1578 replies to this topic

[bkushner]

BH Just sent my unit ordered in February.  Going to immediately sell it new in box. No longer wanted. 

Edited by bkushner, 14 May 2025 - 09:58 PM.

[Starlancer]

Just a heads up - B&H in the US has them in stock to buy (At least 1)

[Trick]

Took me two weeks from order to delivery this month.

[Finfid]

I ordered the Dwarf 3 from B&H as well. Came in two days. I WAS very excited. After the first night though, I'm very sad and disappointed. The design, tech, app and interface are all so very, well primitive but unnecessarily complicated. I have an Seestar S30, that thing was ready to go out of the box. The Dwarf requires A LOT of tweaking and the learning curve is much higher. There are too many variables with the Dwarf just to get it up and running for any kind of shoot. My Celestron is easier to setup and I have to manually align that thing every time I use it. 

Still on the fence about keeping this thing. For the money I feel you don't get enough value. 

My advice, is to try before you buy if you can. If you want to get into the Smart Telescope hobby, I have to recommend a Seestar S30 or 50 as a first device. Cheaper and sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much easier.

Edited by Finfid, 31 May 2025 - 03:47 PM.

[Tsb1948]

I find it comparable to flying a drone or using an action camera. There is a learning curve but it's not that steep.

[Infiniumguy]

I ordered the Dwarf 3 from B&H as well. Came in two days. I WAS very excited. After the first night though, I'm very sad and disappointed. The design, tech, app and interface are all so very, well primitive but unnecessarily complicated. I have an Seestar S30, that thing was ready to go out of the box. The Dwarf requires A LOT of tweaking and the learning curve is much higher. There are too many variables with the Dwarf just to get it up and running for any kind of shoot. My Celestron is easier to setup and I have to manually align that thing every time I use it. 

Still on the fence about keeping this thing. For the money I feel you don't get enough value. 

My advice, is to try before you buy if you can. If you want to get into the Smart Telescope hobby, I have to recommend a Seestar S30 or 50 as a first device. Cheaper and sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much easier.

My first smart telescope was a Dwarf 3. It did take some time to learn how to operate it. Like you I found the app unnecessarily complex and at times pretty frustrating. I was successful using EQ mode and getting some images I was happy with. After several months and a lot of reading I sold it and bought a Vaonis Vespera 2. Confirms you get what you pay for. My frustration level went down dramatically and my enjoyment went up dramatically. The V2 just works and the app is superb. Good luck. 

[Starlancer]

Hmm, I didn't find the app that confusing, there are some guides that are included with the app, I suggest checking them out as I learned a couple things from it. 

 

I will say that's why of the reasons I find the dwarf more appealing as there are more settings and I often find my Seestar more limiting.  I did notice there is an auto setting now for exposure, gain, etc. I haven't tried it since I set things manually.  

 

I still have one gripe with the app, when I enter the atlas to find a new target, the location when entering the app should be the current location you are observing, instead of a random spot somewhere in the sky (Seems to be always very low to the horizon)

 

May be they need an advanced mode and simple mode setting.

[pfile]

some questions - tried to find the answers in the thread but couldn't find the answers:

 

sounds like you can get access to the raw data including bias, darks and flats. where do the flats come from? does the telescope automatically take dawn/dusk flats? or do you just have to do this yourself with a flat panel or something?

 

i didn't see any widefield images in this thread - can you do all the same astrophotographic work seen in the long FL images with the short FL lens?

 

can you polar align one of these w/o being able to see polaris? iow does it support drift alignment or 3-star alignment like polemaster or the nina polar alignment plugin?

 

i guess it doesn't do any guiding at all so good PA is a must?

 

does the automatic scheduling actually work? or is that a planned feature?

 

thanks

 

rob

[Skywatcher_neb]

I can answer a couple of those questions. Very easy to polar align with very little view of the sky. I rarely have a view of Polaris. I use the scheduling feature almost exclusively.  Make a schedule anytime during the day, align the scope as soon as it gets dark enough to see a couple stars and focus. Sync the schedule and go to bed.

[LeeB.]

some questions - tried to find the answers in the thread but couldn't find the answers:

 

sounds like you can get access to the raw data including bias, darks and flats. where do the flats come from? does the telescope automatically take dawn/dusk flats? or do you just have to do this yourself with a flat panel or something?

 

i didn't see any widefield images in this thread - can you do all the same astrophotographic work seen in the long FL images with the short FL lens?

 

can you polar align one of these w/o being able to see polaris? iow does it support drift alignment or 3-star alignment like polemaster or the nina polar alignment plugin?

 

i guess it doesn't do any guiding at all so good PA is a must?

 

does the automatic scheduling actually work? or is that a planned feature?

 

thanks

 

rob

 

A master flat is included in the calibration folder for both telephoto and wide angle cameras. Darks are also included from the factory, or you an take your own there's a feature in the app that lets you do that. Presumably you could use the schedule feature to take sky flats. I've only used the included flat, for now.

Just a quick side note... It seems that the fits files loaded to the camera are automatically dark subtracted. For calibration in Pixinsight I only use the master flat (I'd be curious if others have a differing opinion on that point).

 

So far I've mainly used the wide angle camera for taking pictures of constellations. Here's a compressed image:

It's about 2-3 hrs, 30 sec exposures, I had to rely on blurxterminator to fix the stars in the corners and noisexterminator. Scorpius is low on the horizon where I live so I had to tinker with the WBPP setting to remove as much of the trees as possible. 

 

It does a 3 point alignment, and gives you instruction for how much you should adjust the tripod / mount. However I will say that I noticed quite a bit of star trailing with that method. I have a Star Adventurer with a polar scope, so I use that for polar alignment now (I still let the dwarf do all the go to and tracking). I've seen much better results so far.

 

It does seem to have the ability to guide. When you give it go to instructions it automatically picks a star in the center of the image, goes to it, and tracks it. I've seen others post that it will dither, but I haven't noticed that. When I blink through my images I don't see any significant shifting between frames, and I get the classic walking noise in my stacked images.

 

I haven't used the scheduler so I can't help with that.

 

Edit: Yes, the wide field camera has all the same features as the telephoto. GoTo, auto focus, tracking, ect.

Attached Thumbnails

• 

Edited by LeeB., 05 June 2025 - 11:00 PM.

[vineyard]

I've used the scheduler and after one glitch the first night, so far it seems to work fine.  You have to allow at least 10 minutes before the scheduled job begins, and if you're doing multiple jobs then allow for about 20 minutes between jobs to be safe I'd say.

 

I haven't used the wide-angle lens yet so the image in LeeB's post is great to see - I'm hoping to do exactly that this summer when I'm somewhere where there actually large enough vistas!

 

I have an old WO wedge (from when I used to use an iOptron SkyGuider Pro) and that is very good for moving more precisely along the directions the Dwarf 3 app tells you.  I use 60sec exposure and have not noticed much trailing - and BXT will clean things up anyway.

[Albut]

I have purchased the D3 and can only compare it to my dedicated kit (AM3, TC-40 tripod, Redcat 51, asi183mc pro, asiair+, zwo guide scope/camera). It does not provide the definition I can achieve with my dedicated Astro kit, BUT it ain’t far off for many subjects. Like this one of the NA and Pelican nebula. Setting it up is a doddle. Easy for sun spots as well. So I am impressed for the price. Easier to take away when travelling.

Attached Thumbnails

• 
• 

[vineyard]

 

 

Edit: Yes, the wide field camera has all the same features as the telephoto. GoTo, auto focus, tracking, ect.

@LeeB I may be being v dense, but is there a software update that does that?  From what I can tell, the wide angle lens is not available in Astro mode, it has be picked in Photo mode?  Thanks!

[Albut]

Dwarf 3, bubble/claw nebula. Processed in SIRIL. About 3 hrs of data. Processed SIRIL Hubble pallete.

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[vineyard]

2h38 on a windy night!

 

[eyeoftexas]

2h38 on a windy night!

 

 

Very nice.  What are we looking at?

[vineyard]

Very nice.  What are we looking at?

Oops sorry M24 and the small Sagittarius star cloud.  NGC6603 also v clear within M24.

[LeeB.]

@LeeB I may be being v dense, but is there a software update that does that?  From what I can tell, the wide angle lens is not available in Astro mode, it has be picked in Photo mode?  Thanks!

Here's how the manual says to do widefield shots:

 

https://help.dwarfla...strophotography

 

It seems like the tracking is done with the telephoto camera, but images are taken with the widefield camera. I didn't see a mention of how the autofocus works, but with the widefield view selected I hit the autofocus button, and so far I've seen respectable results.

[vineyard]

Here's how the manual says to do widefield shots:

 

https://help.dwarfla...strophotography

 

It seems like the tracking is done with the telephoto camera, but images are taken with the widefield camera. I didn't see a mention of how the autofocus works, but with the widefield view selected I hit the autofocus button, and so far I've seen respectable results.

Thanks - I'll try that tonight.

 

Here's 2.5hrs on M17 from last night.  I continue to be really impressed by the D3 - its smaller than a dictionary!

 

[eyeoftexas]

 its smaller than a dictionary!

 

 

A picture is worth a thousand words…

[Lumix]

A picture is worth a thousand words…

Agree!

This is a "super-compressed" jpeg. 

The Tiff is much better.

Attached Thumbnails

• 

Edited by Lumix, 25 June 2025 - 09:48 PM.

[vineyard]

The difference dark skies make.  I normally image from B9 (16-17 MPSAS) - the Dwarf3 is super portable and can be mounted on a tripod.  So it can come on holiday v easily.  Last night it was 20.9 MPSAS here (!) and this is 1h05 (!!) of data.

 

<SMH for light pollution in urban cities>

 

[vineyard]

Here's how the manual says to do widefield shots:

 

https://help.dwarfla...strophotography

 

It seems like the tracking is done with the telephoto camera, but images are taken with the widefield camera. I didn't see a mention of how the autofocus works, but with the widefield view selected I hit the autofocus button, and so far I've seen respectable results.

It worked, thanks!  (After I remembered to calibrate it with the proper darks and flats, doh!)

 

Edited by vineyard, 28 June 2025 - 04:03 PM.

[Albut]

Western Veil Dwarf 3. About 220 60s/60g. Processed SIRIL rotated cropped LR.

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[vineyard]

I can safely say that the Dwarf3 is now going to be a standard part of my holiday packing to go anywhere!