Unistellar’s new Odyssey Professional telescope affords entry to deep-sky astrophotography in a small transportable bundle.
Entry to the night time sky has by no means been less complicated. The final half decade has seen a revolution in yard astronomy, as ‘smartscopes’—telescopes managed by smartphone purposes—have come to the fore. These provide a simple entry into fundamental deep sky astrophotography even from brilliant city skies, albeit at a better worth level versus conventional telescopes available on the market. We’ve reviewed models 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 available on the market in 2024: the Odyssey Professional.
The Odyssey Professional is light-weight, at 14.3-pounds (65 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 (instead of the place the secondary mirror could be on a conventional telescope) is a 4.2 megapixel digital camera. 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 distinction between the Odyssey and Odyssey Professional.
Smartscopes discover and purpose at targets utilizing a way often called ‘plate-solving’ in tandem with satellite tv for pc GPS. This includes 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 reside view through 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brand new app interface for Unistellar is up to date as effectively… I used to be shocked to really discover all of my outdated eVscope photographs within the cloud reminiscence, from years again. The unit is USB-C charged, and affords about 5 hours of use within the area. The Odyssey Professional has 64Gb (gigabytes) of inside storage reminiscence.
The corporate affords a free backpack with every buy. The Odyssey Professional runs for $3,999 USD, and the corporate incessantly affords low cost gross sales.
Odyssey Professional Versus the eVScope
The Odyssey Professional is smaller (85mm aperture, versus 112mm) than the eVscope, however comparable in operation. The Odyssey options auto focus know-how: no extra Bahtinov masks handbook focusing like with the eVscope. We additionally received to check out the good photo voltaic filter for the unit. The filter clicks magnetically instead of the entrance of the telescope. I’d preserve a detailed eye on the unit when utilizing it this manner throughout public observing, as curious palms may simply snag or pull the filter off throughout statement. Whereas there’s no hazard of blinding a viewer, just a few seconds of unfiltered Solar may simply injury the telescope. The unit simply discovered and slewed to the Solar, then targeted and colour 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 operating 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 area and not using a devoted web connection. This can be 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 methodology is called ‘Vivid Imaginative and prescient’ and compares and refines photographs versus the consumer database to validate what the telescope is seeing. Coloration 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 underneath the intense lights of downtown Bristol, Tennessee. Sarcastically, whilst you can view the Moon and planets with the Odyssey Professional, its comparatively vast (33.6 x 45’, slightly bigger than a Full Moon) area 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 methodology actually places me out of a job… and that’s most likely a very good factor. Relatively 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 area.
-Imaging from city websites: The Odyssey Professional places fainter objects in attain of city viewers.
-Use for public outreach: At a star celebration, people can collect round and watch because the view emerges. No extra queuing as much as the eyepiece, refocusing for each consumer, or explaining tips on how to look by means of a telescope. I can spend extra time speaking about house and what we’re seeing, slightly than fussing with gear.
Additionally, Unistellar is alone in constructing an incredible science neighborhood 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.
You’ll want to give the Odyssey Professional a strive, as an ideal introduction to smartscope astronomy.