Thoughts On The Dwarf II Smart Telescope From DwarfLabs Part 2 of 2
Continued from Part 1 of 2.
First and foremost: It's here!! Yay! The Dwarf II arrived today (directly from DwarfLabs in China). Now, I usually "save" all the unboxing Pics for the actual review post...but, I'll share a couple:
😁
Let’s consider the realities of Astrophotography. We should really be thinking about, or more specifically remembering our early attempts: those which many of us have made, to capture Astrophotos in the past.
People who enjoy amateur astronomy, almost inevitably begin to get interested in astrophotography...At some point! The first steps (some of the first attempts) are what some of us usually try.
The equipment and things we first experiment with, when we first try to capture images of the Deep Space Objects (DSO's) for example.
Typical first attempts include things like:
- Holding a cell phone camera up to the telescope (or binocular's) eyepiece.
- Probably followed by using a cell phone holder attached to the eyepiece of the telescope, or pair of binoculars.
- Holding a point & shoot digital camera up to the eyepiece.
- You'll have slightly better success if using a scope on a tracking mount, but after a while, you'll probably become dissatisfied with the results.
Again, I suppose I'm of the opinion that anyone who has enjoyed astronomy for any modest length of time, has at least made some attempt at getting a picture of what they're seeing...
In traditional astrophotography, there is a lot of work involved for post processing your acquired images on a PC.
I can't say that Adobe Photoshop is required; but it is highly recommended (and it's not cheap!) Luckily, there are a few free programs you can use nowadays - Gimp, and Siril come to mind; there are others too. Incidentally, I'm currently learning my way around Siril :) Why? because most owners of The Dwarf II are using it! It's actually a nice bit of software (more on that later).
Sometimes, you can end up spending money on additional, third-party software. I'm referring to the (small) software applications, sometimes even Plug-Ins, specifically designed to help astrophotographers.
More often (these days), someone might go in the direction of using a standard or modified DSLR camera, and a tracking mount. I've done this several times myself, in fact! This solution isn't as expensive as the others; which some people get involved with, further down the road in the hobby. I'm referring to good quality refractors, mounts (GEM's, etc.), and cooled CCD cameras...but let's slow down here a minute!
Main factors still consist of having to work to acquire dark frames, flat frames, bias frames, and finally light frames (actual image frames). These then need to be transferred to a PC (a seperate file folder for each). Followed by the preliminary stacking. After the first raw stacking/raw image stacking takes place, then comes:
- Multi step process of manipulating (enhancing) the image commonly in Adobe Photoshop.
- After applying all of the basic modifications, to improve the overall image.
- The next step is to apply the features of various third-party software, etc.
- So, finally, after all of the image processing is complete you finally have an image that you’re somewhat happy with.
This entire process becomes even more involved, and more labor-intensive (post processing) when an amateur moves to a dedicated camera such as a (cooled) CCD.
With a small relatively inexpensive system like the Dwarf II - You get to eradicate many of these steps!
The Dwarf II is like a miraculous gift when it comes to astrophotography! It is especially going to be most appreciated by many of us who have already gone through the steps of getting into, and sometimes out of, the astrophotography hobby.
It simply makes everything much more pleasurable. It makes astrophotography much less frustrating. Also much less labor-intensive. As for me, the post processing of images was my least favorite part of astrophotography. Have you ever tried post processing astro images on a somewhat older (slower) laptop??
That can be very frustrating! (OK, painful!).
When using The Dwarf II, this issue is practically nonexistent. Post processing can be done on the smartphone itself! And done! Your pics are ready to be shared with your friends on social media!
Doing some simple post processing - practically just a few minutes worth of adjustments, right on your cell phone is typically enough to render pretty nice deep sky photographs! You can achieve very nice looking astrophotography images of DSO’s, with just a few minor adjustments - available right in The Dwarf II's software! On your smart phone!
Then the image can be uploaded straight to your social media accounts to share with friends! What could be better than this?
Another point that comes to mind, is the difficulty of enjoying astrophotography during the Summer months: it’s hot, humid, uncomfortable...and there's lots of mosquitoes. In some places, the mosquitoes can be really awful, necessitating the use of bug spray all over yourself. And for those of us who have done astrophotography during the Summer months, we can attest to the uncomfortable, frustrating issues involved. Ugghh!
Something else to consider: I'd like to draw your attention to the early months of Autumn - Or should I say, the months between Summer and Autumn? When there are certain combinations of temperature and humidity, which causes lenses to fog up! The areas between your eye and the eyepiece also fog up. These are things that can make visual astronomy, and conventional/traditional astrophotography quite frustrating.
The Dwarf II eliminates all of this, because you can simply leave it in position, and then go inside - While it continues to capture images for you! And what’s even more astounding, and perhaps could be described as miraculous: is that you can control everything, by simply using your smart phone! Now of course, I realize that some of the conventional (expensive) rigs allow you to do this too. However, it can be said in a nutshell, that for under $500 US (or under $600 US for The Deluxe version), you can have a tiny little observatory - Which can be controlled remotely from inside your home! If you have a window facing The Dwarf II (WiFi/control range is ~15 feet).
What this translates into is: You can now do all of the astrphotography that you’ve been wanting to do (your Summer constellations & DSO's) without having to endure all of the drawbacks, the sweating and humidity, and mosquitoes!
So again, The Dwarf II comes to the rescue by being a unit which doesn’t have to have your face placed against it - Causing: Fogging, condensation, humidity buildup, etc... Once again, it’s a matter of setting The Dwarf II on the tripod provided, or tripod of your choice - and completing some very easy steps.
Doing the initial turning on, acquiring just some 'Astro Darks' (dark frames) and once again, either controlling it from a short distance, or even controlling it from inside your home (if you have a window facing the Dwarf II's position).
Another point I’d like to bring up: I happen to be one of those people who didn’t mind cold temperatures.
Many years ago, I was able to tolerate cold temperatures with no problem. But now that I’m older, the cold seems to bother me a little bit more. Once again, The Dwarf II comes to the rescue – because once again, the set up is so easy and quick! Once the unit is set up outside, and the preliminary set up and positioning is done: You can then retreat inside, to the warmth of your home, to finish controlling it via your smart phone.
These basic capabilities, these basic ways of operation of The Dwarf II, simply make it a no-brainer, when considering whether or not to get one!
It may be small, but there’s no reason for it to have to be large. The fact that it’s so small, has a lot to recommend it. There are lots of great advantages to the fact that it's such a tiny unit. It allows you to place it in an endless choice of locations. I only had it outside for 10 minutes (during the day) today. And there were many places where I could place it, where I would never be able to put a conventional DSLR, etc.
One of the things that need not be a concern is your smart phone's battery running low, since you can plug in your smart phone. You can charge the battery while you’re still controlling The Dwarf II.
This is also a great convenience! A final thought, for now: With The Dwarf II - you don't need to spend so much time sitting in front of a laptop to post-process your images. This is one of my favorite advantages. I was getting a bit tired of all the post processing steps. With DSLR-based AP: I was especially tired of all that time spent in from of the laptop screen. That's one of the big reasons why I welcome The Dwarf II! I can say goodbye to all that stacking and post processing!
The images look good enough, where they don't need it! The Dwarf II does the stacking for you - and all you typically need to do, is a little bit of basic "post processing" and viola!
You have astrophotos ready to be shared with your friends!
I'm looking forward to comparing the astrophotos I took with my $1000+ set-up, against the ones I'm going to take with The Dwarf II! I'll be imaging the same Messier objects!
Much, much more to come, stay tuned!
Check out my AstroProducts Review YouTube Channel!
Clear skies!
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