Unistellar eQuinox2 Smart Tracking Telescope
Price: $2499 (now includes smart solar filter, a $249 value!)
Have you ever looked through a telescope expecting to see beautiful celestial objects in full and vivid color? Have you been disappointed when everything looks dim and fuzzy with no real color? Do you live in a city with a lot of light pollution that makes seeing dim objects almost impossible? Well, the eQuinox2 smart telescope is for you.
The Unistellar eQuinox2 Smart Telescope is an innovative and impressive piece of technology designed to give amateur astronomers an experience that is similar to what professionals get with traditional telescopes, but with far less effort and setup time required.
The eQuinox2 Smart Telescope is a portable and lightweight telescope that can be easily carried around, making it an ideal choice for stargazing enthusiasts. The telescope boasts an aperture of 4.5 inches, which is more than sufficient for most stargazing needs. It also features a high-resolution 6.2 MP camera that captures clear and detailed images of celestial objects. Focal length is 450 mm. This combination gives a wide 34 x 47 arcmin field-of-view, large enough to capture the whole moon or similarly sized objects.
One of the most impressive features of the eQuinox2 Smart Telescope is its ability to automatically align itself with celestial objects in the night sky. This means that users do not need to spend hours aligning the telescope before they can begin observing the stars. Instead, they simply need to input their location and time, and the telescope will take care of the rest.
Another standout feature of the eQuinox2 Smart Telescope is its ability to enhance the images it captures using a process called “enhanced vision.” This process involves combining multiple images of an object to create a more detailed and vibrant image. The end result is a stunning image that looks as if it was taken with a much larger and more expensive telescope.
The eQuinox2 Smart Telescope also comes with a mobile app that allows users to control the telescope and view the images it captures on their smartphone or tablet. This makes it easy to share images with friends and family, or to simply enjoy the images yourself without the need to constantly move back and forth between the telescope and a computer.
Light pollution? No problem!
Overall, the Unistellar eQuinox2 Smart Telescope is an impressive piece of technology that is perfect for amateur astronomers who want to enjoy stargazing without the hassle and setup time required by traditional telescopes. Its automatic alignment, enhanced vision, and mobile app make it a highly convenient and enjoyable option for stargazing enthusiasts of all levels. City dwellers can even conquer light pollution to obtain stunning images.
With a large community of amateur astronomers, you can even participate with NASA and the SETI Institute to help research asteroids, exoplanets, comets and other objects of interest. Citizen astronomers were even able to record the deliberate collision of a rocket with an asteroid (the DART Mission) to detect the ability to potentially divert an earth-threatening asteroid
From the Unistellar website:
“No need for constellation knowledge, no polar star alignment: The eVscope 2 combined with the Unistellar app will automatically point & track your desired object. Spend more time exploring space and less setting up and calibrating. Our system instantly recognizes the objects in its field of view by comparing what it sees with a coordinate database of tens of millions of stars.”
Specs
- Sensor resolution: 6.2 MP
- Visible stars: 300 million
- Eyepiece: none
- Field-of-view: 34 x 47 arcmin
- Limiting magnitude: 18.2
- Mirror diameter: 114 mm
- Focal length: 450mm
- Mount: motorized Alt-Az
- Battery Life: 11 hours
- Weight: 9 kg (19.84 lbs)
- Storage 64 Gb
- Object Database: over 5,000 galaxies, nebula, star clusters, planets
- Star Database: 37 million
Pros
- Easy setup
- Observing and capturing impressive images is possible even to those who have no experience
- Reduces the impact of light pollution
- Large field-of-view
- Large on-board database
- Integrated battery
- Smart phone and tablet app
- Easily share images with family and friends
- Portable
- Tripod included
Cons
- Expensive
- Serious astrophotographers will bet better results with dedicated equipment
Conclusion
Technology has made viewing and imaging astronomical objects accessible even to those with no experience. Smart technology has permeated virtually every technological field. The eQuinox2, and it’s siblings eQuinox and eVscope2, bring astronomy to everyone, including complete beginners and those who live in urban areas with significant light pollution.