Smart telescopes like the Unistellar eVscope eQuinox 2 have a lot in common with the smartphones used to control them. This new second-generation version of Unistellar's most affordable smart telescope comes with upgraded electronics, a new sensor and lots of new features - just as the latest smartphones tend to offer every year. But there are some genuine reasons to invest in this latest and greatest smart telescope.
As with its predecessor, eQuinox 2 has no eyepiece so no way of getting the original photons from stars, galaxies and nebulae into your eyes. This is about astrophotography. At its core, the eQuinox 2 is a 4.5-inch (114mm) reflector telescope mounted on a motorised altazimuth mount that autonomously aligns with, and tracks, the night sky.
Inside is the latest Sony IMX347 image sensor, which is used to take short exposures of deep-sky objects. Its onboard computer then stacks those images in real time, gradually revealing an everclearer image, with greater contrast, on connected smartphones and tablets. It's then easy to share framed (and auto-captioned) images and JPEGs on social media, though it's also possible to take lossless images in raw formats to store on the eQuinox 2's 64GB hard disc.
Be a citizen scientist
Unistellar's eVscope range of smart telescopes - of which the eQuinox 2 is the latest - are increasingly being used to crowdsource astronomical observations. Over 30 eVscope users around the world observed the impact of DART on Dimorphos and the behaviour of the asteroid immediately after the impact. Their findings were gathered and the users credited as co-authors on a paper published in the journal Nature in March 2023.
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