I Tried a $500 Smart Telescope. The Pictures I Took Speak for Themselves

Among the dozens of hobbies I’ve collected, photography is the most consistent. It’s my version of a journal — I may have chosen a career in writing, but I avoid it in my downtime. I’ve captured roughly 50,000 images in the 18 years since I bought my first digital camera, a Fujifilm FinePix S700. These days, I take most of my photos on a Google Pixel 8 Pro, but I dust off my Nikon DSLR (and even the S700) from time to time for specific projects.

I’ve used all of my cameras for astrophotography with varying levels of success. The main issue I faced was a total lack of tools to track the motion of stars during the long exposures. Astrophotography is hard but it doesn’t need to be.

Enter the $500 DwarfLab Dwarf 3 Smart Telescope, a feature-packed compact telescope I’ve been testing for the past two months. Not only has it changed my perspective on astrophotography without a bulky telescope and camera adapter setup, but it has excellent tools for other kinds of photography.

Excellent tech in a small package

As nice as the sensor and lenses are, the camera tops out at 4K resolution. In most circumstances, this would mean the camera is well-suited to creating images that look good on large displays. But it’s more limiting for astrophotography, especially compared to using a powerful DSLR with a powerful telescope. Still, Dwarf 3 is a great entry point for people who are interested in the hobby but don’t have the expensive equipment.

Much of the weight comes from an internal battery and motors. The battery weighs in at a hefty 10,000 mAh, which lasts up to 16 hours in standby mode, though you can expect between 5 and 7 hours of runtime in most of the photography modes — Dwarf 3 will last just over 3 hours for video. There’s a USB-C port on the telescope’s base so you can connect an external power supply or a computer. Putting the port on the base is also great because you don’t need to worry about cords impeding the telescope’s tracking features.

Digging into the DwarfLab App

Although each mode usually works without much adjustment, you can manually tweak a lot of settings like shutter speed, white balance, filters and focus to fit your needs. I’m happy the flexibility is there, but it can be overwhelming for folks unfamiliar with the technical aspects of photography.

The Altas tab shows a sky map, complete with constellations, star names and astronomical objects — it’s great for finding suitable subjects to photograph and includes a feature that automatically finds and tracks your favorite nebula. The Atlas also tells you what’s visible based on the location and time of day. The catalog of objects is impressive, though you can also manually choose the coordinates of an area you’d like to track.

There’s not much to the Album tab, which shows all of the photos you’ve taken with the Dwarf 3. Lastly, you’ll use the settings tab to adjust Wi-Fi preferences, update firmware, set location options and view technical information. Overall, I find the app enjoyable and easy to use.

Easier astrophotography

You’ll use either the Astro filter or the Dual-band filter for astrophotography. The Astro filter captures more infrared light than the Dwarf 3’s visible light filter, making it ideal for imaging stars and galaxies, while the Dual-band filter targets specific wavelengths of light associated with emission nebulae.

After you’ve prepped the settings, you’ll place the camera on a level surface or tripod with its back facing north or south — depending on whether you’re in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere. From there, you’ll start the calibration phase by choosing a target in the Atlas or selecting EQ Mode (Equatorial Mode) from the Function menu. Tracking is essential if you don’t want star trails.

The Dwarf 3 is also capable when photographing the sun and the moon. It’s a lot easier since you use the default Photo Mode. For example, you simply center the telephoto lens on the moon before activating the moon tracking function — the telescope does the rest. This setting runs using a simple algorithm, so it begins tracking almost immediately — there’s no calibration phase.

To take photos of the sun, you’ll need to attach the included magnetic solar filters first. Based on my time with the Dwarf 3, the solar images look excellent and do a great job of capturing sunspots. While I don’t have any experience with the Dwarf II, the previous model, I like that you don’t need to buy solar filters separately on the Dwarf 3.

Surprising versatility for other types of photography

When I was reviewing video footage, I initially noticed some stuttering in the video but traced the issue to my ancient laptop, which struggles to display 4K videos from this camera. Fortunately, playing the downloaded video back on my phone was much smoother. However, the object tracking can be a bit aggressive in video, so I recommend lowering the motor speed to smooth out the camera’s movements.

I had a lot of success with the Time Lapse Mode, which can also do sun, moon and object tracking, though I didn’t use it for long. DwarfLab added Auto-Capture Mode about a week after I began testing. It’s essentially a video mode that always uses tracking for birds or “UFOs” for moving light in the night sky. I like that you can quickly set up tracking without digging through menus, but it automatically finds the target instead of letting you choose one. Auto-Capture Mode is fine for split-second decisions when there’s a single target in the frame, but not when it’s in a group.

Panorama blues

My last hangup with the panorama mode is that you need to connect the Dwarf 3 directly to a computer or phone using a USB cable to access the folder with the captures. Unlike the Dwarf II, there’s no removable microSD card, and you can’t transfer the panorama images using the mobile app. While I understand it might take a while if you have hundreds of photos, there’s no restriction on doing so with photos and videos taken using other modes. For now, I suggest that beginners should steer clear of this feature.

Should you buy the Dwarf 3?