I normally use a regular telescope setup with an equatorial tracking mount and dedicated astro camera for astrophotography. It is complicated to setup, heavy, and a bit time consuming to get up and running. It has the advantage of being larger aperture and far more capable in terms of exposure time, with the tradeoff in complexity.

At the other end of the spectrum are the newest fully automated electronic telescopes. These are devices you turn on, connect to with an iPad and image away.. virtually no setup at all. A few years ago a company called Vaonis made a device in this category called Stellena, and in 2021 they releases a 2ng gen device called Vespera. I recently got a Vespera unit and fired it up for the first time last night.

I turned it on, hit an init button in the software, and it spun around and did a few captures, plate solves, and generated the internal calibration. I then selected the dumbbell nebula in the catalog, and 10 seconds later it appears on my screen. It could not have been easier. It continually shoots and integrates, so the picture gets better and better as time goes by. I picked a few more good targets including the Pleiades, the Veil, and Horsehead, and Orion.

Keep in mind this is from my house in the city of Portland, so Bortle 7 in terms of darkness[terrible light pollution], and it was a 1/3 moon. These are jpgs directly from the device, no processing at all. Just as it appeared on the screen.

Downright amazing results for such a small 70mm aperture with a fully automated stacking system. You can download the original subs and do your own stacking with much improved results, and I’ll give that a try tonight.

I have the Vespera specific HA/O3 filter on order, and once that comes in I should be able to really improve the nebula shots.

This really is an easy way to get into astrophotography with very fast return on your time investment.