DWARFLAB Draco smart telescope

The Draco is Dwarflab's new smart telescope, and the first smart telescope in this price range to combine a 90 mm aperture, an actively cooled sensor, a built-in guidescope, and a field-rotation-correcting rotating sensor. Features that you normally only get with a separate mount, camera, and guider are packed into a single 5.5 kg housing. You set it down, open the app, and the Draco does the rest.

The Draco comes in two editions: the Standard Edition (€ 1,499) and the SHO Edition (€ 1,699). The difference lies in the built-in filters; later on, we will explain which one suits you. Both editions are now available for pre-order. We expect the first units by the end of the year.

In brief

• 90 mm aperture, 340 mm brand focal length, f/3.8, catadioptric design
• 50-megapixel sensor (1/1.3 inch) with active cooling
• Exposures up to 300 seconds per shot
• Built-in guidescope with its own sensor that adjusts tracking in real-time
• Rotary sensor (±90°) that compensates for field rotation and allows you to frame at any angle
• Second wide-angle camera (50 megapixels, f/1.9) for Milky Way, landscape and northern lights
• Built-in filters: Standard Edition with duo-narrowband Hα+OIII and ND solar filter, SHO Edition with Hα+OIII and SII+OIII
• Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, and USB-C 3.0, with 128 GB of onboard storage
• 77 Wh battery for about 5 hours in astro mode, IP56, works from -20 to 45 °C
• 5.5 kg, tripod included, polar alignment not required

90 mm opening

The aperture determines how much light a telescope gathers, and in astrophotography, light is everything. A 90-mm lens captures more than three times as much light as a 50-mm lens. In practice, this means that faint nebulae and galaxies become visible more quickly, with greater detail, and you need less time to achieve the same result. Thanks to its catadioptric design (a combination of lenses and mirrors), this 90 mm telescope with a brand focal length of 340 mm still fits into a compact housing.

Exposures up to 300 seconds

Most smart telescopes use short exposures of ten to sixty seconds, which the software then stacks together. The Draco can expose up to 300 seconds per shot. A single five-minute exposure contains less read noise than five one-minute exposures, and that difference is especially visible 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 upright, without polar alignment, sees the star field slowly rotate 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 (up to 90 degrees to both sides), at precisely the same speed as the image rotates. This way, stars remain nicely round even during exposures of minutes. If you still want to get the absolute most out of long exposures, the Draco also features an EQ mode. For that, you tilt the entire scope to your latitude, and that is not possible with the included tripod. You will then need a sturdy tripod with a wedge that can support 5.5 kilos. For most users, the regular mode is more than sufficient.

Framing from every angle

That same rotating sensor offers another advantage. In the app, you 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. This is useful for elongated objects like the Andromeda Galaxy, and for mosaics where you stitch multiple images together. You create such a mosaic in the app: you stretch the frame up to 1.8 times per side, and the Draco photographs the parts one after the other and stitches them together itself.

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.

Built for outdoors

The Draco is protected against dust and water in accordance with IP56 and operates at temperatures from -20 to 45 °C, so even on a freezing January night. The built-in 77 Wh battery lasts for about five hours in astro mode. Charging is via USB-C and takes about three hours.

Standard of SHO: which edition is right for you?

Both editions are optically and mechanically identical. The difference lies in the filters built in behind the main lens.

The Standard Edition is the logical choice for most people. With the Hα+OIII filter, you can capture emission nebulae such as the Orion Nebula, the North America Nebula, and the Veil Nebula even from a town or city, and with the built-in solar filter, you can photograph sunspots during the day.

The SHO Edition is for those who primarily photograph nebulae and want to take their photography to the next level. With Hα, OIII, and SII, you have all three lines needed for the famous Hubble palette: you can combine images taken with both filters to create the golden-blue nebula images you’re familiar with from the Hubble Space Telescope. Please note: The SHO Edition does not have a built-in solar filter; instead, it comes as a separate magnetic clip-on filter. So you can still use it to photograph sunspots—you just need to attach the filter to the main lens yourself; with the Standard Edition, you activate it via the app. You’ll notice this difference most when operating the Draco remotely.

What can you do with it?

Deep-sky is what the Draco is built for: nebulae, galaxies, and star clusters, with long exposures and a cooled sensor. The Moon comes into sharp focus with a brand point spread function of 340 mm and a resolution of 0.73 arcseconds per pixel. Planets are observable with a 90 mm aperture; you can see Jupiter’s bands and Saturn’s rings, but they remain small in the field of view at a 340 mm focal length. If you want planets to fill the screen, a telescope with a long focal length remains the better choice.

The second camera, a 50-megapixel wide-angle at f/1.9, exposes for up to 90 seconds and is designed for the Milky Way, northern lights, star trails, and landscapes. And because the main lens already focuses from 25 meters, you can also use the Draco as a telephoto lens for birds and nature during the day.

Specifications

In the box

• DRACO smart telescope
• Aluminum table stand
• USB-C cable and cleaning cloth
• In addition, the magnetic solar filter is included in the box with the SHO edition

Who is the Draco for?

For anyone who knows smart telescopes and wants to take the next step. Anyone who wants to capture more serious deep-sky images normally ends up with a separate mount, camera, guider, and the associated learning curve. The Draco packs those components into a single device that you set up and operate via the app. At 5.5 kilos, it is a lot heavier than a Dwarf 3 or Seestar, but you do not need a tripod or polar alignment: the rotating sensor and guidescope handle what you would otherwise have to do with an EQ setup. You place it on a sturdy surface and start. If you are in doubt whether this is the right device for you, or if 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 think along with you.

Delivery time

You can now reserve the Draco; you pay when placing the order and that puts you on the list for the first delivery. We expect the first units around November. That is an indication: as soon as Dwarflab finalizes the shipping date, you will receive it from us by email. Until then, you can cancel your reservation free of charge.