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unistellar telescopes.

Discussion in 'Telescopes and Mounts' started by kevan hubbard, Oct 12, 2017.

unistellar telescopes.

Started by kevan hubbard on Oct 12, 2017 at 2:03 PM

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  1. kevan hubbard

    kevan hubbard Well-Known Member

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    kevan hubbard, Oct 12, 2017
    #1
    Has anyone tried one of these new French unistellar telescopes yet?they are said to be revolutionary in their imaging. I can't quite figure how they work but I think that they use a data base of objects to overlay and enhance the image you are looking at? They one I've read about is quite small being a 4 and a 1/2" reflector but the images I saw taken from around light polluted Marseille where amazing. These scopes seem to punch far above their weight. If they work as I think they do traditionalists would say that it is cheating using electronic overlaying of images.... I'd semi agree I think? Then again most NASA space photographs are photo shopped.
     
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  2. kevan hubbard

    kevan hubbard Well-Known Member

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    kevan hubbard, Oct 12, 2017
    #2
    Got it wrong! It works sort of like an image intensifier overlaying the image with intensified light.at least I think that is how it works!?I must confess that I don't really understand the process but it must capture the light overlaying it in the eye piece so you are seeing a built up image rather than an instant one?
     
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  3. Dave In Vermont

    Dave In Vermont Well-Known Member

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    Dave In Vermont, Oct 12, 2017
    #3
    Sounds like a cross between an image-intensifier and a video-eyepiece? Hmmm....

    Can you stir up a link or three on this critter, Kevan? You've definitely piqued my interest!

    Dave
     
  4. AstroLife

    AstroLife Active Member

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    AstroLife, Oct 12, 2017
    #4
    >>Can you stir up a link or three on this critter

    http://www.unistellaroptics.com/en/product

    Has an image intensifier built into the scope. I like the field recognition feature described at the link above.

    From the looks of it, they seem to be going around demo'ing a prototype, but I don't believe this is a commercial product yet. Certainly something to keep an eye out for...

    Harry D.
     
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  5. kevan hubbard

    kevan hubbard Well-Known Member

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    kevan hubbard, Oct 13, 2017
    #5
    Yes I don't think that they have been released onto the public market yet.unistellar is a French company based in or near Marseille I believe. The method allows smaller telescopes to collect much more light than they otherwise could so it could be the death knell for huge 'light bucket'reflectors?I'm not sure if the technology will work with refractors but if I understand it correctly I don't see why not.one problem I would for see is that if light is accrued over time you would need pretty precise tracking so really would be suitable only for go to telescopes? I was thinking probably a fantasy that if I could get just the unistellar eye piece and fit it to my tiny 25mm pocket Borg refractor could I end up with the equivalent of a 4" refractor at a fraction of the size??!!
     
  6. Dave In Vermont

    Dave In Vermont Well-Known Member

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    Dave In Vermont, Oct 13, 2017
    #6
    This is reminding me of the initial marketing of the 'StellaCam II' astro-video cameras. Smaller than 4 sugar-cubes, these were promised to be able to increase your light-gathering ability by a factor of 5X. So a 12" 'light-bucket' became capable of hauling in objects that normally needed a 60" aperture to see. Their history is fascinating.....

    These came out of the Cold War tech. for putting on satellites to watch the Soviet Union move their missiles around on Moonless nights so we couldn't take them out with a "pre-emptive nuclear strike." With the need for this sort of secrecy gone, the CIA and DIA - who controlled the satellites - didn't object to selling the technology off to the civilian-markets. And somewhere down the line, some bright person decided to aim one UP, instead of down. The results was the birth of Video Astro-Photography (EAA). And people started aiming many types of video-cams UP. This chain of events led to an understanding that this new branch of imaging was cheap, fast, and fun. It put astro-photography within reach of the less well-heeled. You could get nice views of the Moon for less money than a Pontiac Firebird! Wow! :p Soon two schools emerged and fought over only using expensive designed-for Video-Astro cams costing $1,000+, and the ranks that used anything & everything with a lens.

    So it goes today. Though the hostility is still fueled by the makers of the mega-$$$ cam-makers, it has quieted down in a significant way. I have both variants, a MallinCam and original StellaCam II, and a lowly Logitech and few others, too. They're all fun.

    As for this eVscope, thus far it sounds like a rather large "electronic-eyepiece" sort of re-make. But that's my initial impression from what little I've been able to find. For now. There's a section in another tab in that linked paper above showing images of what it looks like in the eyepiece looking at well-known DSO's like the Whirlpool Galaxy M51. This didn't much impress me - it rather appeared like what I'd expect to see in most any quality telescope/eyepiece. Maybe I'm missing something. I don't know. Yet. I'll let others untangle the truth from the marketing hype I'm detecting. But I'll keep my ears to the rails.....

    Thanks for the find - hope this turns out great!

    Dave
     
    Last edited: Oct 13, 2017
  7. kevan hubbard

    kevan hubbard Well-Known Member

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    kevan hubbard, Oct 13, 2017
    #7
    Don't forget the NSA and national recognizance office the other major players in the spy satellite game!in fact the nro sold NASA some of their spy telescopes for astronomy use.Russia is huge and the USSR was huger, remember the Russian SSR remains the worlds biggest country and Kazakhstan one of the worlds biggest. To keep tabs on what goes on down there must be a challenge I'd imagine very wide field telescopes must be uses with some kind of zoom?I remember once flying from Hong Kong to Paris and crossing Russias far east.trees and lakes and what looked like towns at night I realised was moonlight reflecting off lakes.to put the USSR to scale the Ukraine became the biggest country wholly in Europe when the USSR came apart but it's a bit smaller now after Putin seized the Crimea!guess that why I'm a window seat man on planes!
     
  8. Orion25

    Orion25 Well-Known Member

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    Orion25, Oct 13, 2017
    #8
    Wow! This looks like a fabulous scope! Garnett Leary posted an informative short video describing it which has a fall 2017 release date, so it should be any time now:



    Vital facts:
    Company: Unistellar (Meyreuil, France)
    Founders: Arnaud Malvache, Laurent Marfisi, Antonin Borot, Franck Marchis
    Contact: contact@unistellaroptics.com
    Scope: eVscope, reflector type
    Aperture: 114mm (4.5")
    F/ratio: f/4
    Equivalent aperture with enhancement on: 1 meter (!!!)
    Technology: uses a low-light sensor mechanism (as it automatically tracks) that takes a series of short exposures to enhance viewing of a massive database of objects, "augmented" mode shows the name and information about the selected object (these features can be turned on or off)
    Tracking: uses autonomous field detection powered by GPS (no alignment necessary!) It will always know where it is, lol.
    Connectivity: "campaign mode" allows for communication with SETI scopes to contribute to scientific research

    List price: $1799 (USD?) but subscribers to their newsletter can get it cheaper, possibly as low as $999
    http://www.unistellaroptics.com/en/product:
     
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  9. kevan hubbard

    kevan hubbard Well-Known Member

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    kevan hubbard, Oct 13, 2017
    #9
    A 1 metre equivalent aperture from a 4.5" reflector!!!!!!!!that is impressive. If this is as it seems it'll make all larger telescopes redundant! In fact if you sent one into space you could get Hubble results at a fraction of the size!you would be in the strange position that a finder scope fitted with this technology would give better results than the larger main telescope not fitted with it.I'm still wondering about what would happen if it could be married to my 25mm tiny pocket Borg refractor the worlds smallest astronomical telescope?
     
  10. Dave In Vermont

    Dave In Vermont Well-Known Member

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    Dave In Vermont, Oct 13, 2017
    #10
    True, but I hate playing "Alphabet-Soup" with the ding-a-lings in The Emerald City, thanks. :D

    I'll never forget the time we went to the wrong quad in Washington, DC and accidently walked into the United States Information Agency (USIA) looking for a certain attorney's office. We were surrounded by armed guards leveling sub-machine guns (H&K MP5's) and questioned. Though they finally allowed us to use a telephone, we were rather unhappy.

    Flew over a chunk of Russia, eh? Good thing you weren't on KAL 007. It got a MiG and a missile escort - to the ground in 10,000 pieces. I knew a "spook" whose job was to analyize announcements to troops at missile-bases in the USSR. These were found out in the surrounding forest. They didn't have indoor plumbing, so the troops used these bulletins as toilet-paper. Had the locals play 'fetch' with same.

    I imagine the job stunk. So much for the phony view of espionage being 'romantic.'

    'Ta,

    Dave

    strangelove.jpg
     
  11. Orion25

    Orion25 Well-Known Member

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    Orion25, Oct 13, 2017
    #11
    That's an interesting question. Maybe you could contact the company:
    contact@unistellaroptics.com
    Let us know if you get an answer!:)
     
  12. kevan hubbard

    kevan hubbard Well-Known Member

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    kevan hubbard, Oct 13, 2017
    #12
    Ah the ill fated flight 007 shot down by a foxbat over Sakhalin island in Yuri Andropov's times.Putin was one of Andropovs pupils in the KGB and recently declared Andropov to have been one of Russia's greatest but underated leaders. He and Constantine Chenyenko headed the supreme soviet for short periods and are not well known in the west.your encounter with the security police in Washington DC sounds scary but I may be able to top it.a long time back when my quest to visit every country and semi autonomous country on earth began. I walked from Rome into the Vatican city state and down an interesting looking alley with no sign saying it was private only to be confronted by a Swiss guardsman armed with a pike,he shouted something in Italian causing my rapid about turn!
     
  13. Dave In Vermont

    Dave In Vermont Well-Known Member

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    Dave In Vermont, Oct 13, 2017
    #13
    The costume the Swiss Guards wear is some of the highest-drag in all history! :D I remember them from my first visit to the Vatican City. I was always getting pushed and jostled by characters there - as I constantly violated their rules about not looking under (or around) the plaster fig-leaves they attach on all the statues' "Naughty-Bits." I thought they were laughably idiotic, and the "Guards of Unscrupulously Poor-Taste" proved it!

    I was all of 10 at this time. Quite the introduction to Religion's True-Meaning.

    Bah!

    evaD


    Kook.jpg
     
  14. Orion25

    Orion25 Well-Known Member

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    Orion25, Oct 14, 2017
    #14

    Addendum: you can get it cheaper if you contribute to their early crowdfunding campaign
     
  15. Orion25

    Orion25 Well-Known Member

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    Orion25, Oct 14, 2017
    #15
    Wow! I'm taking V-City off the bucket list! Lol!
     
    Last edited: Oct 14, 2017
  16. Orion25

    Orion25 Well-Known Member

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    Orion25, Oct 14, 2017
    #16
    Are you kidding?? That's incredible, Kevan
     
  17. Mak the Night

    Mak the Night Well-Known Member

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    Mak the Night, Oct 14, 2017
    #17
    Flight 007 was actually shot down by a Sukhoi Su 15 'Flagon'.

    MaxthonSnap20171014130056.jpg
     
  18. Mak the Night

    Mak the Night Well-Known Member

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    Mak the Night, Oct 14, 2017
    #18
    It looks like a good idea as a scope, although I'm guessing it'll cost about the same as a Pontiac Firebird lol.
     
  19. kevan hubbard

    kevan hubbard Well-Known Member

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    kevan hubbard, Oct 14, 2017
    #19
    A handsome looking plane unless you're a passenger on flight 007.I always thought that it was a foxbat that did the dirty deed now I know better!Sakhalin island is north of Hokkaido and forms an extension of the Japanese archipelago. I think that the Russians took it from Japan in czarist times and after ww2 Stalin seized the Kuril islands from Japan also north of Hokkaido. During the weak Yeltsin years there was a vague plan to give the Kurils back to Japan or rather for the then broke Russia to sell them!however the Putin view is somewhat different the Kurils are Russian forever!the Vatican city also has a normal police force they wear uniforms similar to the Italian police but don't carry firearms.I think that the Swiss guard are the equivalent of the army?Singapore was recently knocked off the top of the worlds most light polluted city by Hong Kong but what of the Vatican city? Even in Singapore and h.k.you can semi escape the light pollution, I once watched the first magnitude stars come out over Singapore from canning park,that was until the laser light show came on somewhere yonder and I gave up!apart from the moon,Jupiter, Venus and perhaps Mars, Saturn and Sirius you're not going to see much from the Vatican!
     
  20. Mak the Night

    Mak the Night Well-Known Member

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    Mak the Night, Oct 14, 2017
    #20
    I think the Su 15 was designed during the '50s, it looks that era lol. The Vatican has its own observatory.

    http://www.vaticanobservatory.va/content/specolavaticana/en.html

    I wonder what Galileo would have thought!
     

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