Essential tips for buying a smart telescope from Unistellar, ZWO, Celestron, Dwarflab, and Vaonis

Smart telescopes have taken the astronomy world by storm over the past six years, with all manner of models now on the market catering to all budgets and expertise levels. They have transformed astrophotography, bringing distant nebulae and galaxies into the range of the average person in high-definition, full-color images for the first time.

These ingenious devices are simple to use. Simply download the relevant app onto your smartphone, hook it up to the telescope via Wi-Fi, set your location, run through any automatic setup routines the telescope might require and away you go. There’s no visual eyepiece to look through — your smart telescope is essentially a telescopic camera, and the image builds up in 10-second increments on your phone screen.