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Works great
I ordered this instead of the Sig Imaging stabilizing because the field of view was larger on the Alpen. Fast shipping, when I had a question I emailed customer service and they got back to me within the business day! 10/10 would buy again
Great product and great seller.
The “smart telescope” is a wifi-controlled, tripod-mounted digital camera with 12.5 megapixel, 250 GB storage, 1.6 degree field of vision (which amounts to about 1,200mm for a full-frame camera) and about 11 hours of battery life. “Smart” refers to the built-in software which is controlled with Vaonis’ “Singularity” app from iOS and Android devices.
Given a GPS location (or an address) the telescope takes care of alignment, positioning to an object selected from a large database, tracking, autofocus, and real-time stacking of acquired images, i.e., it automates all the chores facing the hobby astronomer. Observations can be spread out over several nights and a “mosaic” mode can combine images into a larger viewing window.
The instrument is very portable (and is delivered in a sturdy suitcase), i.e., it is easy to get away from too much ambient light. Wifi control elegantly avoids the problem that walking near the telescope can introduce unwanted vibrations.
Once the telescope has been initialized at least once, and with a separately available solar filter, one can observe sun spots and the granular appearance and cratered edge of the sun. Here, alignment merely requires to manually turn the instrument until the shadow shows a small crack of sunlight next to the optical arm — the rest is taken care of by the “smart” software.
I've been using the Dwarf 3 for about 3 weeks and found that it can take excellent images (although it sometimes takes a bit of time to get them), The device is very portable and capable of being taken from place to place without much effort.
The only real issue I have is that parts of the software are not well designed. For example, it took a little while to figure out how to set up the equitorial mode. The odd handoff between the Atlas and taking photos can be a bit tricky when you don't complete end the previous session. But once you get the hang of the process it goes reasonably well.
About the only thing hardware related I would have liked would be a slightly better range for bluetooth and wifi connections, but that can be said for just about any modern electronic device.
Overall, I like this device a lot. I wish there were half star ratings so I could give it a 4.5 stars, but since there isn't, I'll round it up to 5
Great telescope. A first of its kind for me. That being the case, it’s providing me with amazing views of the moon and close ups of the moons craters. Jupiter was so clear! Looking forward to seeing more objects in space. Also, I want to add that the customer service is outstanding at Astrotelescopium.
