Testing the Vespera Smart Telescope on a Range of Targets: Is it Worth Considering?

In this comprehensive review I take you through every aspect of the Vaonis Vespera smart telescope. From initial setup, to its ease of use, image quality with numerous examples, solar imaging, deep sky imaging, mosaic mode, file types plus transferring files, available accessories, the positives, the negatives, and my final verdict!

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[fnersch]

Nice evaluation. My Vespera cost USD995 in 2020. My LPF works very good here in Los Angeles, CA. In 3.5 years I have logged over 1000 objects, mostly galaxies. This is a great little scope.

[CapitaineNautilus]

I own a Vespera and I can confirm this scope is amazing. So much fun with it. And it's so small and light that you can easily carry with you on vacation.

[anthonyfranchino]

Great review! Directly to the point which I appreciate. Thank you for sharing.

[aw]

We love ours, it’s the best grab and go for short sessions and travel. Clear skies and thanks for the review

[joxterjones]

Thanks for the review Chris and I think you have done a very fair and thorough test. I just got my Vespera a few days ago and have been consistently impressed by its performance and ease of use. After about 10 years of messing around with astrophotography and constantly tweaking and experimenting, the simplicity, power and ease of use of the Vespera really are very standout features for me. The number of good images I can get in a given period of time is much higher than with my previous (admittedly clunky) setup. And while it is expensive, when I add up all the money I have spent on astrophotography stuff over the years, the price is very competitive!

[DumfriesDik]

I’m a noob to astrophotography and recently received my D2. The quick and easy set up of smart telescopes makes it very accessible. I would love to see a size and weight comparison as I travel. Cheers.

[hybrid]

Hi Chris, Paul D here if you remember our recent communication. Great review I guess this type of thing is the future but I like many will probably push back a little, yes it's a lot of money but I think we're familiar with this type of cost in our hobby.
I think it's likely newer versions will have the "plue" light replaced with red 😁

[ziggyfrnds]

Great video as usual! Although I don't really like these new smart telescopes they take the fun out of our hobby. Although by fun I mean countless hours of trying to figure out what's gone wrong with your setup :D

[DronemanJoeRc]

Looks great bud my scope should arrive later next week. I have some celestron scopes and they are awesome but this is going to be my go to scope. I live in the north east of USA and it gets cold in the winter so this is going to be awesome so I dont have to go outside to adjust the scope and just watch on my tablet!!!👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

[roncerniglia]

Thanks for your thoughtful review! I have pre-ordered the Vespera Pro — let me know your interim thoughts based on the upgrade made to it when you have some time!

[robi]

Very nice test Chris. I think it definitely delivers on its promises, albeit the promises of a 50mm scope! Some nice touches, like sensing the filter attached. I was slightly surprised to see the blue halo given that it’s an APO quadruplet, but perhaps the quadruplet aspect is just to give a flat field, ie: it’s effectively a doublet plus flattener. It’s interesting to see that people generally use very long integrations to tease out the detail, to me it seems to sit somewhere between EAA and traditional imaging. Some folk seem to not like the concept of this kind of device - but even though I am primarily visual, I can definitely see the benefits - what size scope do you need to be able to see M51 as anything other than a hazy blob visually? This little 50mm scope can show detailed spiral structure in a matter of minutes! On a different subject, I recently bought a Celestron Starsense Explorer scope, to try out the technology. What a game changer! Really very impressive and will transform my visual observing. Are you going to do a review at some point?

[DaysSpentWell]

Just curious and thinking in my mind about this. What if the software is all connected to a database of photos and when you tell the scope to go to a certain object in the sky, it retrieves the pictures and show that picture to you.

[dumpydalekobservatory]

Nice review Chris I do agree about these smart telescopes to not having a red light when powered on as it makes no sense to me, & at star parties you definitely won't be popular as I've witnessed it a few times lol. Nice bit of kit but the price is a big issue for me I'm afraid.

[actudoran]

well, I mean if you get an AVX mount, a doublet apo with field flattener, an entry level camera uncooled .... you might get it all for less but not much less ...
and it would miss all the niceties of the app 😅
are all options ridiculously expensive ?

[DronemanJoeRc]

I got another one for you. I have followed all the steps to capture the sun exactly and its leveled precisely, when the arm goes up it wont point directly at the sun and keeps trying to find the sun. I got down and looked where the arm is pointing and its off by so I manually moved the arm and I shouldn't have done that but I pointed right down the line of sight of the sun and then about a min later it started to autofocus and captured the sun and I got a pic, but thats not how its suppose to work. The scope works great at night to capture alot of objects but the sun Im having a ton of issues. Idk if the scope has a issue with calibration but when I shut it down the arm comes down but doesnt go to close all the way its on a angel pointing down about a 1 inch off center from the home point and then says arm is closed. Very strange and im not sure if I got a faulty unit? what do you think. But like I said until I just moved the arm into the line of sight to the sun it would then capture it but it would just sit there and say locating the sun. Idk im looking for advice before I contact the seller. Let me know what you know and any help. Thanks and Im Joe and an new sub to your channel. Thanks again

[martinbriscoe]

thank you Chris, i really enjoy star hopping with my dob having given up on astrophotography several years ago as I did not have the patience for setting everything up, trailing wires around, then having to stop because of clouds or dew then spending hours processing. So a smart camera like this is a huge temptation to run alongside my dob. Hopefully you'll get the chance to review the cheaper end of the Unistellar range soon and maybe other newcomers? Great stuff Martin

[CosmicDigs]

Great review, covered everything I was hoping to see - I seriously hope Vaonis donate the Vespera 2 for you to evaluate. I would love to hear your conclusions as a comparison Chris :)

[__WJK__]

Enjoyed the video, thank you! That said, is the Vespra (or other smart telescopes) compatible with VR headsets(!?)

[jbmatey]

Great info ... if it’s that good ... are you going to buy one ??? ...

[JohnMark]

At this point in time, the question is whether the Vespera is three times better than the ZWO SeeStar.