The best smart telescopes bring you incredible views of the night sky, but their great optics and cutting-edge imaging technology mean they tend to be much more expensive than their traditional counterparts.
With a smart telescope, tomorrow you'll be able to observe the moon very near the stars Castor and Pollux, part of the Gemini constellation (read more in our skywatching guide).
With a smart telescope, you can observe the Cold Moon — the final full moon of the year — in wonderful detail when it rises big and bright on Dec. 15. A good smart telescope will let you zoom in on famous lunar features, including craters and even Apollo landing sites (read more in our moon observation guide). December is also a great month to hunt for planets, like Jupiter and Mars, which will be visible all month. The long night hours, peaking with the Northern Hemisphere's winter solstice on Dec. 21, will give you ample opportunities to try out your new gear.
Designed with novice astronomers and seasoned stargazers in mind, smart telescopes greatly enhance your skywatching experience. They can be controlled via a smartphone app, and come equipped with integrated electronics and connectivity features to make locating and observing celestial objects a breeze.
If you want something more traditional, our best telescopes guide has a range of versatile models, and if you're after specialized scopes, check out the best telescopes for seeing planets and best telescopes for deep space. For more budget-friendly options, we have a guide to the best beginner telescopes.
The quick list
Below is a quick overview of all the products in this guide — if there's a particular smart scope you like the look of, click the picture or the 'read more below' button and it'll take you straight to a more in-depth review.
Best overall
For stunning views of the cosmos, this stylish grab-and-go telescope is hard to beat. We had a few minor issues with it, but overall we think it's a fantastic smart telescope.
Best for larger budgets
For astrophotography, this is as close to perfect as you can currently get, but it's the most expensive option on this list so it's mainly designed for seasoned astronomers with a big budget.
Best for resolution
An incredible smart telescope that is inexpensive, beginner-friendly and produces amazing images of nebulas with its 8.3MP sensor.
Best for versatility
A smart telescope that gives stunning views of planets and deep space, it's also lightweight enough to take with you to remote sites.
Best for portability
This smart telescope is small, affordable and fun — and most importantly, provides great images of the night sky. Its compact design makes it ideal for carrying around.
Best budget
This is the lightest and cheapest option on this list, perfect for travelling to dark sky sites, although the image resolution and price cater more to beginners with a lower budget.
Best for light pollution
With impressive CLS (City Light Suppression), the Stellina produces beautiful images that are accurate and true to color with no trace of light pollution. However, it could be too heavy to take outside of your backyard.
The best smart telescopes we recommend in 2024
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Best overall
✅ You want a telescope you can grow with: This scope is good for all experience levels, so you won't need to upgrade.
✅ You live in a town or city: It has a Smart Light Pollution Reduction feature, ideal for users who don't live near a dark sky site and want to use it in their backyard.
✅ You want to do long nights of stargazing: It has the longest battery life on this list at 11 hours.
❌ You want excellent moon views: Although we were impressed by the views of galaxies and deep space, we thought the lunar views were lacking.
❌ You're on a budget: You're unlikely to find a budget-friendly smart telescope and this one definitely isn't the cheapest.
🔎 Unistellar eQuinox 2: An easy-to-use motorized smart telescope that can locate night sky objects with the press of a button, it can have you exploring the stars in minutes with no prior knowledge. ★★★★½
Like most smart telescopes, the Unistellar Equinox 2 has an incredibly sleek and stylish design. It's almost identical to its predecessor, the Equinox. The simple design with a single button on the telescope itself makes this scope very easy to use, a dream for beginners who might not have any experience with telescopes.
In our Unistellar eQuinox 2 review, we noted that the app is well laid out, really fast and intuitive to use. It is divided into three distinct sections, allowing you to switch between telescope operation, engage with the astronomy community and monitor/change settings.
Overall, this telescope performs extremely well, making it easy to move around and search for different things in the night sky. One great feature is the Smart Light Pollution Reduction, perfect for people in cities and urban areas who want to stargaze in their back yard. We were blown away by the images it produced: We observed breathtaking galaxies like M51 (the Whirlpool Galaxy), M82 (the Cigar Galaxy), and several star clusters. However, we weren't too impressed with the lunar views, which seemed lacklustre in comparison.
If you plan to take the Unistellar eQuinox 2 out and about, we'd highly recommend buying the dedicated backpack, as it's a bit of a struggle to carry otherwise. Our only other quibble is that it doesn't orientate until it's already dark, so if you like to get set up in advance before the sun sets, you might have to rethink your schedule. In the winter months, however, and when you're in areas with a very dark sky, the eQuinox 2's GoTo function works wonderfully.
- Read our full Unistellar eQuinox 2 review
| Attributes | Notes |
|---|---|
| Design | Slim, sleek, neat package. |
| Performance | Impressive view of galaxies and nebulas. |
| Functionality | Doesn't orientate until well after twilight, easy once oriented. |
Best for larger budgets
✅ You focus on astrophotography: For users who want to capture stunning images of the night sky, this is the scope to go for.
✅ You favor ease of use: This scope is incredibly simple to use, perfect for those who don't want to spend ages finding celestial objects themselves.
❌ You don't have a large budget: This scope is on the higher end of the spectrum when it comes to cost, so users who don't have a big budget may want to consider other options.
❌ You're not fussed about astrophotography: If you aren't bothered about capturing detailed astrophotos, there are more suitable options out there that cost a lot less.
🔎 Unistellar eVscope 2: A fantastically designed telescope, brilliant for photographers who want to get into astronomy and have the budget or astronomers who want an all-in-one system that’s simple to use and set up. ★★★★½
The Unistellar eVscope 2 is a beautifully designed telescope with a minimalist feel and solid quality all around.
As we noted in our Unistellar eVscope 2 telescope review, it's easy to tell that every aspect of the telescope has been carefully designed. The Nikon eyepiece is comfortable to use and gives it more of a traditional feel, although the soft rubber surrounding does tend to trap dust and fibers.
If it wasn't for the eVscope 2's eye-watering price tag — $5,000 — we'd recommend it as one of the best smart telescopes for beginners. In theory, it absolutely is thanks to its easy set up and intuitive controls, but very few astronomy beginners will have such a large budget to spend. If you do? Look no further.
One thing to note is that this telescope is solely operated through an app, so with just a tap of your phone screen. Since you'll need to rely on your phone for Unistellar's compatible app, make sure you come prepared with a fully-charged battery, or bring one of the best power banks out with you.
Although the image can sometimes lag, the Explore mode is really helpful for astronomers of any skill level. It accurately shows you all the objects visible in the night sky based on the date and time you're using it, which greatly reduces the guesswork.
The 7.7MP camera isn't as good as a regular telescope with an eyepiece, but it's definitely on par with if not even better than many specialized astrocams on the market. We think it's as close to perfect as you can get right now for beginner astrophotographers.
Overall, there's no denying that the $5,000 price tag will make it inaccessible to many users. But when you think about the technology it packs, it's akin to one of the best mirrorless cameras on the market, so we think it's worth the money if you can afford it.
- Read our full Unistellar eVscope 2 telescope review
| Attributes | Notes |
|---|---|
| Design | Incredibly stunning looks and solid telescope construction. |
| Performance | Object go-to is intuitive and fast. |
| Functionality | App allows you to easily go-to celestial objects. |
Best for resolution
✅ You want detailed images: The 8.3MP sensor produces amazing images, with the ability to boost it to 24MP with Vaonis' Live Mosaic Capture.
✅ You want to travel with it: While slightly heavier than the original Vespera, the Vespera II is still incredibly portable.
❌ You want to see planets: The Vespera II is best suited for nebulas and deep space viewing.
❌ You want to do long sessions: The battery life has decreased to 4 hours, so it won't suit long stargazing sessions unless you have a power bank.
Vaonis Vespera II: An incredible smart telescope that is inexpensive, beginner-friendly and produces amazing images of nebulas. We were very impressed, although the short battery life is disappointing. ★★★★★
We liked the original Vespera, but our main complaint was the underwhelming 2MP images it produced, lacking clarity and detail. Thankfully, with the release of the Vespera II, Vaonis has boosted the megapixel count by over four times: It's now capable of taking 8.3MP images, the highest of any smart telescope on this list. Better yet, Vaonis' patented Live Mosaic Capture can boost the resolution up to a massive 24MP.
The Vespera II features live autofocus and image enhancement which automatically gets rid of bad images and uses image-stacking to enhance clarity in real-time. Extra-low dispersion glass is used to ensure fantastic image quality across the field of view, and the telescope saves images as RAW files which you can edit in one of the best photo editing apps. It produces fantastic images of nebulas with incredible detail and clarity, although it isn't any good for planetary viewing.
One drawback of this telescope is its short battery life. It's super portable and easy to carry around, so it's a shame that the battery only lasts for 4 hours, especially when you compare it to the original Vespera which had an 8-hour battery life. Technically, you can take it out to remote dark sky spots thanks to its portability, but you'll only have 4 hours of use (without a power bank) once you're there. Plus, it doesn't include a tripod, so you'll have to spend extra money on top of the $1,590 price tag, which is disappointing. Other than that, it's a great all-in-one kit that's good to go right out of the box.
We are currently reviewing the Vaonis Vespera II and will update this list once our full review is published. So far though, we are mightily impressed, especially for the price and are rating it highly. However, there are a few quirks and limitations that prevent us from placing it higher in this guide.
| Attributes | Notes |
|---|---|
| Design | Portable and fairly lightweight, although it doesn't come with a tripod. |
| Performance | Produces amazing images of nebulas, but isn't good for viewing planets. |
| Functionality | Battery life has decreased to 4 hours. |
Best for versatility
✅ You're into astrophotography: This scope can view the moon, planets and deep space, making it a great all-rounder for astrophotography.
✅ You want to travel with it: It's substantially lighter than the other models in the Unistellar range, so it's great for taking to remote dark sky sites.
❌ You're on a budget: Although it's not a scope you'd need to replace any time soon, not everyone's budget stretches to $3,999.
❌ You want super detailed images: If high resolution is what you're after, the Equinox 2 or eVscope 2 would be a better option.
🔎 Unistellar Odyssey Pro: An ideal blend of portability with stunning optical views, the Odyssey Pro is great for viewing all types of celestial objects and is light enough to take on stargazing trips with you. ★★★★
If you've been reading this guide and wishing there was a telescope combining the optical prowess of Unistellar scopes with the portability of the Vespera, then you're in luck. The Odyssey Pro is the newest offering from Unistellar, and it seems to hit that sweet spot.
While it doesn't quite match the resolution of the Equinox 2 or the eVscope 2, the Odyssey Pro stands out for its portability. Weighing just 14.3 lbs (6.5kg) for the complete kit, it's noticeably lighter and easier to handle than these two scopes, which weigh 19.8 lbs (9kg) each. This makes it a better choice if you want to take it along with you to remote dark sky locations.
One thing to note is the Odyssey Pro does have a shorter battery life compared to the other Unistellar telescopes in this guide. It'll last around five hours after a full charge, so if you're planning a long night of stargazing, you'll want to pack a power bank into your kit.
We're currently testing and reviewing the Unistellar Odyssey Pro, and we will update this guide once the review is published. Based on the information on Unistellar's website, however, we're expecting the telescope to be 'excellent' for deep-sky viewing and 'very good' for planetary observations (better than Unistellar's own rating of the eVscope, which is only 'good' for planets). We were disappointed with the lunar views from the Equinox 2, so we're very intrigued to see if the Odyssey Pro performs any better in that area.
| Attributes | Notes |
|---|---|
| Design | Sleek black finish, more lightweight than the other Unistellar models. |
| Performance | Very good for viewing planets and excellent for deep space. |
| Functionality | 5 hours battery life is decent, but not as long as the other Unistellar models. |
Best for portability
✅ You want something portable: Relatively light and easy to store, it's a great choice if you need something to move around with.
✅ You're on a budget: This is one of the cheapest smart telescopes on the market, so it's a great place to start.
❌ You want good quality images: It's only capable of 2MP images, so they're not going to be the best quality.
❌ You need a long-lasting battery: Its 6,000mAh battery lasts around six hours, but you can attach a portable battery to it.
🔎 ZWO SeeStar Z50: Affordable and lightweight, the ZWO SeeStar Z50 is a great beginner smart telescope. Its short battery life and low megapixel count mean that expert users might want to look elsewhere, but you won't find a better option in this price range. ★★★★½
If you're a beginner astronomer or looking to buy your first smart telescope, the ZWO SeeStar S50 is a great choice. There's an awful lot to like here: it's budget-friendly, small and portable, easy to set up, and it has intuitive app support.
At around $499, it's a fraction of the price of some other smart telescopes in this guide, and that alone is going to be attractive to newcomers. For that price, you're getting a very capable telescope that auto-aligns with the stars and has a delightfully easy setup process. The ZWO SeeStar 50 is a versatile choice, as it can be used to create long-exposure images of deep-sky objects, but also for solar astronomy in daylight.
We're currently testing and reviewing the ZWO SeeStar S50; in our upcoming review, we remarked that it's small enough to fit in a backpack and can even be grasped with just one hand. Thanks to its carbon fiber tripod, it's relatively lightweight, and with the carry case included, it's easy to pack away and carry around. Its design is one of the most compact on this list, which makes it a great choice for users who want to take it on a hike.
| Attributes | Notes |
|---|---|
| Design | Small in size with a solid build quality |
| Performance | Easy to use with a function that auto-aligns with the stars |
| Functionality | The SeeStar app is intuitive and easy to use, although its 'Recommended' section is lacking |
Best budget
✅ You're on a budget: ...relatively speaking. Compared to traditional scopes it seems expensive, but it's the cheapest smart telescope on this list, so this is the one to get if you can't stretch your budget very far.
✅ You want something lightweight to travel with: It's also the lightest option on this list at just 11 lbs / 5kg, making it a great option to take to dark sky sites.
❌ You want to view the moon and planets: It's more suited to deep-sky viewing, so it's best to avoid it if you want lunar or planetary views.
❌ You want good quality images: While the images it captures are acceptable, they lack sharpness and resolution.
🔎 Vaonis Vespera Observation Station: An easy-to-use and futuristic-looking scope for beginners in light-polluted cities, the Vaonis Vespera Observation Station features impressive live image-stacking for galaxies and nebulas but it lacks resolution and can't image planets. ★★★★½
The Vaonis Vespera is one of the smallest smart telescopes on the market, standing at just 15 inches/40cm tall and weighing only 11lbs/5kg. It's a sleek-looking piece of equipment with a futuristic, curved design and a very minimal appearance.
We would definitely recommend the Vaonis Vespera for beginners thanks to its affordability, ease of use and user-friendly features. There's nothing much to see, physically speaking, aside from one button and a motorized arm.
In our full Vaonis Vespera review, we found putting it up and calibrating it incredibly easy. You just put it on the ground, unfold it and wait for it to calibrate itself. We thought it coped really well with light pollution, making it a great contender if you live in an urban area, although it's not the best choice for viewing planets or the moon.
Our main complaint was that the images it produces are low resolution: they're 2MP, or 1920x1080, which is pretty underwhelming. For beginners and those wanting to take casual images of the night sky, it's probably enough, but for astrophotographers and astronomers wanting to capture detailed, technical images of the night sky, you'll want to look for a smart telescope with a higher pixel count.
We are currently reviewing the newer Vespera II — it has more megapixels and is only marginally more expensive than the original Vespera, so keep your eyes peeled for that.
- Read our full Vaonis Vespera review
| Attributes | Notes |
|---|---|
| Design | Futuristic curvy design. |
| Performance | Copes well with light pollution but can't observe planets. |
| Functionality | Easy to set-up. |
Best for light pollution
✅ You live in an urban area: It has impressive CLS (City Light Suppression), eliminating light pollution from cities and towns.
✅ You want good images: Its 6.2MP camera is the second-best on this list, and we found the images impressive even in unfavorable conditions.
❌ You want something lightweight: It's the heaviest option on this list.
❌ You want to photograph planets: It's not ideal for planetary viewing, so check out one of the smart scopes from Unistellar.
❌ You're a beginner: While it's easy enough to use once you get the hang of it, there are a few aspects that could trip beginners up.
🔎 Vaonis Stellina: Easy to control it provides delightful images directly to your phone or tablet within minutes. Once you have mastered the setup process, it trades versatility for ease of use. ★★★★
The Vaonis Stellina is the Vespera's older sister, featuring more megapixels and magnification. On the flipside, it's also heavier and more expensive.
As we noted in our Vaonis Stellina review, it does have a couple of small design niggles, but none of them are dealbreakers. Overall, we thought it was sleek, compact and robust.
While it's quite easy to carry with the backpack, it's important to note that the Vaonis Stellina is the heaviest smart telescope in this lineup, weighing in at 24.25 lbs /11kg. As a result, we'd recommend this scope if if you live in a city and intend on stargazing from your backyard, as its CLS (City Light Suppression) effectively removes any traces of light pollution from the images. We found that the stars and nebulas were accurately represented, although the star quality wasn't as sharp as we hoped.
One complaint we found with the Stellina, however, is that its instructions are rather poor (actually, they're practically non-existent). If you're not well-versed in smart telescopes, its set-up and functionality might well leave you scratching your head. Thankfully, it's fairly straightforward to understand, but a simple quick set-up guide included in the box could make a world of difference.
What's neat is that once the Stellina is set up, you can leave it outside doing its thing while you go indoors in the warmth. Thanks to its app functionality, you can keep viewing the results from your phone while choosing new targets to capture. The only caveat is you need to be within 10 yards of it, but if you're using it in your own backyard, that shouldn't be a problem.
- Read our full Vaonis Stellina review
| Attributes | Notes |
|---|---|
| Design | Suitcase shaped, although it's the heaviest on this list. |
| Performance | CLS leaves no trace of light pollution. |
| Functionality | Poor instructions could be tricky for beginners. |
Best smart telescopes: Comparison
| Product | Rating |
| Unistellar eQuinox 2 | ★★★★½ |
| Unistellar eVscope 2 | ★★★★½ |
| ZWO SeeStar S50 smart telescope | ★★★★½ |
| Vaonis Vespera II | ★★★★★ |
| Unistellar Odyssey Pro | ★★★★½ |
| Vaonis Vespera | ★★★★½ |
| Vaonis Stellina | ★★★★ |
Reviews coming soon
Some exciting new smart telescopes are coming to market in 2024. Keep your eyes peeled for the ones below... We'll review them as soon as we can get hold of them.
Vaonis Hestia: As the first ever smartphone-based telescope, this will allow you to simply place your smartphone on Hestia's ocular, align it with the celestial object of your choice and be treated to a whole new world of exploration. The unit itself isn't much bigger than a phone, weighing just 1.87 lbs (850g) and measures 6.7 x 9.5 x 2.2 inches (17 x 24 x 5.5cm), taking stargazing to a whole new level of portability. It operates without electronics, so there's no battery (and therefore no risk of power loss). It retails for around $299.
Vaonis Vespera Pro: It seems Vaonis have upped their astrophotography game with the Vespera Pro, which will include a 12.5MP sensor — the most detailed of any smart telescope so far, and you can even bump it up to 32MP in panorama mode. They've improved the battery life from 4 hours up to a huge 11 hours, and it has a feature called Master Dark Automatic Calibration. Considering we struggled to get it to calibrate until well after twilight, this will be an interesting feature. This has the potential to be a fantastic smart telescope for astrophotographers, starting at $2499 and available in May 2024.
Celestron Origin: Celestron has also now entered the smart telescope game with the Origin. We love their more traditional telescopes, so we can't wait to try out their first smart telescope. Not for the faint of heart, it's on the more expensive end of the spectrum ($3999) and it's a big boy, with the total system weighing 41.6 lbs (18.87kg) — definitely one for the backyard. It has a 6.44MP sensor and a focal ratio of f/2.2 which lets in a ton of light — more than any of the options currently in this guide. It's on preorder now with an estimated arrival time of late March/early April 2024.
Smart telescope FAQs
What's the difference between a smart telescope and a traditional telescope?
Unlike traditional telescopes, smart telescopes are designed to be autonomous. With minimal to no set-up required, you should be able to put the telescope outside, sync it with a smartphone app, and start observing and imaging the night sky immediately.
They are especially useful for beginner astronomers with little night sky knowledge, and most have light pollution suppression systems in place to produce good images in cities.
Are smart telescopes only for advanced users?
Not at all. In fact they're a fantastic option for beginners as their fully-automated controls and features do a lot of the work for you! They're super user-friendly and you don't need to have any prior knowledge of telescopes or what's in the night sky, as the smart telescope will have an extensive database of celestial objects to choose from, so you just need to select one (that's visible in the night sky) and it'll take you to it automatically.
The only thing that could potentially be a dealbreaker for beginners is the price, as, unsurprisingly, smart telescopes are a lot more expensive than traditional telescopes. That said, the cheapest option on this list is around $1500. Plus, there's less chance you'll outgrow a smart telescope as your skills grow, so it'll prove to be a good investment in the long run if you can afford it.
Are smart telescopes worth it?
In our opinion, yes. If you're more of a traditionalist then a smart telescope may not be the best choice for you, but we think smart telescopes are a fantastic option for anyone who wants to get into stargazing without the steep learning curve. They're expensive, sure, but you're less likely to outgrow a smart telescope because they cater to users of all skill levels, plus they don't skimp on tech (not to mention, some of them include eyepieces from some of the top camera brands like Nikon).
How we test the best smart telescopes
To guarantee you're getting honest, up-to-date recommendations on the best smart telescopes to buy here at Space.com we make sure to put every smart telescope through a rigorous review to fully test each instrument. Each smart telescope is reviewed based on numerous aspects, from its construction and design, to how well it functions as an optical instrument and its performance in the field.
Our expert staff and knowledgeable freelance contributors thoroughly test each smart telescope. This ensures honest reviewing based on the smart telescope's price, category, and intended use.
With complete editorial independence, Space.com are here to ensure you get the best buying advice on smart telescopes, whether you should purchase an instrument or not, making our buying guides and reviews reliable and transparent.
Aside from this comprehensive list, we do also have brand-specific telescope guides for Celestron, Skywatcher, Meade, and Orion deals for those loyal to their favorite brands. Like this guide, we also keep those updated year-round, so they're always worth checking out. There are plenty of stores out there that dabble in skywatching equipment as well. Do Best Buy sell telescopes? They sure do, and we have a guide on Telescopes at Best Buy.
Still wondering 'what telescope should I buy'? We have also selected our favorite budget telescopes under $500, best beginner telescopes and best telescopes for kids and not just what the best telescope to buy for adults is, in case you're looking for those specifically.
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