This is a blog article I wrote for my work, The Binocular and Telescope shop or BINTEL to our friends.
There’s lots of new tech and products coming out and it’s a great time to get into astronomy or rediscover your love for the night sky.
Full article can be found here
It’s been an amazing year in the Smart Telescope arena. When I wrote the 2023 BINTEL guide to Smart Telescopes almost 18 months ago, we knew they were becoming popular but even the crew here at BINTEL has been thrilled by new technologies and the wide variety of both new and experienced astronomers and nature fans who’ve flocked to these exciting devices.
First of all, a quick recap – what exactly is a Smart Telescope?
We generally think Smart Telescopes are all-in-one units that combine the telescope themselves, a fully computerised “GOTO” mount, camera and the associated tech needed to manage image capture and processing.
They’re also controlled over Wi-Fi via an Android or Apple iOS app running on your phone, tablet or iPad.
This app looks after the alignment of the telescope in the night sky, which is done by knowing where on the surface of the Earth it’s located and performing a quick scan around the sky to get its position.
Once this is done, you select what you’d like to view or photograph. Last year this was mainly carried out by selecting an astro object from the Smart Telescope app’s database, but for 2024 we’re also seeing further integration of comprehensive star atlases that lets you explore and photograph a vastly expanded selection of the night sky above our heads.
Aside from a few specialised devices, you cannot “look through” a Smart Telescope. What it photographs will be seen on your device’s screen. (More on this soon….)
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