Vaonis Atlas Modular Smart Telescope

Sky Dock: the interface that makes Atlas evolve

Sky Dock is the interface at the heart of the Atlas mount. You clip on the imaging module of your choice in under five seconds, with no tools; alignment between modules is guaranteed, with no mechanical play, and the link carries up to 3 Gbit/s per module. Once in place, the module has no reason to come off: Atlas travels and stores fully assembled, ready to observe as soon as you set it down.

One mount, one standard. Today's modules connect to it, so will tomorrow's, and the next ones are already in development: a module optimized for planetary observation, and a module fitted with a monochrome camera for higher resolution and a wider range of image-processing possibilities. Every new module clips onto the same mount and uses the same mobile app.

Sky Guard: your sky, live, always with you

At the heart of the mount, a 185° fisheye camera (Sony IMX676, 12 MP) films your whole sky live, from horizon to horizon, day and night, and reveals stars down to magnitude 6, just as the naked eye would. In the Gaia app, this view becomes your real-time sky map: the image is overlaid with constellations, object names and the position of your target. Select an object in the Sky Guard view, and Atlas orients itself automatically and starts capturing. What you see when you look up and what the instrument captures are no longer two separate experiences, but one, on the same screen.

At any time, switch between the Sky Guard view and the detailed view from the imaging module: on one side, immersion in the sky above you; on the other, the high-resolution image building up on your target. And while you observe, Sky Guard records an automatic timelapse of your night, to keep and share as a memory of the session.

An optic with no compromise: the only limits left are physical

The 80 mm imaging module builds on the Petzval design, the historic astrograph, and pushes its correction further: an apochromatic quadruplet of four lenses in three groups (two in ultra-low-dispersion fluorophosphate glass, one in lanthanum glass), opening at f/4.5. Across the whole sensor and the entire visible spectrum, residual aberrations stay smaller than the diffraction blur of an 80 mm aperture. In other words, the design no longer imposes any limit: the ones that remain are physical; the diffraction inherent to the aperture and the seeing at your observing site are the limiting factors. The back-illuminated Sony IMX585 sensor (8.3 MP, 2.9 µm pixels, 1/1.2" format) is built into the module, matched to this optic. Native field of view 1.78° × 1.00°, up to 24 MP with CovalENS mosaics, 16-bit FITS export for processing.

Atlas ships on an alt-azimuth mount, for single exposures of up to 30 seconds. The instrument will support an equatorial mode from the first half of 2027, removing field rotation and allowing longer exposures for observers who want to go further still; an equatorial table will be offered in the second half of 2027.

Further still: a second module, Sky Twin

A single 80 mm module already forms a complete instrument. The second one is there to go even faster: two modules on the same target collect twice as much light at every moment. Sky Twin, Atlas's automatic stacking technology, combines the images from both modules in real time: more detail in half the time, with nothing to adjust. Choose Twin if faint deep-sky objects are your priority and your clear nights are short; choose Single and add the second module (ref. C80) when your practice calls for it.

The four steps to your first image

1. Set Atlas down and level it: the accelerometer and the LED ring guide you.
2. Connect over NFC or the built-in Wi-Fi, in a few seconds.
3. Launch the Gaia app: Atlas aligns itself and Sky Guard shows your whole sky, from horizon to horizon.
4. Select your target in the Sky Guard view: Atlas orients itself, tracks, focuses and stacks exposures; the image reveals itself live, for you and up to ten other connected screens.

Built to go with you anywhere, whatever the terrain

Atlas is built around a dual aluminium structure. Inside, a die-cast aluminium chassis gives the mechanics the rigidity that pointing accuracy and tracking quality depend on; outside, a protective shell machined from solid aluminium takes the knocks of transport and nights outdoors, instead of the precision components. Atlas is IP64-protected against dust and water splashes and operates from -20 °C to +40 °C: from a summer garden to winter nights at altitude, it observes with the same performance, whatever the weather. A sealed USB-C 3.1 port handles 60 W fast charging and data transfer, a built-in humidity and temperature sensor drives automatic dew heating, the battery is replaceable and storage expands with microSD cards (16 GB included). A precision instrument whose mount is designed and made in France, built to last, and warranted accordingly: ten years on the mount, five years on the modules.

Is Atlas right for me?

I'm a beginner

Atlas requires no prior knowledge: the app guides leveling, then handles alignment, pointing, focusing and tracking. You pick an object in the Sky Guard view and watch the image build; settings, charts and vocabulary will come to you over the nights, never as a prerequisite.

I already do astrophotography

Atlas gives you the raw material and the tools to see your targets through: 16-bit FITS export for your own processing, multi-night acquisition that resumes a target where you left it to accumulate exposure over several sessions, CovalENS mosaics up to 24 MP, a filter drawer compatible with any standard 1.25" (31.75 mm) filter on the market and with automatic detection of Vaonis filters, and the Twin configuration to halve the time spent on the faintest objects. Equatorial mode, from the first half of 2027, will open up long exposures.

I observe from the city

Atlas is designed to deliver excellent results even under a light-polluted sky: real-time stacking and processing bring out the deep sky where the eye sees only a few stars. And if you want results even faster, use a light-pollution filter in the filter drawer.