Unistellar’s new Odyssey Professional telescope presents entry to deep-sky astrophotography in a small transportable package deal.
Entry to the night time sky has by no means been easier. The final half decade has seen a revolution in yard astronomy, as ‘smartscopes’—telescopes managed by smartphone purposes—have come to the fore. These supply a straightforward entry into fundamental deep sky astrophotography even from vivid city skies, albeit at a better worth level versus conventional telescopes in the marketplace. We’ve reviewed items from Vaonis and Unistellar earlier than, in addition to wrote commentary on the rise of the entire smartscope motion. Now, Unistellar has a brand new entry in the marketplace in 2024: the Odyssey Pro.
The Odyssey Professional is light-weight, at 14.3-pounds (6.5 kilograms) assembled plus carbon fiber tripod. The telescope units up shortly, with the tube and base securing to the highest ring of the tripod.
Specs for the Odyssey Professional
The telescope on the coronary heart of the system is an 85mm aperture reflector with an f/3.9 320mm focal size. The picture sensor (rather than the place the secondary mirror can be on a standard telescope) is a 4.2 megapixel digicam. The turret on the aspect of the tube homes an digital eyepiece incorporating Nikon’s Eyepiece Expertise, offering an enhanced view. The addition of the eyepiece turret is the key difference between the Odyssey and Odyssey Professional.
Smartscopes discover and goal at targets utilizing a way generally known as ‘plate-solving’ in tandem with satellite tv for pc GPS. This entails segments of the sky, and evaluating the star sample with a recognized database. You possibly can see this in motion because the scope slews from one a part of the sky to the subsequent on startup. Not like, Vaonis’s Stellina, Unistellar’s telescopes offer you a dwell view in the course of the slewing course of, and permit customers to manually slew across the sky in a digital pleasure stick mode, a pleasant, hands-on contact.
The brand new app interface for Unistellar is up to date as properly… I used to be stunned to truly discover all of my outdated eVscope photographs within the cloud reminiscence, from years again. The unit is USB-C charged, and presents about 5 hours of use within the subject. The Odyssey Professional has 64Gb (gigabytes) of inside storage reminiscence.
The corporate presents a free backpack with every buy. The Odyssey Professional runs for $3,999 USD, and the corporate ceaselessly presents low cost gross sales.
Odyssey Professional Versus the eVScope
The Odyssey Professional is smaller (85mm aperture, versus 112mm) than the eVscope, however related in operation. The Odyssey options auto focus expertise: no extra Bahtinov masks guide focusing like with the eVscope. We additionally acquired to check out the sensible photo voltaic filter for the unit. The filter clicks magnetically rather than the entrance of the telescope. I’d maintain a detailed eye on the unit when utilizing it this manner throughout public observing, as curious palms might simply snag or pull the filter off throughout commentary. Whereas there’s no hazard of blinding a viewer, just a few seconds of unfiltered Solar might simply harm the telescope. The unit simply discovered and slewed to the Solar, then centered and coloration corrected the picture.
What we like- Just like the Unistellar eVScope, the Odyssey Professional simply works as marketed: set it down, energy it up, and also you’re slewing to targets inside minutes.
What we don’t like-The newer app appears a bit ‘balky,’ and I wanted a chilly boot the telescope throughout just a few classes to get issues up and working once more… additionally, it appears very delicate to any vibration throughout enhanced imaging mode, even on stable concrete.
The telescope will wifi bond with the app within the subject and not using a devoted web connection. It is a should for utilizing it at a distant spot.
However the true magic occurs whenever you interact the improved imaginative and prescient mode. This initiates a course of the place the scope begins to stare at a goal, stacking and cleansing up the picture. The longer it runs, the brighter and sharper the picture will get. Unistellar’s new technique is called ‘Vivid Vision’ and compares and refines photographs versus the consumer database to validate what the telescope is seeing. Colour correction for stars and validation additionally makes use of Gaia’s newest DR3 catalog.
First Night time Out
Our first night time out with the Odyssey Professional noticed us exhibiting off a couple of dozen deep sky objects to a small group below the brilliant lights of downtown Bristol, Tennessee. Mockingly, whilst you can view the Moon and planets with the Odyssey Professional, its comparatively vast (33.6 x 45’, just a little bigger than a Full Moon) subject of view actually shines when viewing deep-sky nebulae and clusters.
The Backside Line
Are smartscopes well worth the worth? I’d say the Odyssey Professional (or any smartscope) has three key benefits:
-Discovering objects: the entire plate-solving slewing technique actually places me out of a job… and that’s most likely a great factor. Slightly than spending time star-hopping and learning star charts to seek out an object, the Odyssey Professional merely goes there and facilities the goal within the subject.
-Imaging from city websites: The Odyssey Professional places fainter objects in attain of city viewers.
-Use for public outreach: At a star celebration, of us can collect round and watch because the view emerges. No extra queuing as much as the eyepiece, refocusing for each consumer, or explaining how you can look via a telescope. I can spend extra time speaking about house and what we’re seeing, quite than fussing with gear.
Additionally, Unistellar is alone in building an amazing science community round its worldwide community of smartscopes. Customers at the moment are monitoring asteroids, following comets and even producing exoplanet gentle curves and extra, all in actual campaigns to contribute to science, all from their very own backyards.
Make sure you give the Odyssey Professional a strive, as an awesome introduction to smartscope astronomy.
