Review of the Seestar S30 Smart Telescope

[jorge_kai]

Review of the Seestar S30 Smart Telescope

There is no silence like that of a starry night. That moment when everything stops, when the city lights are far away, and the only thing you hear is the gentle crackle of the countryside or the hum of a wandering cricket. You look up... and there they are. The stars. So distant, so still, and so eternal, it seems impossible they’ve always been there, just waiting for someone to gaze at them. There’s something deeply human about looking up at the sky. It doesn’t matter how old you are or how many times you’ve done it. There’s always a mix of awe, calm, and unanswered questions. Sometimes it makes you think of those who are no longer here, other times of what’s yet to come. But always, always, there is magic. Looking at the sky is a way of travelling without moving, of dreaming with your eyes open. You don’t need to understand constellations or know strange names. Just let yourself go. Just look. And in that simple gesture —looking up at the universe— this story begins.

Sure, you can look with the naked eye... but there comes a time when you want to go a little further. See the craters of the Moon in detail, discover that blurry smudge in the sky is a nebula, or simply let yourself be amazed by what's out there. That’s where a good adventure companion comes in. And in my case, that companion has been a small yet surprising telescope: the SeeStar S30, which we’ll explore in this review.




Let’s start with the unboxing. This is the package we received.





Let’s take a look inside.



Alright, we’ve got a high-quality case and some stickers.



Pretty cool ones, actually.



Let’s check the inside of the hard-shell case.



...which comes with a handle for easier transport.



Looking good so far.



This is everything included in the box.



The first thing we see is a small safety guide. There’s one thing you should never do: point the telescope directly at the sun without the proper filter. Don’t forget that.



This is a quick start guide.



...a USB Type-C charging cable.



...a tripod with a standard thread...



...small but ideal for our telescope...



...a magnetic solar filter that lets us take beautiful photos of the Sun...



...and finally, our smart telescope. Why smart? Because you just tell it what you want to see, and it will position, orient, and find the object all by itself—it’s amazing. As you can see, when closed it’s quite a compact block.



When it’s off, the optical arm is folded. Once turned on, it unfolds. This helps protect the lens and makes the device more compact when not in use.





On the bottom, besides a reset button, we find the tripod thread.



On one side, we see the power button. Also, in that dark area, the remaining battery level will be displayed.





On the other side, we have the USB Type-C port for charging, plus a slot to insert an additional battery.



Obviously, the device has some weight, but it’s easy to carry.



Specifically, it weighs 1650 grams.



As for its length, around 15 cm.



This is what it looks like with the tripod. Since it uses a standard thread, you can use whichever tripod you prefer.



Let’s see how it looks in video.

The device comes pre-assembled, so you just need to charge it, turn it on, and pair it with the app. The app is visually attractive, though it offers so many options it can be overwhelming.



But before connecting it, let’s talk a bit about how this amazing device works — the more technical side. Even though it may look like a compact and minimalist gadget on the outside, the SeeStar S30 hides a surprising combination of technology and simplicity inside. It features a 30 mm triplet apochromatic lens with ED glass and a 150 mm focal length (f/5), allowing it to deliver sharp images with excellent chromatic aberration correction — something that’s especially noticeable when observing lunar details or diffuse objects like nebulae. It also includes a dual-lens system: a main lens for observation and a wide-angle lens that helps locate celestial bodies before zooming in.



As for the sensor, it uses a Sony IMX662 Starvis 2 with Full HD resolution (1920×1080) and 2.9-micron pixels, which translates into great light sensitivity and impressive performance even in skies that aren’t completely dark. The setup includes a variety of built-in filters: a Duo-Band filter to highlight details in nebulae (capturing oxygen and hydrogen emissions), a UV/IR cut filter, one for dark frames, and even a magnetic solar filter that can be placed on the front when observing the Sun safely.

All this is powered by a motorized altazimuth mount with Go-To system, capable of automatically locating and tracking objects, while focus is fully electronic and controlled from the app with a single tap. In terms of connectivity, the device communicates via dual-band WiFi (2.4 and 5 GHz), Bluetooth 5.0, and also includes a USB-C port for charging and data transfer. Its built-in 6000 mAh battery provides around 6 hours of relaxed observation, although if you’re constantly recording video, the battery life drops to about 4 hours. It also features 64 GB of internal storage, more than enough to save thousands of captures and sessions. The whole unit comes in a compact body, as we've seen, measuring just 21 × 14 × 8 cm and weighing about 1.65 kg, making it very portable.



So far, everything sounds great on paper. But we all know that specs and datasheets don’t always reflect what it feels like to actually use a device. So, what I’ll share with you now is my real experience: how it performs on a random night, what you can see, what you can’t, and what surprises you. Because in the end, what truly matters is whether it awakens that sense of wonder we all seek when looking at the sky. One thing must be made clear, though: location is crucial. If you use the telescope in the center of Madrid, the experience will be quite poor due to heavy light pollution. In my case, I used it on the outskirts of the capital. While the nights aren’t pitch black, it’s still decent enough to enjoy.



The first night I took the SeeStar S30 out to the garden, I didn’t have high expectations. I just wanted to see what such a small telescope could do—no cables, no traditional eyepieces… and everything managed through a mobile app. What I didn’t expect was how fast everything would be ready: I placed it on the tripod, turned on the device, opened the app, and within minutes it was pointing at the sky all by itself. No manual alignments, no weird setups. Just pick an object and let it do its thing. It’s fantastic.

The Moon was first. And even knowing the camera has “only” Full HD resolution, I was quite surprised by the level of detail: craters, shadows, textures... all very sharp.



I also tested it on different days to observe various details of the Moon depending on its phase.



But maybe we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s talk about the app. As I mentioned before, it’s very complete and visually appealing. The first step is to pair the telescope with our smartphone and activate it.



I haven’t mentioned it yet, but the telescope doesn’t have a built-in eyepiece to view the image directly — instead, your smartphone or tablet screen will display what the telescope captures. This has two sides: on the one hand, seeing it on your phone screen takes away some of the excitement—it almost feels like you’re looking at a Google image rather than something live. On the other hand, being able to leave the telescope in the middle of the yard and comfortably see everything from 20 meters away, sitting on a sofa, is priceless.



Through the app you can adjust tons of settings on the telescope, check available storage, view captured images, and more. You’ll need to spend some time learning it to get everything working smoothly. And yes, I believe you need some knowledge of astrophotography to really fine-tune it.



That said, any user can still take nice photos. But you’ll get much more out of it if you know a bit about the subject. I’ll say it again: the app is very comprehensive. So much so that even without the telescope connected, you can browse through its content for hours. From the main menu, you can choose a star, cluster, galaxy, nebula… or a solar system object (Sun, planets, Moon).



What’s fantastic about the app is that, depending on your location and the time, it tells you what’s best to observe. In other words, all the information is dynamic. And that’s essential when using a telescope. One thing I really love is that you can "schedule" the telescope to scan the sky all night and capture the objects you’ve selected once they’re visible. The next day, you review everything it recorded. You set this up through the “Plan” menu, and it’s a joy to use — the app even tells you what’s best to photograph each night, as we’ve mentioned.



But let’s go back to the Moon we saw earlier. From the app, we tell it to point at it and in a few seconds — there it is. You can check some object info and then simply see what the telescope captures, with three zoom levels: 1x, 2x, and 4x.



You can also see a general “map” along with nearby objects that you can tap to select — just like in StarWalk. A real treat.



But before continuing with night-sky objects, let’s check out the solar filter. As I mentioned earlier, you must use it if you’re pointing at the Sun, or you’ll damage the lens — very important. The filter attaches to the front of the telescope magnetically.



Here’s how it looks in place.



And now we can observe our beloved Sun.







The result is once again impressive at all three zoom levels. You can clearly see the sunspots, and I imagine with some luck, even a large solar flare.



Keep in mind that what I’m showing here are the final photographs. In the app, you’ll see everything in real-time, like a live video feed. Like this.



Of course — and I hadn’t mentioned this yet — the telescope will automatically track the celestial body to keep it centered. Sun, check.

Now, back to the night sky.

Many of you probably know how this kind of night photography works. What the telescope does is take many photos over minutes or even hours, and then stack them on top of each other, so that the final image gains more and more detail. You can see this process happening in real time through the app. The image initially appears very blurry, but it gradually sharpens until you get a clear result. The final image I’m showing you here is just that — the finished version with all the stacked photos, also cleaned of noise (the app can do this automatically).

Let me show you an example. This is galaxy M101. In the app, there's a timer showing how long the telescope has been capturing that object. In the screenshots you’ll see progress from 9 minutes to 18. If I had let it go for longer, the image might have been even better. In the last image, I had already applied the noise reduction filter. And here’s another factor: the longer the telescope spends capturing, the more noise will be recorded — especially in areas with light pollution. The noise filter works well, but as always, these kinds of processing can “smudge” the image a bit. So you have to balance it carefully: more time doesn’t necessarily mean a better result.



Let’s look at more things I was able to observe. Galaxy M51 (also known as the Whirlpool Galaxy). Honestly, it’s amazing to be able to observe things like this in “real time.” I say “real time” in quotes because this galaxy, for example, is located a whopping 31 million light years away. So I’m sure something has changed there since the light we’re seeing was emitted.



Next, cluster M13, also known as the Great Hercules Cluster, located more than 25,000 light years from Earth. It’s composed of hundreds of thousands of stars. It looks amazing through this telescope — so much so that it’s genuinely moving to see.



And this is how I “experienced” it in real time through the app, with its position map in the sky.





It’s very impressive. Anyone who enjoys this kind of thing will have an absolute blast.

Next up… galaxy M106. Located no less than 25 million light years away. I don’t think we’re fully aware of how far that is. Yet you can still see it clearly.



Galaxy NGC 4565, nearly 50 million light years away. This one appears smaller.



And these were my two best captures. The first, Nebula M17, also known as the Omega or Swan Nebula, about 5,000 light years away. I was surprised by how beautifully it came out in color. It could be improved, as this photo includes only 3 minutes of exposure.



And this is Nebula M27, the popular Dumbbell Nebula, about 1,200 light years away. Again, I was surprised by how vibrant the colors were.



Here’s what it looks like through a “professional” telescope.



And this is my photo, edited with Photoshop (basically just adjusting the curves to reduce noise). The result is really good.



One of the coolest things is simply opening the star map and choosing where you want the telescope to point. If something looks interesting, you just click and the telescope moves into position. As I said earlier, you could spend hours doing this.



And as I mentioned earlier, you can also filter and easily find the best objects to observe based on a specific time period and altitude.



Online you’ll find lots of galleries with photos taken using this Seestar S30, with incredible results. Some people edit their final photos to add extra color, making them look even more striking. Here are a few examples — definitely better than mine — available on the manufacturer’s website, probably taken in better locations than mine and possibly with more post-processing. Either way, the results are stunning.



By the way, something I really liked: you can connect the telescope to a computer and access all stored photos as if it were a regular storage drive. Everything is neatly organized in folders. Super convenient!

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That’s all I can tell you for now. I love photography and I’ve always loved astronomy. I’ve owned telescopes before, but to take photos I had to attach a DSLR to the eyepiece. And although I also had a tracking motor, it was nothing like this little guy. Of course, a full DSLR setup is much more powerful than the built-in camera on the S30. But we’re talking about gear worth thousands of euros. The S30 costs $369 — a much lower price. For that amount, you get a compact, attractive, easy-to-use device (at least to get started with photos), but also advanced if you want to go further. It delivers very decent image quality. It’s not a professional telescope, obviously. But as a tool for fun, education, and the average astronomy enthusiast, it’s truly a marvel.

Here’s the full spec sheet. The manufacturer also offers more advanced models, like the S50, which I hope we’ll be able to review soon for comparison.

https://store.seestar.com/products/seestar-s30-all-in-one-smart-telescope