear s50 to gain control of the telescope the start screen of the app displays relevant information for aspiring astronomers such as the rise and set times of the Sun and the Moon details about deep Sky objects you might want to explore and more additionally you'll find different telescope modes stargazing solar lunar and scenery When selecting solar mode the sear app fronts you to place the solo filter in front of the telescope on the right side of the picture there are up and down arrows that allow you to move the telescope up and install the filter once the filter is properly installed you can press the install and shooting button the sear s50 will automatically search for the sun in the daytime sky and Center it within the telescope's field of view this automatic centering mode is generally effective although it may occasionally encounter difficulties in such cases you can either return to the main screen and restart the process or manually adjust the direction of the telescope to view the sun to manually align the telescope with the Sun press the gray Circle in the middle of the screen and utilize the slew buttons to Center the sun in the telescope's field of view I find that using the sing buttons on the sear s50 can be a bit more challenging compared to adjusting the dwarf 2 when you drag your fingers further outwards the SLO speed of the C star s50 increases and you simultaneously control the direction in which the telescope moves this can be a bit trickier than the dwarf lab app which emplo a separate slider to set the sleo speed alternatively you can also swipe the screen on your phone to make subtle adjustments to the telescope's position and precisely Center objects like the sun once the sun is centered the SE stars50 will automatically start tracking the sun to ensure it remains within the telescope's field of view the default camera settings of the sear s50 are highly effective eliminating the need to manually adjust the exposure time gain and wide balance as is required with the dwarf 2 autofocus can be activated by pressing the autofocus icon and positioning a green rectangle on the area that requires focusing the autofocus feature worked really well at the default settings the celestial objects consistently appeared sharp and well illuminated in the telescope's view you have the flexibility to capture the sun in different video formats standard videos are stored in MP4 format on your smartphone alternatively you can record high quality videos by selecting raw the videos are stored on the telescope's emmc storage card in a folder called my Works MP4 videos typically take up approximately 70 megabytes per minute while Raw videos take up about 1.4 gabt Raw videos are much higher quality videos averaging around 12 frames per second they can be further processed using dedicated Astro tools like Auto ster or regist STS in addition to videos you can also capture snapshots of the sound and jpeg format by choosing the photo option at the bottom of the screen the latest version of the sear app also includes a time-lapse feature for the sun allowing you to select intervals for tracking the sun there's also a time-lapse option on the dwarf 2 smart telescope let's do a direct comparison between the videos and processed images of the sun captured with the dwarf 2 and the sear s50 smart telescopes sear s50 offers a higher quality recording format in Avi raw and boasts a 25% higher resolution of the Sun as compared to the dwarf 2 obviously the dwarf 2 captures the sun in its natural white color while the sear s50 captures the sun in a nice orange glow when zooming in the superior resolution and quality of the sear s50 are clearly evident at least in my opinion nevertheless the broader field of VI offered by the dwarf 2 could be advantageous for capturing scenes like a beautiful sunrise or a sunset in Scenic spots the sea star's narrower portrait view limits its ability to capture such panoramic views all right so let's wait until Nightfall to capture the moon and some interesting deep Sky objects with these two smart telescopes it was easy to point the tell zoom lens of the dwarf to at a mo in the app using the wide angle lens view I adjusted the T zoom lens settings to the same settings as used for viewing the sun being 1/ 1200th of a second exposure at zero gain I zoomed in on the Moon by pinching my smartphone screen on switching to the T zoom lens I tested the autofocus feature but it didn't perform well I manually focused the lens on the moon using the plus and minus buttons following this I attempted to use the sun's tracking feature in video mode to track the moon considering the sun's similar movement across the sky however it failed as it's exclusively designed for solar tracking I chose to focus on the moon and capture a few one minute videos without tracking and noticed a subtle movement of the Moon within the camera frame at present the dwarf lab app only records videos in MP4 format you can also use the Astro mode to calibrate the telescope and use the automated go-to function to track the moon which I'll demonstrate in a minute using Astro mode is quite challenging in my opinion so I decided to take a one minute video of the Moon instead let me also show how I captured the moon using the sear s50 and let's compare the results within the Sear s50 app I selected lunar mode and the telescope automatically slew to the Moon centering it in the field of view once again the default settings prove to be excellent presenting a sharp and bright view of the Moon through the telescope without any need for adjustments just to confirm I utilize the autofocus option which worked really well rendering a crisp view of the moon's craters I opted to record some one minute videos both in MP4 and Avi raw format here's a comparison between the videos and pictures of the Moon taken with both telescopes on the right we can see see the videos of the sear s50 with the Luna craters and Mari sharp into focus when looking at both MP4 and Avi raw video formats despite my best attempts to focus on the moon with the dwarf 2 the zoomed in MP4 video didn't achieve the same amount of detail as compared to the sear s50 the difference between the two telescopes also showed in the single jpack pictures as well as the processed stacked pictures if you'd ask me why this is the case I'd say there are a couple of reasons for example the aperture of the sear s50 is twice the size of the tel photo lens of the dwarf 2 and the focal length is about 2.5 times longer this really helps to get a higher resolution picture of objects in space Also the sear s50 is a dedicated telescope with high quality lens elements rest the dwarf 2 is a teley photo lens which is developed to function as an all round camera instead of a telescope that is specific specifically developed for crisp night sky Imaging however as mentioned earlier I do appreciate the Whitefield perspective offered by the dwarf 2 making it suitable for capturing the moon in Scenic Landscapes I also tested the dwarf 2 and the sea star s50 on two deep Sky objects being the Andromeda galaxy and the Eastern Veil nebula both Theos Scopes strike the night sky in altitude asouth mode instead of Equatorial mode so the maximum exposure time for individual deep Sky photos are limited the SE star is automatically limited to 10 seconds whereas the maximum exposure time is limited to 15 seconds for the T zoom lens of the dwarf 2 this technique is called lucky Imaging and it's an affordable way of doing asop photography where you stack many 10 to 15c photos together with the aim to increase the signal to noise ratio of a deep Sky object the andram Galaxy is an awes awesome deep Sky object that should be on every backyard astronomer's checklist it is our closest neighboring spiral galaxy and it appears as one of the biggest objects in our night sky although the andram Galaxy is a whopping 2.5 million light years from Earth it's over 220,000 light years in diameter and home to 1 trillion Stars due to its immense size it shows up in our nighttime sky as six times the diameter of our moon making it extremely captivating to photograph since the Andromeda galaxy emits light across the entire visible and infrared Spectrum it's recommended to capture it without any astrophotography filters in areas with minimal light pollution I've personally photographed it without using any light pollution filter using the dwarf 2 and the sear s50 in an urban environment keep in mind that capturing this incredible object under darker Skies will likely result in even better pictures than what I'm about to show you I pointed both telescopes at the Andromeda galaxy during the same night taking 10c photos for about 50 minutes let's begin with the Andromeda galaxy and the dwarf 2 before starting capturing deep Sky objects with a dwarf 2 telescope it's recommended to create a dark Library using Astro dark mode in the dwarf lab app for detailed instructions on how to do this check out the link link to a tutorial in the video description below once you've selected Astro mode in the dwarf lab app the first step is to calibrate the telescope to determine its position in the night sky ensure you have a clear view of the night sky and the telescope should be in its initial position with the lens turned approximately 45 to 80° up Focus the Telly lens on a bright star visible to the naked eye achieve a good focus on these stars with a shutter time of about 1 to 2 seconds seconds and a gain of around 80 after successfully focusing on the Starfield hit calibration in Astro mode the telescope will move up and down and perform about three calculations and then display calibration success following this you can select features and choose Auto go to which presents a list of famous deep Sky objects select M31 the androm Galaxy and the dwarf 2 will automatically slute to The Chosen object in the night sky and initiate tracking once tracking is on the way increase your shutter time for photographing the Andromeda galaxy I recommend using approximately 10c exposures at a gain of 80 a wi balance of 4,000 and with infrared pass turned on after that's done it's always a good idea to recheck your focus on the Stars when the stars are in Focus you can select features and click on more this will bring up a menu where you can input the number of pictures you want to take I opted for about 250 pictures in fits format with the display stacked stacking the pictures allows you to see how each picture contributes to the previous one enhancing the signal to noise ratio with each new photo in capture mode you can exit the app and the dwarf to will continue capturing the object you can reconnect with the Wi-Fi signal and the app at any time I must admit that I find the numerous steps involved in capturing deep Sky objects a bit daunting additionally calibrating this telescope was a bit of a hit and miss there were instances where the calibration failed and I received a failed to get the motor position message requiring me to redo the whole calibration procedure dwarf laab is working on a newer version of their app and I'm curious to see see what improvements they will make to the asttr photography mode now let's dive into the results in this Timeless video I've compiled individual photos taken by the dwarf 2 of the inroma Galaxy what's evident here is that even though the target stays within the Telly lens's field of view the tracking isn't Flawless so it's advisable to limit your photo exposure time to around 10 seconds with a dwarf 2 telescope to prevent blurry images also despite creating a dark Library I noticed some hot and cold pixels in red green and blue in the unedited photos this being said I did like the final pictures here's the unedited stacked picture of the androma Galaxy taken with the dwarf 2 telescope you can see that the tracking wasn't perfect but you can easily crop the picture a bit to select the area where all the photos sufficiently overlap here's an enhanced version after I worked on it in pix inside and Photoshop given that this is a stacked picture created from 10sec photos I'm quite pleased with the outcome gendr Galaxy along with its two neighboring dwarf galaxies designated as M32 and m110 are clearly visible for deep Sky astrophotography the SE star s50 app has a dedicated stargazing mode addition Al the app offers a section highlighting tonight's best targets and a virtual Sky Atlas for searching various deep Sky objects you have the option to either choose an object and press go gazing or use the virtual Sky Atlas to zoom in on a specific object with the red rectangle serving as a preview of The telescope's View and press go to in both modes after selecting go gazing or goto the sear s50 will automatically move to the selected object object in the night sky it excels at locating deep Sky objects with its Spate solving technique and rarely disappoints once the object is found the telescope starts tracking the object and enters an automated image enhancing mode for about 2 minutes after that the sear s50 automatically starts taking 10c pictures of the object similar to solar and lunar mode you can use autofocus or adjust the brightness using the icons on the right however however the default mode often produces sharp and highquality pictures without the need to make additional adjustments when capturing a deep Sky object you'll see a stacked view of the target at this point you can log out switch to your home Wi-Fi and return to the Wi-Fi signal of the sear s50 later the telescope will continue to automatically capture photos of the deep Sky object I found the sear app at least at this point in time to be much more user friendly and straightforward for capturing deep Sky objects as compared to the dwarf lab app let's check out the pictures first up this is an unedited stacked image of G andram Galaxy in Fitz format from the sear s 50s memory card the overlap of the Stacked pictures turned out quite well also I didn't see many hot and cold pixels which was nice here's an edited picture of the Andromeda galaxy score taken with the sear s50 after postprocessing it in pix insight and Photoshop to be frank I was a bit disappointed while the core of the Andromeda galaxy looks quite impressive the Galaxy didn't fit within the camera's field of view the sear s50 has a narrower field of view than the dwarf 2 and its sensor is in portrait mode instead of landscape consequently the camera sensor couldn't capture the entire galaxy in one frame I also used both telescopes to capture a 1hour stacked image of the Eastern fil nebula this nebula is a fascinating cloud of hot ionized gas and dust located in the sickness constellation approximately 15500 light years away from Earth the Easterville nebula belongs to a supernova Remnant from a star that exploded around 7,000 years ago this nebula appears roughly three times smaller in the telescope's field of view as compared to the Andromeda galaxy given that it's an emission nebula optimal Imaging of the Eastern Ville nebula requires specific astrophotography filters the sear s50 comes equipped with an internal zwo Duo band light pollution filter which is specifically designed for capturing emission nebula like the Eastern Ville nebula I wanted to make a fair comparison between the sear s50 and the dwarf 2 So I placed the similar cwo Duo band filter in front of the dwarf 2 Telly lens to capture this nebula the 1 and a/4 in filter is available for about $100 or EOS the standard ultra high contrast filter included in the deluxe package of the dwarf 2 telescope doesn't perform well for this purpose it tends to block the light emitted by ionized hot gas from nebula like the Eastern Ville nebula now let me share a 1-hour time-lapse video featuring the individual pictures captured with the dwarf 2 telescope over this hour you'll not the Vil nebula changing its position and the object undergoing some rotation this behavior is characteristic of budget friendly though not entirely precise altitude esouth tracking used by both the dwarf 2 and the sear s50 telescopes achieving perfect tracking for deep Sky objects typically requires a higher quality equatorial mount with auto guiding however such mounts and guiding equipment come with a much higher price tag as compared to these more affordable telescopes for more information on reliable equatorial mounts for telescopes feel free to check out my website at astroforum space.com using both telescopes I took 10c photos for an hour and process the Stacked images in pix inside and Photoshop now let me show you the unprocessed and processed pictures from both telescopes with the dwarf 2 we get a broader field of view of the night sky however the veil nebula is approximately three times smaller than the Andromeda galaxy making it appear quite small in the dwarf to's field of view upon zooming in you'll notice that the resolution isn't optimal and the landscape view during this capture wasn't favorable on the other hand the Eastern Ville nebula did fit nicely within the narrower field of view of the sea star s50 during the capture the V nebula was perfectly aligned with the portrait center of the sea star resulting in a much higher resolution image of the same nebula Additionally the apochromatic triplet telescope of the sear s50 produced a cleaner picture as compared to the Telly lens of the dwarf 2 before I share my final thoughts there are a couple of additional points I want to highlight first off neither of these telescopes is ideal for capturing planets it's a common misconception but despite being closer to Earth planets appear much smaller in the night sky as compared to the Deep Sky objects I just showed you for instance take a look at this dwarf 2 view of Venus in the morning Sky it appears quite small similarly here's a view of Jupiter using the SE star s50 if it's planetary observation and imaging you want you'll need a different telescope with a longer focal length and a larger aperture check out my website for more information about planetary Imaging or join my channel for $2.99 a month and you'll get access to a 3our course divided into six lectures where I explain how to observe and capture the planets with a backyard telescope additionally both telescopes can be used for capturing daytime photos and videos as well for example here are some MP4 videos of birds captured with the dwarf 2 telescope let's move on to my final verdict for both telescopes both telescopes are great options to Kickstart your journey into astronomy and astrophotography without breaking the bank let's talk about the dwarf 2's advantages first it's an all round smart device and its telephoto lens offers a nice view of the night sky perfect for capturing truly astronomical space objects like the Andromeda galaxy plus it doubles as a versatile tool for daytime video and photography you can easily control control the dwarf to through your smartphone using the dwarf lab app the combination of the Widefield and telephoto lenses make it a bre to frame objects in the dwarf 2's Tel photo lens however there are also a couple of drawbacks the Astro mode in the dwarf lab app can be a bit tricky to navigate and the telephoto lens tends to introduce some noise in the pictures this noise can be corrected through postprocessing but that requires being familiar with astrophotography processing tools and techniques the resolution of three Arc seconds per pixel allows for wider field asttr photography but keep in mind that it might not deliver the highest resolution images also the ultra high contrast filter isn't great and I ended up buying an extra Duo band filter to capture distant nebula in space with the dwarf 2 telescope overall the dwarf 2 is a neat device at an affordable price making it an excellent tool to spark Mark your interest in astronomy and astrophotography as mentioned earlier dwarf lab is offering my viewers a generous 5% discount you can find the link in the video description below the sear s50 stands out as a very nice and budget friendly smart telescope one of its strengths is the triplet apochromatic reflector telescope which provides clear and decent images of the night sky the sear app adds to its appeal with its ease of use and versa ility the default settings in the app to control the telescope and gaze at celestial bodies like the sun the moon and deep Sky objects are easy to use making it userfriendly for beginners who want to explore the night sky with their smartphones it also serves as a great entry point for those interested in astrophotography despite being a compact telescope the sear s50 offers a good resolution allowing you to observe details such as the craters on the moon the the sunspots on the sun surface and other features the build-in duo band filter enhances the ability to capture details of distant nebula like the veil nebula I showed you however there are some drawbacks as well the narrow field of view in portrait mode may take some getting used to and larger celestial objects like the Andromeda galaxy do not entirely fit within the SE Stars view additionally the sensor cannot be rotated to better frame deep Sky objects another limitation is the telescope's Restriction to 10-second exposures preventing the capture of dimmer parts of certain deep Sky objects in conclusion with the sear s50 zwo has provided an affordable smart telescope for aspiring astronomers to observe the night sky expand their knowledge and take their first steps into astrophotography without breaking the bank links to Reliable astrophotography shops in the USA and Europe can be found in the video description along with a direct link to purchase the sear s50 from zwo which may be especially interesting for people in Europe who are looking to buy the telescope at a more affordable price of $499 compared to the 7 to800 euros asked for in European telescope shops at the time of this video it's important to note that my testing period for these telescopes was about 3 months and they are relatively new products on the telescope Market as a result I can't say much about their durability or reliability at this point both telescopes still need to prove themselves in those regards I hope this video gave you more insight into both smart telescopes if you're interested in backyard astronomy and astrophotography please subscribe to the channel and if you join my channel for $2.99 I have a great three-hour course on planetary Imaging for you and I'll regularly provide you with high quality space photos you can print out edit or use in any other way you see fit thanks for watching and see you in the next video clear skies

Channel: Wido's AstroForum

Views: 40,223

Keywords: astrophotography, astronomy, astrography, astrophotographer, astronomer, amateur, backyard, cosmos, space, universe, photos, nightsky, longexposure, telescope, mount

Id: MTKEamF4eIw

Length: 35min 4sec (2104 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 16 2023