I believe it was the Vaonis Stellina that was very controversial, as
a telescope of modest aperture, but highly computerized, and with
a high price tag, designed to take astrophotographs almost by
itself.

In looking for it, I also found the ZWO Seestar, an apparently similar
product in a much more modest price range - around $500.

The product Celestron has announced today (January 8), only
available for pre-order, is in the $5000 price range, and it only
has a 6-inch aperture.

But it definitely still has some quality features that make it stand
out.

The 6" optical portion is a Rowe-Ackermann Schmidt Astrograph.

And the computer technology includes AI-assisted automatic
stacking of multiple images.

The product is the Celestron Origin Intelligent Home Observatory:

https://www.celestron.com/products/celestron-origin-intelligent-home-observatory

Now, if I could get it with their 11" RASA instead of a 6" one, then I
would actually want one, although I couldn't afford it.

John Savard

On Mon, 8 Jan 2024 22:37:37 -0800 (PST), Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca>
wrote:

>I believe it was the Vaonis Stellina that was very controversial, as
>a telescope of modest aperture, but highly computerized, and with
>a high price tag, designed to take astrophotographs almost by
>itself.
>
>In looking for it, I also found the ZWO Seestar, an apparently similar
>product in a much more modest price range - around $500.
>
>The product Celestron has announced today (January 8), only
>available for pre-order, is in the $5000 price range, and it only
>has a 6-inch aperture.
>
>But it definitely still has some quality features that make it stand
>out.
>
>The 6" optical portion is a Rowe-Ackermann Schmidt Astrograph.
>
>And the computer technology includes AI-assisted automatic
>stacking of multiple images.
>
>The product is the Celestron Origin Intelligent Home Observatory:
>
>https://www.celestron.com/products/celestron-origin-intelligent-home-observatory
>
>Now, if I could get it with their 11" RASA instead of a 6" one, then I
>would actually want one, although I couldn't afford it.
>
>John Savard

I'm skeptical much of a market exists. Products like the Seestar are
popular because they produce very nice results at a very modest price.
They're great for imaging on the road, for public presentations, for
those with a casual interest in astronomical imaging. You get up into
the thousands of dollars range, however, and you're looking at much
more serious imagers. And I think most of them are likely to prefer
putting together their own kit, suited to their specific interests.
For $5000 you can get a really nice imaging setup... and one that you
can change around if your interests change.

On Tuesday, January 9, 2024 at 7:38:57 AM UTC-7, Chris L Peterson wrote:

> I'm skeptical much of a market exists.

It's hard for me to imagine the target market for this kind
of telescope, because I personally don't happen to have
that kind of money.

But given a lot of other products for the rich being out
there, and given that Vaonis has stayed in business,
that there might actually be a market, of which Celestron
wants to grab a piece with their own more deserving
product... does not seem to be beyond possibility.

However, the Vaonis Stellina, while it doesn't have
the level of quality optics that the Celestron offering
has, does have _one_ advantage over it: it at least
looks like it's more likely to survive being left
outside in the rain and snow, which may be part
of its use case.

John Savard

On Wednesday, January 10, 2024 at 4:49:01 PM UTC-5, Rich wrote:
> On Wednesday 10 January 2024 at 15:22:43 UTC-5, Quadibloc wrote:
> > On Tuesday, January 9, 2024 at 7:38:57 AM UTC-7, Chris L Peterson wrote:
> >
> > > I'm skeptical much of a market exists.
> > It's hard for me to imagine the target market for this kind
> > of telescope, because I personally don't happen to have
> > that kind of money.
> >
> > But given a lot of other products for the rich being out
> > there, and given that Vaonis has stayed in business,
> > that there might actually be a market, of which Celestron
> > wants to grab a piece with their own more deserving
> > product... does not seem to be beyond possibility.
> >
> > However, the Vaonis Stellina, while it doesn't have
> > the level of quality optics that the Celestron offering
> > has, does have _one_ advantage over it: it at least
> > looks like it's more likely to survive being left
> > outside in the rain and snow, which may be part
> > of its use case.
> >
> > John Savard
> Check out the latest scope ad like this from the other company. Scope, sitting near an infinity pool in a multi-million house. It's 1985 again, yuppies are the targets so lets break out the white wine and floodlights and do some astronomy...

It would be easier to find images on the Internet

Den 2024-01-11 skrev Rich <rander3128@gmail.com>:
>
> Friend of mine has the same attitude, he's a die-hard visual
> observer (so am I, 90%) who owns a slew of scopes (5 AP refractors,
> a C8. C11, C14, Meade 10 inch SCT, Questar 3.5 (formerly had 7's), a
> TeleVue Oracle, 150mm Fuji ED binoculars, dozens of Zeiss, Leitz
> binos, etc, etc). But we see which way the wind is blowing and it
> is for imagers.
>

I spent years only doing visual observation and I still enjoy it, but
resolving what looks like a diffuse blob to my eyes into something
with a colour palette and details has a magic feeling to it.

Funnily enough, I don't enjoy the actual photographing nearly as much
as doing visual observations since it means I'm just standing around,
monitoring my automatics.