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Vaonis Vespera II Smart Telescope
Model: vaonis_vespera_IIPart Number: VE50-II
Discover a new stargazing experience with the most innovative, versatile, and user-friendly smart telescope.
With Vespera II, you can conduct live observations and capture stunning photos of the Universe you'll be proud to share.
Explore the cosmos in full colour and crisp details. Spend more time enjoying the night sky, not struggling with complicated setups. Whether you start from zero or are an experienced stargazer, embrace a new stellar adventure.
Fits easily on any suitably sized tripod with 3/8" thread.
NOTES:
A tripod, USB wall charger and cable are NOT included.
Requires an AC charger/adaptor that meets these specifications: USB-C - USB PD2.0 / Typc-C v1.2'
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Get spectacular and unparalleled views of the cosmos.
Pioneering the future of smart telescopes, Vaonis has developed algorithms that harness every photon collected by our instruments from the deep universe. Paired with the latest generation sensors and premium optics and combined with our exclusive live mosaic capture technology, Vespera II and Vespera Pro deliver images that are out of reach of any other smart telescope.
M31 Andromeda Galaxy shot with live Mosaic mode.
I was not sure about spending so much money on a smart scope but in the week or so that I have been using it, I have found "it just works": it's a quality instrument. It is well made, with the plastic outer case feeling like it covers a lot of metal and in use it is very quiet and purrs with precise movements. I carry it out, put it down, level it by eye and initialise. My iPhone or iPad connect without problem and it will often initialise even when it warns that the sky is too bright. If I can see 2nd magnitude stars, it initialises. Objects are dead centre of the image, every time and focus is always precise. The "live stack" images that appear on the phone or tablet have often made me say "wow". Almost always allow you to clearly recognise what you are observing within 30 seconds or so as light is gathered and are very impressive indeed within a few minutes. I've set mine to save raw fits files, which I process on my computer. These are as good as any uncooled CMOS camera with noise pretty well controlled and few hot pixels, easily processed out by the scope automatically or by software. I've captured asteroids, variable stars and comets by entering manual co-ordinates as well as using the app to look at clusters and galaxies (not too many nebulae in the sky at this time of year).It's a small refractor with a wide field and best at big objects — you are not going to fill the field with a globular cluster or galaxy, and planetary nebulae are tiny, though I've enjoyed spotting tiny galaxies in the background when I have imaged them. It will be fantastic on larger nebulae. In my suburban, hazy, twilight summer sky images reliably show 18th magnitude stars and faint galaxies. There are enough pixels to be able to crop and I am producing pleasing images, with almost none of the complexity and frustration of my old dedicated astrophotography gear.The ten second exposures and alt-azimuth mount means that some elements of "noise" can be quite harsh. It's easy to over-process and end up with visible streaks of "walking noise". The built-in imaging sets backgrounds quite dark to hide this but with a little care you can produce excellent quality images, even in half an hour or less for bright clusters etc.I love this scope and see myself using it for a very long time. I've knocked one star off because I have mixed feelings about the app and about Vaonis who make it. The app is very easy to use for the obvious and recommended targets - genuinely great for beginners and quite well designed. I found the "astronomy quotes" it provides while the scope is setting up or moving to a new target, interesting for about five minutes and then irritating and you can't turn them off. The biggest downside is that I had to do an awful lot of trial and error to work out how to do things I wanted outside the recommended targets, what the various "expert" settings actually did and I had to solve some genuine problems (e.g. if I set up a variable star as a manual object (fairly easy) the scope won't capture a sequence of images, only single jpgs - I have to set up a manual object as a "cluster" at the same co-ordinates to get that to work, and I had to figure that out myself. I think Vaonis are great people who make a great series of scopes. They seem to be overwhelmed sometimes (it has taken them at least 4 days to answer any email query) and they are very secretive with any technical information - hence the need for too much trial and error. I'd love it if they had a proper forum, for example, rather than relying on Facebook. Their products and accessories are very high quality and from expensive and high-quality sources, but I wish they'd work a bit harder on their prices and what they offer. This scope really does run out of battery in a few hours, though I am fine with the memory provided I manage it carefully (saving fits and not the jpgs as well, for example)FLO delivered next day and were very quick and helpful with a query I had.
Decided to buy this as was losing interest setting up my scope, camera, polar aligning with laptop and then things going pear shaped or clouds rolling in and having to be up early for work.First clear night it took less than 2 minutes to put together and another 3 minutes for it to do its thing, then i had 30 minutes on m42, absolutely fantastic picture showing plenty of detail without the core being blown out. The next clear night i chose m81 and m82, within 2 minutes you could see them clearly so left it running and managed 3hrs and was blown away with the quality of the pictures, so if like me your tied for time and come from bortle 7 skies its well worth investing in one of these, Would love to see the quality of the photos from a dark sky site. The only drawback is you'll need the Hygrometer as i noticed dew creeping in on a particular night, also make yourself a dew shield out of black card and some tape (easy).