The Seestar S30 Pro (Smart Telescope)

The world of amateur astronomy keeps changing. On December 31, 2025, ZWO launched the latest smart telescope – the Seestar S30 Pro. This is a long anticipated upgrade to the Seestar S50 and S30 with an improved sensor and optics. The Pro is a quadruplet with one ED lens vs. the S30, which is a triplet. It has a 30 mm aperture, a 160 mm focal length, and an IMX585MC sensor.

  • With the S30 Pro you get a larger field of view of 11.3 mm x 6.3 mm for 4.6 degrees (and more pixels 2160 x 3860 = 8.3 MP.
  • With the standard S30 it is a narrower field of view of 5.56 mm x 3.13 mm for 2.26 degrees (and 2.1 MP).

Both have a pixel size of 2.9um. The filters, a UV/IR and dual-narrow band, are the same for both the S30 Pro and standard.

The S30 Pro will operate in Alt/Az mode. It will also operate in EQ mode, which avoids rotational artifacts and gives you cleaner images especially when taking long exposures. To facilitate this, ZWO supplies an HT fluid tripod head and TC20 Tripod, which can be purchased in addition to the S30 Pro. You can also add a tripod leveler – although this isn’t necessary.

Seestar S30 Pro in EQ mode (arm closed). Mount purchased separately.
Seestar S30 Pro in EQ mode (arm open). Mount purchased separately.

The Seestar app has a sky atlas, which makes it easy to find and locate objects. The app allows you to view a live stacking, which shows the stacked images as they are taken. You can also go back in and re-stack your images for better results. In either case, you should use the AI denoise option to clean up the background. And you can adjust the brightness and contrast within the Seestar app. However, using a third party software such as Siril or PixInsight helps to bring out more of the image details. In any case, dark skies will definitely enhance your images – light pollution always gets in the way.

The Seestar app has a convent plan mode which allows you to set up an imaging plan for the entire night. It will automatically move from object to object based on the preset timing and it will auto focus before imaging each object.

One new feature, not available in the basic S30, is the Milky Way mode. This is a wide angle view that can be used for nightscape imaging. You can also “freeze the ground” to display the sky above the ground.

Cygnus with labels
Cygnus from Seestar app.
Cygnus processed in Siril

The larger sensor does give a wider field of view, and, as such, you will capture more of the sky, however, objects will appear smaller than in the S30. However, if you zoom in or crop the S30 Pro image you will end up with the same size objects as with the S30. Just as a note, the S50 does have a narrower field of view than both the S30 and S30 Pro, so S50 objects will appear large than with the either of the S30s.

M8 & M20. Seestar S30 Pro. Full field of view. (Processed in Siril).
Seestar S30 (Not an S30 Pro) Image of M8 and M20 (dark skies)
NGC 6888. Seestar Pro. Full field of View. (processed in Siril).
NGC 6888. Seestar S50. Processed in Siril.

Here are a few more images. Some from the Seestar app (with caption) and others processed in Siril (without caption).

For a deeper dive into the Seestar smart telescopes, see our Seestar Smart Telescopes page. For more information about smart telescopes in general, including the Seestar and those from Dwarf Labs, see our Introduction to Smart Telescopes.

Please note that FAS does not officially endorse or recommend this or any other telescope. We simply provide information that might be interesting and useful for the public.

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Bruce Gavett

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