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The ZWO Seestar S50 is an example of one of the so called “smart telescopes”. It has a 50mm f5 optical system, built in drive motors, camera, filters, data base, dew heater, and battery, but no eyepiece. You control it and view the images from your phone or tablet.
ZWO releases firmware updates several times a year and the update in the spring of 2025 made it possible to switch from altitude/azimuth mode to equatorial mode. This allows the use of longer exposure frames with reduced tracking failures and field rotation. Mounting a Seestar in equatorial mode requires a tripod with a pan/tilt head or an equatorial wedge.
Commercially made wedges for Seestars and other small scopes can be purchased starting at around seventy dollars, but what fun is that when you can spend twice as much for wood, hardware, saw blades, router bits, first aid supplies, etc, and make your own that will work almost as well.
The board that the Seestar mounts to is positioned and held in place by wing nuts or thumb wheels traveling up or down a curved ¼ 20 threaded rod. I used a ½ inch EMT pipe bender (thin wall electrical conduit) to curve the rod. If you can't borrow a bender from a friendly electrician you should be able to rent one from a tool rental place.
The white knobs are 3D printed in two parts glued together with a ¼ 20 nut inside and is used for latitude adjustment. Another knob on the rod below locks it in place.
I made the bottom plate or board a little longer than it needed to be then mounted the Seestar and tilted to the approximate angle for my latitude and placed the whole thing on a dowel and found the center of balance. I drilled a hole at this location for the tripod mounting bolt, then trimmed off the excess material on the bottom board. It may look a little strange but with the center of balance directly over the center of the tripod the whole assembly is very stable.
What can an equatorial do for you? While the Seestar does a fine job in both ALT/AZ and EQ modes when properly leveled, the EQ mode can save time due to fewer failed frames.
The Sombrero Galaxy
The Eastern Vail Nebular
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