Sky & Telescope - July 2024 - 66

S&T Test Report by Alan Dyer
Testing a Tiny New
Smartscope
The Dwarf II won't win any imaging awards, but users will
have a lot of fun taking pictures with it.
Dwarf II
U.S. Price: $459; Deluxe: $595
dwarflab.com
What We Like
Extremely compact
Produces good images under
bright skies
Equatorial mode to reduce
field rotation
What We Don't Like
Small, noisy sensor
Software bugs
Tiny tripod
WE'VE SEEN SEVERAL innovative
" smartscopes " introduced in the past
few years. Right out of the box, these
sleek new devices contain everything
necessary to take images of the night
sky. Until recently, most have cost
thousands of dollars. The $459 Dwarf
II from the Chinese startup DwarfLab
represents a price breakthrough. (Its
Dwarf I was a daytime telephoto lens.)
As a smartscope, in mere minutes
the Dwarf II can be set up, aligned,
and beam star-filled images of deep-sky
objects to your phone or tablet. Indeed,
that's just what I did on my first night
out with it. I was impressed.
The Dwarf Design
The Dwarf II looks more like a security
camera than a telescope. It's no
bigger than a typical hardcover book
and weighs just 1.2 kilograms (2.6
pounds). The " classic " package includes
a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, a
64-gigabyte microSD memory card, a
padded carry case, and a tiny tripod.
66 JULY 2024 * SKY & TELESCOPE
A deluxe version is available that also
includes a spare battery, a UHC lightpollution
filter, and a pair of solar filters
(one for each of the two apertures) as
well as a special magnetic filter-mounting
bracket. What it doesn't include is
a wall adapter and charging cable. The
company notes they aren't provided in
order to reduce electrical waste. The
Dwarf II accepts USB-C cables and
chargers with at least 8-watt output.
The Dwarf II's main " Telephoto " lens
is of 24-mm aperture with a 100-mm
focal length producing a focal ratio of
f/4.2. Unique among smartscopes, the
Dwarf II also incorporates a second,
" Wide-Angle " lens with a focal length
of 48 mm paired to a 2-megapixel sensor
that produces a simultaneous finderlike
view. Its 50° field, which appears in
a separate window in the control app,
is essential for locating daytime targets
and for finding the Sun and Moon.
The telephoto lens is paired with an
8-megapixel Sony IMX415 Starvis color
CMOS sensor. It has a GBRG Bayer-filter
The Dwarf II deluxe package includes an
extra battery and a filter kit, complete with a
magnetic holder, two ND solar filters, and a
UHC light-pollution filter. Only the tripod, case,
one battery, and microSD card (with SD card
adapter) are included with the basic package.
The little Dwarf II smartscope is able to
record enjoyable images of deep-sky objects
even under bright, moonlit skies. Inset: This is
the image of M13 the Dwarf II was capturing
with the sky lit by a nearly full Moon.
array over its 3,840-by-2,160 pixels in
a 16:9 aspect ratio - a size called 4K as
per its video heritage. The sensor measures
just 5.6 mm by 3.1 mm, with tiny
1.45-micron pixels, producing an image
scale of 2.99 arcseconds-per-pixel.
The resulting field of view is 3.3°
by 1.8°, roughly equivalent to the field
of a 620-mm lens paired with a fullframe
camera. That's the widest native
field of view of any smartscope, making
it well-suited to large targets such as
M31, the Andromeda Galaxy. Its sensor
is oriented horizontally, so all images
have the long dimension parallel to the
ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR
http://www.dwarflab.com
Sky & Telescope - July 2024

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