Smart Telescope Pricing Dwarflab 3 - £459.00 Dwarflab Mini - £399.00 Seestar S30 Pro - £649.00 Seestar S50 Pro - £899.00 (pre-order price after 15th Sept its £999.00) The information provided is for comparison with Dwarflab telescopes. Please note the GAC Scope Shop is not selling any Seestar Smart Telescopes. Seestar S50 - Discontinued - no stock available Seestar S30 - Discontinued - no stock available GAC delivery charge - £10 applies on all orders (we are charged this by the distributor) The above GAC prices are current. Warranty - 2 years Which Should You Buy? Summary of each Smart Telescope’s capabilities: Seestar currently has abandoned the market for lower priced Smart Telescope to Dwarflab. If you are a beginner to astroimaging the lower prices of the Dwarflab models probably makes either of them much more attractive. Dwarflab 3 - Excellent all round astro imaging plus very good daytime imaging for wildlife, landscape and panorama. The App allows full control of the imaging process. Now only £60 more than a Mini I think it is the better buy. Dwarf Mini - The low noise, high sensitivity 2MP sensor gives a smaller FOV, but a 30% larger object size than Dwarflab 3 with same image processing. Lacks some of the functions of the Dwarflab 3. Great as introduction to imaging and easy to take anywhere. It is the cheapest, but not a cheap Smart Telescope. Seestar S30 Pro - Excellent wide field astro imaging and landscape photography with many great features. Limited use for small Deep Sky Objects (as the majority are), a cropped image gives a similar image resolution to the S50. Best for large area imaging without using a Mosaic mode. Expensive if it is your first Smart Telescope. Seestar S50 Pro Largest aperture. It is too early to know how good this telescope will be. Based on the specifications and with a field of view significantly smaller than the S30 Pro it should give excellent images of objects both large and more importantly the smaller ones too. It has some spectacular features like being able to image 180 o of sky, but few people will be able to take advantage of that. However, is it twice as good as a Dwarflab 3? It would be a brave beginner who pays out £999 for a their first Smart Telescope even if it is the only one they ever buy. Most expensive. Seestar S50 - The first of the low cost Smart Telescopes is still worth considering buying secondhand if you can get one at a good price. Be careful to check the tracking if it has been used mostly in EQ mode. While it has an older sensor the small FOV gives the largest images of the smaller DSOs and the large aperture reduces total exposure time. Also very good for imaging the Sun and Moon. Seestar S30 – Offered as a budget Smart Telescope it has limited capabilities and it didn’t have any worthwhile features to make it a better option than the much cheaper Dwarf Mini. With Seestar ending the S50 and (the underwhelming) S30, plus introducing the more sophisticated highly capable S30 Pro and S50 Pro models it is even more difficult to compare these with the still excellent Dwarflab 3 and Mini. While the Seestar models are not in Unistellar or Vespera III price range, they are still expensive for a beginner to justify wanting to try astroimaging. When selecting a Smart Telescope it is important to consider the types of objects you are most likely to image and choose a telescope that best fits your requirements and budget. Use a planetarium program like Stellarium to see how big (or small) a DSO appears within the field of view of each telescope. If comparing images on line to help your decision it is important to know the conditions and settings of the telescope and any additional imaging processing. While software like Pixinsight can enhance image quality it can lead to over-processing and unnatural-looking images. Previously, Seestar encouraged users to do additional processing of the images using non Seestar software. However, with recent software updates for the S30 Pro which also works with the S50 Pro offers much more image processing options within the App. Are New Models Coming? Yes Should I wait for the next model? Maybe ZWO - well the S50 Pro is here. . Having as much if not more capability than the Vespera III and half the price it will be interesting to see how it is received. Dwarflab will undoubtedly be looking at upgrading the Dwarf 3 at some point even if it is just adding a newer 8MP sensor which would make it an even more attractive option without (hopefully) increasing the price too much. Dwarflab are working on a model they call Draco. Very little is know, with speculation that it could have a huge 90mm aperture. If that is so the price tag has to be high (£1,500 to £2,000?) and, therefore, competing with the Vespera III. The Smart Telescope market has grown very fast in 2 years and with the potential for huge sales worldwide new companies will appear. Scammers are getting on board too. This startup - Celio probably doesn’t exist. Read about it here - Kickstarter Scam VeeGaze mentions at the end it also appears on Facebook, but the that link to Kickstarter doesn’t work. Some Final Points With 4 to 6 hour battery life - longer if a battery pack is used Smart Telescopes can be set to image late into the night. With UK’s unpredictable weather a simple water sensor will pick up rain drops hopefully before any damage is done as these telescopes are not waterproof. Personally I keep a very close eye on the weather BEFORE setting up and still monitor for clouds regularly. All these telescopes are easy to set up and use out of the box and producing images you would happy with. Be aware that when imaging individual images may be rejected for many reasons - satellites, aircraft, wind moving the mount, etc.. If it is windy think about some form of windbreak around the telescope. Less than 20% of images should be rejected. If you are getting more than that check the individual frames to see what is wrong with the images. Dwarflab puts a red dot in the upper left hand corner to indicate a rejected image. The Future I sub-titled the introduction to Smart Telescopes - “The “future” of amateur astronomy in a light polluted world” for a very good reason. Most people in the UK live in towns and cities where they can see very little of the night sky with their eyes or through a telescope. For about the same price as a good beginner telescope you can have a Smart Telescope which will show you so much more than your eyes could ever see through a large telescope under dark skies and in colour. In light polluted towns and cities where you see very few stars even the cheapest of these Smart Telescopes will open a whole new world to you. If using one inspires you to learn more about the Universe that can’t be bad. Dedicated astroimagers may considered Smart Telescopes as “toys” (which they are not) and spoiling the hobby (which they are not). Smart Telescopes are here to stay and will only get better and better.

Smart Telescope Pricing Dwarflab 3 - £459.00 Dwarflab Mini - £399.00 Seestar S30 Pro - £649.00 Seestar S50 Pro - £899.00 (pre-order price after 15th Sept its £999.00) The information provided is for comparison with Dwarflab telescopes. Please note the GAC Scope Shop is not selling any Seestar Smart Telescopes. Seestar S50 - Discontinued - no stock available Seestar S30 - Discontinued - no stock available GAC delivery charge - £10 applies on all orders (we are charged this by the distributor) The above GAC prices are current. Warranty - 2 years Which Should You Buy? Summary of each Smart Telescope’s capabilities: Seestar currently has abandoned the market for lower priced Smart Telescope to Dwarflab. If you are a beginner to astroimaging the lower prices of the Dwarflab models probably makes either of them much more attractive. Dwarflab 3 - Excellent all round astro imaging plus very good daytime imaging for wildlife, landscape and panorama. The App allows full control of the imaging process. Now only £60 more than a Mini I think it is the better buy. Dwarf Mini - The low noise, high sensitivity 2MP sensor gives a smaller FOV, but a 30% larger object size than Dwarflab 3 with same image processing. Lacks some of the functions of the Dwarflab 3. Great as introduction to imaging and easy to take anywhere. It is the cheapest, but not a cheap Smart Telescope. Seestar S30 Pro - Excellent wide field astro imaging and landscape photography with many great features. Limited use for small Deep Sky Objects (as the majority are), a cropped image gives a similar image resolution to the S50. Best for large area imaging without using a Mosaic mode. Expensive if it is your first Smart Telescope. Seestar S50 Pro Largest aperture. It is too early to know how good this telescope will be. Based on the specifications and with a field of view significantly smaller than the S30 Pro it should give excellent images of objects both large and more importantly the smaller ones too. It has some spectacular features like being able to image 180 o of sky, but few people will be able to take advantage of that. However, is it twice as good as a Dwarflab 3? It would be a brave beginner who pays out £999 for a their first Smart Telescope even if it is the only one they ever buy. Most expensive. Seestar S50 - The first of the low cost Smart Telescopes is still worth considering buying secondhand if you can get one at a good price. Be careful to check the tracking if it has been used mostly in EQ mode. While it has an older sensor the small FOV gives the largest images of the smaller DSOs and the large aperture reduces total exposure time. Also very good for imaging the Sun and Moon. Seestar S30 – Offered as a budget Smart Telescope it has limited capabilities and it didn’t have any worthwhile features to make it a better option than the much cheaper Dwarf Mini. With Seestar ending the S50 and (the underwhelming) S30, plus introducing the more sophisticated highly capable S30 Pro and S50 Pro models it is even more difficult to compare these with the still excellent Dwarflab 3 and Mini. While the Seestar models are not in Unistellar or Vespera III price range, they are still expensive for a beginner to justify wanting to try astroimaging. When selecting a Smart Telescope it is important to consider the types of objects you are most likely to image and choose a telescope that best fits your requirements and budget. Use a planetarium program like Stellarium to see how big (or small) a DSO appears within the field of view of each telescope. If comparing images on line to help your decision it is important to know the conditions and settings of the telescope and any additional imaging processing. While software like Pixinsight can enhance image quality it can lead to over- processing and unnatural-looking images. Previously, Seestar encouraged users to do additional processing of the images using non Seestar software. However, with recent software updates for the S30 Pro which also works with the S50 Pro offers much more image processing options within the App. Are New Models Coming? Yes Should I wait for the next model? Maybe ZWO - well the S50 Pro is here. . Having as much if not more capability than the Vespera III and half the price it will be interesting to see how it is received. Dwarflab will undoubtedly be looking at upgrading the Dwarf 3 at some point even if it is just adding a newer 8MP sensor which would make it an even more attractive option without (hopefully) increasing the price too much. Dwarflab are working on a model they call Draco. Very little is know, with speculation that it could have a huge 90mm aperture. If that is so the price tag has to be high (£1,500 to £2,000?) and, therefore, competing with the Vespera III. The Smart Telescope market has grown very fast in 2 years and with the potential for huge sales worldwide new companies will appear. Scammers are getting on board too. This startup - Celio probably doesn’t exist. Read about it here - Kickstarter Scam VeeGaze mentions at the end it also appears on Facebook, but the that link to Kickstarter doesn’t work. Some Final Points With 4 to 6 hour battery life - longer if a battery pack is used Smart Telescopes can be set to image late into the night. With UK’s unpredictable weather a simple water sensor will pick up rain drops hopefully before any damage is done as these telescopes are not waterproof. Personally I keep a very close eye on the weather BEFORE setting up and still monitor for clouds regularly. All these telescopes are easy to set up and use out of the box and producing images you would happy with. Be aware that when imaging individual images may be rejected for many reasons - satellites, aircraft, wind moving the mount, etc.. If it is windy think about some form of windbreak around the telescope. Less than 20% of images should be rejected. If you are getting more than that check the individual frames to see what is wrong with the images. Dwarflab puts a red dot in the upper left hand corner to indicate a rejected image. The Future I sub-titled the introduction to Smart Telescopes - “The “future” of amateur astronomy in a light polluted world” for a very good reason. Most people in the UK live in towns and cities where they can see very little of the night sky with their eyes or through a telescope. For about the same price as a good beginner telescope you can have a Smart Telescope which will show you so much more than your eyes could ever see through a large telescope under dark skies and in colour. In light polluted towns and cities where you see very few stars even the cheapest of these Smart Telescopes will open a whole new world to you. If using one inspires you to learn more about the Universe that can’t be bad. Dedicated astroimagers may considered Smart Telescopes as “toys” (which they are not) and spoiling the hobby (which they are not). Smart Telescopes are here to stay and will only get better and better.