Why the SeeStar S50 Smart Telescope? Beginners Review

9 April 2026Why the night sky?I've always been fascinated by space and the universe, ever since I was a kid, but I never had my own telescope. Now I'm in my fifties; it was actually my wife who told me that I needed to get out more, which is the exact opposite of what I was like as a youngster! But still with that interest in the universe, I'd read all about the 3i/Atlas comet, and back in December 2025, on its closest approach to Earth, my daughter and I took my son's telescope out into the Bortle 3 skies of the countryside near to where we live, in the vain hope that we'd see it. We had some real trouble getting the telescope set up and focusing it, but on that clear winter night I saw something for the first time that childhood curiosity out in full. Given the trouble we were having with the scope, we managed to focus in on Jupiter in the eastern night sky, surrounded by three of its moons. Just seeing it suspended there blew me away! An alien world with its moons literally just "hanging" in the sky. That was it; I instantly knew that the fascination was still there and this would be my new "thing!" However, as fiddly as that encounter had been, trying to get that damned telescope to focus, I knew there was an easier way!Why the SeeStar S50 Smart Telescope?I'd watched a few YouTube videos about the three ZWO smart telescopes, the various pros and cons of each model, etc., and I'd looked at other brands too. Some of which I felt were a bit too expensive for starters and didn't appear to be that much better for at least twice the price. But by now, I'd made up my mind. ZWO's current flagship, the S50, was the one. A combination of the best of comparable units or the same capabilities as others and not too expensive for starters. So I started the online search of where to buy. Most places all had the SeeStar S50 Smart Telescope priced exactly the same, no ifs or buts, but I did a quick search on a well-known cashback site and saw PicStop, whose price already matched the lowest that I could find online, and the reviews were excellent. A "no brainer!" What actually made it even better was that my wife and daughter decided to buy the S50 for my birthday, which was a really thoughtful gift from them. I had to place the order myself (they didn't want to get the wrong one); it was ordered as easy as you like, with instant confirmation, and I opted for next-day delivery, the cost of which was more than compensated for by the cashback and great updates from…