The Dwarf Draco is the new smart telescope from Dwarflab and will be available soon at Telescoop.nl. It features a significantly larger aperture than we’ve seen so far in this category, a cooled sensor, a built-in guidescope, and a sensor that rotates to compensate for field rotation. Features that you’d normally only get with a separate mount, camera, and guider are all housed in a single unit here.
Dwarflab has not released all the details yet. What we can share now is below. As soon as the price, delivery date, and full specifications are known, we will update this page.
What we already know
- 90 mm opening
- Cooled CMOS sensor
- Dew heater for the lens
- Exposures up to 300 seconds
- Rotating CMOS sensor that compensates for field rotation
- Built-in guidescope
- Free framing: composing the image at any angle
90 mm opening
The aperture determines how much light a telescope collects, and in astrophotography, light is everything. A 90 mm objective lens captures well over three times as much light as a 50 mm objective lens. In practice, that means: faint nebulae and galaxies come into view faster, with more detail, and you need less time for the same result.
Exposures up to 300 seconds
Most smart telescopes use short exposures of ten to sixty seconds, which the software then stacks on top of each other. The Draco can expose up to 300 seconds per capture. A single five-minute exposure contains less noise than five one-minute exposures, and you can see that difference especially in the faint parts of a nebula.
Built-in guidescope
Long exposures are only useful if the telescope stays locked onto the target the entire time. For this, the Draco has a second, small scope on board: the guidescope. This keeps an eye on a star and adjusts the tracking in real time. In a traditional astrophotography setup, this is a separate guide camera with its own software. Here, it is simply built right in.
Rotary sensor against field rotation
A telescope that tracks the sky on a regular tripod slowly rotates the star field during a long exposure. That is called field rotation, and it is the reason smart telescopes normally keep their exposures short. The Draco solves this mechanically: the sensor itself rotates along, at the exact same speed as the image rotates. This way, stars remain nicely round even during exposures of minutes.
Framing from every angle
That same rotating sensor has another advantage. In the app, you can choose the angle at which you want an object in frame, landscape, portrait, or anywhere in between, and the sensor rotates accordingly. The telescope itself does not need to be repositioned for this. Handy for elongated objects like the Andromeda Galaxy, and for mosaics where you stitch multiple images together.
Choose your angle in the app
You see directly in the app which piece of the sky is in frame and rotate the framing until the composition is right. The app immediately calculates how long the exposure or mosaic will take. You don't have to do more than that: the Draco focuses itself, finds the object, and holds it.
Cooled sensor and anti-dew
A warm sensor produces noise, and with long exposures, that noise quickly accumulates. The Draco actively cools the sensor, resulting in cleaner images. The heat released in the process is not wasted: the Draco uses it to keep the lens free of dew. Anyone who has ever seen a clear night end with a fogged-up lens knows why that is a welcome feature.
Who is the Draco for?
For everyone who knows smart telescopes and wants to take it a step further. Anyone who wants to capture more serious deep-sky images normally ends up with a separate mount, camera, guider, and the accompanying learning curve. The Draco packs those components into a single device that you set up and operate via the app. Are you in doubt whether this is the right device for you, or do you want to know how it compares to the other smart telescopes in our range? Feel free to call or email us, we are happy to help you think it through.
Price and delivery time
Dwarflab has not yet announced the price and the delivery date. As soon as they do, we will post it here. Would you like a heads-up when the Draco is available to order? Sign up for our newsletter, and you will be the first to know.
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