Astronomy

Last night was one of those rare London evenings: clear skies, no moon, and a forecast that held. My automated sky alert fired at 5pm, so by 7:30 I had the Seestar S50 out and aligned. But this time I did something new — I planned the session in advance, with AI help. The Setup The telescope is the ZWO Seestar S50 — a compact smart scope with a 50mm aperture, built-in tracking, live stacking, and a phone app that handles everything. It’s not a serious instrument by amateur astronomy standards, but it punches well above its weight for a grab-and-go in a light-polluted city. ...

I got a Seestar S50 — ZWO’s little smart telescope — about a year ago. The hardware is excellent: point it at anything, tap the app, watch the stacking happen live. But there’s an unavoidable problem with amateur astronomy in London: the weather. M31 — the Andromeda Galaxy, our nearest large neighbour at 2.5 million light-years. Seestar S50, 46 minutes integration, July 2025. Dust lanes visible along the disc; M32 satellite galaxy upper right. ...