Unistellar Odyssey Pro review: Unlock pro-grade astronomy with your iPhone from the comfort of your home

Unstellar Odyssey Pro Review: Pro-Grade Astronomy from your Backyard.

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Unistellar Odyssey Pro Smart Telescope

4.5/5 Available at Best Buy

Unistellar's Odyssey Pro Smart Telescope Delivers Stunning Results Even in Low Light . polluted yard — and we have photographic evidence to prove it.

Unistellar Odyssey Pro is not only an excellent platform for amateur astronomy, but also a robust scientific platform. It's used by co-founder and professional astronomer Frank Marchis himself, and we were lucky enough to talk to him about the Odyssey Pro when we tested it for ourselves.

Whether you're a stargazer, professional astronomer, astrophotographer, or educator, Unistellar Odyssey Pro offers a comprehensive package that installs in minutes and lets you focus on thousands of celestial bodies right from your iPhone or iPad. Despite the high price, you'll find yourself pulling out the Odyssey Pro every night to discover another part of the universe hidden from the naked eye.

Unistellar Odyssey Pro

The Unistellar Odyssey Pro is a portable smart telescope with automatic features that eliminate the need for adjustments. Buy on Amazon Buy on Best Buy Buy on Adorama

Unistellar Odyssey Pro Review: Unboxing, First Impressions and Design

The Unistellar Odyssey Pro fits into a surprisingly compact box considering it's a telescope designed for observing interstellar objects. But that's the whole point.

As Unistellar co-founder Frank Marchis put it, “We wanted to create a telescope that was easy to use and could be taken anywhere.”

It's safe to say that they did it.

Unistellar Odyssey Pro review: A telescope that fits in a backpack.

Indeed, Frank says he took the Odyssey Pro to several picturesque islands to capture unprecedented views of space. Unistellar offers a backpack for the Odyssey Pro, and its packed weight suggests it's comfortable for lounging.

Unboxing the Odyssey Pro proved our theory correct: the handset and tripod fit nicely into the padded box. The Odyssey Pro is compact enough to be carried in a backpack, with a 320mm focal length and an 85mm primary mirror.

Our review model comes in a flawless matte black finish. A red option is available, but the tripod remains black.

We love the matte finish of the product. Outdoor use requires frequent handling and the polish will show fingerprints and scratches.

Setting up the Unisteallar Odyssey Pro is very easy. The tripod is connected through a ring with two screw mounts to secure the telescope.

When mounted with the legs extended, the telescope has excellent balance and a modest footprint.

Unistellar Odyssey Pro review: mount your telescope on a tripod.

Odyssey Pro is equipped with a Nikon eyepiece — which we will talk about in more detail later — giving it a classic telescope look. The standard Odyssey model lacks this eyepiece, and although it is more affordable, it lacks the telescope's appeal and stargazing quality.

Our first impressions of the Odyssey Pro are good. The quality of the materials is decent, there are protective covers for the lenses, the mirror is shiny and free of stains, and the tripod is sturdy but not bulky.

We also like that initial setup and charging are easy. No special tools are required, although some are included. The charging cable has a USB-C design, which means you won't have to keep track of any bulky chargers.

Unistellar Odyssey Pro review: no knowledge of astronomy required

While installation may be simple out of the box, pointing the telescope where you want it is not an easy task. At least that was the case until Unistellar mastered telescope design, since most other telescopes require mirror alignment (a process known as collimation) and some technical astronomical knowledge.

Unistellar Odyssey Pro review: What navigating to a stellar body looks like.

Unistellar's Odyssey Pro automates this entire process, allowing you to connect to the telescope using your iPhone or iPad and start stargazing in minutes. When you tap on an item to view from the app, Odyssey Pro uses GPS data as well as the position of the stars to align itself and find the item you want.

To make it even easier, once the telescope finds your object, it will automatically adjust the focus and brightness to give you a great view of the space object. You get the view on your iPad or iPhone and through the viewfinder, making stargazing a more collaborative experience.

Once locked onto an object, the app allows you to move the telescope using a D-pad-like touchscreen control system. This control allows you to fine-tune your positioning or explore the area yourself.

There are also no special requirements for viewing objects of different brightness, for example, a close-up of the bright Moon or distant galaxies. The only difference is observing the sun, which requires a solar filter, which can be purchased from the Unistellar website.

Unistellar Odyssey Pro review: no dark skies required

Another major concern for most stargazers is city lights. Light pollution is a serious problem, especially when viewing faint and distant objects. Any extra photons from your home, light haze from a nearby city, or even a distant street light could cause interference.

Unistellar Odyssey Pro Review: Capturing the Pleiades with Odyssey

Unstellar seems to have solved the problem of light pollution using some pretty neat tricks. These tricks involve “stacking” images from a telescope to make interstellar objects appear bright and clear.

Image stacking technology calibrates photons from space and filters out photons originating from the planet. Likewise, Odyssey Pro uses only the most important photons to contribute to the image you see.

Because Odyssey Pro combines images and filters photons, the longer you watch an object, the sharper and brighter it becomes. When viewing the city, this means that after about 20 minutes of focusing, you can see incredibly faint structures such as the Andromeda Galaxy, about 2.5 million light years away.

In addition, it is now possible to capture high-quality images of distant galaxies in dark rural areas and brightly lit cities. In fact, our images were taken from a telescope located in the heart of Colorado Springs, a larger metro area with heavy air force traffic, light pollution, and buildings blocking views of the stars.

According to Frank and the Unistellar team, the Odyssey Pro can handle even more light than our humble abode, say, the Las Vegas Strip. A week earlier at CES in 2024, Unistellar held live demonstrations in a casino parking lot, observing objects like the Orion Nebula in complete clarity.

Unistellar Odyssey Pro: finding the right interstellar body ship

Stargazing is a magical experience made even better by a telescope lens that can focus tiny points of light. Unistellar's Odyssey Pro unlocks more space possibilities in less time, taking just five minutes from setup to stargazing.

Unistellar Odyssey Pro Review: Using the Unistellar App.

To begin our journey, we first downloaded the Unistellar app on our iPad. The app is also available for iPhone, but we recommend a larger screen to ensure you don't miss any details.

Once downloaded and installed, you will need to click the connect button to sync your Odyssey Pro with your iPad. This step is critical because without this link you will not be able to search, find or view anything.

The first time we connected the iPad to the telescope, we clicked Connect and let the app discover the Unistellar Odyssey Pro. The initial connection took a couple of minutes and we had to disable the VPN, but after that we were in business.

Once connected, the app will present you with a table of recommended objects from a catalog of over 5,000 objects, from globular clusters and galaxies to planets and asteroids. Using your local data, Odyssey Pro can even recommend places based on what's visible.

Unistellar Odyssey Pro review: Unistellar catalog has over 5,000 objects.

Clicking on an object will give you some astronomical information such as degrees of altitude, apparent time and azimuth. The GoTo button will tell the telescope to find that object and automatically focus on it.

When moving, the telescope rotates around the connection point just above where the scope is mounted on the tripod. It takes about a minute to find, focus and brighten an image for viewing, and obstacles such as clouds will extend this time.

Once the Odyssey Pro lands on the star's body, the object will be visible on the iPad screen and through the telescope's eyepiece. But before we continue, let's talk about this eyepiece for a second because it deserves its own attention.

Unistellar Odyssey Pro review: Nikon eyepiece

The Unistellar Odyssey and Odyssey Pro share many features, but the notable difference is that our review model, the Odyssey Pro, features an external eyepiece made by Nikon. Nikon originally created telescopes back in 1920, but left the game in the late 90s.

Unistellar Odyssey Pro review: Nikon eyepiece is worth the money.

Take advantage of the Unistellar. According to Frank Marchis, the goal was to partner with someone with experience in high-quality manufacturing, and the available partner was Nikon, which brought a century of experience in imaging and building telescopes.

For the Odyssey Pro, viewing through the eyepiece feels like real stargazing, and throughout our testing, the eyepiece produced an image superior to what the iPad showed.

The Nikon eyepiece is equipped with an OLED microdisplay with a complex lens arrangement that simulates the optimal position of the eyes. When viewing objects through this eyepiece, the brain actually locks the focus at infinity, allowing you to plunge into the depths of the universe.

Although the Odyssey Pro costs $1,500 more than the Odyssey, it's worth it, especially if you use the telescope as a teaching tool or for group stargazing events.

Unistellar Odyssey Pro Review: Viewing and Astrophotography from Your iPad or iPhone

Now that you understand how convenient the Nikon eyepiece is for viewing the sky, it's time to discuss the overall viewing experience. The Odyssey Pro is a fan favorite from seven years old to our 79-year-old volunteer tester.

Unistellar Odyssey Pro review: Inspiring astronomers of all ages.

You're never too old or too young to enjoy stargazing, and every object, which we stopped at further strengthened our awe. Orion's Belt is one of the most recognizable constellations in the sky, and what appears to the naked eye as a blur below the average star is a magnificent star-forming nebula— Orion Nebula.

In the Unistellar app, we found the Oyster Nebula (located 4,240 light-years away), let Odyssey Pro do the work, and hit the photo button to take this image. Over the course of nearly half an hour, light from this distant nebula fell on the Odyssey Pro's sensor to create this image.

Unistellar Odyssey Pro Review: The Oyster Nebula

Although the image is not laser-sharp, it shows gorgeous red hues and gas clumps are clearly visible. More time and darker skies will make this image more similar to the astrophotography you may be familiar with.

Orion is located in our Milky Way galaxy, which is quite impressive. However, Odyssey Pro can go even further, capturing galaxies like Andromeda, which is shown in the image below.

Unistellar Odyssey Pro Review: Andromeda Galaxy

Fans of our solar system can focus on objects like the Moon, planets and asteroids, which Odyssey Pro does A popular option for astronomers looking for NEOs or passing comets. This image of Jupiter reflects the Odyssey Pro's ability to focus on both closer and further objects.

Review of Unistellar Odyssey Pro: Jupiter.

While the Odyssey Pro isn't built specifically for astrophotography, the hobby is still possible. What makes it such a superb tool is its ability to focus on such a variety of objects without requiring special knowledge or additional equipment; everything is self-sufficient.

Unistellar Odyssey Pro Review: True Citizen Astronomy Straight from Your iPad or iPhone

We had the opportunity to speak with co-founder Frank Marchis about Unistellar Pro. and we had to ask him about the capabilities of this device. real science with this telescope. There was absolutely no doubt about what this tool could do, and it was based on natural science.

Unistellar Odyssey Pro Review: Join the Citizen Astronomer Community

Unistellar is committed to citizen astronomy, allowing Odyssey Pro to contribute to our understanding of astronomy. astronomy. Not only are Odyssey owners encouraged to participate in the community, but the telescope actually collects the data needed for mathematical calculations.

The company's telescopes not only display beautiful images, but also collect a wealth of information about the position of photons, the energy of those photons, wavelengths and much more. All this is at your fingertips, just download them directly from the Unistellar app.

Frank says he is doing more professional astronomy with the Unistellar telescope than he ever did with large government-sponsored telescopes such as those in Chile or Hawaii. There are even two published peer-reviewed papers that use data from the Unistellar telescopes.

We couldn't help but confirm that such a telescope uses a genuine collection of photons to create images. To this Frank replied: “[It] is strictly forbidden to create images in astronomy.” Unistellar is not Samsung providing pre-taken images of the Moon — The Unistellar Odyssey Pro is a true scientific instrument for enthusiasts and professionals.

Unstellar Odyssey Pro Review: The Telescope Market Is Crowded

Despite everything the Odyssey Pro excels at, there will always be someone somewhere who will say that their scope can do all that and more. While it's true that there are more telescope options than you can reasonably count, it's nearly impossible to find an intersection that offers a complete space viewing package.

Unistellar Odyssey Pro review: Stands out in a crowded market.

At one end of the spectrum are cheap telescopes that are barely a step above a cardboard tube with two pieces of polished plastic that, at best, allow you to view the Moon. On the other hand, some options cost as much as a brand new Mercedes, but allow you to take the clearest photos of deep space objects.

However, several smart telescope options compete with Unistellar's Odyssey Pro, many of which cost much less. Likewise, traditional telescopes are flooding the market and promising the same viewing experience as the Odyssey.

However, many of these alternatives require a more hands-on approach, requiring collimating mirrors, special instruments, astronomical knowledge, or suitable temperatures. Most telescopes will need to adjust their mirrors if the temperature varies even a few degrees, but not the Odyssey Pro.

We tested the Odyssey Pro in a variety of conditions, from a clear night after a snowfall with temperatures of 10 degrees to a foggy spring evening with temperatures over 50 degrees. Every time we observed the Universe, the mirror automatically focused, meaning we had a clear image no matter the conditions.

Unistellar Odyssey Pro Review: Making It More Affordable for Stargazing

The Unistellar Odyssey Pro, which we were loaned for the purposes of this review, is not a cheap smart telescope option, but it offers one of the most complete stargazing platforms in the market. It easily connects to your iPad or iPhone via built-in Wi-Fi and can detect objects in minutes.

The Odyssey Pro's design is also high quality, but the overall footprint and weight make it reasonable enough to be carried to remote dark sky locations for stargazing. We also can't say enough about the Nikon eyepiece and recommend that anyone interested pick up the Pro option to avoid missing out.

Both professional and amateur astronomers can capture images in minutes or hours without the need for special cameras or equipment to capture the most stunning images. Odyssey Pro makes it easy to start observing space, meaning you'll use this telescope night after night, unlike alternatives that sit in your closet untouched for years.

In addition, those with a passion for the scientific side can interact with the citizen astronomer community and download their data to contribute to real-life publications. Through our experience with the Odyssey Pro, we have rediscovered our love for astronomy and inspired that love in several more people by watching the stars at night.