The Seestar S50 took the astro world by storm in 2024, and a year later the smaller, less expensive S30 found its way into millions of backyards and star parties. Perhaps to the surprise of established astrophotographers, they started showing up at remote observatories en masse. And no wonder — with their all-in-one design, easy-to-use software, live stacking, and phone/tablet app, they were tailor-made for remote use by new (and not so new) astrophotographers.
There are three common configurations for a remotely operated Seestar.
The Traditional Path: The Seestar App on a Remote Mac mini
This is the most common, easiest to use, and full-featured way to access your Seestar remotely. You deploy the Seestar with an Apple Silicon-based Mac mini — that is, one that uses the M1, M2, or M4 processor (there were no M3 minis). You run the iPad version of the Seestar app on that Mac mini. The Seestar app believes that it's running on an iPad sitting next to your scope, and connects to it as it usually would. You connect to the Mac mini from home using remote desktop software like AnyDesk, RustDesk, Chrome Remote Desktop, or others.
In this configuration you power the Seestar with a USB charger like you use for your phone. You typically have that plugged into a Kasa Smart WiFi Power Strip so that you can remotely turn the charger off and on as needed. In addition, you'll want a SwitchBot Bluetooth button-pusher mounted so that it can operate the on/off button on your Seestar.
If you want to use your Seestar in its default alt-az mode, where it is mounted level and can rotate and raise/lower its arm, you'll need a tripod leveler device to put under the Seestar for fine adjustments needed to make it level. If you operate in eq mode, where the Seestar is tilted toward the North Celestial Pole, you'll need an equatorial wedge. Commonly used wedges include those from Sky-Watcher, William Optics, Move Shoot Move, and ZWO. If the wedge you choose requires the scope to be mounted on a dovetail rail, make sure it either comes with one or you order a suitable one separately.
Once you're set up like this you can turn the Seestar on with the SwitchBot if needed, then remote into the Mac and launch the Seestar app. After that, it's just like home except the sky is darker. You'll be connected to the Seestar via WiFi, and have a wired connection from the Mac mini to the local network for Internet access.
In the morning, you can transfer files off the Seestar to your mini by simply mounting it in macOS Finder and dragging and dropping files to the Mac. From there you can use Dropbox, Google Drive, or any number of other file transfer methods to get files from the observatory to home.
The Power-User Path: Controlling your Seestar with NINA
If you're already a NINA user, you might be surprised to learn that it's possible to operate a Seestar using NINA running either on the pier or at home. If your Seestar was your introduction to astrophotography, you might want to hold off on learning NINA for now — it's much more complex than the Seestar app that you've been using.
With recent driver support, the Seestar can be controlled through ASCOM, which means NINA can treat it like a standard mount/camera setup. You’re still working with an all-in-one device, but NINA sees the pieces it needs.
If you already use NINA, the setup is familiar. Install the Seestar ASCOM driver on a Windows machine, then in NINA connect the telescope and camera through ASCOM. From there you can slew, plate solve, frame targets, and build sequences just as you would with any other rig.
What NINA adds that the Seestar app lacks is automation. You can define sequences, schedule targets, and run multi-night projects instead of operating the Seestar session-by-session through the mobile app.
There are limits. The Seestar still controls much of its internal behavior, and you don’t get the flexibility of a traditional rig—no interchangeable optics, limited filter control, and some functions may be handled internally rather than exposed to NINA. But for many users, the tradeoff is worth it to gain scheduling and repeatable workflows.
Where NINA Runs
You can run NINA either on a PC at the pier or on a PC at home connecting over the network. Mac users can run NINA using Crossover.
Running NINA at the pier is the more reliable approach. The PC/Mac talks to the Seestar over the local network, and you remote into that computer. From NINA’s point of view, everything is local, so connections are stable and long runs aren’t dependent on your Internet staying up.
Running NINA from home over VPN also works, but the connection depends on both ends of the Internet link and the VPN between them.
In practice, if you’re using NINA for automation, a small PC or Mac mini on the pier is usually the better way to run it. You'll still want a SwitchBot button pusher to turn the Seestar on and off, and a Kasa Smart WiFi Power Strip to control power to everything on your pier.
The Low-Effort, Low-Flexibility Path: The ZWO Remote Telescope Network
The Remote Telescope Network (RTN) lets you operate your Seestar remotely using the same app you already use at home.
Once your Seestar is connected to the network at the observatory, you select it from the app and connect to it over the Internet. From there, you can browse targets, slew, and start imaging just as if you were standing next to it.
With RTN, everything is happening on the Seestar itself, not on your computer, so what you’re seeing remotely is the same evolving image you’d see locally. So from a user experience standpoint, almost nothing changes. You’re still “driving” the scope — you’re just doing it from somewhere else.
The biggest practical limitation of RTN right now is data access. You won't have access to the individual FIT files representing each exposure. Instead, you'll be able to do basic denoising, color adjustment, and scaling in the app and save the resulting JPEG file. For a lot of people, that's all they want. But if you are planning to do your own stacking and processing, RTN may not be the right tool.
Note that ZWO promises to add this feature (access to FIT files) in the future.
RTN is best thought of as “the Seestar experience, but remote.” It's limited in what it can do, but it's easy.
Summary
Regardless how you choose to control your Seestar, you'll get better results under Bortle 1 skies at the observatory than you would get at home. And it will still be one of the simplest imaging systems to operate remotely, even if you choose to use NINA instead of the Seestar app.