Buzzard75

I'm going to give it a go. I completely agree that if one part fails, the whole thing fails. However, if you build a system yourself when one thing fails, your whole AP/VA system fails until you get it fixed as well. It's not like you can do AP/VA without a camera or a PC. Are the components easily replaceable by the user? Yes, but you still have to have something to replace it with or just be down until you get it fixed. We'll just have to wait and see what the customer support/service is like if something ever happens *knock on wood*. As for the FOV, depends on what you call wide and what sort of magnification setting you're using, since the magnification is variable (50/100/150). I would assume the magnification is digital rather than optical given the construction of the telescope as you can't really change the focal length. You're right, it's not a very large scope. It's a 4.5" primary and a 450mm focal length. It uses a Sony IMX224, 1.2MP sensor and has a micro-OLED display. You wouldn't be able to get the entirety of Andromeda, Orion or even the Rosette nebula, but there are a lot of smaller galaxies and nebulae that will fit extremely well in the eyepiece. Is it hardware future proof? No. I can't imagine you'll be upgrading the sensor or the display. Software wise though, it's all controlled by an app on your phone which should be easy enough to update. I imagine there would be a way to flash the software on the telescope itself as well, if necessary though. They obviously haven't released full details as the entire project is still in development. You can certainly build a similar system, however, I doubt you'd be able to get anything quite as compact as this. And you really need to compare apples to apples when looking at cost. You'd have to get a scope, a tracking EQ or Alt/Az mount with a tripod, a camera, a power supply, a PC, and the software and cables to hook it all up and run it and process the images in real time. And you'll probably also need a guide scope and camera for that as well. You're probably looking at a $1750 (or £1300) at least. And that's just for barebones, no frills, small scope, low end tech specs and it's going to be a lot of stuff to carry around. Yes, Kickstarter's are generally a throw of the dice, but you really need to look at who's involved and how it's being managed and make a sound judgement from that. With SETI throwing their name on it, with all the publicity that it has right now, all the tech demos they're doing, and with the people who are managing it and their credentials on the line, it seems pretty legit.

I've gone in on the Kickstarter. Is it new tech? No. Is it revolutionary? Not really. What it is though, is an interesting concept using existing tech (i.e. telescope, camera, PC, and software) for live viewing of DSO's all repackaged into a single, easy to setup unit with the added twist of augmented reality and connection to a scientific research network. If a 16" dob is the visual observers version of a high end astrophotography/video astronomy setup, this is the desktop dob version. It's all about convenience and ease of setup and some people are willing to pay for that. I'm not willing to pay the $2000+ figure that's being thrown around in some places, but getting in early on a Kickstarter means you pay about half that. That's a bit more reasonable and it helps fund future developments in the tech. Oculus Rift started as a Kickstarter, and look at them now. One of the leading developers in VR technology. For me, the primary purpose of this telescope system will not be personal, however, I'm sure I will enjoy the views. I still love my 12" dob and get way better views that most of the people in my club from the dark site. The primary purpose will be outreach programs and public events with my astronomy club and to engage those people and increase their interest in astronomy and science. We hold events where we typically have anywhere from 50-100 people show up. I get a ton of oohs and ahs when I show them Jupiter or Saturn at 300x, and I get a few wows when looking at M57. But I also get a lot of questions like "what am I supposed to be seeing?" or comments like "I just can't see it" or children (and adults) who are less than impressed with an extremely faint fuzzy splotch of a galaxy or other nebulae. I can see them in my 12" and I'm impressed with what I can see because I know and understand what I'm looking at, but not everyone is. This is the telescope for those people. As our wallets are painfully aware, getting an image from a telescope to a PC screen with a high end AP/AV setup can easily cost way more than $2000 and requires a lot more components and setup. Besides that, I have enough junk to lug around and setup with my dob. If this thing collapses to fit in a backpack to where I can just pull it out, put it on a tripod, turn it on and it just work, all the better. I'm way more likely to use this in conjunction with my dob than I am to setup both my dob and an AP/AV setup for those community events. If it's just me or a club only event, or I plan to be out all night, that's a different story. That's my two cents on this.