This Smartphone Telescope Brought Tears To My Eyes With Stunning Photos - How It Works

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• The Vaonis Hestia is simply a smartphone scope instrumentality that retails for $300.
• The Hestia does good astatine capturing elaborate photos of planets and nan stars, and an intuitive app helps guideline you.
• It is an costly instrumentality that takes immoderate getting utilized to, and nan amended smartphone camera you have, nan amended value photos you will get.

Amidst each nan doomscrolling, TV binging, and overworking, we've forgotten to look up astatine nan entity each erstwhile successful a while. I've made it a constituent to do truthful erstwhile I received a scope arsenic a day coming past year, and it's changed nan measurement I look astatine life.

The scope I sewage was a $300 tabletop device, and while it's awesome for seeing nan craters connected nan satellite aliases moreover Saturn's faint rings pinch your ain eyes, taking a photograph utilizing it is little than ideal. Recently, however, I sewage a chance to to effort retired Vaonis' Hestia smartphone telescope -- a instrumentality designed to lick this very problem. 

The Hestia isn't really a scope astatine all, but it aligns your smartphone camera pinch its ocular to cod and attraction nan ray straight into your smartphone's camera sensor. A six-lens optical creation featuring a 30mm nonsubjective and 25x magnification allows you to spot nan planets and stars done nan lens of your smartphone (you tin cheque retired nan database of compatible phones connected nan company's website), making nan entity accessible to anyone. 

Setting it up is easy enough, arsenic it weighs little than 2 pounds and attaches easy to a tripod. It useful pinch immoderate smartphone -- conscionable align your phone's main camera onto nan Hesita and unafraid it successful place. What really makes nan entity travel live is Hestia's free app, Gravity. 

Also: New photographer? Here's nan camera I urge (and no, it's not a Sony)

This well-designed app shows you a representation of nan sky, allowing you to prime a satellite aliases a prima cluster, and uses your phone's GPS to guideline you wherever to purpose nan instrumentality truthful you tin seizure a photo. There are different camera "modes" you tin take from, for illustration scenery, sun, moon, heavy sky, and planet. 

I had already dabbled successful nighttime entity photography pinch my tabletop telescope, truthful I was looking guardant to pitting nan Hestia against nan results I sewage from a regular scope and my iPhone 16. 

As pinch immoderate type of photography, it takes immoderate playing astir pinch to study really to champion seizure nan moon. Focusing tin beryllium a deed aliases a miss pinch nan Hestia But erstwhile I was capable to understand nan app and camera modes, nan photos I captured were retired of this world. 

Allison Murray/ZDNET

I took a photograph of nan satellite connected 2 abstracted occasions, and nan Hestia does a awesome occupation astatine capturing nan moon's craters, contrast, and infinitesimal details. 

Allison Murray/ZDNET

And for nan heavy entity setting, nan Hestia stacks together aggregate agelong exposures to build 1 azygous image. I pointed up astatine a prima cluster and was really capable to seizure small specs of stars connected a photo–something that I wasn't moreover adjacent to being capable to do pinch my iPhone connected my regular telescope. 

Allison Murray/ZDNET

However, this instrumentality is solely for taking pictures, and while you tin still spot nan stars and satellite done your phone, location is thing uniquely typical astir looking done a existent scope lens and seeing nan satellite up close. In fact, nan first clip I utilized my scope to look astatine nan afloat moon, tears were brought to my eyes having ne'er seen nan satellite this adjacent before. 

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In addition, support successful mind that your smartphone's camera value will impact nan wide value of photos you are capable to return pinch nan Hestia. 

But if you're personification willing successful photography aliases simply capturing moments successful nan sky, nan Hestia is really a worthwhile instrumentality that does a stellar occupation astatine taking photos of nan nighttime entity that we truthful often return for granted. 

ZDNET's buying advice 

For astir nan aforesaid value arsenic a decent tabletop telescope, you tin bargain nan Hestia if you're main extremity is taking photos of nan nighttime sky. The app does a awesome occupation of guiding you to nan correct location to seizure a elaborate photo. If you're looking to dip your toes into photography and want to seizure and stock photos, nan Hestia is worthy checking out. 

It retails for $300 for nan bundle that includes a tripod, a transportation case, and a particulate cover. But you tin besides acquisition it for arsenic small arsenic $189, depending connected what accessories you whitethorn want.