Fully electronic 80mm scope A$6000 vaonis.com

[skysurfer]

I stumbled upon this scope which is completely electronically controlled by an Android / iOS device but costs EUR 4000 (A$6000) and weight 11.5 kg, so no travel scope....
It has a 1x0.7 degree FOV, so rather narrow.

Is this device worthwile ?

https://vaonis.com/stellina

[glend]

Looks like it is using a sensor like the ASI294, and frame stacking to produce its image. Typical sort of EAA approach really. Doesn't really look like an 80mm aperture though, based on the little legs. We need something else in the image to provide scale. I suspect there is a small optical lenses designed to fit in front of the sensor.
Worthwhile to whom?

[Ukastronomer]

OMG it is not even an apo, 80mm, just 6MP,

https://gizmodo.com/i-made-amazing-images-of-galaxies-and-nebulas-in-minute-1837845368

Is it worthwhile in WHO'S eyes ;) ;)

I would be asking questions like, how outdated is the chip, repairs?, repairs out of guarantee?,

https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/reviews/vaonis-stellina-smart-telescope-review

in about two years this will be available from Chinese suppliers for £300-600

Oh and DO NOT use it at star parties, and observing sessions, clubs etc you will be told to leave with your glaring phone on and worse a tablet

[Wavytone]

Seen that before somewhere but assumed it was vapourware.

Either they will fail at that price point, and any stock auctioned off when the company closes, or a Chinese clone will appear at a more reasonable price.

Sounds like it’s also in need of being hacked to fix the wifi issue and make it accessible from anywhere across the interwebs. An even better hack would be to mate the electronics with a larger scope and better camera.

[JeniSkunk]

That's if you use your phone/tablet at full brightness when observing.
My own tablet, a Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2016) 4G/LTE with S Pen, gets set to absolute minimum brightness when I'm out on the patio of an evening, and usually the light polluted skies are brighter than its screen when I'm running Stellarium.

[Atmos]

It was on Kickstarter a number of years ago and won some international design award from memory.
At its price point you could cobble together the individual components and make something better at half the cost. It may not be as stylish or as integrated but the people this is marketed at aren’t us :)

[Slawomir]

But it's water resistant: Water falling as a spray at any angle up to 60° from the vertical shall have no harmful effect. :thumbsup:

[The_bluester]

60 degree rain, I would be more worried about it blowing over!

[multiweb]

Looks like an Apple scope, very pretty. Practical? meh.... Mainstream public who love their iPhone will buy it though.

[Slawomir]

Could be from sprinklers :lol:

[SimmoW]

Wow, that's a price! But worth it, the flowery Apple-like description makes me want to buy one. Sort of like some of the flowery image descriptions I see on here. No, it's not a glob. It's an intense gathering of stellar giants drifting across the void of the cosmos...

[skysurfer]

I'd rather see an eyepiece with builtin electronics which you can pop into any telescope. Smartphones and tablets have enough computing power to do the image processing, plate solving and control the aligning.