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Seestar S30 telescope: test / review

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Published on: 11-01-2025 / Modified: 11-01-2025

I’ve been testing products for several years without adhering to any pre-established strategy or pattern. I test products that I enjoy and find useful in my daily life, which means I can’t predict what I’ll be testing in 6 or 12 months. Testing smart telescopes was never part of my original plan. It all began three years ago when I purchased the Dwarf 2 through a crowdfunding campaign. It wasn’t an impulse buy driven by a geeky desire to try out new tech; I’ve always been passionate about observing the night sky. In fact, I even dabbled in astrophotography 20 years ago.

This initial test of the Dwarf 2 was followed by tests of the Seestar S50, the Dwarf 3, and now the Seestar S30. These smart telescopes differ in many ways, but they share one key goal: making skywatching accessible to a broader audience. Traditional telescopes are often more complicated to use, more expensive, and significantly bulkier. While other brands have entered this space, today, I’m focusing on the Seestar lineup, specifically the new Seestar S30.

Another critical factor is the focal length. Like camera zoom, focal length is measured in millimeters. My Orion telescope features a 750 mm tube, while the Seestar S30’s “tube” measures just 15 cm. Why does this matter? The focal length is essential for observing distant objects. The Orion telescope is built for deep-sky observation (e.g., stars and galaxies). Observing planets, however, requires an even larger focal length. This distinction already hints at the Seestar’s intended purpose: it’s designed for deep-sky observation, not planetary exploration.The Orion’s tube is significantly more expensive than the Seestar S30, and it also requires a mount and additional accessories. This is where the Seestar shines: for just over $300, you get a complete telescope with a mount and an intuitive app for controlling it. While the Seestar won’t match the performance of a tube telescope, it’s far more convenient. It delivers good-quality images without requiring much effort or expertise.This accessibility is the real advantage of the Seestar—it’s affordable and incredibly easy to use.

The Seestar S30 is built with simplicity in mind, from its design to its user interface. It features a compact, lightweight structure that makes it ideal for users who are always on the go or have limited storage space. Despite its small size, the telescope houses impressive technology that offers great image quality for its price point. Its accompanying app simplifies the process of locating and observing celestial objects, making it suitable for both beginners and more experienced users looking for a portable option.

Where to buy

At the time of writing, the Seestar S30 is only available on the official website.

Seestar S30 / Official website

Positioning

Before going into the product test, I'll briefly explain what you can expect from this telescope. I've received a lot of questions on my previous tests about what is and isn't possible with this kind of product.

I'll start with the comparison with a traditional telescope, I have a 150/750 mm Orion telescope, so the comparison is going to be pretty easy. The size of the optics is essential in astronomy, the quantity of light entering the telescope will have a determining influence on its ability to observe the sky. My Orion telescope has a 15 cm diameter entrance, while the Seestar S30 has a 3 cm entrance. You might be tempted to think that the Orion telescope receives 5 times more light, but in reality it receives 25 times more. The other important point is the focal length. As with zoom cameras, we're talking about a distance in millimetres. My Orion telescope has a 750 mm tube, the Seestar's has a 15 cm "tube". Why is this important? As with cameras, this unit of measurement is important if you want to see far. The Orion is designed for deep-sky observation (stars, galaxies, etc.). To observe the planets, a larger focal length is required. This already gives an indication of the Seestar's positioning: this telescope is designed for deep-sky observation, not planetary observation.

The Orion's tube is considerably more expensive than the Seestar S30's, and it still needs a mount and accessories. This is where the Seestar really comes into its own, because for just over $300, you get a telescope that's absolutely complete with mount and an easy-to-use application for controlling it. Yes, this telescope won't allow you to match the performance of a tube telescope, but it will save you an enormous amount of time, it will produce good quality images and all that without getting tired.

That's the real advantage of the Seestar, its price and its enormous ease of use

Unpacking

The Seestar S30 is considerably smaller than its predecessor, fitting into a small carrying case. The kit contains the telescope, a tripod and a USB cable. So you can easily take it with you wherever you go, and have it up and running in no time at all. The Seestar S50 is also transportable, but as you can see from the following photo, the difference in size between these two products is really significant.



Here are the contents of the box:

- telescope

- usb cable

- manual

- stickers

- tripod

- solar filter

Overview

The Seestar S30 has two positions, the closed position as in this photo and the open position. To open and use the telescope you need to use the app, but I'll come back to this point a little later in the test.



The tripod is attached to a rotating base which allows the telescope to pivot on the horizontal axis without restriction, using the full 360° which is not the case with the Dwarf 2 or Dwarf 3. Its arm then allows the tube to be oriented on the vertical axis.



To start the telescope, you must first press the start button twice. Why twice? Simply to prevent the telescope from switching on when it's in its carrying case. You need a short press and then a long one, after which you'll hear a voice confirming that the telescope is switched on. From here, you need to use the Seestar app



The three LED lights indicate the remaining battery level, and are also useful for indicating if the telescope has a problem. I think it's a pity not to have a small display with a message because 3 LEDs to indicate the battery level is not very accurate.



To recharge the telescope, simply plug it into a USB charger.



Like its predecessor, the S30 is equipped with a magnetic solar filter. Simply place it close to the lens and it automatically attaches. This solar filter is mandatory for observing the sun, but is of no use for the moon or deep sky

Observations

Testing a telescope takes a lot of time, as observing the sky depends heavily on the weather and sky quality. So I'm going to have to spread out this test over several weeks before I can give you an opinion on each type of observation.

Sun

The sun is the easiest star toa observe, but don't forget to place the filter on the telescope's optics. The weather was partly cloudy when I took these photos, and you can see the cloudy veils passing in front of the sun. The Seestar S30's pointing is impeccable, as is its tracking. During the few minutes of observation, the sun never left the telescope's axis. Despite the clouds, the sunspots are clearly visible. I took photos at different zoom levels, but as the zoom is a digital zoom, there is a loss of quality with magnification.

I get a slightly lower level of image quality than the Seestar S50, but the result is still quite good. The sun isn't the most interesting star to observe, so I suppose it's not the image quality of the sun that will convince you to buy this projector. This part of the test shows how easy the Seestar S30 is to use and how good the tracking is. The same will undoubtedly be true of the Moon



Moon



The moon is the easiest celestial object to observe, even if it's not a full moon. The Seestar easily positions itself on the moon, focuses in a few seconds and you can start admiring the lunar landscape. You can fine-tune the focus manually if, for example, you have pollution, but manual focus is also very useful for zooming. You can use an X2 or X4 zoom, but this is a digital zoom, so there is a slight degradation in image quality. With manual focus, you can regain a little detail. I've added a few screenshots with and without zoom below to give you an idea of image quality for moon observation



Planets

This type of telescope is not designed for planetary observation, as its focal length is too short. I have a 150/750 mm Orion which is gigantic next to this Seestar, but even a telescope of this type is not designed for planetary work. I'll show you what you can expect though, it's possible to do better with better quality skies but you're not going to be able to see the storm on Jupiter

Here's an example of Jupiter at different zoom and brightness levels. If you have good quality sky, you might be able to see some colors, but in my case it's impossible. This gives you an idea of the observable size of Jupiter, as well as some of its moons



Deep sky

M45



M42 is one of the easiest deep sky objects to observe. Pointing and focusing went off without a hitch. After a few seconds, the stars appeared and I let the Seestar stack images for several minutes to obtain the following result. The stars are very clear, but I can't see the colored veils I observed with the Seestar S50. This may have something to do with the observation conditions, as the sky was not of exceptional quality. M45 was pretty close to the horizon, which isn't ideal. So I'll have to try again

M42



M42 is also very easy to observe and it only takes a few seconds to start seeing the outline of the nebula. I have several screenshots below with excellent results for such a small telescope. The "AI" mode also cleans up the noise in the image, so you don't have to go through Photoshop to improve the photo



NGC 281



NGC 281 was much further up the telescope, and the result is also better. After several minutes' observation, the red cloud is clearly visible. The image correction tools in the application can be used to improve image quality by increasing contrast and saturation. Digital noise is definitely present, but with a 19-minute observation and a polluted sky, it's not really surprising. I think the result is pretty good for the observation conditions.

M31



M31 is one of the easy targets for deep-sky observation. A few seconds after pointing, M31 was already clearly visible, and the gaseous contours were beginning to show. The sky was a little cloudy at the end of the observation, I think I can get a better result with a clearer sky

IC 4343

Here's IC 434 with only a few minutes exposure. I think that with a longer exposure, this object could be even more detailed but as I rarely have beautiful skies, I have to make many shorter observations to capture a maximum of objects in a minimum of time



NGC 2244



I had never taken a photo of NGC 2244 before and was surprised by its beauty, it looks like a rose in the deep sky. I'll definitely be going back for longer observations

Landscapes

Good weather is a rarity in January, but I took advantage of a break in the weather to go out and do some daylight tests with the Seestar S30. It's obviously not as easy as in the middle of the night, as you have to point at what you want to observe yourself, but controlling the telescope is really easy. You've got a virtual joystick with 2 speeds so you can quickly find your bearings and point at the object you want to observe

As you can see from the photo above, I placed the telescope on a wall above a large expanse of water where you can vaguely make out a few birds on the water. Here's what I was able to observe with the different zoom levels:



The quality of the video at zoom X1 is really good, the stabilization is excellent and the telescope is even able to follow the movement of birds, provided the initial pointing has been done correctly. Zooming in allows you to go further, but this comes at the price of a degradation in quality, even if you change the focus. This is hardly surprising, given that the birds were more than 100 metres away

Seestar application

As this is the second Seestar product I've tested, I can already give an opinion on the application. It's a very well-designed application, aimed at a neophyte audience who don't want to go to the trouble of scanning the sky for celestial objects. The app has a large catalog of objects to observe, and the availability of these objects in your sky is adapted to your geolocation.

So you can list all the objects available in your sky, read some information about the object in question and launch the observation. If you want to observe it, simply use the "Go To" function to position the telescope correctly. After a few seconds of observation, the application will give you a first glimpse of the object. The visibility of the object will depend very much on the quality of the sky. If you live in an urban environment with a polluted sky, the quality of the photo will not be as good as for a clear sky in the countryside.

Here's a small demo of the application:



The application is not fully translated, many descriptions are only in English, but it's easy enough to use, so these translation problems won't stop you from using the telescope

Battery life</h2

I tested the Seestar in the middle of winter and in sub-zero temperatures. So battery life is probably better when the temperature is positive. I made several observation sessions with long exposures and arrived at more or less 40% battery consumption per hour of observation

Seestar S30 vs Seestar S50

It's often said that size doesn't matter, but for a telescope this isn't true. The Seestar S50 is larger, and its focal length means that objects can be observed more closely and a greater level of detail can be obtained. So the Seestar S50 is better, but it's also more expensive and, above all, bulkier. The Seestar S30 is a good compromise because it's less expensive, easier to carry around and still benefits from all the ease of use of the Seestar S30. I got better and faster pictures with the Seestar S50, but as you can see from this article, the Seestar S30 does very, very well indeed

Seestar S30 vs Dwarf 3

For this comparison, size will also matter. The Dwarf 3 is a truly portable telescope, so you can take it with you more easily, and it's competitively priced too. From a technical point of view, they are very similar, with a 150 mm focal length and 35 mm aperture for the Dwarf versus 30 mm for the Seestar.

Here's a quick technical comparison, starting with the Seestar and then the Dwarf 3

Focal length: 150 mm / 150 mm

Aperture: 30 mm / 35 mm

Battery: 6000 mAh / 10000 mAh

Sensor: Sony IMX662 / Sony IMX 678

Weight: 1.65 kg / 1.3 kg

Memory: 64 Gb / 128 Gb

Photo resolution: 1080p / 1080p

The Dwarf 3 has the advantage of better autonomy and more memory. The sensor is also a little more powerful, but the two telescopes are equal in terms of image rendering. The Dwarf 3 can't rotate 360°, so the Seestar offers a little more freedom

Opinion/Conclusion

Seestar has achieved something that others have not. Beyond the telescope and its technical capabilities, there's an app that's very easy to use with a little learning curve. This app lets you choose celestial objects from a catalog, request a pointing and let the telescope do the stacking. Other brands have similar apps, but Seestar's is a step ahead.

If I now focus purely on the Seestar S30 rather than its application, I really wondered what Seestar had to sacrifice to sell it at that price. As it turns out, not much. Yes, the S30 is less powerful than the S50, but is that really a problem? This kind of product isn't aimed at a professional audience, it's a product for amateurs who want to explore the skies without getting in over their heads. If you've never used this kind of product and you're just starting out with a Seestar S30, I think you'll soon want to share your photos with your friends.

I was positively surprised by this Seestar S30 because even though the objects are smaller and a little less detailed than the Seestar S50, no one will notice the difference unless you make the comparison. I have a relatively polluted sky and very little opportunity to observe deep sky objects. Yet the result is really interesting. I can't wait to take this telescope with me on vacation, where I can isolate myself and really enjoy it

So the Seestar recipe is very simple. With just a few clicks, you can explore the deep sky while staying comfortable and protected from the cold (or mosquitoes). You let the telescope do the work for you, and after a few minutes, you're ready to reap the rewards. If you're a more advanced user, you can retrieve the stacking files to try and embellish the images even further. The only thing I'd like is to be able to take pictures in a higher resolution so I can print the result on a large format. I dream of being able to make a poster of M42 and have it truncated in my living room!

Strengths

Ease of use

All-in-one (tripod, telescope, sun filter)

Image quality

Small footprint

Good battery life

Built-in memory rather than memory card

Efficient pointing (very few errors)

360° observation

Weaknesses

Smaller focal length

Tripod not tight enough, it moves a bit

1080p resolution max

No obstacle detection

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