Vaonis Vespera Observation Station smart telescope review

An excellent, if pricey introduction to observing and casual deep-sky astrophotography that easily cuts through light pollution

Vaonis Vespera review
(Image: © Jamie Carter / Digital Camera World)

Digital Camera World Verdict

One of the best and most affordable smart telescopes despite its astronomical price, the Vanois Vespera is very easy to use and even produces raw files that can be post-processed for more advanced astrophotographers.

Pros

  • +

    Super-quick set-up

  • +

    Effective light pollution filter

  • +

    TIFF and FITS files can be extracted

  • +

    Excellent smartphone app

  • +

    > Solar filter available

Cons

  • -

    No eyepiece

  • -

    Requires full-size tripod

  • -

    Four-hour battery

  • -

    Proprietary charging cable

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Buy the Vaonis Vespera telescope at Astroshop

The Vanois Vespera smart telescope is an ambitious attempt at an all-in-one device for observing the night sky and for astrophotography. Unlike a regular telescope, it doesn't have an eyepiece. Instead, this small, sleek device spits out a Wi-Fi network. Operated solely via the Singularity app, the Vespera is little more than a small refracting telescope equipped with a camera sensor. Aligning automatically with the night sky, it takes long exposure images of deep sky objects that are instantly viewable on a smartphone or tablet. You can then download these images and share them, either in basic JPEG quality or extracted as lossless raw files. Is the Vespera the ideal smart telescope for both observing the night sky and has an all-in-one astrophotography solution? Here’s everything you need to know about the latest smart telescope. 

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Jamie Carter
Astrophotography expert

Jamie has been writing about all aspects of technology for over 14 years, producing content for sites like TechRadar, T3, Forbes, Mashable, MSN, South China Morning Post, and BBC Wildlife, BBC Focus and BBC Sky At Night magazines. 

As the editor for www.WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com, he has a wealth of enthusiasm and expertise for all things astrophotography, from capturing the Perseid Meteor Shower, lunar eclipses and ring of fire eclipses, photographing the moon and blood moon and more.

He also brings a great deal of knowledge on action cameras, 360 cameras, AI cameras, camera backpacks, telescopes, gimbals, tripods and all manner of photography equipment.