Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Vaonis STELLINA Observation Station and Hybrid Telescope with Gitzo Systematic Short Tripod

Top positive review

An accessible ticket into the universe.

Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2020

This telescope is absolutely incredible! You plop it out, wifi to it with your phone and then through the app it can search any object for you. The telescope is the most user friendly and accessible telescope on the market. The app is professionally made and very intuitive. Sure, you can get a much better quality telescope for the pricepoint, but that's a whole headache of parts you have to buy and an hour of setup time you have to work with. Astrophotography and amateur astronomy are not easy hobbies, but the Stellina works to change that and the face of these hobbies to not just be for professional enthusiasts, but everyone.

17 people found this helpful

Top critical review

Critical reviews›

Fool in FLA

Missing battery door compartment, and broken/loose USB-C connection to power UP !!!

Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2021

The software is superb, but the hardware is cheap junk. After only 3 or 4 uses the USB-C connector inside the unit pulled out when I pulled the cable out. Now it won't power up when I put the cable back in. $4000 for cheap USB connectors.

Mine didn't come with a battery door compartment cover either. Poor quality control.

Do NOT buy this product unless this come up with a better way to power it UP.

20 people found this helpful

13 total ratings, 7 with reviews

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From the United States

tinatuom

An accessible ticket into the universe.

Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2020

Verified Purchase

17 people found this helpful

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Fool in FLA

Missing battery door compartment, and broken/loose USB-C connection to power UP !!!

Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2021

20 people found this helpful

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Michael

Attached are a few photo's that I was able to take with the Stellina.

Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2020

Verified Purchase

It is so simple to use, it is rather amazing. The photo's I attached were taken from my back yard in Miami, Florida. The hard part is waiting for good weather. It would be 5 stars but I took one away because of the price, at $4,000 its out of reach for many people and I hope they are able to bring the price down in the future.

25 people found this helpful

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Jeff Paramchuk

Puts the universe at your fingertips

Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2020

Verified Purchase

This product is absolutely stunning. Stylish, and slick - but the real joy comes from exploring the sky from your own back yard. The Orion Nebula photo added was our first shot from the Stellina, and under less than ideal conditions (urban, high clouds). The user community is very helpful and worldwide - so not only do you get to explore the universe, but experience interactions with people worldwide and get to see their photos as well. The price was a big hurdle, but after a couple weeks with the unit and a few clear nights, there has been absolutely zero regret in this purchase.

20 people found this helpful

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Gary

This is my favorite invention ever,ever

Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2020

Verified Purchase

The Stelina Observation station is worth every penny and I recommend it to the astro world of people. I can not believe the images on my tablet, it is bringing the heavens to me from my balcony of every deep space objects

8 people found this helpful

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Mike

Adorama was great to work with. Very responsive to questions and helpful.

Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2020

Verified Purchase

Regarding Stellina smart telescope, I had problems with the timed exposures slowing down and stopping during recording. The GOTO function had problems finding an object 30 degrees above southern horizon.

8 people found this helpful

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Charlie

The Polaroid of astrophotography

Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2022

Take it out; plop it down; tell it to go to work.

I got my Stellina towards the start of the pandemic figuring it would be a good way to do sidewalk astronomy without people worrying about becoming contaminated looking through an eyepiece. That hasn't worked out as I planned. Most people don't want to stand around watching the same image pop up on my device every 15 seconds. They are even less interested in adding the free software to their device when they will probably never see me and NY Stellina again. They are curious about the device but a quick look at the image on my device and they move on.

Stellina takes dedication.

It is a heavy and cumbersome device to get to your observing location unless you have a car and are going to observe right next to it.

It takes a long time to make an image. The average object requires 45 minutes of data. Each image takes 10 seconds of exposure. If Stellina doesn't like the quality of an image it rejects it. I figure it will take twice as long to get the required images as the recommended exposure time. Since I observe from local parks which enforce curfews I only get to make 3 or 4 images a night.

Images get rejected due to vibration. Subways and passing traffic give it problems. Wind buffets the tube and its wind rating is 6mph. It is rare that my winds are not grater than 6mph.

If there are clouds out I will observe through them or in the sucker holes with a normal telescope. But if Stellina rejects too many (consecutive?) images due to clouds it terminates the observation part way through.

It also doesn't like temperatures below 32°F so observing in the clear, stable winter air is out. A temperature change of 2°F during an observation will throw focus off.

I have been tracking the weather since the first of the year and at the end of October have found that only 10% of the nights were not cloudy, raining, windy, too cold or had an AQI injurious to my health.

Given all of that, I am not sorry I purchased my Stellina. It can find objects in the sky that I can't and I have seen objects that I have never seen before. Integrating images over time has turned what I see as gray hints of something into detailed, multi-colored objects.

When I got into astronomy some 45 years ago it was because I wanted to make images like I saw in magazines and on TV. I quickly learned that my arms were to short and my pockets to long and that binocular astronomy was more in my price range.

Stellina is not cheap. But by the time you buy a good Apo telescope, heavy duty tripod and tracking mount, astronomy camera and filters, tracking scope and software, spend time setting all of that up and obsessing over polar alignment, and then spend more time processing the collected images, I think Stellina is a cost and time effective way to get into astrophotography as long as you aren't looking for publication quality images. Maybe I could even make publication quality images out of my raw captures if I took the time to learn stacking and image processing. But for now I am happy seeing things I have never seen before in a way it is not possible for my eyes to see them.

I get images that suite my needs with no muss or fuss.

5 people found this helpful

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