French smart telescope company Vaonis has announced the Vespera II X_Edition, a new limited edition version of its standard Vespera II smart telescope. The X_Edition promises to embody the mechanical and optical precision for which the Vespera series is known.
The biggest difference between the standard Vaonis Vespera II, which remains on sale, and the new X_Edition is its design. The new limited edition version features a milky, mostly transparent shell, allowing users to see the telescope’s complex and sophisticated inner workings, including its camera system, motors, focusing mechanism, circuitry, and more.
Vaonis hopes its new limited-edition telescope will give astrophotographers and budding astronomers a significantly better look at the engineering that goes into making a smart telescope. In total, the Vespera II X_Edition features 216 individual components, all the way from tiny screws to the large outer shell. During assembly, each telescope must pass 50 different quality control checkpoints. Typically, the end user has no insight into most of these components or the mechanical complexity of their Vaonis telescope, a gap that the Vespera II X_Edition aims to address by providing a more transparent view.
At its core, the new partially-transparent telescope has the same features and promises identical performance to the standard Vespera II. This means it features the same 8.3-megapixel Sony IMX 585 image sensor, tuned for astrophotography, as well as the same 250mm focal length and apochromatic quadruplet optical design. The telescope’s mosaic capture technology enables users to capture higher-resolution images of a selected area of the sky, including up to 24 megapixels.
The 11-pound (five-kilogram) smart telescope works alongside a companion app that lets astrophotographers select their target, schedule shooting sessions, and automatically capture and stack individual images to create beautiful composite photos of deep-sky targets. The smart telescope utilizes advanced tracking technology and mechanics to acquire and track targets across the night sky automatically. The telescope can even be set up to capture images of a specific target over multiple nights, ensuring lengthy observation times that result in even better photos.
The Vespera II X_Edition is a premium edition release, so it comes with a built-in hygrometer to monitor humidity levels, a protective hard case for storage and transport, and a tall carbon-fiber tripod. Several optional accessories are not included, such as the solar filter, light pollution filter, and dual-band filter. These snap onto the telescope’s lens, and the telescope automatically detects the attached filter.
Pricing and Availability
The Vaonis Vespera II X_Edition is available now for $2,490. The smart telescope comes with a three-year warranty.
Image credits: Vaonis