ZWO unveils the Seestar S50 Pro

The newly released iteration of the popular smartscope offers all the powerful features of the S30 Pro with the larger aperture and battery life of the S50. | Published: August 26, 2026 Credit: ZWO Astro ZWO has introduced the Seestar S50 Pro, the latest entry in its line of all-in-one smart telescopes. The S50 Pro opens for preorder today at an introductory price of $899, $100 off its $999 list price, with shipping set to begin Sept. 1. (Read our review of the original Seestar S50 here.) “The product vision for the entire Seestar brand has always been clear,” ZWO founder and CEO Sam Wen said in a press release, “to give more people the opportunity to look up at the stars and explore the universe by lowering the barrier to astrophotography … the S50 Pro continues this same vision.” What’s new? Credit: ZWO Astro When ZWO introduced the original S50 at the Northeast Astronomy Forum (NEAF) in April 2023, it offered an easy-to-use and affordable alternative to the steep learning curve of astrophotography. A smaller, cheaper S30 followed in November 2024, carrying a second, wide-angle lens. The S30 Pro arrived this January with sharper optics and a wider field of view. The S50 Pro is, in effect, that S30 Pro platform rebuilt around a larger aperture. Optically and electronically, the two Pro models are close to identical — the same four-element apochromatic optical system, 8.3-megapixel sensors on both cameras, 63° wide-angle field of view, and 128 GB of storage. What separates them is the S50 Pro’s larger 2-inch (50mm) aperture, versus the S30 Pro’s 1.2-inch (30mm) aperture, and a substantially larger battery. Compared to the S50, the S50 Pro brings enhanced resolution. Where the S50 had a resolution of 2.1 megapixels at 1080×1920, the S50 Pro’s upgraded 1/1.2-inch CMOS sensor captures images in 4K with a resolution of 2160×3840 (8.3 megapixels). Focal length stretches slightly, from 250mm to 260mm. And while the original S50 featured only a single lens, the S50 Pro’s 63° wide-angle lens handles Milky Way panoramas, star trails, and time-lapses. ZWO also says that the S50 Pro features upgraded equatorial tracking. The feature isn’t new to the Seestar line — ZWO added an equatorial mode to the S50 and S30 through a software update in 2025, letting either scope hold 60-second exposures on compatible wedge accessories. What’s new on the S50 Pro is a precision drive system that ZWO says has near-zero-backlash, improving pointing accuracy, tracking stability, and wind resistance in equatorial mode. Battery life has also improved. A 10,000 mAh cell gives the S50 Pro up to 9 hours of stacking time under typical conditions, against about 6 hours from the original S50’s 6,000 mAh. Storage doubles to 128 GB, and the scope adds near field communication (NFC) Bluetooth pairing for faster phone setup. A swappable filter set rounds out the kit, alongside app-based tools for background extraction, noise reduction, and star removal. How to use it Credit: ZWO Astro The S50 Pro runs the same Seestar app that powers ZWO’s other smart telescopes, so anyone who’s used a Seestar already knows the drill. After pairing the scope to a phone, users can pick a target from the app’s catalog. From there, go-to, focusing, tracking, and live stacking run automatically by default; power users can manually alter settings like the exposure length. The raw frames can also be exported for those who want to process shots externally. The Seestar S50 Pro is available for preorder now for $899 through Sept. 15, when the price rises to $999. More details are available at ZWO’s product page.