Astrofest

[Roy Easto]

Since Smart telescopes are all the rage and many people use them to
image all night I was interested to see this small clamshell observatory
at Astrofest.

[drja...@aol.com]

Thanks for posting that Roy. I've heard of these micro observatories but not seen any. Interesting to see what they look like as I have a Dwarf 3. Certainly micro.

It's an odd innovation in a way, as the cameras are so small and quick to set up that keeping them in the garden to face the cold, damp and heat waves seems not worth the downsides for the electronics on the basis of time saving.

In alt az mode all you have to do is level the tripod and open the phone app.

In equatorial mode it's getting the scope polar aligned using feedback from the built in app to what it calls 'perfect', but easy with a finely adjustable wedge to tweak alt and az manually, and to within 1 arc minute in reality. Auto focus is spot on and takes 5 seconds. The goto set up is quick, using the built in sky atlas, and fine tuning to centre is done by the built in plate solving on a closed loop. So far it's been about 10 fool proof and satisfying minutes, and you are good to go.

I keep an open mind and a closed wallet for the time being!

James


Sent from my iPad

> On 11 Feb 2026, at 12:11, 'Roy Easto' via croydonastro <croydo...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
>
> Since Smart telescopes are all the rage and many people use them to image all night I was interested to see this small clamshell observatory at Astrofest.
>
> --
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> <Pulsar_Clamshell.jpg>

[Tim Coskun]

Interesting  discussion and interesting to see how technology is moving forward in this area. What's the image quality like for these scopes and what sort of targets are they best used for?

Cheers

Tim C

---

From: 'drja...@aol.com' via croydonastro <croydo...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: 12 February 2026 9:00 AM
To: croydo...@googlegroups.com <croydo...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [croydonastro - 8196] Astrofest

 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/croydonastro/DC12D882-CCDE-414B-A89D-52A9BBA0BABE%40aol.com.

[drja...@aol.com]





Hi Tim

 I can only speak to the smart telescope I have, a Dwarf 3, the latest incarnation.  This was sold for about £500, but is now down to £465.  I bought mine in a pre Christmas flash sale for £407, incl VAT.

I went for the D3 as the maker designs and markets it on the very valid claim of being suitable for new and experienced astronomers alike.   Newcomers will appreciate the lack of setting up while the more experienced appreciate the speed to complete the usual astro set up phase in 10 minutes.  

All smart cams comprise a complete imaging system.  This means the 'mount', (a tiny 4hr rechargeable battery driven base that supports and moves the telescope), also the telescope itself; the camera; Light pollution, duo band narrow band Ha/Oiii and white light solar filters; GoTo; auto focuser; and imaging plan organisation are all incorporated into one small physical container weighing around 1.3kg for the D3.  Just add tripod and a phone to control the supplied star atlas, Go to, plate solving and exposure gain/duration.  

The D3 supports equatorial mounting, as do the others.  This supports longer exposures but max 2 minutes.  You either tilt the tripod to the correct angle or use a wedge (Skywatcher does one for £62) for an easy life.  Polar alignment is rough manual pointing N and at a local latitude angle (simple with a wedge) and then letting the smart telescope calibrate itself and plate solve to tell you which way to adjust the bolts manually and by how much.  This may be hard for a complete novice but it's easy to get to zero error in three goes if you know your local sky and can see Polaris.  Each iteration takes about a minute.  

All the cams have shortish focal length optics akin to a finderscope, though the achieved field of view with the small sensors is sufficient for capturing larger objects in one frame, eg M42 and the running man, but also sufficient to produce a worthwhile rendition of single objects such as the larger galaxies, M31 just about fits, the Triangulum, Bodes and Cigar galaxies in one frame, the California Nebula, the NAmerican and many more.  A built in mosaic capture can be easily set up on a phone touch screen using the sky atlas in the app, max up to 2x2 panels, though the software keeps evolving and that could well expand.   The D3 Sony IMX678 chip is low read noise and high dynamic gain, (developed for low light security cameras) permitting an imaging strategy of many short exposures consistent with the unguided tracking time limit above, then and stacking them.  700 one minute subs is not unusual for more advanced users.

As to quality of the images, that's not an easy thing to pin down.  For a novice, getting a guaranteed more than acceptable image will delight.  Detail of galaxies would disappoint an experienced imager, and ditto but to a lesser extent for Ha objects.  Imaging extends however to the sun and moon.  The D3 is capable of taking a sharp decent size white light image of the sun showing sunspots, (but not proms), using the supplied safety solar filter (this is also used for taking dark frames in lieu of lens cap).   Zooming in will quickly expose the deficiencies and blurring however.  Even a beginner will get good sharp Moon images provided they learn the ropes a little, ie stacking and the use of software like Autostakkert.

Nebulae image quality depends as always on the limitations of light dark skies, but Smart Cam optics are of high quality.  On the other hand the telescopes have small objective lenses, D3 is 35mm, ZWO 50mm.  So the results are never going to challenge a TEC 140 in terms of showing faint features, though good detail can be recovered, in part as the D3 automatically dithers every 4 frames permitting drizzle integration.

Good results can be obtained from the D3's own internal stacking and the auto upload to the Dwarf website for further automatic processing (free).  I have seen several commentators say that they can't do better than the built in stacking.  The resulting processed image is good but not outstanding.

But the name of the game is not beating Hubble, but getting the outstanding results despite the limitations of smart telescopes.  

This very much comes down to how good one is at processing.  Most if not all Smart Cameras allow you to download the raw fits lights, dark frames are easy to take, tee shirt flats too, though the D3 at least comes with a ready made Master flat and Bias.  The software used by the D3 is in active development.  A new feature in the pipeline is the ability to combine images from the D3 and its smaller sibling, the Dwarf Mini, also cheaper.  This has a longer focal length than the D3, the idea being to use the Mini to get high quality data, for example, on the stars and nebulosity at the centre of the Rosette Nebula and incorporate it into the D3 version.  An automatic version of the required processing is in the pipeline, but obviously still leaving DIY if you are a Pixinsight or other software wizard.

What can be done using Pixinsight, Siril and other alternatives, and the current de rigueur add ons like the Russell Croman blur, gradient, star, and noise 'exterminator' suite is amazing and of publication quality.  From my limited experience of data from only 5 nights so far with some hazy cloud and a full moon, this quality is not a simple thing to match.

These are Dwarf images with a large stack and expert processing from Bortle 8/9 skies, for the moon and M42

Therein lies the choice to get a smart cam.  Simple, relatively (very) cheap, portable to the extreme, rewardingly effective if challenging with a promise of excellence on its own terms, BUT never an APOD, or a never a match for high quality set ups.

I haven't covered the other capabilities of the D3.   It has a second very wide angle lens for skyscapes of the Milky Way over Monument Valley type, star trail photos, there are many excellent comet images using D3s, and if the clouds never go, the D3 will serve well for wild life and bird daytime photography, (with built in tracking for video capture of moving subjects).  I have my eye on the sparrowhawk who comes to our garden for pigeon dinner, stealth attacking and 'mantling' its prey with its encircling wings to prevent it from escaping or being pinched by another predator.  Eat your heart out David Attenborough .

Hope that helps.

James 

Sent from my iPad

On 15 Feb 2026, at 16:35, Tim Coskun <tcos...@gmail.com> wrote:



To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/croydonastro/VI2PR06MB106823E965214D9D223FB4BF6A86FA%40VI2PR06MB10682.eurprd06.prod.outlook.com.

[tcos...@gmail.com]

Hi James

Many thanks for your very comprehensive reply to my question. I found it very useful and I’m sure others in the group will find it useful too. The technology has come on in leaps and bounds even in the 12 or 13 years that I have been astro-imaging seriously and it’s wonderful to see that this equipment is now reasonably affordable and easy to use. Perfect for newbies and for some of us that have been imaging for some time!

Many thanks

Tim C

 

From: 'drja...@aol.com' via croydonastro <croydo...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: 17 February 2026 19:25
To: croydo...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [croydonastro - 8201] Astrofest

 





Hi Tim

 

 I can only speak to the smart telescope I have, a Dwarf 3, the latest incarnation.  This was sold for about £500, but is now down to £465.  I bought mine in a pre Christmas flash sale for £407, incl VAT.

 

I went for the D3 as the maker designs and markets it on the very valid claim of being suitable for new and experienced astronomers alike.   Newcomers will appreciate the lack of setting up while the more experienced appreciate the speed to complete the usual astro set up phase in 10 minutes.  

 

All smart cams comprise a complete imaging system.  This means the 'mount', (a tiny 4hr rechargeable battery driven base that supports and moves the telescope), also the telescope itself; the camera; Light pollution, duo band narrow band Ha/Oiii and white light solar filters; GoTo; auto focuser; and imaging plan organisation are all incorporated into one small physical container weighing around 1.3kg for the D3.  Just add tripod and a phone to control the supplied star atlas, Go to, plate solving and exposure gain/duration.  

 

The D3 supports equatorial mounting, as do the others.  This supports longer exposures but max 2 minutes.  You either tilt the tripod to the correct angle or use a wedge (Skywatcher does one for £62) for an easy life.  Polar alignment is rough manual pointing N and at a local latitude angle (simple with a wedge) and then letting the smart telescope calibrate itself and plate solve to tell you which way to adjust the bolts manually and by how much.  This may be hard for a complete novice but it's easy to get to zero error in three goes if you know your local sky and can see Polaris.  Each iteration takes about a minute.  

 

All the cams have shortish focal length optics akin to a finderscope, though the achieved field of view with the small sensors is sufficient for capturing larger objects in one frame, eg M42 and the running man, but also sufficient to produce a worthwhile rendition of single objects such as the larger galaxies, M31 just about fits, the Triangulum, Bodes and Cigar galaxies in one frame, the California Nebula, the NAmerican and many more.  A built in mosaic capture can be easily set up on a phone touch screen using the sky atlas in the app, max up to 2x2 panels, though the software keeps evolving and that could well expand.   The D3 Sony IMX678 chip is low read noise and high dynamic gain, (developed for low light security cameras) permitting an imaging strategy of many short exposures consistent with the unguided tracking time limit above, then and stacking them.  700 one minute subs is not unusual for more advanced users.

 

As to quality of the images, that's not an easy thing to pin down.  For a novice, getting a guaranteed more than acceptable image will delight.  Detail of galaxies would disappoint an experienced imager, and ditto but to a lesser extent for Ha objects.  Imaging extends however to the sun and moon.  The D3 is capable of taking a sharp decent size white light image of the sun showing sunspots, (but not proms), using the supplied safety solar filter (this is also used for taking dark frames in lieu of lens cap).   Zooming in will quickly expose the deficiencies and blurring however.  Even a beginner will get good sharp Moon images provided they learn the ropes a little, ie stacking and the use of software like Autostakkert.

 

Nebulae image quality depends as always on the limitations of light dark skies, but Smart Cam optics are of high quality.  On the other hand the telescopes have small objective lenses, D3 is 35mm, ZWO 50mm.  So the results are never going to challenge a TEC 140 in terms of showing faint features, though good detail can be recovered, in part as the D3 automatically dithers every 4 frames permitting drizzle integration.

 

Good results can be obtained from the D3's own internal stacking and the auto upload to the Dwarf website for further automatic processing (free).  I have seen several commentators say that they can't do better than the built in stacking.  The resulting processed image is good but not outstanding.

 

But the name of the game is not beating Hubble, but getting the outstanding results despite the limitations of smart telescopes.  

 

This very much comes down to how good one is at processing.  Most if not all Smart Cameras allow you to download the raw fits lights, dark frames are easy to take, tee shirt flats too, though the D3 at least comes with a ready made Master flat and Bias.  The software used by the D3 is in active development.  A new feature in the pipeline is the ability to combine images from the D3 and its smaller sibling, the Dwarf Mini, also cheaper.  This has a longer focal length than the D3, the idea being to use the Mini to get high quality data, for example, on the stars and nebulosity at the centre of the Rosette Nebula and incorporate it into the D3 version.  An automatic version of the required processing is in the pipeline, but obviously still leaving DIY if you are a Pixinsight or other software wizard.

 

 

What can be done using Pixinsight, Siril and other alternatives, and the current de rigueur add ons like the Russell Croman blur, gradient, star, and noise 'exterminator' suite is amazing and of publication quality.  From my limited experience of data from only 5 nights so far with some hazy cloud and a full moon, this quality is not a simple thing to match.

 

These are Dwarf images with a large stack and expert processing from Bortle 8/9 skies, for the moon and M42

 

The Moon with the Dwarf 3 notesfromasmallobservatory.blogspot.com

 

 

 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/croydonastro/851CFBA7-64F7-4056-9D66-3E22D33F1140%40aol.com.