New product from Pegasus Astro: SmartEye

[Julien Lecomte]

I am curious to know what our hardcore visual observers will think of this new product: https://pegasusastro.com/products/smarteye/. It looks like a bridge between EAA and visual observing. Looks interesting. What say you?

- Julien

[Philippe Fossier]

It reminds me of Tele Vue's TNVC (Tactical Night Vision Company) product.

https://www.televue.com/engine/TV3b_page.asp?id=36

$4,200 - $4,460

TV's relatively high price is an invitation for more affordable solutions to entice us.

~ philippe

On Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 6:57 PM Julien Lecomte <julien....@gmail.com> wrote:

I am curious to know what our hardcore visual observers will think of this new product: https://pegasusastro.com/products/smarteye/. It looks like a bridge between EAA and visual observing. Looks interesting. What say you?

- Julien

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[Jamie Dillon, DDK]

Theoretically enticing, right? Wonder about focus and focal length.

Find a price anywhere?

[Ralph Waid]

First release. Your paying engineering and design costs.

Imagers will find this redundant I think. Our current systems do all this but display on a laptop.

Not enough images from the eyepiece. I’d like to see an image through that eyepiece without the magic then one with the magic. Also what’s the delay time?

I’d wait for the bug reports and even then wait until the third or fourth release before committing.

On Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 6:57 PM Julien Lecomte <julien....@gmail.com> wrote:

I am curious to know what our hardcore visual observers will think of this new product: https://pegasusastro.com/products/smarteye/. It looks like a bridge between EAA and visual observing. Looks interesting. What say you?

- Julien

[Ted Hauter]

Wild! While I prefer an image scope on a visual scope and comparitive observation (using different eye) there is a void to fill here.

The Collins I - 3 which is no longer available or can find was the last product known to me. An amazing creation. While  noise did fill the data view and the green was intrusive the view was amazing for what it did. Like having a 25" or larger scope for DSO. 

I'm all for it. But...

There is a very real saying among veterans of our hobby; "stay at the eyepiece".

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[Jeff Crilly]

Um.  No.  It’s like EAA with a tiny screen.   Am I right?

What would be nice for visual observing + imaging tech would some sort of augmented reality eyepiece.    Eg give me the ability to overlay the finder chart on my view of the sky.  (And tell me which way to push the dob.).  (Kind like PiFinder but with AR.)

Now.. regarding image intensifiers (which afaict the Pegasus smart eye is not)… I was fortunate to be able to use a 1x intensifier that someone brought to Lick Observatory and it was fantastic.   Especially for public nights.  Being able to see NGC7000 like that was a treat.   Ditto for other objects like the veil and so on.  

-jeff 

Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 8, 2024, at 6:58 PM, Julien Lecomte <julien....@gmail.com> wrote:

I am curious to know what our hardcore visual observers will think of this new product: https://pegasusastro.com/products/smarteye/. It looks like a bridge between EAA and visual observing. Looks interesting. What say you?

- Julien

[Kurt Kuhlmann]

I think that was me at Lick with the intensifier.  I use a filter wheel so I can show people the gained up image and then the spin the wheel and show narrow filtered so mainly nebulosity.  Crowd seemed to like it.  Would be curious  to compare images with this thing

 

Kurt Kuhlmann

 

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[Alex]

Hey Jeff.
I've been using my DIY AR eyepiece prototype exactly like you are describing for a few months already.

In short: it's a lightweight 3D printed smartphone holder with the 42mm "loupe" (from VR glasses) holder over it. Both attach to the side of my primary finder EP (Ethos 17). It's providing a nice 10 deg AFOV binocular AR view. I can star-hop for like 20 degrees in about  20 hops in under 20 seconds with it after practicing. Though you need the right sky charting app for that. I'm using my DSO Planner code heavily modified for the task with constrained touch navigation, the field rotation and center adjustment controls, along with the robust UI visibility controls. Not planning it for the market though. So feel free to use the idea.

For the SmartEye. It's a gimmick, i.m.h.o. As 90% of the joy with the EAA rig is the large screen in the comfort of the car seat or a tent chair on your laps, the remote PS GoTo and PS tracking, and no fiddling with the scope setup (enjoying the ZWO SeeStar S50 for a few months here).

-Alex
---
Alexandre Koukarine

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[Alex]

Found the early prototype image:

[Jeff Crilly]

This is Interesting. 

On Apr 8, 2024, at 11:37 PM, Alex <alex.k...@gmail.com> wrote:



Found the early prototype image:

<image.png>

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[Jeff Crilly]

> On Apr 8, 2024, at 10:54 PM, Kurt Kuhlmann <ku...@ampedinnovation.com> wrote:
>
> I think that was me at Lick with the intensifier.

Yep.. Kurt that would be you. We really enjoyed that night.

-jeff

[Brad Templeton]

I have a strange reaction to this.   I admit I underestimated the value and appeal of the Unistellar/Seestar etc.   They turned me off as observing devices, because you could just have a library of existing photographs and they could show you those and they would look better, and the early ones could not be used for dynamic things like the eclipse or comets, though they have improved that.

On the other hand as "easy astrophotography" they make a lot more sense, because astrophotography is *hard* and could be a lot easier.    A device you can just plop down and designate a target and in 2 minutes you are stacking it and can see your photographs, that's a big step up.

As such, having a display in an eyepiece reminds me more of the former "cheat," trying to give you the eyepiece experience rather than the photography experience, which is fine on your phone/tablet.   But this device will let you use your existing gear to quickly do Unistellar style EAA.  The actual optical hardware in most of those devices isn't so good considering what you pay.   Now you can have better.     But does it do all the other plug and play stuff, plate solving and controlling the telescope to find the target for you with no work?

Of course, for some, the work is part of the challenge of the hobby.

[matthew marcus]

I don't see how it could do all the navigation stuff with no connector
other than a USB-C cable.
I assume it uses wifi to connect to an i-whatever to do image capture,
exposure control and object ID and database.

The blurb is missing a very important figure, the one whose unit is $.
I tried two of the suppliers they point to and neither had the item,
suggesting that it's not available yet.
mam

> <https://pegasusastro.com/products/smarteye/>. It looks like a

> bridge between EAA and visual observing. Looks interesting. What say
> you?
>
> - Julien
>

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> <https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/sf-bay-tac/extFBoHlCe4>
>
> Observing Sites, Observing Reports, About TAC linked at top of:
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> <https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/sf-bay-tac>
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[John Pierce]

USB-C easily supports multi gigabit pci-e style protocols, cameras, video, everything.

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[Ted Hauter]

A more rewarding option for me is both at the same time. Observe with big scope image with smaller scope. In my case I have both scopes saddled together so same target. While one is collecting data I'm observing 100% in the other, not 50. Because I use one eye for one scope and one dark eye for the other.

Plus I can compare my image controlled by my phone to other countless images online. Even learn and read about whatever I want on the fly.

I even have a near contact lens and far lens for regular vision and play off that. 

This won't work binoviewing but I only binoview bright tatgets usually.

You get used to the dark eye thing.

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[Alex]

Imagine an Android smartwatch inside the EP body... Needless to clarify, but the tech is capable enough for a decade already.

On Fri, Apr 12, 2024 at 6:28 PM matthew marcus <mama...@lbl.gov> wrote:

I don't see how it could do all the navigation stuff with no connector
other than a USB-C cable.
I assume it uses wifi to connect to an i-whatever to do image capture,
exposure control and object ID and database.

        mam

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