DWARF mini Smart Telescope (Open Box)

Tiny and very impressive Smart Telescope

Until you actually see a Dwarflab Mini Smart Telescope it is hard to realise just how tiny this 7 inch high telescope really is. If you are used to more conventional imaging equipment of telescope, mount and camera then the Dwarflab Mini will seem completely ridiculous as an imaging device, but don’t be fooled. Once connected to your phone or tablet through the dedicated app it can be up and running in just a few minutes. When not in use the telescope folds down and its shape beautifully matches the similarly sized L shaped arm that holds the telescope. The arm contains the battery, electronics and motor drives. At only 840 grams the telescope is light, but still feels very solid and well-made even though the body is made entirely of plastic. Dwarflab has been very clever in designing the controller app to be so user friendly the Mini can be used right out of the box to image the night sky just by using the standard settings. The telescope easily locates any selected object, adjusts the focus and then tracks it for as long as you want. This telescope doesn’t take a single image, but many – up to 999 and automatically stacks them to produce a final image. The more images that are stacked the better the object detail and colour resolution. The telescope automatically rejects any poor images or ones with aircraft / satellite trails that would spoil the final image. Without any knowledge of the night sky a first-time user can easily image a star cluster in our galaxy or another galaxy millions of light years away. With a bit more experience you can try altering the various imaging settings all of which are fully user adjustable whether that is exposure time, sensitivity (Gain), the number of images to be taken and more. Normally light pollution would be a problem when imaging faint objects, but the Mini has a few tricks to help here. It has an in-built filter to counteract light pollution and also a dual band filter to bring out the colour of nebulae and other objects. The Dwarf Mini has not just one, but two camera systems – a narrow field for night sky imaging and a wide field for Milky Way or daytime landscape imaging. It is also used for locating the Sun or Moon when imaging those objects. For quick images of the Sun (the telescope is supplied with a Sun filter) or the Moon the Mini can be put on any stable flat surface. For more serious deep sky imaging a tripod is essential, preferably with a pan / tilt head. To obtain the best images using long exposures over many hours the Mini needs to be used in Equatorial Mode (aligned with the Earth’s axis) which allows much longer exposure times and improved image stacking. While the more expensive Dwarflab 3 has a large 8MP sensor compared to the Mini’s 2MP sensor the latter has better low light and red colour sensitivity making it very good at picking up the red colour of faint nebulae. The Dwarflab on-line image processor Stellar Studio further improves the look of your image. The Dwarflab Mini may be small enough to put in your pocket and seem like a toy, but it is far from being that. This is an incredibly clever piece of technology able to produce impressive images of a vast array of night sky objects while also being able to image the landscape or wildlife in daylight. For the price of a medium sized visual telescope the Mini is the ultimate take anywhere telescope that will open up a whole world of astronomy you might have thought was out of your reach. As the app controls everything the telescope can do Dwarflab continuously update it with new functions. It will be interesting to see what the next update brings. If the Dwarflab Mini is to be your first venture into imaging you will be very pleased with the results.