REVIEW

Smart and fully automated, the Vaonis Vespera Observation Station is a telescope and camera rolled into one

Reviewed by Gemma Lavender

The Vaonis Vespera is switched on via the button on the side

DETAILS

Cost: £1,299 / $1,499

Size: 38.1 by 20.3 by 8.9 centimetres (15 by 8 by 3.5 inches

Aperture: Two inches Focal length: Eight inches F ratio: f/4

Field of view: 1.6 by 0.9 degrees

Imaging sensor: Sony IMX462

Magnification: 30x Weight: Five kilograms

The Vaonis Vespera is your all-in-one ticket to becoming an astrophotographer. Unlike oordinary telescopes, the Vespera doesn’t have an eyepiece, so you can’t look through it. Instead the Vespera contains a built-in imaging sensor that captures images of whatever it’s pointed at, which you can view directly on your smartphone or tablet, which you also use to control the Vespera with Vaonis’ Singularity software. It sports a two-inch f/4 quadruplet apochromat telescope, which means it’s designed around two sets of two lenses that remove chromatic aberration. At the same time it hosts a 2.1-megapixel Sony Starvis IMX462 CMOS camera sensor for recording the Vespera’s clarity of view. Vaonis launched its first imaging telescope, the Stellina, in 2018, and the Vespera builds on that experience while also providing more portability. It has a smaller aperture and imaging sensor than the Stellina, meaning it doesn’t reach the same level of resolution that the Stellina achieves, but the price is less than half that of the Stellina, making the Vespera extremely tempting. The sheer enjoyment that we got out of straightforward imaging and then being able to share those images with others logged onto the Vespera’s Wi-Fi network is addictive. We found the Vaonis Vespera to be great fun, and it only fails to achieve top marks because of its lack of accessories, its somewhat limited versatility and because its sibling, the Stellina, is technically a more powerful instrument.