Mobile apps and AI processing are making things a lot easier for would-be stargazers, who no longer have to fiddle with focusing using cold fingers or even track and identify celestial objects – smart telescopes take care of all that for you. The latest addition to Celestron's range can also throw object captures onto a smart TV screen.
"Viewing the night sky has traditionally been complicated for amateur astronomers, often requiring extensive product knowledge and time-consuming setup and navigation," said Celestron's CEO, Corey Lee.
"Likewise, the communal experience of visiting an observatory leaves little flexibility in choosing what to see and when to see it. Celestron Origin removes all these barriers, offering beginners, experts, and anyone in between an easy-to-use and state-of-the-art home observatory experience."
Rather than having to go through complicated alignment and setup procedures, trying to keep a steady hand in the cold night air while focusing, keeping track of objects viewed through the eyepiece and then hitting the books or online search to put a name to what it is you're seeing, the Origin system does all of that for you.
Interestingly, the brains of onboard operation is a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B computer – which controls the camera, focus motor, dew prevention system, and takes care of automated processes like Celestron's StarSense sky recognition technology (which makes use of the telescope's image sensor for quick and accurate alignment).
The Pi works with a companion mobile app, developed in partnership with Simulation Curriculum, that connects over Wi-Fi and is used for navigating the night sky, system control, object viewing and so on.
A planetarium interface offers educational audio presentations on selected celestial objects, and there's a mode that will follow the skyward panning of a smartphone and present object highlights for closer examination through the telescope. The app's knowledge base is backed up by Celestron's regularly updated database featuring "thousands of stars, double stars, clusters, nebulae, galaxies, and more."
And rather than huddling around a smartphone screen, screen mirroring chops within the app can share results on a smart TV or projector for all of the family to enjoy from the comfort of the sofa. If you don't want to stay up all night sky watching, imaging schedules can be set up through the app and the results ready for viewing the next morning.
At the telescope's heart is a Rowe-Ackermann Schmidt Astrograph optical system, which places a 6.4-MP Sony IMX178 CMOS image sensor – with STARVIS back-illuminated ultra-high sensitivity-low noise technology – in front of the telescope tube.
This design enables an "ultra-fast f/2.2 system with an extraordinary wide field of view" for the promise of "unparalleled image brightness and clarity." Celestron has also cooked in automated AF and an environmental sensor to help keep images sharp.
Onboard AI-powered image processing is reported to optimize image quality in real-time by analyzing each frame to remove noise, boost contrast and make other tweaks. But for those who prefer to add a human touch, the system also caters for manual adjustments of key parameters.
Elsewhere, a 97.8-Wh LiFePO4 battery is included for more than six hours of standalone operation. The telescope boasts a built-in filter drawer for standard 1.25-in and 2-in astronomical filters to help deal with light pollution, though it doesn't look like any filters are included in the box. The Origin comes with a full-size tripod too, and sports a computerized altazimuth mount with "spring-loaded brass worm gears for precise tracking and manual clutches in both axes." A tabletop tripod is available as an optional extra.
The Celestron Origin "Intelligent Home Observatory" is up for pre-order now for US$3,999, with global availability pegged for Q2 of this year. If that's too rich for your blood, the Vespera II from Vaonis comes in at about half that. The video below has more.
Product page: Celestron Origin