Seestar S30 Pro Total Solar Eclipse Edition Bologna Sandwich Bull

Can someone explain what I’m supposed to be excited about here with a spray painted cats tail of a telescope?

This “Total Solar Eclipse Edition” is, as far as I can tell, nothing more than an S30 Pro with a black paint job and some eclipse themed marketing. Same hardware. Same optics. Same sensor. Same capabilities. Just a different color and a fancy name.

Come on, ZWO. Astronomy enthusiasts aren’t stupid - at least not all of us..

Calling something an “Eclipse Edition” doesn’t magically make it a different telescope. Every S30 Pro can already image the Sun with the proper filter. Painting it black doesn’t suddenly turn it into some purpose-built eclipse instrument.

And before anyone says I’m picking on ZWO, I’m not. Vaonis has played the exact same game with that see-through junk they did last year. Dress up existing hardware, wrap it in slick marketing, and hope everyone forgets it’s the same telescope underneath.

I’d much rather see companies spend their engineering time building genuinely better products instead of dreaming up another “limited edition” with a new paint job.

This isn’t innovation. It’s marketing.

If I’m wrong, tell me exactly what changed besides the color. I’ll wait.

I’ll throw my $0.02 in here, for what it’s worth.

Yes, it’s the same scope with a different color and a nice little gold metal badge.

That said, if you’re really into solar observing, I can at least understand the appeal. I enjoy looking at the Sun, but I personally find dedicated hydrogen-alpha views, where you can see prominences, filaments, and surface detail, far more interesting than the white light views you get through a standard solar filter, which mainly reveal sunspots and photospheric detail.

Total solar eclipses are incredibly special and pretty rare, so I can understand wanting a commemorative telescope to mark the occasion.

Is it a new telescope? No. Is it a collector’s edition? Absolutely. If that’s what ZWO had called it from the beginning, I don’t think nearly as many people would be questioning it.

But yeah -a little cheaky :) ..but still cool. 

Another thought I had about this.

While the S30 Pro is a fun little instrument, it’s simply not capable of competing with what a dedicated imaging rig can produce with better optics, a larger sensor, and a more capable camera. That said, I really enjoy its wide field “Milky Way mode.” Wide field imaging that is just drop and go.

It actually got me thinking. If ZWO released a “Milky Way Edition,” or even a premium skinned version similar to the way Questar gives its telescopes a distinctive, almost collectible appearance, I think a lot of people I know would buy one because of the aesthetics alone. That would feel like a genuinely unique product rather than just a commemorative solar eclipse version.

Ironically, the current white finish almost comes across as something you’d find in a preschool classroom. That’s unfortunate, because the little scope is actually more capable than its appearance suggests. A more refined, premium exterior would better match what it’s capable of and would make it feel less like a toy. With that - even if they offered it in black as a choice, most people I think would pick the black.

Side note… if it’s cloudy on eclipse day, the Solar Edition should come with a sheet of stickers. Maybe one to cover up the Sun, or an “I Was There” decal so you can at least pretend you saw it. At least then everyone would go home with something besides disappointment.