Thank you for the review. I thought it was mostly spot on, but I would like to share my own observations as a regular, simple, backyard star gazer who now has a Vespera.
My Pops turned me onto the stars and planets when I was single digits. I've been fortunate for the encouragement and accessibility to a range of telescopes from refractors to reflectors, mostly tiny by some comparisons. I think the biggest I ever had was a 4" reflector. I loved planet gazing but could never really see nebulae or galaxies with the equipment I've had, and couldn't really afford any better.
The Vespera Kickstarter just happen to show up on my radar when I was doing really well at work and got my first decent bonus in some time so I decided I would go for it and buy into this device.
I've been mostly disappointed with the investment. For context, I live in the burbs in your typical subdivision in the states. Once the city put in street lamps, my religious viewing of every major meteor shower mostly came to a halt, but it's not like the city center or anything.
My observations:
PROS:
1. Setup and initial imaging will make you pure giddy! App is not bad. The connectivity range is OK so you can sit inside and enjoy. I was able to image the Hercules cluster easily for the first go and was ecstatic! Beyond that, hasn't been great under my conditions.
CONS:
1. It's not as great handling light pollution as often stated. At least not for me. I still have available targets frequently rejected even though in the backyard with (annoying) street lamps blocked by the house. They are those amber ones but don't know if that matters, but again not like I am right downtown
2. I can't leave it out overnight. We get heavy due that settles in the morning here in the Southern USA. I have to bring it in immediately after a session from the worry of damage. Some of my best placement positions might require I place the device in hard to reach place, like the back part of my roof. Furthermore, my best viewing windows are often 1 - 4 AM and it stinks having to break it down. I'd love it if I could leave it out for multiple days when no concern for rain or other elements.
3. The little bubble level pops off easily so go ahead and get one that you can install between the mount and the telescope. Searching the lawn for a lost bubble level was a pain until I just chucked it for the replacement that stays put
4. The fact I couldn't use all that awesome positioning and remote control to view closer objects like the moon and planets was a huge disappointment for me. When I spent my money, I assumed it if it worked for far-off galaxies, surely it would work for closer objects like my favorite Jupiter. I don't think that was made clear in the initial descriptions. Even more of a disappointment is that I have been flamed by some in the community when I mentioned my disappointment in this limitation, and how 'I should have paid more attention' and 'that's not what it's for' and 'you clearly don't know what you're doing' and similar rags. Wasn't cool for a community with shared interests.
As a software guy myself, I am still not convinced you couldn't get way better imaging of nearby objects with all that tech and some tweaks to the software/firmware.
I am still happy that I supported the project. However, I do hope for better results next time I can visit back home and get really far out into wide open dark spaces. So far though, as this general backyard guy who has always been looking up, just haven't got much from it.
Thx again for coverage.
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