Purveyor of optics Beaverlab has unveiled its an inexpensive telescope for wannabe star-gazers: the Finder TW2.

The company sent us one to try out, and our results were… mixed.

The predecessor of the TW2 is the TW1, which can be picked up for $369 in Pro guise. The TW2 will retail at $499 or can be purchased for $329 as an early bird special via the product's Indiegogo page.

As with all such funding efforts, we'd have to add a note of caution when dropping cash on something like Indiegogo or similar Kickstarter-like projects. There is no guarantee that anything will arrive, and what does arrive might not resemble what a customer was expecting.

That said, our review unit seemed very complete, although there were a few issues with the instructions. More on those later.

We were sent the whole kit, which consisted of a tripod to mount the telescope, the telescope itself, and the DS1 image capture device. There was also a handy bag to carry the hardware.

Assembling the telescope was straightforward. Erect the tripod, attach the telescope and arm for tilting, plug in the TW1 image capture device, which felt like a compact digital camera from a previous era, attach the star finder, and away you go. It's very simple to set up and ideal for a novice.

The telescope itself has an optical focal length of 500mm, which can be adjusted by a knob on the side, and the optical aperture is 82mm. It is not huge by any stretch of the imagination, but it is good enough for a beginner.

The wheels start to come off with the DS1 image capture device, which does the heavy lifting in terms of image processing. It has a 5-inch touchscreen that can be angled upwards, which, according to Beaverlab, "Eliminates the need to lean over, change positions, or capture through small eyepieces."

Except you do have to lean over. The star finder is a fixed cylinder mounted to the side of the telescope. Therefore, the user is required to contort themselves to peer through the star finder to make sure the telescope is pointed in roughly the correct direction.

Beaverlab said this about the star finder: "We understand your concern about the fixed star finder. We'll consider this feedback for future iterations. In the meantime, we will plan to provide instructional videos to help users optimize their star-finding process."

Furthermore, there is no scope for fine-tuning - there are only single controls for pan and tilt, which means small adjustments to view distant objects are very difficult. The lack of focusing tools other than the focal length is also maddening.

And then there is the DS1 image capture device itself, which uses JPG for its files. We queried Beaverlab about this - surely there must be some way to store data in a less lossy format? It appears not. The company told us: "We chose the JPG format because it efficiently compresses image files, which allows for quicker processing and storage.

"While RAW provides higher quality, JPG is more user-friendly for quick viewing and sharing," Beaverlab said.

Indeed, there's a lot that can be done on the DS1 itself to remove noise and tidy up images. As is the custom these days, the device features AI-infused image processing hardware for dealing with problematic lighting conditions, removing haze and atmospheric interference, and reducing noise.

The controls are accessed via the easy-to-use touchscreen, and pressing an on-screen button will capture an image. The device can then be plugged into a handy computer to copy the resulting JPG file, although wireless connectivity is possible. Charging is also accomplished by the USB port.

We tried it out in the UK under clear skies in an urban coastal area. While we'd take issue with it being able to capture distant planets or nebula, it performed very well when pointed at the Moon. Since Saturn was high in the sky, we attempted to view the planet with its rings but came away disappointed - the Finder TW2 could not resolve that level of detail in our environment, at least not in our hands.

However, it did work exceptionally well when pointed at nearer objects, such as the Moon. The included guide, little more than a pamphlet, implied that wildlife photography would also work well.

Not mentioned to any great extent in the instructions is the included filter that can be attached to the optics to look directly at the Sun. While this would normally be a huge no-no - never ever look directly at the Sun - and risk burning out the optics, popping on the filter opens up a whole new avenue of observations. It feels like a late addition, and when we questioned Beaverlab about it, we were told, "We apologize for the omission in the manual and are already working on an update to include detailed instructions and a video tutorial for proper usage."

Overall, the Finder TW2 is a decent entry into the world of stargazing and is aimed at users interested in taking a look at the Moon without wishing to invest in a more professional kit.

This approach is reflected in the hardware's idiot-proofing. Yes, we would have liked to have the option to tinker with the raw images from the optics ourselves, but many users will be perfectly happy with the DS1 image collector. We would also have liked some way of fine-tuning the pointing, but that's a little redundant if what you're really after is close-up shots of the Moon.

While a decent set of binoculars will likely do as well, if not better, than the TW2 Finder, the simplicity of the telescope, ease of capturing images, and real-time viewing on a mobile device will be appealing to some beginners. However, for a more experienced stargazer, the lack of fine-tuning when pointing the telescope will be maddening, as will the frustration of being unable to perform their own processing on the images before the conversion to JPG.

Then again, experienced stargazers are not the target market for this device. ®

https://www.theregister.com//2024/08/17/beaverlab_finder_tw2/