Yesterday (9-09-2017) at the AME 2017 in Germany I saw an exhibit of a new type of telescope system. It had no means to use an eyepiece or external camera! Indeed there were no add-ons foreseen for the Stellin system. Only the 80 mm F5 APO lens and a start button are evident. The optical tube is square and sits between a U form body.

The French start-up company VAONIS founder and CEO Cyril Dupuy was able to answer all my questions and had the required features and functions inside the system. See www.vaonis.com/en But he and his technical support were not aware of INDI (Ekos & Kstars etc.) . However they intend to make public the API interface for all software developers.

The system uses a new SONY CMOS imager (3096 x 2080 pixels, A/D converter: 14 bits, Pixel size: 2,4µm x 2,4µm) and has a separate guider chip. The converging beam is brought to focus via a mirror through the tilt axis. A de-rotator device is integrated. I forgot to ask about filters for the monochrome version.

We spoke about the market and applications for such a system. Its price makes it very competitive with conventional GoTo telescopes plus all the add-ons which are needed to achieve a remote control astro-photographic capability. The 80 mm aperture may seem to be limiting but there are already many small automated survey camera systems and observatories for research. The camera is intended to support photometric data acquisition. Maybe you have questions for VAONIS or an application idea ……..

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