Contents
- A new trend: Smart Telescopes for astrophotography & astronomy
- Unistellar eQuinox 2
- Unistellar eVscope 2
- Unistellar eQuinox
- Dwarflab DWARF II
- Vaonis Vespera
- Vaonis Stellina
- Stellina Vs eVscope 2 vs eQuinox 2 vs Vespera vs Dwarf 2: Pros & Cons
- Other Smart Telescopes
- FAQs
- Do the Stellina/Vespera and eVscope/eQuinox take good pictures?
- What’s the difference between smart telescopes and GoTo / computerized telescopes?
- Can you attach your smartphone or digital camera to a regular telescope to take pictures?
- How do you collimate an eVscope or eQuinox telescope?
- What is the most powerful smart telescope?
- What is a digital telescope?
- Verdict: What’s the Best Smart Telescope to buy?
The new trend disrupting telescopes is hybrid smart telescopes that have cameras built in.
They are operated by your smartphone and make astrophotography easy, plus they provide an answer to the problem of light pollution for astronomy in cities.
Right now there are six models that you can buy, each with its pros and cons:
- Unistellar eQuinox 2 – Our Top Pick. Newly released in 2023, an upgraded version of the eQuinox with a higher-resolution camera.
- Unistellar eVscope 2 – Our Premium Pick. This is the best smart telescope overall but also the most expensive. The only model with an eyepiece for real-time viewing.
- Unistellar eQuinox – Very similar to the eQuinox 2 and so good value if you want to save a bit of money and go for the older model.
- DWARF II – Our Budget Pick. New in 2023, available for a much lower price than the premium models on this list but still able to perform.
- Vaonis Vespera – This is the premium portable option if you want great performance but also want a small and light model to travel with.
- Vaonis Stellina – The original and complete simplicity out of the box but currently out of stock.
Read on to understand more.
*This website makes money through affiliate commissions. This means we may be compensated if you click links on this page at no extra cost to you.
Our Pick
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Premium Pick
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Budget Pick
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Description: Aperture: 114 mm Focal Length: 450 mm Focal Ratio: F/3.9 Weight: 19.8 lbs Resolution: 6.2 MP |
Description: Aperture: 114 mm Focal Length: 450 mm Focal Ratio: F/3.9 Weight: 19.8 lbs Resolution: 7.7 MP |
Description: Aperture: 24 mm Focal Length: 100 mm Focal Ratio: F/4.2 Weight: 1.2 lbs Resolution: 8 MP |
Description: Aperture: 114 mm Focal Length: 450 mm Focal Ratio: F/3.9 Weight: 19.8 lbs Resolution: 4.8 MP |
Description: Aperture: 50 mm Focal Length: 200 mm Focal Ratio: F/4 Weight: 11 lbs Resolution: 2 MP |
Description: Aperture: 80 mm Focal Length: 400 mm Focal Ratio: F/5 Weight: 24.7 lbs Resolution: 6.4 MP |
Aperture: 114 mm
Focal Length: 450 mm
Focal Ratio: F/3.9
Weight: 19.8 lbs
Resolution: 6.2 MP
Aperture: 114 mm
Focal Length: 450 mm
Focal Ratio: F/3.9
Weight: 19.8 lbs
Resolution: 7.7 MP
Aperture: 24 mm
Focal Length: 100 mm
Focal Ratio: F/4.2
Weight: 1.2 lbs
Resolution: 8 MP
Aperture: 114 mm
Focal Length: 450 mm
Focal Ratio: F/3.9
Weight: 19.8 lbs
Resolution: 4.8 MP
Aperture: 50 mm
Focal Length: 200 mm
Focal Ratio: F/4
Weight: 11 lbs
Resolution: 2 MP
Aperture: 80 mm
Focal Length: 400 mm
Focal Ratio: F/5
Weight: 24.7 lbs
Resolution: 6.4 MP
A new trend: Smart Telescopes for astrophotography & astronomy
Obviously, telescopes have been around for a while and taking photos with them has been a popular hobby in recent decades.
But what has emerged recently is a new type of hybrid telescope that can take photos with a built-in camera.
Smart Telescope Astrophotography
This means that advanced astrophotography is possible with just one piece of equipment that is relatively easy to use.
Previously, if you wanted to get into deep sky astrophotography you needed to research and buy a camera, telescope, and mount, plus any accessories, adapters and cables required to make the parts fit together and likely connect to your laptop to operate.
Getting all these pieces together and finding the right ones for you and your budget is a lot of work and creates a barrier to entry for more casual photographers wanting to take photos of objects in space.
In addition, even once you have your kit all together, taking and processing the photos is a lot of work and requires a lot of time and learning.
Of course, for many, this is part of the fun and contributes to making it so rewarding, but many others crave something much simpler and faster.
Solving Light Pollution with Hybrid Telescopes
One of the major challenges of modern-day astronomy is light pollution.
Most of us live in towns or cities where the light generated from street lights and buildings effectively brightens the night sky.
This makes it significantly harder to view the stars, planets, and galaxies through regular telescopes, astronomy binoculars, or with our eyes.
What these smart telescopes do is overcome the light pollution problem and make observing the night sky easier.
They do this by how they work – they gather light from the night sky over a short period of time (seconds to minutes) and build a digital image of the object you are viewing in space.
You are therefore looking at a picture that is built up of multiple images and enables you to view much better in less-than-perfect conditions. This compares to regular telescopes where you are observing just a single live view with your naked eye.
This means that with smart telescopes you can observe the night skies from your backyard or rooftop in a city in a way that you can’t with similar-sized regular telescopes.
Digital Telescopes for the Sharing Experience
Therefore these new telescopes are a massive breakthrough in making astronomy and astrophotography more easily accessible for beginners, and with people keen to share images on social media.
They are also perfect for those that want the results of observing and photographing the night sky without spending months or years learning and just want to grab and go outside and get instant results.
There are six main smart telescopes that can take photos on the market right now:
- Unistellar eQuinox 2
- Unistellar eVscope 2
- Unistellar eQuinox
- DwarfLab DWARF II
- Vaonis Vespera
- Vaonis Stellina
We examine each of these below and see how they compare to each other.
Unistellar eQuinox 2
Our Pick – Best Value
The Unistellar eQuinox 2 is one of the latest smart telescopes to enter the market new in 2023 and is the successor to the original eQuinox (below).
It is very similar in many specifications to the first eQuinox but has a few key upgrades. This includes:
- Higher resolution camera sensor: 6.2 megapixels over 4.8 megapixels
- Wider field of view: A wider expanse of the night sky can be captured in any image. Pivotally, this means that the whole moon can be captured with the eQuinox 2, whereas it was cropped with the first eQuinox (the eVscope 2 was already wider).
The size and weight are the same, as is the aperture, focal length and focal ratio.
Coming in a roughly half the price of the eVscope 2, you get a great smart telescope for a good value price just without the realtime viewing eyepiece of the eVscope 2 and a slightly lower resolution camera.
eQuinox 2 Pros and Cons
eQuinox 2 Pros
- Cost: The starting price is lower than the first eQuinox at launch and about half the price of the eVscope 2 (note, this may vary)
- Power: The Unistellar models have the highest aperture
- Imaging: 6.2 MP resolution makes it close to the Stellina for a lower price and behind only the eVscope 2
eQuinox 2 Cons
- No eyepiece: The main downside to the eVscope 2 is the lack of eyepiece for realtime viewing (plus the lower resolution)
- Weight: Comparable to the other Unistellar models and the Stellina, but heavier than the Vespera
eQuinox 2 Specifications
- Aperture: 114mm (4.5 inches)
- Focal Length: 450mm (17.7 inches)
- Focal Ratio: F/3.9
- Weight: 19.8 lbs (9 kg)
- Resolution: 6.2 MP
- Year of release: 2023
Smart Telescope for Light Polluted Cities
- Brand new upgraded eQuinox
- Cheaper than eVscope 2 but improved capacity over original eQuinox
- Ultra quick and easy setup in less than one minute
Unistellar eVscope 2
Premium Pick – Best Smart Telescope
Unistellar released the eVscope 2 in 2022 and is the best smart telescope you can currently buy.
It makes our premium pick as it is the best but also in a higher price bracket.
It has the same telescope tube and mount as the eQuinox 2, so it is the same size, weighs the same, and is operated in exactly the same way.
But it has two main differences:
- A better 7.7-megapixel sensor results in better images.
- An eyepiece on the side of the telescope allows you to see in real-time what the telescope is viewing, rather than just on your phone.
The improved sensor is much higher resolution and means that images can be captured in much finer detail. This makes it a better astrophotography telescope than the eQuinox 2.
The added eyepiece is important for some that like that experience of looking through the telescope, rather than just receiving what is sent to your smartphone or tablet. What you are looking at though is an electronic image direct from the sensor and so you can see the view improving as the telescope gathers more light to create the image.
Therefore it is slightly different from looking through a traditional telescope eyepiece, but this does result in a better view and one that is less affected by light pollution.
The original eVscope had an eyepiece but it was removed from the eQuinox. The new eyepiece was developed in cooperation with Nikon and is an improvement over the original one.
Like the other smart telescopes, it packs up neatly into its own backpack (check if included when buying):
Taking all this into account, the eVscope 2 is better than the eQuinox 2. However, it is more expensive. Therefore you have a choice of the more budget-friendly eQuinox 2, or the premium eVscope 2.
You can see a video overview of the eVscope 2 here from Unistellar:
eVscope 2 pros and cons
eVscope 2 Pros
- The best sensor with the highest resolution of any available smart telescope
- The eyepiece on the side enables you to look through the side and see the view directly, rather than just on your phone
- High aperture (the best measurement of a telescope’s viewing power)
- It enables you to join a citizen astronomy network and take part in fun and educational initiatives
- Longer battery life of 12 hours from a single charge (versus 5 hours for the Stellina)
- Smaller and lighter than the Stellina
eVscope 2 Cons
- Like the Equinox, it does require some collimation and focusing (but this is simple and the manual takes you through the process)
- Higher price. This is currently the most expensive smart telescope on the market (though please check live prices as they fluctuate)
eVscope 2 specifications
- Aperture: 114mm (4.5 inches)
- Focal Length: 450mm (17.7 inches)
- Focal Ratio: F/3.9
- Weight: 19.8 lbs (9 kg)
- Sensor: Sony IMX347
- Resolution: 7.7 MP
- Year of release: 2022
Unistellar eVscope eQuinox Smart Digital Telescope
- Highest resolution sensor of any smart telescope
- Eyepiece allows realtime viewing
- Control with your smartphone via app
- Join Citizen Astronomy networks and help detect near-earth asteroids
Unistellar eQuinox
Great Value Option
The eQuinox comes from the French company, Unistellar.
Unistellar’s first smart telescope was the eVscope. This was discontinued in 2021 and replaced by the eQuinox and the eVscope 2.
The eQuinox 2 was then released in 2023 to supersede this model. However, at the time of writing it is still available and given its very similar specs to the eQuinox 2, makes a great option if ou want to save a few hundred dollars.
It is operated via a smartphone app and automatically finds objects in the night sky and captures images of them which are then sent to your phone or tablet.
It’s a sleek, black telescope that looks a lot nicer than the original eVscope. The battery life was improved and it is easier to set up (it can be done in under a minute).
It’s very similar in terms of specifications to the original eVscope – a 4.5-inch aperture reflector telescope with the same focal length and the same Sony sensor.
One fairly big change was that Unistellar removed the eyepiece that was on the side of the original eVscope.
You may or may not care about this but to some it was a big positive versus the Stellina as it allowed it to be used as an observing telescope. This was great for those living in light-polluted areas where observing is very difficult. Instead, now you can just see the images on your smartphone or tablet. This eyepiece was re-added for the eVscope 2 (above).
However, it is the removal of the eyepiece that has resulted in improved battery performance.
You can watch a quick overview of the eQuinox from Unistellar here:
eQuinox pros and cons
eQuinox Pros
- It has a high aperture (the best measurement of a telescope’s viewing power)
- It enables you to join a citizen astronomy network and take part in fun and educational initiatives
- Longer battery life of 12 hours from a single charge (versus 5 hours for the Stellina)
- It is cheaper than the Stellina (although please check live prices)
- It is smaller and lighter than the Stellina
eQuinox Cons
- Does require some collimation and focussing (but this is simple and the manual takes you through the process)
- No Eyepiece – this removes the element of taking it out and using it like an observing telescope that you had with the original eVscope.
eQuinox specifications
- Aperture: 114mm (4.5 inches)
- Focal Length: 450mm (17.7 inches)
- Focal Ratio: F/3.9
- Weight: 19.8 lbs (9 kg)
- Sensor: Sony IMX224
- Resolution: 4.8 MP
- Year of release: 2021
Unistellar eVscope eQuinox Smart Digital Telescope
- Powerful reflector telescope with a 4.5-inch aperture lens
- Control with your smartphone via dedicated app
- Join Citizen Astronomy networks and help detect near-earth asteroids
Dwarflab DWARF II
Budget Pick – Cheapest Smart Telescope

The DWARF II is a brand new budget smart telescope released in 2023.
It is much cheaper than the other options above yet I have found that it can really deliver and is a lot of fun to use.
Dwarflab kindly sent me my very own one of these telescopes – you can see my full hands-on Dwarf 2 Review.
It is small and light and comes with tripod, carry case and filters – everything you need to get going.

To get it going you need to download the free app onto your smartphone and connect it to your telescope. This is all fairly easy to do and I also had to install a firmware update which was a slightly less intuitive process (the step-by-step guides on the Dwarflab site are easy to follow though).
The appeal with this model is first and foremost the cheaper price. The others can’t compete with the budget price.
It is also extremely tight and portable. I fully plan to take mine on vacation and have confidence that the carry case will keep it protected.
The downsides in comparison to the above models are that it has much lower specifications – particularly in terms of aperture and focal length.
This means it can’t really compete in terms of the images it can deliver. However, many have had great success taking photos with it and I’m going to see what I can do with it this spring and summer.

DWARF II Pros and Cons
DWARF II Pros
- Price: Substantially cheaper than any of the other options. This opens up the possibility of owning a smart telescope to many more people.
- Weight: Far lighter than any of the other options and comes with a snug carry case to make it easy to travel with.
Dwarf II Cons
- Image quality: The lower spec inevitably has a limiting impact on the level of images you can expect to produce.
- Planetary photography: The short focal length does not lend itself to taking photos of planets. Deep sky astrophotography is what it is best used for.
- Ease of use: The setup and calibration processes are pretty easy to follow but not seamless.
DWARF II Specifications
- Aperture: 24mm (1-inch)
- Focal Length: 100mm (4-inch)
- Focal Ratio: F/4.2
- Weight: 1.2 kg (2.6 lbs)
- Resolution: 8 MP
- Year of release: 2023
Budget Smart Telescope from DWARFLAB - new in 2023
- Shoot deep space objects in minutes with no expertise or experience necessary
- Great value and currently available for pre-order discount
- Light and portable - easy to store and travel with
Vaonis Vespera
Premium Portable PIck

The Vaonis Vespera is a premium portable smart telescope.
Offering some of the advantages in terms of size and weight as the Dwarf 2, but with better specs and performance. Although naturally coming in a a higher price.
It is essentially a mini-Stellina – the same easy-to-use smart telescope with many of the same advantages, but substantially smaller, lighter, and cheaper.
Its big differentiating characteristic is its size – it is much smaller and lighter than any of the other premium models.
At 11 lbs, it weighs around half the Unistellar models and even more than that with the Stellina.
This makes it much more portable and easy to store and transport.
Watch the overview here:
The actual telescope is a quadruplet apochromatic refractor, which is perfect for wide-field imaging of deep sky objects.
It is extremely quick and easy to set up. You can watch this in this one-minute video:
The key specifications of the Vespera are weaker than the other models – lower aperture and smaller resolution will mean that the images it provides will not be as good.
This is the downside to the compact design.
Vespera Pros & Cons
Vespera Pros
- Smaller and lighter than any other smart telescope model
- Easy to store and transport
- Like the Stellina, ultra-easy to use with no adjustment required
- Cheaper than the other models
Vespera Cons
- The lowest aperture and lowest resolution of any smart telescope model
Vespera Specifications
- Aperture: 50 mm (2 inches)
- Focal Length: 200 mm (7.9 inches)
- Focal Ratio: F/4
- Weight: 11 lbs (5 kg)
- Height: 40 cm (15 inches)
- Sensor: Sony IMX462
- Resolution: 2 MP (1920 x 1080 px)
- Year of release: 2022
- Smallest Smart Telescope Available
- Control With Your Smartphone
- Take Photos of Deep Sky Objects
Vaonis Stellina
The Original and the Easiest Smart Telescope
The Stellina telescope from French company Vaonis is the original smart telescope.
It comes out of the box looking a bit like a large router standing 68cm (26 inches) tall.
How it works is you turn it on, it takes a few minutes to automatically establish the time and date and where it is in the world by GPS and then it is good to go.
There’s not much more to it, no collimating (adjusting) the telescope or manual focusing.
It is operated via an app on your smartphone or tablet. The Stellina knows from your location what you should be able to see and gives you a list of options of objects in the night sky.
You then choose which galaxy, nebula, or another object you want it to point at and it will take the image at the press of a button and send it to your smartphone.
The images are of a high resolution of 3096 x 2080 pixels and are processed automatically and sent as jpeg files.
You can also connect a USB-C cable and get the raw FITS data, which means that if you want to you can get the unprocessed image data and play around with it yourself with post-processing software.
It is powered by a rechargeable battery that lasts around five hours and has an in-built light pollution filter built onto the front so that it can be used from within cities and other built-up areas.
It comes with a high-quality mini tripod from Gitzo (one of the best tripod manufacturers). You can also buy a separate tall Gitzo tripod for the Stellina with a height of 130cm (51 inches).
I think of this as being like the Apple version of a telescope where they have made ease of use right out of the box a priority.
This then makes it appeal to a different market from experienced astrophotographers.
This video from Vaonis gives a good overview of how it works:
The only real downsides are that it is not cheap and that the images it produces, while good, are not of comparable quality to those being taken by advanced astrophotographers with good camera/telescope/mount setups.
However, it’s about a thousand times quicker and easier and the prospect is there that the Stellina will improve in performance over time as updates take place over its internet connection, much like your laptop or phone does.
Stellinas pros and cons
Stellina Pros
- Simple, quick and easy to use with an intuitive interface
- Up to 20 users can connect to it at once to share the images which adds a social element
- Performance improvements and new features can be added after you have bought it as it receives software updates over the internet
Stellina Cons
- Not cheap (although in the ballpark of buying high-quality astrophotography equipment like a camera, telescope, and mount)
- Not so good at photographing planets or the sun, it mostly specializes in widefield deep sky astrophotography (galaxies, nebula, etc)
- Fairly large
Stellina specifications
- Aperture: 80mm (3.15 inches)
- Focal Length: 400mm (15.75 inches)
- Focal Ratio: F/5
- Weight: 24.7 lbs (11.2 kg)
- Height: 68cm (26 inches) – with tripod
- Sensor: Sony IMX178
- Resolution: 6.4MP (3096 x 2080 px)
- Year of release: 2019
Vaonis Stellina Observation Station Smart Hybrid Telescope
- Control with your smartphone
- Find and photograph astronomical objects in minutes
- Simple, quick and easy to use
- Comes with Gitzo Tripod
Stellina Vs eVscope 2 vs eQuinox 2 vs Vespera vs Dwarf 2: Pros & Cons
The Unistellar and Vaonis smart telescopes are fairly similar in that they are:
- Easy to use for beginners out of the box
- Smartphone or tablet operated
- Have in-built cameras to provide all the equipment you need in one for astrophotography
There are a few things that make them differ from each other though and might help you choose which model is right for you.
eQuinox 2 vs Stellina
The advantages of the eQuinox / eQuinox 2 over the Stellina are:
- Enable you to join a network and take part in citizen astronomy activities
- Cheaper (at the time of writing – but please check)
- Higher aperture for better light gathering and imaging
- Smaller and lighter
The advantages of the Stellina mostly relate to ease of use:
- No focusing or collimation of the telescope is required
- Capable of higher resolution images
eVscope 2 vs Stellina
The advantages of the eVscope 2 over the Stellina are the same as the above for the eQuinox but with the addition of:
- A higher resolution sensor
- An eyepiece on the side for live viewing
The advantages of the Stellina over the eVscope 2 are therefore:
- No focusing or collimation required
- Cheaper
eVscope 2 vs eQuinox 2
As for the advantages of the eVscope 2 over the eQuinox 2, it is essentially the same as over the Stellina:
- A higher-resolution sensor
- An eyepiece on the side for live viewing
The advantage of the eQuinox / eQunix 2 over the eVscope 2 is that it is substantially cheaper to sacrifice the eyepiece.
Vespera vs Stellina
Vespera advantages versus the Stellina:
- Weighs less than half of the Stellina – 11 lbs versus 25 lbs
- Shorter at a height of 15 inches (versus 19 inches for the Stellina)
- Cheaper at less than half the price of the Stellina (always check live prices)
There are some downsides to this extra compatibility and reduction in cost though:
- Smaller aperture at 50mm (2 inches)
- Shorter focal length at 200mm (7.8 inches)
- Lower resolution (2.1 MP)
These reductions impact the viewing and imaging power of the Vespera versus the Stellina as a 50mm/2-inch aperture would be a fairly low light-gathering capacity in a regular telescope.
Therefore, the Stellina is better than the Vespera in terms of power and the images it delivers, but the Vespera cost less and is much more portable and easy to store.
Vespera vs eVscope 2 / eQuinox 2
The Vespera’s advantage over the Unistellar models is the more compact size and light weight.
The downside is the lower aperture and sensor resolution.
DWARF 2 vs eQuinox 2 vs eVscope 2 vs Stellina vs Vespera
The advantages of the Dwarf II vs any of the other options are:
- Price – it is substantially cheaper
- Weight – it is super light even compared to the Vespera
The downsides are:
- Lower-quality imaging capacity. The lower aperture inevitably limits its light-gathering ability.
- Less slick and intuitive operation. Takes a bit more figuring out to get it set up and going.
Overall: eQuinox 2 vs eVscope 2 vs Stellina vs Vespera vs DWARF II
Essentially the Stellina is easier to use and is literally a matter of turning it on. This simpler experience will appeal to many casual users that would prefer something they can just pull out and use in the backyard without having to review any manuals on how to collimate, etc.
However, the eQuinox 2 is better than the Stellina in a number of other ways. It is just slightly harder to use since each time it needs manual focusing and collimating. These processes are easy and should take around ten minutes once you know what you’re doing but it is a slight barrier to being fully ‘grab-and-go’ like the Stellina is.
The eVscope 2 is an upgraded version of the eQuinox, so it has all the above advantages plus a better imaging sensor and the eyepiece for live viewing at a higher price.
The Vespera is a smaller, more portable smart telescope but with high-quality optics, it will appeal to those who value the improved portability of a more compact and lightweight body, and the lower price.
Finally, the DWARF II is the smallest and cheapest smart telescope. This is the best for those with lower budgets.
Other Smart Telescopes
There is another smart telescope from Vaonis to go alongside the Stellina and Vespera – the Vaonis Hyperia.
Also, newly announced in April 2023 is the ZWO SeeStar S50.
Vaonis Hyperia
The Vaonis Hyperia is a completely different beast from the Stellina or the Vespera.
It is a big powerful smart telescope that comes at a premium price.
It will be substantially larger and more powerful than any other model:
- it stands at 6ft 9 inches (210 cm) tall, and
- it weighs 165 lbs (75 kg)
It’s a triplet refractor telescope (great for astrophotography) with a 6-inch (150 mm) aperture.
It also has a 61-megapixel sensor, which is huge.
Vaonis are currently pricing it at $45,000, so this is a serious telescope aimed at those with observatories and similarly high-priced telescopes and mounts.
ZWO Seestar S50
The ZWO Seestar S50 was announced in April 2023 with a planned July 2023 release. It is available for pre-order now.
Retailing at $399, it is looking to be a rival to the DWARF 2 in terms of cost, but potentially also the Vaonis Vespera in terms of spec and performance.
It is a triplet apochromatic refractor with a 50mm aperture, 250mm focal length and F/4.9 focal ratio.
2023 is really looking like the year that smart telescopes became affordable.
See our overview of the Dwarf II vs ZWO Seestar S50 to see how these budget smart telescopes compare.
FAQs
Do the Stellina/Vespera and eVscope/eQuinox take good pictures?
The answer is yes they do.
Many experienced astrophotographers do prefer the results they get from their conventional telescope/mount/camera set-ups, however the time and dedication required to get to this level is beyond most casual users looking for an easier way to get into astrophotography.
Here is an image of the Carina Nebula taken with the Vaonis Stellina:
Here is a collage of images taken with the Unistellar eVscope:
To see galleries of images taken with the eVscope and Stellina, check out:
eVscope images
Stellina images
What’s the difference between smart telescopes and GoTo / computerized telescopes?
The difference is that these new “smart telescopes” have cameras built-in and that they automate many of the setup processes required for regular telescopes.
They use the same “GoTo” technology utilized by computerized telescope mounts that enable you to choose an object for the telescope to find for you from a database at the click of a button.
The difference is that conventional telescopes need you to connect an external camera to take pictures and then go through a rigorous manual process for capturing the image.
Can you attach your smartphone or digital camera to a regular telescope to take pictures?
Yes, you can. This is what the vast majority of people do to take night sky photos.
Quite a lot of beginners’ telescopes now come with smartphone adapters (or they can be bought separately). Similarly, DSLR cameras can be attached to telescopes with the right adapters.
See our guide to astrophotography for beginners for a good introduction to this, as well as the best camera for astrophotography and the best telescopes for astrophotography.
How do you collimate an eVscope or eQuinox telescope?
One of the things to consider with an eVscope 2 or Equinox is the collimation process.
This video from Unistellar takes you through it so you can understand the steps:
What is the most powerful smart telescope?
The Unistellar eVscope 2 is the most powerful smart telescope. It has the highest aperture and highest camera sensor resolution of any available model.
What is a digital telescope?
A digital telescope is another term that is sometimes used for a smart telescope (as well as hybrid telescope).
Verdict: What’s the Best Smart Telescope to buy?
Right now there are six available smart telescopes on the market each with its own advantages:
- Unistellar eQuinox 2 – The best value premium option combining high performance with a mid-range price.
- Unistellar eVscope 2 – The most expensive but the best in terms of specs and also the only model with a real-time viewing eyepiece.
- Unistellar eQuinox – A good option if you want to save some money on the very similar eQuinox 2
- DWARF II – The best option for those with smaller budgets of less than $500
- Vaonis Vespera – The premium portable option if you want top perforamnce combined with smaller size
- Vaonis Stellina – Still the slickest looking and easiest to use but hard to find in 2023
For most it’s a question of weighing up the cost and functionality:
- The Stellina will suit those that regardless of cost never want to think about maintenance and just want a sleek bit of gear to pull out and use at will.
- The Vespera also boasts the same ease of use but it is cheaper and smaller. However, it will not provide images of as high quality.
- The eQuinox / eQuinox 2 will appeal more to keen astronomers who don’t mind the small setup steps and might want to get involved in citizen science initiatives and hunt asteroids, etc.
- The eVscope 2 also has the citizen science capacity plus the eyepiece which makes it great for observing sessions under light-polluted skies
- The Dwarf II will appeal to those that either want to have a go with a smart telescope but don’t want to spend thousands of dollars or just want the most portable option.
Please let us know which one you favor and why in the comments below!
I found this to be extremely helpful and useful.
The videos were excellent.
Nice impartial, balanced evaluations.
Thank you.
Thanks Jim!
Very helpful comparisons, Anthony. Thanks.
The one thing I haven’t been able to find in reviews of the two scopes, is whether there is any significant difference in the quality of their astrophotos — especially with the same number of minutes of stacking (ie., say over 5 minutes of processing). The sense I get, is that their results are similar (comparing apples to apples).
One of the things that I like about both scopes, is that they seem to be capable of producing images that are similar in quality to what I have been able to obtain over the years with two 8″ C8’s and two different (Atik) astrocameras and a significant amount of post-processing. In that sense, I think both scopes represent a breakthrough for astronomers who want good images of DSO’s with a minimum of fuss, the assembling of complex equipment, long boot times, frustrating issues of alignment and focussing, etc., not to mention unbelievably steep learning curves!
After doing a little research, I think you hit the nail on the head, so to speak. An average person who wants to do astronomy observation and photography (especially to share with friends on the internet!) but isn’t a gearhead, this is the ticket.
And of course as time goes on , I think we will see more and more like these. And given both are startups, they will eventually be bought by someone.
I am also appreciative of the in-depth review. I would like to see more information about the pictures themselves. Can a few be made available for download? I’m looking to see the size/resolution (i.e. does it just look good on my smartphone, or how big can I blow it up – will it look terrible on a large screen? I have a trip planned to Santa Fe in a few weeks and to Utah in the fall – I’m leaning heavily toward the eVscope as I didn’t see a benefit beyond 10 minutes of setup for $1000 – lighter (5#), faster (aperture), don’t have to swap batteries, viewport… am I missing anything? Nice job guys!
Hi Russ (and John above), thanks for the great points and questions.
I’ve added links now in the article to online galleries where people have shared images taken with the Stellina and eVscope. I haven’t linked to any “official” images, as they are usually a bit polished.
I’ve also added details of the resolution – for the Stellina it is 6.4 MP (3096 x 2080 px), and for the eVscope it is smaller at 1.2M (1305 x 977px).
Be aware: your comparison table still cites “4.8MP” resolution for the Unistellar Equinox. That is only after software pixel interpolation; as you note in the above comment, the IMX224 only has 1305 x 977px (probably reduced to 1280×960). So, the eVscope 2 has far higher resolution than the Equinox.
Thanks for pointing that out Daniel.
Yes, a firmware update increased the effective resolution of the Equinox from 1.3 MP to 4.9 MP.
I’m not sure what the most accurate figure to include in the table is?!
Yeah it seems the optics on the eVscope is the best of the two, but the Sensor on the Stellina is better/higher resolution. I will expect both to improve over time, these are clearly “early adopter” style products.
I’m considering buying a computerized telescope. The Stellina was the leading contender until I discovered how difficult it was to communicate with Vaonis. I emailed the company 4 times and never got a reply. Does anyone have experience with Unistellar. I’ve read a couple of times that questions to Unistellar get a quick response.
I asked a question via the unistellar website late one evening (ET) and had a response by morning. I want the eyepiece, call me old school, but unfortunately they are out of stock on the evScope. My question was when would they expect to have stock and they are unsure. The possibility is perhaps maybe Christmas. But who knows 🙁
I believe Unistellar is phasing out the evScope in favor of the Evolution, it may not be possible to purchase them much longer. The eyepiece is not optical. It is really just a built in electronic viewfinder, no different than viewing the electronic live image or enhanced stacked image on your phone or tablet except you have to stoop over and view it with one eye. The eyepiece was more of a gimmick to elicit the “old school” response you provided.
I certainly will not buy these scopes..the pictures are not so good that i can spend these huge dollars for that scope only to set up in a minute. Rather , I will spend 30 minutes to set up my customised and far more better optics scope to get more clearer picture and also several colour gradation of the same DSO with different filters and of course different cameras.
I am able to see that today’s people are really interested to learn more about telescope
I really like the way that you wrote this piece, with their pros and cons along with some pictures and videos ,due to that, those who did not know about these things also had an understanding..
Thank you for sharing!
Greetings,
IMHO, if one was to base their purchase decision between the two scopes solely on the image quality as presented within the image links you provided in the article (which was excellent by the way, except to the reference of the eVscope having an optical eyepiece) then the clear winner would certainly be Stellina! Again, IMHO.
Thanks William. I think the Equinox has no eyepiece but the eVscope 2 will have one. Cheers!
Thanks for a useful article. I have used a Unistellar eQuinox for about five months this winter. It is very easy to use and fast to set up, and performs impressively under Bortle 7/8 skies. I don’t understand the comment in the article about having to focus and collimate on every use. The instrument was perfectly collimated out of the box and I have focussed just once using the Bahtinov mask. I haven’t touched either since. Compared to traditional rigs, the Unistellar is a revelation.
That’s really interesting. Thanks Alan.
I have used both scopes. The Stellina is easier to use, no doubt about it. The focusing and collimating of the evScope is a pain in the neck in the dark, but the evScope has better light gathering so it seems to reach its max. image quality faster. The overall image resolution of the Stellina seems sharper, however. The evScope comes with a tripod and back pack, very nice. It’s cheaper, too.
I look foreward to a model that combines the best of all of these features. Which one will come out with it?
Thanks Stosh! Really useful!
Got the Vespera by Vaonis on the kickstarter campaign and it is fantastic, so simple to use. Had it for two months. It’s $1499 usd on Vaonis.com. Lots of photo samples on Facebook as well.
Once the kickstarter backers all get their Vespera’s new orders should start shipping. Glad i ordered mine 😁
That’s great news. Thanks for sharing, Peter.
Hi Anthony,
I have uploaded a few samples from my Vespera to https://telescopius.com/astrophotography?telescope_brand=Vaonis&telescope_model=Vespera&sort=created_timestamp&page=1
Some are stitched mosaic panels (ones that are larger than the 1920×1080 image resolution)
Thanks Peter. They’re really very good. Much better than I thought the little Vespera would be able to produce!
The pre order price for Vespera was $1499 (which has ended), the sale price for Vespera is now $2499 from Retailers
I got My Evscope equinox today and I got to see the Andromeda galaxy the first time in my life with a telescope. I live in downtown Tampa , Florida , And we have some pretty light polluted skies , but I also own a Meade LX200 and Celestron SE8 8 inch SCT’s. Also a MEADE Lightbridge 12 inch Dob , and I kid you not I’ve never actually saw the Andromeda galaxy till tonight. Granted none of my other telescopes have Astro cam’s , But to be honest just getting the go to feature to work on either of my SCT’s Is a nightmare , and when I try to actually do Astro photography I just failed miserably. It really made me feel awful , And defeated. I mean I put a lot of money into this hobby, but as with most amateur astronomer know you can throw so much money as you want at this hobby if you don’t have The patience to go with it you won’t get far in the hobby. That is until I got this equinox. It’s like a cheat code for go to telescopes as well as Astro photography. Now I’m sure people are laughing at me because I have all that fire power and I prefer a telescope that has nearly a third less aperture than my biggest telescope , but the Unistellar telescope makes everything easy for me. I was skeptical but this thing blew me away. Now I’m sure if I equipped my 8 inch Schmidt Cassegrain‘s telescopes with $2000 worth of imaging equipment which is what I paid for the equinox they would be a much better platform for imaging. I’m not disputing that. But if you don’t know how to use it then all that money is wasted. It’s hard to image from what I’ve gathered in my year and a half in this hobby. I never got the knack of it. And it wasn’t for lack of trying. I just don’t have the patience. But this new telescope is a godsend to me. Now I have nothing to add about the Stellina telescope I’ve never used one. I just saw that the equinox was $1000 cheaper than it used to be so I jumped at it. The software is perfect and so is the go to function it’s just like ears better than anything I’ve gotten from Celestron or Meade. Which frankly is sad considering how long they have been in the game! I mean hardware aside their software is just light years better and The go to function is perfect absolutely perfect. It doesn’t need any alignment it just scans the sky and knows where it is. Why couldn’t you figure that out years ago? Makes no sense to me.
Wow, thanks Keith! What a brilliant update.
I thought I had written Keith’s comments myself! My thoughts and opinions exactly! Had an 8 inch Mead SCT, and also wasted time and money trying to set up imaging, and it was too much effort to carry and setup, and left me demoralized. I work long hours and have little wake time for observing…. Nothing like walking out with my light eVscope2, letting it find its way with “plate solving,” and find objects on first try, all in a matter of minutes. Not James Webb images, nor great for planets, but seeing C/2022 E3 (ZFT) and the green dicarbon fluorescent glow made me feel like a pro, right then, with no effort! It was breathtaking when I saw my first galaxy cluster… did not think that was possible with a small scope. This technology and the Quality/Time&Effort ratio is in a precious sweet spot for people like me and worth every penny. I can share with my kids in real time, or go to bed with my iPhone or iPad and control and fall asleep watching amazing images build. The Electronic Eyepiece is not gimicky and seems to have deeper contrast and color, and although I know it’s digitally compiled- it really does feel like I’m looking directly into the heavens, and I want my kids to feel that joy as well!
Thanks for commenting! This is really valuable input for others.
Vaonis have just added a panoramic / mosaic mode (in Beta still) to Vespera and Stellina. Vespera can now make up to 8.4mpx mosaics https://vaonis.com/covalens-the-first-panorama-mode-ever-embedded-telescope
Cool. Thanks Peter
Vespera sale for the next month, 11.25 to 12.25, $1999 USD