I’m looking to purchase a new telephone and after doing some light research I found these three options that I can easily travel with but I’m unsure which would be best for where I live/best quality overall

I live in the desert far out from the city and other people so light pollution is relatively low. If you have any knowledge on these three and could help me out that would be great! Or if you have any recommendations for other telescopes I’m open to hearing them! Thanks

I went up an 8500' mountain in Bortle 1 skies last night with my new S30 Pro and Dwarf Mini and stayed up until 4AM to get data for this. Vespera data is from Mt Graham (B1, 9500') and Sonoita AZ (B2-3 4500'), 5h 45min of 10s subs. I also observed M83 with the naked eye again and saw the Seagull without any nebula filter whatsoever through my 14.7" and binoculars, but I'll elaborate on that later.

ZWO SeeStar S30 Pro and Dwarf Mini used 30s subs and 60s subs respectively, 100 minutes integration time each.

First image is a combo of all 3 scopes (9h total), the rest are from their respective instruments. Vespera II M8 was processed in PixInsight, Dwarf/S30 were processed in Siril as was the combo image

Vespera is really limited to 10-20s subs so it needs much longer integration time for a good image, all else being equal. But the shorter integration time helps in the combined image with controlling blowout on the brightest parts of the nebula. Dwarf at 1 minute is obviously blown out (oops).

I've taken a liking to astrophotography lately and want to take it up as a hobby. And, I'm torn between buying the s30 pro and the regular s30.

The s30 is good, but the s30 pro is better. I know that the s30 Pro has a lot better picture quality, the ability to capture star trails and Milky Way shots, and a wider field of view, but I don't want to spend $599 on a telescope. I'm not trying to become a big-time astrophotographer who will have a $5k set up in the future. I just want to do it as a fun hobby.

Should I spend the extra few dollars on the s30 pro, or should I just purchase the s30 for its lower price?

Edit: Thank y'all for all the advice. I think I'm just going to go with s30 Pro. I figured that it's probably better to spend the extra few dollars for all the extra features.

Dying to get into astrophotography and been researching S50 vs S30 Pro vs Dwarf 3. I now see s50 is out of stock and discontinued? For first rig do we recommend s30 pro or dwarf 3? Or wait for something new? I have access to pretty dark skies and am 2 hours from Joshua tree / Anza. Dwarf 3 is attractive because it’s available on Amazon. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Bottom-line question for me is whether I order the Seestar S30 and have it in time for a visit to Sedona, Az over Christmas, or pre-order a Mini and forego the opportunity to have a smart telescope for the week. I'd be willing to wait if image quality for the Mini is materially better than the S30.

Other than the obvious size difference, the tech specs are fairly similar. I have not found a good side-by-side compare of similar images produced by both telescopes.

Anyone out there have access to both devices to offer an opinion on whether it is worth the wait? Thanks.

Although I have a plan to buy the Seestar S30 Pro when it was released, DwarfLab 3 suddenly came to my mind,

and I don't know which option is better.

Dwarf 3 Or Seestar s30 pro ?

So which option do you recommend I choose?

I talking as someone who wants to buy a smart telescope.

Ein stiller Mitleser hier, der einfach in die Astrofotografie einsteigen möchte. Ich habe Erfahrung mit Bildstapelung in anderen Bereichen, also möchte ich Bilder erstellen, die ich mit anderer Software stapeln kann. Ich möchte das Ganze im Eq-Modus einrichten und verwenden, um die Sub-Belichtungen zu pushen. Ich habe bereits ein gutes Fotostativ. In einem Bortle-7-8-Gebiet. Das 30-mm-Feld ist für den Anfang genau richtig für mich. Ich könnte das Weitfeld für Milchstraßenaufnahmen verwenden, bin mir aber nicht sicher, was den Star-Track-Modus des S30 pro angeht.

Gedanken zu Dwarf 3 vs. S30 pro? Viele Vergleiche mit dem S50, aber jetzt sind die Brennweiten im Grunde gleich. Macht die etwas größere Blende des Dwarf einen Unterschied? Gibt es einen signifikanten Unterschied bei den Sensoren? Klingt so, als wäre die Software für den Seestar vielleicht "hübscher", aber beide sind funktional.

Vielleicht müssen mehr Leute das S30 pro in die Finger bekommen, damit sie vergleichen können. Man kann wahrscheinlich mit beidem als Einstieg nichts falsch machen.

I want to buy a small smart telescope. I’m torn between the Dwarf 3 and the Seestar 30s Pro. The price difference between them isn’t a deciding factor for me.

The Dwarf 3 has slightly better aperture (f/3.5 vs f/3.0), however it has smaller pixels (IMX678).
The Seestar has a better sensor (IMX585) but a worse f-ratio.

The Seestar has a larger field of view, but wouldn’t that make the resolution per pixel worse than with the Dwarf?
(Sure, with the Dwarf you need to shoot Andromeda in mosaic mode, but everything else fits into the Dwarf’s field of view.)

In some reviews I read that the Dwarf allows more manual settings, but it’s not entirely clear to me what that means. In the end, it seems like everyone does stacking in some external software anyway.

So, please: which one would you choose and why? (The goal is, of course, the best possible results—the best possible photos—even with the assumption that I’ll stack them manually in external software.)

Just wanted to share some of my anecdotal experience.

I bought my S50 about a year ago, this is my first time with a telescope of any kind. I've basically been using it every night when I'm home and weather allows.

Overall, I'm STILL super impressed given the size and price. However, like many others, I struggled with high rejection rate with 10 second exposures, when I first got my S50, EQ mode was not officially supported yet. Once EQ mode was supported I bought a wedge and tried it immediately, while it did improve rejection rate, as soon as I stepped up to 20 second exposures in EQ mode...my average rejection rate was typically between 40%-60% depending on the object I was trying to shoot.

It's been discussed in this sub several times - *some* S50s seem to have poorer manufacturing quality than others. A few people in this community ran 2-3 S50s together and noticed a difference with just their own S50s. There was a post where they took their S50s apart to try and find the issue - best working theory so far is that with some S50s, there's too much backlash in the worm gear that causes excessive movement when the telescope is tracking. Too much movement = frame rejection.

I was hesitant to buy another Seestar until reviews all reported that the S30 Pro had significantly improved tracking...I decided to just order it while it was "discounted" for preorders.

I received my S30 Pro on Monday, last night the weather cooperated and I got some first light through my new telescope - I immediately set exposure time to 60 seconds...of course it's M42...I don't make the rules that you MUST shoot this as your first target! (/s) Wouldn't you know it - rejection rate stayed at around 20% over 3-4 hours. Shooting M42 with my S50 with the same mount, same tripod, same location...my rejection rate with 20 second exposure was as high as 60% most of the time.

This all but proves that there's something wrong with some S50s...it's frustrating that ZWO refuses to acknowledge this.

As a side note - I also bought the Dwarf Mini when it was also on sale around the holidays - the tracking on that thing is SOLID...I've had some sessions with 60 second exposures where it dropped ZERO frames. I tried a few sessions with 120 second exposures it rejection rate was probably 10%-20%... I really wish ZWO would work on improving tracking.

And FYI - overall, I don't think one of necessarily better than the other. There are some things about the Dwarf Mini and Dwarf Labs app that I love and hate. Same with Seestars and Seestar app...some things are better and some worse. The biggest difference to me is that with the Dwarf Mini - you can use the wide angle lens while shooting, something you can't do with the S30 Pro. More useful than you'd think...you can take a peak and see clouds and easily be able to see if the view is about to be obstructed by a roof or trees.

If you're still reading, thank you for staying until the end.

I’m looking to buy a smart telescope and I’ve narrowed it down to the Seestar S30 and the DWARF 3. I’ve watched a lot of comparison videos, but they were pretty inconclusive. If anyone has used both, I’d appreciate your opinion.

Also, both advertise daytime photography, but the DWARF seems more focused on it. Does the Seestar compare?

And can either of them take Milky Way images?