Smart Telescopes (An Introduction)

The world of amateur astronomy is changing. In fact, there just might be a revolution going on. We might be at a watershed moment! The era of the smart telescopes has arrived!

These are fully automated telescopes that connect through your smart phone or tablet. They have all the information necessary to find objects in the night sky. And … they take images! Yes, no more squinting through a small eyepiece. You can now sit back and see the cosmos in full living color! Note, however, that these telescopes are not good for imaging the planets. Their focus is on the Sun (with an appropriate filter), the Moon, and deep-sky objects.

Many of these telescopes and accessories can be purchased directly from the manufacturer (e.g. ZWO and Dwarf Labs) or from other suppliers of astronomical equipment such as High Point Scientific, Agena Astro, and Astronomics.

Imaging with a smart telescope is not just a single click and go. You first have to balance the telescope (alt/az mode) or align it to celestial north (EQ mode). You will then take multiple 10 second to 1 minute images as the telescope tracks your target across the sky. Most telescopes will slowly stack the images to give you a live look at your composite result and you will be able to save the final image to your phone or tablet. In many cases, you can also go back and review your individual frames (subs) for defects, re-stack your raw images, and post-process the result using tools and techniques available on the smart telescope app.

^{Seestar S50 images, Credit: Bruce Gavett}

^{Seestar S30 Images (after post-processing). Credit: Joe Haberthier (Telescopius License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)}

^{Dwarf 2 & Dwarf Mini images, Credit: Sean Wood}

Please note that FAS does not officially endorse or recommend these or any other telescopes, accessories, or suppliers. We simply provide information that might be interesting and useful for the public.