Power: 8x AA batteries (not supplied)/external 12V DC via adaptor panel
Mount head weight: 2.9 lbs/1.3kg
Total weight with optional tripod: 8.8 lbs/4.05kg
Tripod: 31.7-59.8 inches/80.5-152cm adjustable aluminum tripod with accessory tray, bubble level and 3/8-inch screw fitting
Finding the sun sounds easy, right? Many people think of the sun as big and bright, but it’s actually rather small in the sky — it’s got an angular diameter of just half a degree, in fact, the same as the moon. Put an all-important solar filter on a telescope, and you’re left with the challenge of finding a tiny orange or white circle in a sea of black. Even if you manage to find the sun, nudging a solar telescope back into position every few minutes to keep it in the field of view quickly gets irritating.
Dual-axis alt-az tracking keeps the sun in view during observing sessions. (Image credit: Jamie Carter)
Cue the Sky-Watcher SolarQuest mount, a simple grab-and-go product that exists to solve exactly that problem. Costing around $585/£259-£359 (the latter with a tripod), it is not a general Go-To astronomy mount and it is not trying to be one. It is best understood as a dedicated solar tracking platform for small solar telescopes. That could range from regular telescopes wearing solar filters, most likely during a solar eclipse, to dedicated solar telescopes such as white-light-filtered refractors and H-alpha (Hydrogen-alpha) telescopes designed specifically for viewing the sun.
Sky-Watcher SolarQuest mount head: Design
Its 8.8-lb payload suits compact white-light and H-alpha solar scopes. (Image credit: Jamie Carter)
Lightweight and compact mount head
Simple controls make it beginner-friendly
Vixen-style saddle suits small solar scopes
The SolarQuest mount head weighs just 2.9 lbs/1.3 kg, accepts standard 45mm Sky-Watcher/Vixen-style dovetails and can be fitted to a tripod using a 3/8-inch screw. Meanwhile, the optional tripod is lightweight and easily adjustable, with a bubble level and accessory tray. Whatever tripod you use, it’s imperative to get it stable before using the SolarQuest because its ability to track the sun successfully depends on it.
The Sky-Watcher SolarQuest comes with an optional sturdy tripod.Jamie CarterThe tripod comes with a handy accessory tray.Jamie CarterThe optional tripod includes grippers to keep the rig steady.Jamie Carter
With the optional aluminum tripod — which we used in our review — the total setup is still only around 9.9 lbs/4.05 kg, making it easy to set up inside and carry into the garden. Eclipse chasers travelling abroad will easily be able to store it in a carry-on camera bag.
HelioFind technology makes solar alignment fast and beginner-friendly. Jamie CarterA Vixen-style saddle accepts many small solar telescopes and spotting scopes. Jamie Carter
The mount itself has very few controls: A power button and an 8-way sliding switch. A long press of the power button finds the sun, with the second used to make manual adjustments. There are no menus and no alignment tasks.
Sky-Watcher SolarQuest mount head: Performance
Its job is simple: Find the sun and keep it centered. (Image credit: Jamie Carter)
Finds the sun automatically in clear conditions
Fine-tuning controls keep the sun centered
Works well with solar telescopes
At first glance, the promise of the Sky-Watcher SolarQuest mount head is so simple: you level the tripod using its built-in bubble or spirit level and point the attached telescope somewhere to the left of the sun. You then long-press the power button and step back. The built-in GPS calculates the date, time, and location, as well as the sun’s altitude and azimuth. The mount levels the telescope, pauses, then slews to the right altitude. Then its photodiode solar sensor (a small camera) hunts for the solar disc and locks on. In practice, the system gets impressively close to that ideal — but with some small caveats.
A colorized image of the sun taken with a ZWO planetary camera on an H-Alpha telescope mounted on the SolarQuest. (Image credit: Jamie Carter)
The sun needs to be in a clear sky, but it doesn’t have to be high. We reviewed the SolarQuest during a summer heatwave, when getting up very early was the only sensible way to observe the sun. Having got up early to take advantage of the cool morning air before the sun rose too high, we feared the SolarQuest would fail to find such a low sun. Luckily, there were no such issues, with SolarQuest taking just under 60 seconds to be perfectly aligned with the sun.
The solar sensor uses four photodiodes to lock onto the sun. (Image credit: Jamie Carter)
For visual observing, that’s transformative. Instead of spending the first part of a session aligning, shadow-aiming and nudging a scope into position, you can be looking at the sun within minutes. However, we did have to use the joypad on the SolarQuest to center the sun. Happily, the controls are very sensitive and move slowly, so we were able to have a perfect view of the sun in under two minutes from pressing the power-on button. That’s impressive.
Sky-Watcher SolarQuest mount head: Functionality
Built-in GPS calculates the sun’s position automatically. (Image credit: Jamie Carter)
Accurately tracks the sun
8x AA batteries are old-fashioned
Payload is a limiting factor
Tracking accuracy is very good, with a tiny adjustment on the joypad required perhaps every few hours. Since it largely follows the sun’s path through the sky, it should be suitable for a total or deep partial solar eclipse, when a crescent sun could confuse the sensor (to be sure, you could cover the sensor during totality so it doesn’t hunt for the sun and try to realign during an eclipsed crescent sun).
However accurate it is, this is an alt-az mount. It can track the sun well but it cannot remove field rotation during much longer imaging sessions. For visual use and almost all solar use — including casual video capture — that is not a major issue. However, for long-duration solar imaging and creating time-lapses, it’s a limitation to keep in mind.
The battery compartment takes eight AA batteries, though external power is available. (Image credit: Jamie Carter)
One practical complaint is the battery compartment. Pop open the door (which detaches and becomes easily lost) and inside is a small plastic cradle that takes eight AA batteries. As if needing to take a trip to a store before being able to use the SolarQuest wasn’t annoying enough, it occurred to me that if I was going to an eclipse, I would need to travel with at least eight more AA batteries as spares — and possibly another 16x for true peace of mind. Not a pleasant prospect. Should any gadget like this be AA battery-powered in the age of Lithium-ion and USB-C? A resounding no. The box includes a 12V DC connection but there’s no cable. It all seems poorly thought through and old-fashioned.
The mount head weighs just 2.9 lbs, making it easy to carry outside. (Image credit: Jamie Carter)
However, the main practical limitation of the SolarQuest is its 8.8 lbs (4 kg) payload, which sets it apart as an accessory for small solar telescopes. At its best when speed and simplicity matter, SolarQuest is a travel-friendly mount ideal for beginners and eclipse chasers seeking to remove a common frustration from solar observing — finding and tracking the sun — without adding complexity. It almost totally succeeds.
How we tested the Sky-Watcher SolarQuest mount head
We tested the Sky-Watcher SolarQuest mount with the Sky-Watcher Heliostar 76mm H-alpha solar telescope. (Image credit: Jamier Carter)
We tried the SolarQuest for about two weeks with both a Celestron Regal M2 spotting scope (with a solar filter attached) for white-light observations of the solar disk and a Skywatcher HelioStar 76mm solar telescope. The latter was used to get some images of the sun in H-Alpha (Hα), in conjunction with a ZWO ASI174MM planetary camera.
Should I buy the Sky-Watcher SolarQuest mount head?
Buy it if:
✅ You want to get into casual backyard solar observing: The SolarQuest mount is great for those who have a small solar telescope or a regular telescope with a solar filter and want to start observing the sun more.
✅ You want fast, automatic solar finding and tracking: The SolarQuest mount makes solar observation super easy and super quick so finding the sun isn't a chore and allows you to focus on observation.
Don't buy it if:
❌You want a mount for nighttime astronomy as well: It has one job, to find the sun, and doesn't work for finding any targets in the dark night sky.
❌You don’t want to travel with lots of spare AA batteries: The mount is powered by eight AA batteries and if you are carrying spares, this means a lot of extra weight to carry around when travelling to observation locations.
If you need something to support a solar or solar-filtered telescope under 8.8 lbs/4kg, the SolarQuest should be on your radar. It quickly finds the sun and tracks accurately, removing the need for manual alignment. It’s also really compact, operates quietly and has very simple controls.
The included instructions are poor, the way it’s battery-powered is far from ideal, and it’s limited by its payload capacity, but it’s so easy to use and quick to work that it’s hard to criticize the SolarQuest too harshly — it’s a slick and simple accessory.
If the Sky-Watcher SolarQuest mount head isn’t for you
There are very few dedicated solar trackers like the Sky-Watcher SolarQuest. However, some star trackers do have a mode where you can choose the sun as the star to track, including the Benro Polaris. Once you’ve entered the sun in the frame using the virtual joystick, the Polaris can automatically track it. Another alternative is an equatorial mount, which, when well aligned, can handle solar observing for longer periods and/or for making time-lapse sequences.
Solar observation can be tricky or underwhelming when trying to observe with handheld methods such as using solar eclipse glasses and solar binoculars. Hunting for the sun with binoculars can be tricky due to the essential ISO 12312-2 rated solar filters on the glass blocking all vision except for the solar disk itself. This is where a smart telescope like the entire Unistellar range can help; it automatically finds and tracks the solar disk from a few presses on your smartphone.
With some light adjustments in Adobe Lightroom, the details on the solar surface really pop out on the photograph from the eQuinox 2. Harry Bennett / FutureAll it takes is a few seconds to stack frames on a smart telescope and get more detail on the solar surface.Harry Bennett / Future
All you need is to attach the correct Unistellar solar filter for your model, click Go-to on the Sun and the telescope will slew to the solar disk. If connected to a tablet or larger screen, you can get a much bigger image of the sun to share with groups and family. This also allows you to watch the observation from a shaded spot and get comfortable without needing to stay out under the beating sun.
(Image credit: Harry Bennett / Future)
Smart telescopes not only find and track the solar disk but they can image it too. Using built-in image focusing, stacking and processing, the telescope delivers a sharper image within seconds and reveals solar details like sunpots on the surface. If you don't want to miss getting a shot of the next solar eclipse, you can use the solar observation mode to capture the sun at all stages of the eclipse from your smart telescope. At the time of writing, the next total solar eclipse is coming on Aug. 12, 2026 and will be mainly visible in Greenland, western Iceland and northern Spain. Partial eclipses will be visible in some other European countries, parts of Canada and New York City.
The entire path of totality for the 2026 total solar eclipse. (Image credit: Created using MapHub.net. Source: Esri, Maxar, GeoEye, Earthstar Geographics, CNES/Airbus DS, USDA, USGS, AeroGRID, IGN, and the GIS User Community)
What to do: A generalist step-by-step for most smart telescopes
1. Turn your smart telescope on
2. Link the smart telescope to a smartphone or tablet
3. Install the solar filter if the model requires a separate attachment
4. Select the sun on the app and wait for the location
5. Focus the image if needed and then use enhanced vision for more detail
What do you need?
The eVscope 2 can easily find the solar disk once selected. (Image credit: Harry Bennett / Future)
For solar observation with a smart telescope, the first thing you will need is a smart telescope. While I'm going over how to use a Unistellar eVscope 2 for solar imaging and observation, most of the other smart telescope brands have models that are capable of this too, like the Dwarflab Dwarf Mini 3 and Vaonis Vespera II. If you are used to using a traditional telescope, bear in mind that you will need a smart device to operate the smart telescope and observe your targets. Most smart telescopes come with a tripod, so you shouldn't have to worry about getting one extra but it is an essential piece of equipment.
Make sure the bubble level on the tripod is centered so your setup is flat. (Image credit: Harry Bennett / Future)
Next, you need a solar filter for your telescope. This is to protect the image sensors in the body of the telescope and drastically reduce the amount of light entering the aperture, so that you don't get a highly overexposed image. Many brands sell these solar filters separately and in the case of Unistellar, you have to make sure you get the right one for your model. There is a solar filter for their Odyssey range and then another filter for their pro range, which features the eQuinox 2 and eVscope 2 models.
Some smart telescope companies sell their solar filters separately, like Unistellar, Vaonis and Celestron. (Image credit: Harry Bennett / Future)
Finally, you will also need access to somewhere with a good view of the sun, so a park, garden or open space is ideal. Solar imaging is best done in mid-to-late morning before the sun has heated up our atmosphere, which causes disturbance in the image. This is especially important if you are looking to get crisp shots of sunspots.
Observing and imaging the sun
The solar filter prevents the sun from damaging the image sensor in the smart telescope. (Image credit: Harry Bennett / Future)
Make sure your tripod is level, with your smart telescope properly attached, then turn it on and remove the dust cap. Open your preferred app and add your device by following the on-screen instructions.
The Unistellar eQuinox 2 is easy to set up in a yard or open space.Harry Bennett / FutureUsed with a solar filter, smart telescopes allow you to track night sky objects and grab sharp images. Harry Bennett / FutureThe solar filters are easy to attach to the aperture on the eQuinox 2. Harry Bennett / FutureWith the solar filter attached, the eQuinox 2 is ready for solar observation and photography. Harry Bennett / Future
Next, you should inspect your solar filter for any tears or holes, as any exposure to the sun without the filter can permanently damage the sensor. Installation is easy as you just clip the filter onto the end of your smart telescope.
On the Unistellar app, on-screen instructions guide you through connecting to the device. (Image credit: Unistellar)
After the device is connected, go to the list of sky targets in your app and it will allow you to browse or search for the sun. Click on it to bring up the go-to functions and if you are interested, more astronomical information about your chosen target.
In the Unistellar planetarium, you simply just select the sun and click GoTo to start target location. (Image credit: Unistellar)
Clicking on go-to for the sun brings up a series of slides to guide you through how to safely observe the sun with your device. The app also recommends positioning your telescope mount in the direction of the sun with the motor on your right to avoid any issues or delays in slewing.
While not rapid, the eQuinox 2 finds the sun within a minute or two, with extra time spent centering the solar disk. (Image credit: Unistellar)
After pressing go, the smart telescope should move and slew towards the sun. It can take a little while but it is rather exciting as you see the edges of the solar disk flash on the screen as the telescope gets closer and centers the image.
Once I found the solar disk, I saw that the sunspots were out of focus.Harry Bennett / FutureUsing the focus wheel on the bottom of the Unistellar eQuinox 2, I incrementally adjusted the focus.Harry Bennett / FutureWhen focusing the sunspots on the eQuinox 2, they only get darker and slightly sharper, but sharp focus is not achieved until stacking. Harry Bennett / Future
For smart telescopes with manual focusing, you will need to make sure that your image is in focus. Now on a bright sunny day, this can be tricky to see on a smart device screen but it is essential to getting a sharp image of sunspots. Using the wheel at the bottom of the eQuinox 2, I gradually adjusted the focus in small increments to allow for live image delay on my tablet. I used the sunspots as a guide for my focus, but it was still difficult because they don't become crystal clear during focusing, they just get slightly more defined and darker.
Selecting enhanced vision on the Unistellar app starts stacking exposures and develops enhanced sharpness on the sunspots. UnistellarBy stacking frames sunspots and surface details become sharper.Harry Bennett / Future
The real detail on the surface comes after you click enhanced vision mode or equivalent on the app, which starts live stacking of exposures of a few milliseconds and reveals a much more textured view of the solar surface. The sunspots get much sharper edges and you are able to see both the umbra and penumbra on some of them. In my imaging session, I got an image displaying the larger active regions of 4498, 4496 and 4492 as well as some smaller regions.
Observing an eclipse with your smart telescope
Using a smart telescope can make capturing a great shot of the solar eclipse easy and painless. (Image credit: Hector Knudsen / Getty Images)
You should prepare well in advance if you are planning to observe a solar eclipse and test out the kit there before the big day. You don't want to be learning how to use your device on the day of the eclipse. Practice setting it up for solar observation a good few times before the day of the eclipse.
Using one of the best stargazing apps or the official Unistellar eclipse page, you can find out where the eclipse will be visible from and the time of maximum coverage in that location, so you can plan accordingly. The Aug. 12, 2026 total solar eclipse is just before sunset will be very low on the horizon, so you would need to find somewhere with a good view of the sunset and, ideally, do a practice run a week before. Setting up a few hours before the actual eclipse is necessary to avoid any last-minute disruptions and to get your telescope trained on the sun before the lunar disk starts to eclipse it. This is assuming that the skies are completely clear and free of clouds, but this is definitely something you should check before hauling your kit to a remote location. I use the Met Office Cloud cover map for the UK but other sites offer US and international coverage such as and Ventusky, SAT24 and Astrospheric.
Our top smart telescope recommendations to suit all budgets
O tvOS 27 chegará neste ano com uma leva de novidades para a Apple TV 4K que, embora discretas se comparadas às de outros sistemas da Maçã, trazem melhorias bem-vindas ao dia a dia de quem usa o aparelho — do app Podcasts redesenhado a ajustes de performance por todo o sistema.
Preparamos um vídeo reunindo e demonstrando as principais mudanças da atualização. Confira abaixo:
Entre os destaques está o novo app Podcasts, que ganhou redesenho completo com suporte a programas em vídeo, alinhando a Apple TV às demais plataformas da empresa. O Apple Music também recebeu atenção: agora conta com suporte a áudio Hi-Res Lossless e com o recurso AutoMix, que cria transições automáticas entre as faixas.
Outras novidades incluem ajuste de tamanho de texto, verificação do status do AppleCare diretamente nos Ajustes (Settings) e atualização remota da Apple TV pelo app Casa (Home). O sistema também trará suporte a legendas geradas por IA on-device e melhorias no HomeKit Secure Video, agora com suporte à resolução 4K.
No quesito performance, a Central de Controle ficará mais responsiva, o AirPlay estará mais rápido, as animações ficarão mais suaves em todo o sistema e segundo a Apple os apps abrirão até 30% mais rápido, além de o sistema vir com diversas correções de bugs.
Vale lembrar que o tvOS 27 não é mais compatível com as Apple TVs HD e 4K de primeira geração, funcionando apenas nos modelos 4K de segunda e terceira gerações.
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Apple TV 4K (3ª geração)
Armazenamento: 64GB ou 128GB Conectividade: Wi-Fi ou Wi-Fi + Ethernet
NOTA DE TRANSPARÊNCIA: O MacMagazine recebe uma pequena comissão sobre vendas concluídas por meio de links deste post, mas você, como consumidor, não paga nada mais pelos produtos/serviços usando os nossos links de afiliado.
Apple’s iCloud Private Relay is designed to hide users’ IP addresses from websites and even from Apple itself while browsing in Safari. But according to security researchers Talal Haj Bakry and Tommy Mysk, the feature does not always work as intended because of issues in Apple’s WebKit browser engine.
The problem centers on passkeys, the password-free authentication method that is becoming more widely used. When a user authenticates with a passkey, the request is handled outside the browser itself. Private Relay only protects traffic within Safari (as an iCloud+ feature) and does not function like a full-device VPN. As a result, the authentication request can expose the user’s real IP address to the website or service.
Because the vulnerability sits in WebKit, the engine that powers every browser on iOS, the IP leak is not limited to Safari. Privacy-focused browsers such as OnionBrowser and the researchers’ own Psylo browser can also reveal a user’s IP when passkeys are used.
Re: Responsible Disclosure
We found ourselves in a bit of a dilemma with these DNS and IP leaks in WebKit and how to handle them responsibly.
We first became aware of a DNS leak in Psylo in late June 2026 after a user reported it. During our investigation, we found two… https://t.co/5kFu0jtUsJ
The researchers have already notified OnionBrowser and the Tor Project of their findings and suggested fixes. Apple has told 404 Media that it is investigating the report. However, Bakry and Mysk noted that Apple’s response times for similar privacy issues can be lengthy; a previously reported problem with the Hide My Email feature that allowed real email addresses to leak behind aliases was not fully fixed for about a year after it was disclosed.
MacDailyNews Take: Until a fix arrives, users who rely on Private Relay for anonymity should be aware that logging in with passkeys on iOS may still reveal their IP address.
Please help support MacDailyNews — and enjoy subscriber-only articles, comments, chat, and more — by subscribing to our Substack: macdailynews.substack.com. Thank you!
Google Health (previously the Fitbit app) collects fitness, sleep, and wellness data from a connected wearable device. Steps, distance traveled, heart rate, sleep, and more can now be added to Apple Health. As noted on Reddit, some data such as HRV doesn't transfer over.
[…]
Syncing can be enabled after downloading the update by selecting Connections, choosing Apps and services, and then adding Apple Health.
My wife is a longtime Fitbit user. A few weeks ago, some family and friends started a friendly competition to see who could get the most steps. They’re all Fitbit users, too. Then she wanted to start comparing step counts with me, but I have an Apple Watch. I thought this would be no problem because the Health app has a sharing feature, and Fitbit and HealthKit have both been around forever. I was shocked to learn that there has never been any syncing. I don’t really understand the reason for this, as it seems like it would make the Fitbit more valuable.
It looks like the syncing part is now solved, but we still can’t automatically compare our steps. We’ve both tried inviting each other to share step counts and some other metrics multiple times over the last several weeks, and it has never worked. Either the invitation doesn’t arrive or the app just spins forever when trying to accept it.
The Aug. 12 total solar eclipse is nearly here, and if you’re hoping to observe totality, you will likely be heading to Greenland, Iceland, or Spain. The UK gets a solid 90% show, while the US only catches a small partial solar eclipse.
Wherever you're watching it from, do not look directly at the sun without ISO 12312-2 certified solar eclipse glasses — standard sunglasses aren't safe and won't save your retina.
Not sure which to buy? We’ve rounded up legitimate, safe options that you can order right now from the US, UK, and European retailers, so you can stay safe and enjoy the eclipse whether you're staying put, about to travel, or already abroad.
If you're planning on having an eclipse party, these solar eclipse glasses from Helioclipse will have you covered with packs of 6 / 12 / 25 / 50 and 100 available. They are fully ISO 12312-2 compliant and come with smartphone filters for taking photos of the eclipse.View Deal
Save 31% on this five pack of solar eclipse glasses from Medical King. They are ISO 12312-2 certified and the glasses can be cut into filters for your smartphone camera to grab a photo of the eclipse. View Deal
Grab a five pack of their American Astronomical Society (AAS) certified and ISO 12312-2 compliant solar eclipse glasses.View Deal
Best UK solar eclipse glasses
Celestron is a huge name in optics, and while its solar glasses may not be the absolute cheapest, you're assured of quality and eye safety. £12.99 gets you a four-pack of cardboard-framed ISO-certified eclipse glasses, alongside a mini-book of eclipse information. View Deal
Another Celestron offering, this includes a mobile phone filter, the aforementioned Celestron mini-book and a pair of solar eclipse glasses. The difference, apart from the price, is that these have plastic frames and so should prove hardier, particularly if you're going to keep them around for the 2027 partial solar eclipse. View Deal
Get a pair of Soluna solar eclipse glasses for just £2.99, a saving of £2.00. Purchasers report that the cardboard's not the strongest but they provide proper eye protection (as always, ISO 12312-2:2015 is the standard to watch out for). View Deal
For those traveling to some parts of Europe, Greenland or western Iceland, observing the total solar eclipse in safety is important, so use a pair of solar eclipse glasses. (Image credit: Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
The 2026 total solar eclipse is coming on Aug. 12 but if you are in the USA, you won't be able to experience totality. A minor partial eclipse is visible from some states, with the best coverage in parts of Alaska and New England. You might be getting ready to travel to one of the spots that will reach totality, like Greenland, western Iceland and northern Spain. Even places in the UK will be getting their best solar eclipse since the 1999 total solar eclipse over Europe, with the moon obscuring around 90% of the sun.
If you are planning on watching it at all, you will need at the very least, a pair of solar eclipse glasses. They need to be rated ISO 12312-2 so that they block 99.999% of the sunlight and keep observation safe. Looking at the sun without proper protection can result in permanent blindness and vision problems. If you are after some sharp images of the sun, you will even need filters and solar viewing gearfor your smart telescope, camera or solar binoculars.
So whether you are staying in the USA for a small but partial eclipse or travelling to Europe for a more dramatic show, we have found the best solar eclipse glasses to grab before the event. We have included retailers from America and Europe, including the best eclipse glasses in the UK. You should always check your eclipse glasses before use to make sure there are no holes or tears in them. Make sure you buy from a reputable brand and if you are unsure in any way about their eye protection ability, don't use them.
Três brechas na configuração de proxy do WebKit, que também afetam a Retransmissão Privada (Private Relay) do iCloud+, foram descobertas, permitindo que o endereço IP de usuários da Apple seja exposto a terceiros. O comportamento afeta todos os navegadores para iOS que dependem de conexões proxy para ocultar o IP do iPhone.
A falha foi localizada pelos desenvolvedores Talal Haj Bakry e Tommy Mysk, fundadores do navegador com foco em privacidade Psylo. Eles explicaram como a exposição da informação do usuário ocorre em uma postagem no blog oficial de Mysk:
Navegadores baseados em WebKit no iOS e no macOS podem ser configurados para encaminhar todo o tráfego web por servidores proxy. […] Em teoria, toda conexão de rede iniciada por uma página deveria passar pelo proxy configurado, de modo que os sites enxergassem apenas o endereço IP do proxy. No entanto, descobrimos que três recursos do WebKit ignoram essa configuração e enviam tráfego diretamente do dispositivo.
As três ferramentas mencionadas ao longo do boletim incluem a pré-busca (prefetching) de DNS, que resolve o endereço pelo caminho normal de DNS do dispositivo em vez de pelo proxy, expondo os servidores DNS reais do usuário; o Related Origin Requests (ROR) do WebAuthn, que faz com que o serviço de credenciais do sistema busque, diretamente do dispositivo, um arquivo de validação hospedado no domínio de origem, expondo o endereço real do usuário; e o WebTransport, que ignora o proxy ao estabelecer uma conexão HTTP/3 direta.
No caso do Safari, o recurso Retransmissão Privada do iCloud+ também é afetado pela falha; embora projetado para ter dois servidores intermediários para o tráfego e as consultas de DNS, os recursos listados ocorrem fora desse mecanismo de proteção, expondo o usuário de qualquer maneira.
Isso afeta também navegadores que utilizam a API 1Application programming interface, ou interface de programação de aplicações. de proxy para privacidade, como o Onion, que foi alertado sobre o problema junto do Tor Project. O relatório pontua, no entanto, que a única exceção quanto à exposição desses dados com algum desses recursos é o nível de segurança “Silver” do Onion Browser, que desativa o WebTransport por meio do Modo de Isolamento (Lockdown Mode).
As conexões por VPN 2Virtual private network, ou rede privada virtual. não são afetadas pela falha de segurança, visto que o tráfego do dispositivo passa pelo túnel do provedor da rede privada virtual.
O relatório conclui informando que o problema foi resolvido na versão mais recente do Psylo, que desabilitou por ora o funcionamento do WebTransport e do WebAuthn, além de bloquear a dica de pré-busca de DNS.
The excitement of the new moon mission has potentially helped create a new generation of stargazers, just like the Apollo program did 60 years ago. These new observers will be looking for a beginner’s telescope that is easy to use and which can show them the craters on the moon in particular. The Celestron Moon Mission 100mm Tabletop Dobsonian could be the perfect entry point for them. It has a superb price-point for its aperture, and is capable of bringing not only the moon, but double stars, the brighter galaxies and nebulas and the moons of Jupiter to your backyard.
The Celestron Moon Mission 100mm Tabletop Dobsonian comes equipped with 8mm and 20mm eyepieces, one of which is intended specifically for the moon, as well as a red-dot finderscope, a moon filter, a moon-map poster and free access to download the Starry Night planetarium software and Celestron’s SkyPortal app, which is powered by SkySafari.
All in all, it will make an excellent package for someone to get started enjoying the night sky. Though the optics and accessories are not perfect, for the price their drawbacks can be overlooked, and as an entry-level telescope it paves the way for the user to graduate to increasingly more sophisticated telescopes at a later date.
The lack of a tripod means this telescope does have its limitations but any stable, flat surface will suffice. (Image credit: Gemma Lavender)
Quick and simple set-up
Portable
The Celestron Moon Mission 100mm Tabletop Dobsonian comes out of its box complete, other than its eyepieces and red-dot finderscope in plastic bags. Set-up takes literally minutes — remove the plastic cap over the aperture and the cap on the focuser, insert your eyepiece of choice, screw on the finderscope and you are ready to go. No tools such as screwdrivers or Allen keys are needed— it is just a matter of unscrewing thumbscrews.
We found the finderscope went on easily — more about that later. However, the tiny thumbscrews that lock in the eyepiece were incredibly tight. Pliers didn’t help much and risked damaging the screw. In the end, we found elbow grease was just about enough to unscrew them, but if our review model is typical, then children will definitely need the help of an adult to unscrew these. Once they are unscrewed, they can be tightened to more forgiving tolerances.
Adults may be needed to help smaller children install the thumbscrews that hold the eyepiece in place. (Image credit: Gemma Lavender)
Specifications
Optical design: Newtonian reflector
Aperture: 3.9 in (100 mm)
Focal length: 15.75 in (400 mm)
Focal ratio: f/4
Eyepiece focal lengths & magnification: 20mm (20x) and 8mm (50x)
Weight: 2.4 lbs (1.08 kg)
Mount type: Dobsonian
Overall we can recommend the build quality of the Celestron Moon Mission 100mm Tabletop Dobsonian. Everything is sturdily made, from the Dobsonian base, the optical tube, the easily adjustable tilt and focuser knobs. The mount has a single arm and rotates on a ‘lazy Susan’ turntable.
The Moon Mission's focuser can be a little finicky, as we discovered. (Image credit: Gemma Lavender)
Three
Bullet
Points
This is where we thought that the Celestron Moon Mission 100mm Tabletop Dobsonian excelled. For such a small telescope, it was decently versatile.
For example, on the night of April 5, our first target was Jupiter, which was bright in Gemini, and unmistakable as it lay not far from the constellation’s twin stars Castor and Pollux. Jupiter appeared as a bright disk, with perhaps the merest hint of its banding — or was that our imagination? What certainly were real were the four Galilean moons: Io and Europa on one side, Ganymede and Callisto on the other. It was a sight sure to impress beginners and casual observers.
We moved the Celestron Moon Mission’s view towards the multiple star Castor, and the telescope capably split the main binary pair as two close, white stars using the 20mm eyepiece. Another popular multiple star is Mizar and Alcor in Ursa Major. Of course, Mizar and Alcor can be split with the naked eye, but the third visible star in the system is for telescopes only, and again the Celestron Moon Mission showed the three stars clearly.
Slewing east, Arcturus — the second brightest star visible from the U.K., and fourth brightest in the entire sky — appeared a glorious red, evoking its nature as a red giant.
While waiting for the moon to rise (and before taking some time out to watch the Artemis II coverage), we decided to track down some faint fuzzies. The box that the Celestron Moon Mission comes in highlights the Orion Nebula and the Andromeda Galaxy as two deep sky objects that the telescope can see. At the time of testing, the Orion Nebula was too low in the west, while the Andromeda Galaxy was not visible. Instead, we hunted down two other nearby galaxies, M81 and M82, in Ursa Major.
Searching for these two galaxies, which are located next to each other in the same field of view, is where the real challenge of using the finderscope, as we described in the Functionality section, really reared its head. In the end, we decided to star hop to the galaxies and struck out in roughly the right direction. Soon the telescope alighted on the two galaxies, visible as two fuzzy patches of light. Looking at them straight on, we found it difficult to discern their shape, but by using averted vision as we looked through the 20mm eyepiece of the Celestron Moon Mission, we could make out the broad disk-shape of the spiral M81, and the elongated cigar shape of M82, and even caught hints of mottling with brighter spots in the edge-on M82 that are better seen in images.
You'll likely use the eyepiece more frequently than the finderscope. (Image credit: Gemma Lavender)
After we watched the live NASA feed of Artemis II going around the far side of the moon, the moon finally rose from our location after midnight. Its phase was a waning gibbous three days after full. As such, the moon appeared bright and reddish, being low to the horizon. Through the 20mm we could see the whole disk, though the phase meant that for most of the lunar surface there was no contrast, making it harder to distinguish craters except for at the terminator.
Adding the 1.25-inch moon filter — more properly known as a neutral density filter that dims the incoming light — helped to limit the contrast and make the details stand out more. Switching to the 8mm eyepiece, with a magnification of 50x, the view jumped closer to the moon and the lunar surface filled the field of view, with bright crater rays visible on dark lunar mares.
As a Newtonian reflector, the Celestron Moon Mission 100mm Tabletop Dobsonian provides an inverted image. (Image credit: Gemma Lavender)
Finderscope is awkward to use when pointed at the zenith
Focusing is adequate
Simple to use
The tabletop nature of the telescope poses some challenges for adults using it. As its name suggests, the telescope is designed to go on the top of a table. Usually when we think of Dobsonian telescopes, we think of very large instruments with very large apertures, and eyepieces close to standing height. This Dobsonian, on the other hand, is very small, and without a very tall table we found that we spent a lot of our time bent double looking through the eyepiece. Of course, this also means it is the perfect height for a child.
We found it did pose a problem when using the finderscope. For objects at low elevations, such as Jupiter in Gemini during spring 2026, we found it wasn’t too bad. However, when we wanted to direct the telescope towards Ursa Major at the zenith, the only way we could look through the finderscope was by literally getting on the floor to look through it. This is a problem with all tabletop telescopes, not just the Celestron Moon Mission, and it would be unfair to suggest otherwise — but it is a problem nonetheless.
Once we addressed the tightness of the focuser thumbscrews, we could switch the eyepieces in and out with ease. We found the focuser to be perfunctory. It provides only coarse focusing, with no careful fine-tuning, and sometimes it was tricky to find the sweet spot. Additionally, Newtonian reflectors like this one require collimating for perfect pin-sharp images. Collimating refers to adjusting the secondary mirror (the primary mirror is fixed at the base of the optical tube) so that it aligns and focuses light reflected from the primary just so. It’s also a fact that astronomers hate collimating, as it is a finicky procedure.
The scope comes with 8mm and 20mm eyepieces, and can handle most 1.25-inch eyepieces. (Image credit: Gemma Lavender)
Out of the box, the collimation wasn’t bad, and we felt it was also unreasonable to expect beginners and children, whom this telescope is undoubtedly aimed at, to collimate the instrument with no guidance or tools included. Therefore, we reviewed the telescope as it came out of the box, to replicate the experience that beginners and children would receive. Had we collimated the telescope, then it probably would have improved the image a tad.
We found that actually using the telescope, in terms of positioning and pointing, was very simple. It’s worth remembering that Newtonian reflectors reverse their image (up becomes down), and after using smart telescopes, GoTo telescopes and Celestron’s StarSense telescopes with directions provided by a smartphone for so long, that took a little getting used to again! It may confuse beginners and children, but before the days of smart telescopes and GoTo, everybody had to get used to navigating across the sky using a reversed image, so it’s no bad thing.
Should you buy the Celestron Moon Mission 100mm Tabletop Dobsonian
Buy it if:
✅ You are a beginner
✅ You are a parent wanting to introduce your child to the night sky
✅ You are looking for ease of use
✅ You are working on a budget
✅ You need portability
Don't buy it if:
❌ You are a serious observer and need larger apertures
❌ You are an astrophotographer and need a driven mount
❌ You want a high-tech instrument with smart capabilities
❌ You don’t want to have to star-hop and would prefer a GoTo
If you want to introduce your children to astronomy, then the Celestron Moon Mission 100mm Tabletop Dobsonian is the perfect instrument. It is safe to use, with no risk of knocking something heavy over, as it weighs about the same as a bag of sugar, which is amazing really. It is simple to use, in the sense that it is just a matter of pushing and turning, although children might need assistance in pinpointing the location of targets. It’s also a fair all-rounder, as all Dobsonians are – it excels at showing the moon, displays the planets very well, and shows deep-sky objects as best it can for a 100mm-aperture telescope
If you want to see fainter galaxies and nebulae, then you will need a telescope with a larger aperture. If you want to do imaging, then you will need a telescope with a motorized equatorial drive to enable you to track the objects while imaging.
And if you want assistance in finding celestial objects without having to star-hop, then a GoTo or smart telescope might be best for you.
If the Celestron Moon Mission 100mm Tabletop Dobsonian isn't for you
How we tested the Celestron Moon Mission 100mm Tabletop Dobsonian
We put the Celestron Moon Mission 100mm through its paces, gazing both at deep space and objects in our own solar system. (Image credit: Gemma Lavender)
We used the Celestron Moon Mission 100mm Tabletop Dobsonian during the occasional clear nights in the first two weeks of April 2026 from our south-facing garden in the United Kingdom. The temperature was clement, about 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius), with some modest light pollution to the north and dark skies to the south looking towards a more rural area.
We began observing after 10 pm, with the skies completely dark. The moon was near full at the time of testing — in fact, quite fittingly, one of the nights was the same night that the Artemis II mission went around the moon. However, the moon remained low the entire night, meaning it could only be viewed near moonrise after midnight, close to the horizon, before it became hidden behind a nearby bank of trees for the rest of the night.
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App Store regulatory changes are beginning to affect Apple Services growth as developers gain more ways to avoid Apple’s payment system or pay lower commissions in major markets.
Apple finance chief Kevan Parekh told investors that changes to the App Store business model in some countries had affected its performance during the June quarter. Softer spending on mobile games created additional pressure.
The acknowledgement is significant because regulatory risk has appeared in Apple filings for years without producing a clearly identified effect on Services performance. Apple is now confirming that rule changes have advanced far enough to influence reported results.
The impact does not mean the App Store has stopped growing. Apple described the store as reaching another June-quarter revenue record, while Services expanded by approximately 12% from the previous year.
The emerging issue is the rate of growth. A purchase can still occur inside an iPhone app while generating less revenue for Apple when the customer pays through a developer’s website or uses terms carrying a reduced fee.
App Store Regulatory Changes Affect Several Markets
Apple did not identify one country or policy as solely responsible for the effect.
The company is adapting to a collection of court orders, competition laws and regulatory agreements that differ substantially among the United States, European Union, China, Brazil, Japan, South Korea and other markets.
Some rules concentrate on payment choice. They allow developers to place links or buttons inside apps leading customers to external checkout pages.
Other changes permit alternative app marketplaces or direct distribution outside the App Store. Several regulators are also examining whether Apple can charge developers for transactions completed through another payment provider.
The financial result depends on the model adopted in each country. Apple may receive no commission, a reduced commission or another fee connected with platform technology and distribution.
This creates a more fragmented App Store business. A subscription sold through the same application can produce different revenue for Apple according to the customer’s country, payment route and the developer terms governing that version of the app.
Image Credit: Apple Inc.
The United States Changed External Payment Links
The most direct change in the United States came from the long-running legal dispute between Apple and Epic Games.
A federal court previously ordered Apple to stop preventing developers from directing customers toward outside purchasing options. Apple responded by allowing certain external links while seeking commissions of between 12% and 27% on purchases completed through them.
The company also introduced design restrictions, an approval process and a warning screen displayed when customers left the App Store environment.
In April 2025, the district court found Apple in civil contempt for failing to comply fully with the anti-steering injunction. The ruling prohibited the company from collecting a commission on purchases made through external links and removed several restrictions governing their appearance.
Apple updated its App Review Guidelines in May 2025. Apps distributed through the United States storefront can include buttons, external links and other calls to action leading customers toward another payment method.
The rules no longer require a special external-link entitlement for the U.S. storefront.
That change gives developers a straightforward financial reason to move some transactions to the web. A company can process a payment through another provider instead of giving Apple a percentage of the digital sale.
The customer can return to the iPhone app and use the purchased subscription or content. The app remains distributed through Apple, but the associated transaction no longer produces the same App Store commission.
Enough developers adopting that route can slow Apple Services growth even if total spending on iPhone applications continues increasing.
The European Union Introduced Alternative Distribution
The European Union’s Digital Markets Act requires Apple to permit alternative app marketplaces, outside payment systems and other changes intended to reduce its control over iOS distribution.
Developers can remain under Apple’s conventional App Store terms or adopt business terms designed for the European market.
The alternative structure separates several services that were previously combined inside one commission. Developers can choose different levels of App Store support, use Apple’s payment system, provide another payment option or distribute software through a competing marketplace.
Apple introduced reduced commissions and technology-related fees to preserve compensation for the tools, security systems, distribution infrastructure and platform access it provides.
Those terms have changed several times following regulatory objections. Beginning in 2026, Apple started moving from its earlier Core Technology Fee toward a Core Technology Commission applied to eligible digital transactions under particular conditions.
The structure means outside payments do not always eliminate Apple fees in Europe. They can still reduce the amount Apple collects or shift revenue among different fee categories.
Regulators continue examining whether the terms provide meaningful choice or discourage developers from leaving the standard model.
Apple argues that alternative stores and payment systems create additional privacy, security and fraud risks. The European Commission has focused on whether Apple’s warnings, technical requirements and fees make those options unnecessarily difficult to use.
European developers must calculate more than one commission. They need to consider payment-processing costs, marketplace charges, customer acquisition, reporting obligations and the Apple terms attached to each distribution method.
The result may be lower App Store revenue without an equally large shift toward independent marketplaces. External website payments can change Apple’s economics more quickly because they do not require customers to install another store.
Apple lowered several commission rates in the China mainland storefront beginning March 15, 2026.
Qualifying transactions under the App Store Small Business Program and Mini Apps Partner Program now carry a 12% commission. The same rate applies to eligible auto-renewing subscriptions after the subscriber’s first year.
These transactions previously qualified for a higher 15% rate.
A three-percentage-point reduction may appear small beside demands for completely independent payments. At the scale of China’s app economy, it can remove a meaningful amount of revenue while improving the share retained by developers.
The Mini Apps Partner Program is particularly important in China because large platforms can contain many smaller services inside one host application.
Reducing the commission can encourage those ecosystems to continue using Apple In-App Purchase. It also demonstrates how Apple may respond to pressure by offering more favorable terms before regulators require a more disruptive change.
Lower commissions can support transaction growth over time, but the immediate calculation is straightforward: Apple receives less from each qualifying purchase.
Image Credit: Apple Inc.
Brazil Opens iOS to Outside Stores and Payments
Apple introduced alternative app distribution and payment options in Brazil through an agreement with the country’s competition regulator, CADE.
Beginning with iOS 26.5, developers can distribute apps through alternative marketplaces, operate those marketplaces and process digital payments outside Apple In-App Purchase.
Apps can also present links leading users to an external website where the transaction is completed.
Apple continues applying notarization and other technical requirements to software distributed outside the App Store.
The company maintains that these protections reduce risks but cannot provide the complete safeguards associated with App Review.
Brazil is a major smartphone and digital-services market. Its effect on Apple Services will depend on whether large developers adopt the new options and whether customers are willing to leave the familiar App Store purchasing flow.
An external option existing in software does not guarantee that people will use it. The developer must usually offer a meaningful advantage, such as a lower price, a different subscription package or payment methods better suited to local customers.
Adoption can increase gradually as existing apps release updates. The financial impact may therefore become more visible over several quarters rather than appearing immediately after the regulatory agreement takes effect.
Why Outside Payments Reduce Apple Services Revenue
Apple receives a commission when an eligible digital purchase uses its in-app payment system.
The fee compensates Apple for distribution, payment processing, fraud management, developer tools, customer support and access to the iOS platform, according to the company.
The standard percentage varies. Small developers and long-running subscriptions can qualify for reduced rates, while other eligible digital transactions may carry higher commissions.
When payment moves to a developer’s website, an independent processor handles the financial transaction. The developer pays that provider, manages more of the customer relationship and retains the amount that would otherwise become an App Store fee.
Apple may still provide the operating system, APIs, development tools and App Store distribution without receiving the conventional payment commission.
This separation explains why App Store activity and App Store revenue can move differently. People may download more applications and spend more on digital services while Apple captures a smaller percentage of the commerce.
The same customer could maintain several subscriptions used exclusively on an iPhone without any of their monthly payments passing through Apple.
Apple can collect other revenue from that user through hardware, advertising, iCloud or its own subscriptions. The external transaction nevertheless removes one part of the Services model.
Most App Store Commerce Never Paid Apple a Commission
The size of the App Store economy should not be confused with Apple’s commissionable revenue.
Apple says the global App Store ecosystem facilitated more than $1.4 trillion in developer billings and sales during 2025. More than 90% of that commerce did not produce a commission for the company.
The largest categories involve physical goods and services such as retail purchases, travel, grocery delivery, restaurant orders and transportation.
Apple does not collect a percentage when someone uses an Amazon app to order furniture, books a hotel or pays for a meal delivered through an iPhone.
App Store commissions generally concentrate on digital goods, application features, virtual items and subscriptions sold through Apple In-App Purchase.
Regulatory changes target this smaller but financially important part of the ecosystem.
Digital transactions require no physical inventory or delivery network, allowing payment commissions to carry attractive margins. Losing part of that revenue can therefore affect profitability more than the dollar amount alone suggests.
Apple does not disclose App Store revenue or profit separately. The category remains combined with cloud services, advertising, media subscriptions, AppleCare, payments and other operations inside Services.
Mobile Gaming Weakness Adds Another Pressure
Regulation was not the only factor Apple identified.
Parekh said softer mobile gaming activity also affected the App Store. Games represent an important source of digital transactions because players purchase virtual currency, characters, cosmetic items, subscriptions and access to additional content.
A decline in game spending directly affects the commission Apple receives through In-App Purchase.
Gaming is also one category where developers have pushed aggressively for alternative stores and payments. Epic Games began its legal confrontation with Apple after introducing another payment method inside Fortnite and attempting to bypass App Store commissions.
The simultaneous effects are difficult to separate. A game can generate lower revenue because players are spending less, because payments moved outside Apple’s system or because both changes occurred together.
Apple does not provide enough category detail to calculate the contribution from each factor.
The distinction matters for the outlook. Gaming demand can recover with successful releases and stronger consumer spending. A permanent regulatory change does not reverse when one popular game reaches the top of the charts.
Image Credit: Apple Inc.
Developers Gain Revenue but Assume More Work
Outside payments can improve the amount a developer retains from each purchase.
A company moving from a conventional App Store commission to a lower-cost web payment processor may use the difference to reduce prices, fund development or improve profitability.
The developer also assumes responsibilities previously handled through Apple.
Independent billing requires payment processing, tax management, fraud protection, refunds, account recovery and customer support. Subscription status must synchronize correctly between the website and the iPhone app.
Customers changing devices or reinstalling an app expect their purchases to remain available. The developer needs its own account system capable of verifying ownership without relying entirely on Apple’s purchase history.
Small developers may decide that Apple In-App Purchase remains worth its fee because it removes operational complexity and gives customers a familiar checkout experience.
Large subscription businesses have stronger incentives to build their own systems. They already maintain accounts and payments across websites, televisions, Android devices and other platforms.
The regulatory effect will therefore vary by developer size and business model. One company may remove Apple billing completely, while another continues using it because external infrastructure would cost more than the commission saved.
Customers May Receive Lower Prices
External payments create the possibility of lower subscription prices because developers no longer need to incorporate the complete App Store fee into the amount charged.
Some services already cost more when purchased through an iPhone app than through their websites. The higher price allows the developer to preserve similar revenue after Apple receives its share.
A visible external link makes comparing those prices easier. Customers can leave the app, complete the transaction on the web and return with an active account.
Savings are not guaranteed. A developer can retain the entire difference rather than passing it to subscribers.
Independent billing can also make subscription management less consistent.
Purchases completed through Apple appear in one location:
Settings > Apple Account > Subscriptions
A subscription purchased directly must be canceled through the developer’s website or account system. Customers using many external services may need to remember several billing portals and renewal policies.
Refunds and purchase disputes also move away from Apple. The developer or its payment processor becomes responsible for resolving the transaction.
Choice can reduce prices while increasing complexity. The practical outcome depends on whether developers make external checkout clearly cheaper and easy to manage.
Apple Is Expanding Other App Store Tools
Apple is responding to the changing environment by adding business models and marketing systems that can keep developers using its commerce platform.
Monthly subscriptions with a 12-month commitment allow participating apps to offer lower recurring payments while securing a complete year of revenue.
The Advanced Commerce API supports more complex content catalogs, optional add-ons and subscription structures that were previously difficult to manage through standard In-App Purchase products.
Apple has also expanded tools for custom product pages, promotional offers, application analytics and international distribution.
These additions increase the value attached to App Store billing. A developer may tolerate a commission when Apple provides conversion tools, subscription management and access to promotional placement that would be expensive to reproduce independently.
The company can also adjust rates for particular categories. The Small Business Program, Mini Apps Partner Program and reduced commission for longer-running subscriptions already demonstrate differentiated pricing.
A more competitive payment market may push Apple toward additional service tiers rather than one universal commission.
The UK Could Create the Next Material Change
The United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority is consulting on rules that would allow developers to direct customers outside Apple and Google’s payment systems.
The regulator expects any fee charged for steering to be fair, reasonable and lower than current app-store commissions. It wants the resulting savings passed to customers or reinvested in developer businesses.
The UK proposal is not yet a final requirement. Its eventual structure could determine whether developers receive the broad freedom available in the United States or a fee-based model closer to some European arrangements.
Regulators are also considering app-review fairness, interoperability and access to mobile-platform capabilities.
The outcome will matter beyond British customers. Each major jurisdiction creates another model that regulators elsewhere can examine when designing their own rules.
Apple must decide whether to continue maintaining different commercial systems by country or move toward broader global terms that reduce operational complexity.
Developers face the same choice. Supporting a separate payment route, marketplace package and reporting process for every region can become expensive enough to cancel some of the benefits regulation intended to create.
The next evidence will come from behavior rather than another policy announcement: how many major apps add external payment links, whether they offer lower prices and how quickly customers move away from Apple’s checkout.
Looking forward to the 2026 solar eclipse, happening on Aug. 12? I know I am and even though it's not a total solar eclipse here in the UK (thepath of totality crosses Greenland, Iceland and northern Spain), we'll still get to watch the moon obscure around 90% of the Sun, a sight that terrified our ancient ancestors.
However, you'll need proper eye protection, such as solar eclipse glasses, to watch the eclipse safely. Sunglasses are not sufficient for a solar eclipse; instead, you need eclipse glasses that follow ISO 12312-2:2015, the standard for solar viewers. If that number's not somewhere on the glasses, you're at risk of damaging your eyesight, maybe even permanently.
Celestron is a huge name in optics, and while its solar glasses may not be the absolute cheapest, you're assured of quality and eye safety. £12.99 gets you a four-pack of cardboard-framed ISO-certified eclipse glasses, alongside a mini-book of eclipse information. View Deal
Another Celestron offering, this includes a mobile phone filter, the aforementioned Celestron mini-book and a pair of solar eclipse glasses. The difference, apart from the price, is that these have plastic frames and so should prove hardier, particularly if you're going to keep them around for the 2027 partial solar eclipse. View Deal
Get a pair of Soluna solar eclipse glasses for just £2.99, a saving of £2.00. Purchasers report that the cardboard's not the strongest but they provide proper eye protection (as always, ISO 12312-2:2015 is the standard to watch out for). View Deal
Do you wear glasses daily and don't want to meddle with them for the sake of the eclipse? These Absolute Eclipse Solar Eclipse glasses are designed to fit over your current pair and should be hardy enough to reuse next year. View Deal
If you're prepared to pay a little more, these Celestron EclipSmart 10x42 should be on your solar eclipse shopping list. Not only do their non-removable filters mean you're always protected when you use them, but their 10x zoom level also means that, post-eclipse, you can watch for sunspots. View Deal
The best smart telescopes have transformed astrophotography over the past few years, combining small telescope optics and automated mounts with dashcam-style camera sensors and image-processing software. The result? Compact devices that can be controlled entirely from a smartphone. Impressively, the DwarfLab Dwarf Mini pushes that concept even further.
Roughly the size of a thick paperback book, it’s one of the smallest smart telescopes yet produced — tiny enough to fit in a jacket pocket while still capable of imaging nebulae, star clusters, the moon and even sunspots. It's also one of the best telescopes for beginners.
Positioned below the larger Dwarf 3 in DwarfLab’s lineup, the Mini sacrifices aperture and resolution for portability. It uses a 30mm refractor paired with Sony’s IMX662 sensor and relies on automated stacking to gradually reveal deep-sky objects. The telescope connects to a phone via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth and handles alignment, tracking and imaging automatically through the DwarfLab app.
With built-in filters, optional equatorial tracking, and advanced software features such as Mega Stack and Stellar Studio processing, the Dwarf Mini is aimed at beginners and traveling astrophotographers who want a compact, automated imaging system that doesn’t require lots of extra kit — and works well even in light-polluted cities.
DwarfLab Dwarf Mini smart telescope review
DwarfLab Dwarf Mini: Design
The DwarfLab Dwarf Mini unfolds into a capable mini-telescope. (Image credit: Jamie Carter)
Ultra-compact 30mm refractor telescope
Internal motorized filter wheel
Magnetic solar filter
Lightweight design
Ideal for travel and eclipse chasing
The defining characteristic of the Dwarf Mini is its size. The body includes a 360-degree rotating base and an articulating lens arm that moves through 225 degrees, allowing the telescope to cover most of the sky. It's significantly smaller than its competitors, including the larger Dwarf 3, making it easy to pack for travel. In fact, it’s easily small enough to slip into a camera bag or carry-on luggage, making it an appealing option for traveling astrophotographers — perhaps including eclipse chasers preparing for the upcoming trio of total solar eclipses beginning in 2026, since a magnetic solar filter is included in the box. Nice touch!
The telescope itself is a 30mm f/5 refractor with a focal length of 150mm. This produces a field of view of about 2.4 degrees, roughly five times the apparent diameter of the full moon. That optical system is paired with a Sony IMX662 sensor, a 1/2.8-inch sensor capable of 2.1MP resolution (1080p). This sensor is all about low noise and sensitivity, making it well-suited to short astrophotography exposures, but not to high-resolution images. Compared with the Dwarf 3’s Sony IMX678 Starvis 2 sensor, which delivers 8.3MP and 4K resolution, the Mini is a step down in terms of detail. However, in practice, the difference is smaller than expected, particularly after image stacking and processing.
The Dwarf Mini arrives in a box with few accessories. (Image credit: Jamie Carter)
Specifications
Optical design: Apochromatic refractor
Aperture: 1.18 inches (30mm)
Focal length: 150mm (5.91 inches)
Focal ratio: f/5
Field of view: 50.59 x 45.06 degrees (wide)/2.5 x 2.14 degrees (telephoto)
Total kit weight: 1.8 lbs (840 g)
Size: 7.24 x 3.94 x 2.4-in (184 x 100 x 61 mm)
Mount type: Alt-azimuth and equatorial (EQ)
Storage: 64GB internal memory
Battery: 7,000 mAh rechargeable (4 hours)
The device also features a motorized internal filter wheel, allowing users to switch between broadband and dual-narrowband filters directly in the app to mitigate light pollution and better image nebulae. This avoids the need to install external filters, which are an add-on accessory with some smart telescopes.
The box includes a magnetic solar filter, a USB-C charging cable and a lens cloth. However, a small tripod is not included in the box, which feels like an omission given the Mini’s travel-friendly design. That's not a deal-breaker since any small tabletop (or full-size) tripod can be used, but the all-in-one feel is sacrificed.
DwarfLab Dwarf Mini: Performance
Close-up view of the Dwarf Mini’s dual-lens optical system. (Image credit: Jamie Carter)
Reveals deep-sky objects even under light pollution
Plate-solves stars and stacks short exposures
Mega Stack combines data from multiple sessions
The Dwarf Mini performs surprisingly well considering its small optics. During testing, it proved capable of capturing bright deep-sky targets such as the Orion Nebula (M42) and the Pleiades (M45), as well as open clusters like M44, even from suburban skies.
Smart telescopes compensate for small apertures by stacking many short exposures over time, gradually building up a deeper image. In standard alt-az mode, exposures are typically limited to around 10-15 seconds to prevent field rotation (which can cause blur). This technique allows the telescope to perform well even under heavy light pollution and/or strong moonlight, making it particularly useful for urban astronomers, where the chance of seeing faint nebulae is virtually zero.
One particularly useful feature is Mega Stack, which combines multiple imaging sessions of the same targets. Instead of capturing everything in a single session, data from several shorter sessions can be added later — even months or years later — to produce deeper images. That's handy when windows of clear skies are few, or if you plan occasional trips to dark skies where better data might be possible.
February’s full Worm Moon as seen through the Dwarf Mini. (Image credit: Jamie Carter)
For more advanced imaging, the telescope also supports an equatorial (EQ) tracking mode, something professional astrophotographers insist upon. EQ mode may not be essential on a travel-friendly smart telescope like this, but its inclusion is impressive. It requires the purchase of an equatorial wedge, such as Dwarf Mini’s Mini Tripod accessory, which we were not able to test during this review. After a simple alignment with Polaris, the mount tracks the sky’s rotation, allowing exposures of up to 90 seconds. It can make a marked difference with very faint targets — though it’s not an essential feature on a smart telescope aimed at beginners.
Daytime performance is also strong. With the included solar filter, the Mini easily captured sunspots and solar activity, while lunar images also showed impressive crater detail.
The main limitation is resolution. The 2MP sensor produces images that look excellent on smartphones and social media, but they lack the detail needed for large prints or serious astrophotography. But for a telescope this small, the results are genuinely impressive.
DwarfLab Dwarf Mini: Functionality
Any tripod works with the Dwarf Mini. (Image credit: Jamie Carter)
Smartphone control via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth
Sky Atlas feature for automatic target selection
Manual pointing and mosaic imaging modes
The Dwarf Mini is designed to be controlled entirely through the DwarfLab smartphone app, which connects via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.
Once connected, users can browse a built-in sky atlas, which displays objects currently visible from their location. Selecting an object prompts the telescope to plate-solve the surrounding stars, automatically align itself, slew to the target and begin stacking exposures. Imaging sessions can be stopped at any point if you’re happy with the result so far. The app also displays session details such as exposure count and total integration time.
For users who want more control, the telescope can also be manually aimed at any patch of sky, which is particularly useful when imaging newly discovered comets or objects not yet included in the atlas database. For objects larger than its field of view, such as the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), Mini has a mosaic mode, which allows the telescope to capture multiple adjacent frames and stitch them together.
The DwarfLab Dwarf Mini is roughly the same size as a drinks carton. (Image credit: Jamie Carter)
Captured images can then be processed using Stellar Studio, DwarfLab’s built-in image processing software, which is very good at removing noise and adding contrast. Images can be saved in JPG, TIFF or FITS formats, giving beginners a set of sharing-friendly options and more advanced users the chance to download files into desktop processing software.
The Beehive Cluster (M44) in Cancer, imaged with the DwarfLab Dwarf Mini. (Image credit: Jamie Carter)
It’s all remarkably easy to operate once you’re comfortable with how the app works. Beginners can capture solar, lunar and deep-sky images within minutes of set-up, while more experienced astrophotographers can still access advanced features such as EQ tracking and mosaic imaging.
Firmware updates are frequent and install easily through the app, so it’s worth connecting the telescope to your home Wi-Fi before heading to a dark-sky site — you never know when new features will appear!
Should you buy the DwarfLab Dwarf Mini smart telescope?
Buy it if:
✅ You want an ultra-portable smart telescope for travel, urban observing or eclipse expeditions.
✅ You’re new to astrophotography and want an automated system that works straight from your phone.
Don't buy it if:
❌ You want high-resolution astrophotography results for printing or detailed processing.
❌ You prefer traditional telescopes with eyepieces and manual control.
The DwarfLab Dwarf Mini offers a tempting combination of portability, automation and surprisingly capable astrophotography performance. It won’t replace a full astrophotography setup, but for beginners, urban astronomers, travelers and eclipse chasers, it provides an easy way to capture the night sky — and the sun — without bulky and expensive equipment.
If the DwarfLab Dwarf Mini smart telescope isn't for you
If you're after something with a little higher resolution, the DwarfLab Dwarf 3 is a larger, more powerful version with a 4K sensor and a slightly larger aperture.
ZWO Seestar S30 is a similar smart telescope with automated tracking and an included tabletop tripod, though it's recently been surpassed by the slightly pricier ZWO Seestar S30 Pro, a higher-resolution alternative that boasts superior optics and imaging.
For an overview of the top telescopes in this category, read our 2026 guide to the best smart telescopes.
User reviews
Online reviews of the Dwarf Mini often highlight its portability, simplicity and image quality. One reviewer described it as a “great piece of kit for deep space astrophotography.”
Another wrote: “I had no trouble getting it imaging within a few minutes out of the box,” praising the image quality, autofocus, GoTo accuracy, tracking, and the app. “It's a brilliant piece of kit,” said another user.
However, several users also reported poor quality in planetary images — and that’s certainly true (though it can find the moons of Jupiter).
How we tested the DwarfLab Dwarf Mini smart telescope
Our observations took place on a few clear nights during February and March 2026, in temperatures down to lows of 43 degrees Fahrenheit (6 degrees Celsius) and highs of about 54 F (12 C). Light pollution was between 5 and 6 on the Bortle scale — urban conditions with bright city lighting. Battery life averaged around 4 hours, though longer imaging sessions were supported using an external USB power bank connected to the telescope's USB-C slot.
DARPA officials said the successful flight of an aircraft category that is still in use for combat operations advances the state-of-the-art technological infrastructure needed to meet the challenges of a rapidly evolving aerial environment and will enable rapid, scalable combat AI pilot development across the broader U.S. military forces.
“These groundbreaking flight tests of VENOM-modified F-16s advance the infrastructure needed to develop trusted, autonomous air combat capabilities,” said Brig. Gen. James “Fangs” Valpiani, Ph.D., DARPA program manager.
AI-Controlled F-16 Test Flights Part of VENOM Program
According to a statement announcing the successful AI-controlled flights, the F-16 used in the tests was specifically converted to an AI testbed under the agency’s joint venture with the U.S. Air Force, the Viper Experimentation and Next-generation Operations Model (VENOM) program. The specific AI pilot installed in the F-16 is known as the VENOM Autonomy Kit, or VAK.
DARPA said VAK utilizes a “novel interface with the aircraft’s flight controls and mission systems.” This component allows an on-board human pilot to toggle between their traditional control systems and VAK “with the flip of a switch,” ensuring pilot safety during the testing phase where a human is still in the loop.
An F-16 Fighting Falcon modified for the Viper Experimentation and Next-gen Operations Model – Autonomy Flying Testbed (VENOM) program conducts flight operations during autonomous systems testing in June 2026 at Eglin Air Force Base. The VENOM F-16s serve as modified airborne test platforms equipped with specialized hardware, software, and instrumentation designed to enable artificial intelligence agents to pilot the aircraft while human pilots remain in the cockpit to monitor the AI agents and ensure flight and mission systems test objectives are met to rapidly evolve autonomous capabilities. Image Credit: U.S. Air Force | Samuel King Jr., 96th Test Wing
Valpiani said that the VENOM team installed the AI-controlled VAK interface, which successfully automated the F-16’s sensors and flight controls “without changing the jet’s core software.”
“This enables an efficient pipeline for developing dominant AI for aerial combat, allowing us to rapidly innovate for the warfighter,” the program manager explained.
Creating Dominant Autonomy Beyond Visual Range
When discussing the significance of the successful AI-controlled test flights, Valpiani once again highlighted the “emerging threat environment” in relation to aerial combat, including its increasing complexity.
“AI has tremendous potential to help humans manage this complexity in beyond-visual-range combat, but many hard questions remain concerning the performance and trustworthiness of combat AI in the extreme fog and friction of modern warfare,” explained the project leader, who was due to conclude his tenure as a DARPA program manager in the weeks after the announcement. “The AIR program aims to apply cutting-edge combat agents to operationally relevant scenarios to address these questions and field war-deterring, war-winning capabilities to our warfighters.”
Incoming program manager, Lt. Col. Patrick “Dice” Highland, Ph.D., highlighted the milestone’s role in “advancing our nation’s combat autonomy,” while also offering an eye toward the program’s future.
“We now have the opportunity to create dominant autonomy for beyond-visual-range, multi-ship combat,” Lt. Col Highland said. “These flights give us an early glimpse of how AI agents may begin actively transforming air warfare.”
Moving VAK’s Capabilities “Out of Simulation and Into the Sky”
Following the successful AI-piloted F-16 tests, the specially designed VENOM aircraft will join DARPA as it moves the entire venture under the umbrella of the agency’s Artificial Intelligence Reinforcements (AIR) program. According to the agency, this new program will use the aircraft in the VENOM fleet to “test multiple AI agents in live-flight scenarios.” If successful, DARPA said the program will “pave the way for human pilots to seamlessly command and orchestrate teams of autonomous, uncrewed aircraft.”
Current deputy program manager Terry Wilson, Ph.D., who will remain with the program, highlighted AIR’s longer-term goals of future joint force operations, including Collaborative Combat Aircraft programs. DARPA said that these efforts will focus on improving the speed and predictive ability of AI model development and “scale in-flight testing to multi-ship operations with increased complexity to unlock novel and robust AI-driven autonomy.”
“I share Gen. Valpiani’s deep appreciation for the incredible dedication of our DARPA and industry teammates, joint engineers, the System Program Office, Eglin’s test and maintenance crews, and the entire AIR and VENOM ecosystem which has made this milestone possible,” said Wilson. “I look forward to unleashing the VENOM platform and moving these capabilities out of simulation and into the sky.”
Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and has spent the last six years as Associate News Editor and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him at christopher@thedebrief.org
Smart telescopes like the Seestar S30 Pro have changed astrophotography and, arguably, urban astronomy. The Seestar S30 Pro takes that concept further than most. Small enough to fit inside a camera backpack, it combines a refractor telescope, motorized mount, dual cameras and image-processing software into a compact unit controlled entirely from a smartphone. Within minutes of powering on, it can align itself to the night sky, slew to a specified target and begin stacking exposures to reveal galaxies, nebulas and star clusters — even from light-polluted locations.
The Pro version of the S30 adds a higher resolution sensor, advanced optics and upgraded software functionality. (Image credit: Jamie Carter)
It makes astrophotography — once a complex and expensive hobby — possible with a single, automated device, though what makes the Seestar S30 Pro particularly interesting is not just its simplicity, but how it changes the experience of observing. Instead of actively operating a telescope, users watch a digital image build in real time. Sure, your eyes don’t see the photons coming from distant galaxies, but that misses the point — urban astronomers can’t see much of those galaxies anyway when using an optical telescope.
(Image credit: Jamie Carter)
Positioned as an upgrade to the originalSeestar S30, it introduces higher-resolution 8.3MP imaging, equatorial tracking support and expanded imaging modes aimed at more advanced users.
Designed for beginners, urban astronomers and astrophotographers of any level who are looking for a portable rig, the Seestar S30 Pro is about convenience, capability and a different way to explore the night sky.
ZWO Seestar S30 Pro smart telescope review
ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: Design
The Seestar S30 Pro features four lens elements in an optical design called an apochromatic quadruplet refractor. (Image credit: Jamie Carter)
Lightweight design
Dual-camera system
Full smartphone control
At first glance, the Seestar S30 Pro barely resembles a telescope, being closer in size to a telephoto lens than a traditional optical instrument. That portability is one of its defining strengths — this is a telescope you can realistically take anywhere, whether into a backyard, onto a balcony or on a dark-sky trip. You could even take it as hand luggage on a trip to see a total solar eclipse in a distant land.
When packed away the Seestar S30 Pro is very compact and highly portable.Jamie CarterWeighing just 3.6 lbs (1.65 kg) it is the lightest apochromatic quadruplet smart telescope.Jamie Carter
The design is deliberately minimal. Aside from a power button and USB-C slot, there are no physical controls. Everything — from slewing and focusing to image capture and processing — is handled through the Seestar app. Once connected to a phone via its own WiFi network, the system operates entirely offline, connecting directly to your phone without requiring an internet connection in the field.
Apart from the power button and USB-C slot on the S30 Pro, there are no physical controls as everything is controlled by the app.Jamie CarterThe Seestar S30 Pro combines a telescope, camera and automated mount in a single unit. Jamie Carter
Field of view: 4.6 degrees (tele) / 63 degrees (wide)
Mount type: Alt-azimuth (EQ mode supported)
Storage: 128GB internal
Battery: 6000 mAh (~6 hours)
Weight: 3.6 lbs (1.65 kg)
Dimensions: 8.25 x 5.5 x 3.15-in (210 x 140 x 80 mm)
A key feature of this new, improved model is its dual-camera system. The primary telephoto camera is dedicated to deep-sky imaging, using a Sony IMX585 sensor that’s capable of 8.3MP (4K) images, while the secondary wide-angle uses an equally capable Sony IMX586 sensor for sky alignment and wide-field imaging modes.
Any tripod can be used with the Seestar S30 Pro. (Image credit: Jamie Carter)
The included tabletop tripod is solid, if small, so users with backyards surrounded by buildings or trees will benefit from mounting the device on a full-size photographic tripod. It also comes with a handy, high-quality padded shoulder bag to store the telescope and all its accessories.
ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: Performance
The Orion Nebula (M42) shot in alt-azimuth mode. (Image credit: Jamie Carter)
Automatic stacking with intelligent frame rejection
EQ mode enables longer exposures
Strong results under urban/suburban skies
Using the Seestar S30 Pro is less about operating equipment and more about using an app. After powering on and connecting via WiFi, the telescope automatically plate-solves the stars overhead, determines its position and slews to a selected target. Within minutes, it begins capturing short exposures — typically around 10 seconds — which are stacked in real time to reduce noise and improve detail. Crucially, the system automatically discards poor-quality frames caused by tracking errors, wind shake or star trailing.
Bode’s Galaxy (M81) and the Cigar Galaxy (M82) shot in alt-azimuth mode. (Image credit: Jamie Carter)
The effect of the image stacking is gradual. As more data is collected, a faint patch of light slowly resolves into a nebula or distant galaxy. The longer the telescope runs, the clearer and more detailed the final image becomes, with nebulosity and spiral arms becoming visible. Stars remain sharp across the field of view — the Seestar S30 Pro’s optics may be small, but they are excellent quality. During our test, we produced some superb images of the Orion Nebula (M42), as well as Bode’s Galaxy (M81) and the Cigar Galaxy (M82), the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) and the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules (M13).
The first-quarter moon imaged by the Seestar S30 Pro. (Image credit: Jamie Carter)
Stacking images is a hugely effective way to do observational astronomy under light-polluted urban skies. By stacking multiple exposures and applying built-in filters (there are three), the Seestar S30 Pro can reveal objects that would otherwise be invisible through the eyepiece of a traditional optical telescope.
The Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) shot in EQ mode, edited using Deep Sky Stack and with AI Denoise applied.Jamie CarterThe Great Globular Cluster in Hercules (M13) shot in EQ mode, edited using Deep Sky Stack and with AI Denoise applied.Jamie Carter
The all-new equatorial (EQ) mode extends performance further, though aligning the telescope with Earth’s rotation requires purchasing the add-on Seestar TH10 Fluid Tripod Head. This is easy to set up, thanks to an in-app setup process that perfectly positions the tripod and ball head. With Expert Mode engaged, exposures of up to 60 seconds are possible. We tried it on two faint targets — the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) and the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules (M13)— and got much greater detail.
Jupiter and its moons, as imaged by the Seestar S30 Pro. (Image credit: Jamie Carter)
Planetary imaging is less impressive, with planets appearing small and lacking fine detail. That said, we did manage to image Jupiter and its moons. The telescope is clearly optimized for deep-sky imaging rather than solar system work — the exception being the moon, which looked fabulous through the Seestar S30 Pro.
ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: Functionality
The Seestar app identifies objects, and offers editing and astronomical information. (Image credit: Jamie Carter)
Intuitive smartphone app
Automated imaging and Plan mode
Built-in processing and FITS export
The Seestar app is central to the entire experience. It acts as both controller and processing platform, offering a planetarium-style sky atlas that displays objects visible from the user’s location. Selecting a target triggers automatic alignment, slewing and image capture. Once imaging begins, the app displays real-time progress, including exposure count and total integration time. Users can stop a session at any time or continue it for deeper results. The telescope can operate largely unattended, making it easy to leave running and check later.
Equatorial (EQ) mode set-up on the Seestar S30 Pro app for longer exposure times. (Image credit: Jamie Carter)
If all of this is beginning to sound like the Seestar S30 Pro is ideal for lazy astronomers, it doesn’t end there. Cue the app’s Plan mode, which allows users to schedule multiple targets for imaging overnight. Orion Nebula not rising until 3 a.m.? No problem. Pre-sunrise comet? Stay in bed. Assuming you’ve checked for clear skies beforehand, the Seestar S30 Pro can observe while you sleep. However, Plan mode does come with limits: exposure time and gain cannot be fine-tuned per target, so users must rely on default settings. For most, that won’t deter.
The Seestar app’s Sky Atlas makes it easy to find objects. (Image credit: Jamie Carter)
For those interested in post-processing, the Seestar S30 Pro supports FITS file export, enabling images to be refined in external software such as Siril, PixInsight, DeepSkyStacker or Photoshop (though advanced users dealing in FITS files may find that the system’s 128GB internal storage needs frequent attention). Alternatively, the built-in Deep Sky Stack provides quick results with minimal effort, allowing frames to be discarded and the effective AI Denoise pipeline to be engaged — something that takes a little patience, but delivers excellent results.
How we tested the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro
The Seestar S30 Pro has a tiny footprint. (Image credit: Jamie Carter)
Testing took place over multiple nights during late winter and early spring, under suburban Bortle 6 skies in cold but not freezing temperatures. It was also used in Bortle 2 skies in sub-zero temperatures, with no ill effects on the 6-hour battery life. The telescope was used to image a variety of deep-sky objects, with sessions ranging from short captures to integrations lasting several hours. Both standard alt-az mode and EQ mode were tested.
Should you buy the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro?
Buy it if:
✅ You want an easy, automated entry into astrophotography: The S30 Pro is incredibly easy to use and highly portable without skimping on optical quality.
✅ You observe from light-polluted locations: Built-in image processing and stacking allows fine details to be resolved on deep sky objects even when observing from light-polluted locations.
Don't buy it if:
❌ You want full manual control over imaging: Whilst having equatorial (EQ) imaging mode and certain modes for the Milky Way and 8K wide-field stitching, it actually lacks custom exposure times and gain control for precision tweaking.
❌ You’re primarily interested in planetary observation: The S30 Pro is capable of imaging planets but they just aren't as impressive as its deep-sky images.
The Seestar S30 Pro is best understood not as a traditional telescope, but as an automated imaging system designed to make astrophotography accessible. It’s also an upgrade on the Seestar S30 that may or may not be worth the money, depending on your needs.
For beginners, it provides a clear pathway into astrophotography without the usual financial or technical barriers. For more advanced users, it’s an efficient grab-and-go system for casual or supplementary imaging.
If the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro isn't for you
If you’re looking for a more affordable entry point, the ZWO Seestar S30 offers similar ease of use, but with lower (2MP) resolution and fewer advanced features. For those who simply want basic, shareable images, it remains a strong alternative.
The DwarfLab Dwarf Mini is even smaller and more portable but it is limited to 2MP imaging. At the other end of the market, the Unistellar Odyssey is a premium smart telescope offering much larger apertures and access tocitizen science campaigns, albeit at significantly higher prices.
For an overview of the top telescopes in this category, read our guide to the best smart telescopes.
In most Mac apps, since the dawn of time, if there is nothing selected to be copied, the Edit → Copy (and Cut) commands are disabled. If you invoke the ⌘C shortcut while the Copy command is disabled, you hear an alert sound, letting you know that whatever you thought you were copying could not be copied because it wasn’t selected. That beep is useful context. This is proper behavior for all menu items — if they’re not available to do something, they should be disabled, and invoking a disabled menu item keyboard shortcut should beep. In any app that uses WebKit, since early in 2025, the Copy command is always enabled when a WebKit view has focus — but if nothing is selected, you get useless clipboard data that can’t actually be pasted anywhere. (And whatever was on your clipboard is now gone, or pushed back if you use a clipboard history utility.)
AppKit adds NSRefreshController, providing pull-to-refresh functionality for NSScrollView.
[…]
NSToolbarItemGroup adds the role property and the NSToolbarItemGroupRole enum, allowing toolbar item groups to be tagged with a semantic role. NSSegmentedControl similarly adds a role property and the NSSegmentedControlRole enum, including a tabs role for controls that represent tab-based navigation and content selection.
[…]
NSTextSelectionManager provides common text selection interactions (click, drag, shift-click, double/triple-click word/line/paragraph selection) to a NSView with a set of NSGestureRecognizers rather than overriding NSEvent mouse methods. NSTextView now uses NSTextSelectionManager and provides its own set of NSGestureRecognizers to provide additional features in addition to text selection.
[…]
By default, NSMenu hides all menu item symbol images — non-symbol images remain visible. […] Use the new preferredImageVisibility property on NSMenuItem to customize the image visibility for your menu items. As in macOS 26.0, NSMenu automatically provides default visible menu item images for certain common system-wide menu items, such as Settings, Share, and Print.
Bring your AppKit app up to date with modern macOS conventions. Dive into handling input with control events and gesture recognizers, moving beyond traditional tracking loops. Enhance keyboard navigation in your app, implement graceful state restoration after restarts, and take advantage of new corner concentricity APIs that let your interface blend seamlessly with the macOS aesthetic.
To summarize the singular AppKit session this year: hey remember all these APIs and design patterns from UIKit? Well they’re now in AppKit and you should use them! Also make your glass use interactive bounce effects.
In macOS 27, AppKit continues to standardize on gesture recognizers as the primary mechanism for input handling. This change directly affects Sidecar because gesture recognizers are the only way to respond to touch input from a Sidecar-connected iPad running iPadOS 27. If your app relies on tracking loops for mouse event handling, migrate to gesture recognizers to support Sidecar touch input.
This article explains how the gesture recognizer model works, how to implement gesture recognizers correctly for Sidecar touch input, how to update your existing event-handling code, and which APIs macOS 27 adds. Codebases that implement nextEvent(matching:) or mouseDown(with:), mouseDragged(with:), and mouseUp(with:) events are most affected by the updates discussed.
Discover how to combine the convenience of built-in text views with the control of TextKit. We’ll show you how new APIs make it easy to extend UITextView and NSTextView with custom behaviors like line numbers and collapsible sections. We’ll also explore the TextKit architecture and walk through new caching and reuse policies for text attachments.
Apple’s new version of Safari browser in macOS 27 and iOS 27 can be tasked to monitor a webpage and notify you of any changes, thanks to a new built-in feature.
[…]
In other upcoming feature additions, using the power of AI, Safari tabs that you have open can automatically be organized into topics.
Don’t miss our WWDC26 sessions on web technology, including What’s new in WebKit for Safari 27, to go deeper on our work in this release. Now, let’s dig into this beta, packed with 58 new features, 525 fixes and 4 deprecations that will hopefully make your work as a web developer a little easier.
This year, the WebKit team is here with six sessions covering new CSS layouts, customizable form controls, 3D models, immersive spatial experiences, and browser extensions.
But credit where credit is due. The upcoming version 27 of Safari is looking very good.
That’s not because it’s at the cutting edge of the latest web standards. Quite the opposite. Most of the changes listed for this release are bug fixes. That’s what I want to acknowledge and applaud.
Siri AI is an entirely new version of Siri deeply integrated into iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro. It can draw on personal context understanding to search across messages, emails, photos, and more, and get things done across apps with even more systemwide app actions. Additionally, Siri AI can answer questions related to the content on a user’s screen or go out to the web to get up-to-date information using broad world knowledge and generate a helpful answer. A dedicated Siri app allows users to revisit a past conversation or kick off a new one — all in one place — and uses iCloud to privately sync conversational history across a user’s products.
Powered by the next generation of Apple Intelligence, Siri AI is a completely reimagined version of Siri that is more helpful, more capable, and more intelligent. With detailed, engaging responses and natural back-and-forth conversation, Siri AI helps users get more done than ever.
[…]
Siri has been rebuilt from the ground up with powerful AI at its core. It takes full advantage of the bold new architecture for Apple Intelligence, including the next generation of Apple Foundation Models that run on device and on servers using Private Cloud Compute. When Private Cloud Compute is handling users’ requests, their personal data is not stored nor made accessible to Apple or anyone else. Outside experts can continue to verify this privacy promise at any time. Additionally, Siri AI uses the system orchestrator to tap into core capabilities like the Spotlight index and App Toolbox, which work entirely on device to keep users in control of their data.
[…]
For products that support Apple’s most advanced on-device model ever, Siri AI offers even more expressive voices, as well as a major boost in accuracy with systemwide dictation. Users have the ability to customize the expressiveness and pace of Siri’s voice so it’s just right for them. Dictation now captures what users say as polished text with greater precision, automatically handling capitalization, punctuation, and formatting as they speak. With improved speech understanding, users can speak naturally and trust that their words will appear clearly, accurately, and as intended.
I remain uninterested in these more advanced Siri features. They matter in that Apple needs to show that they’re not “behind” and that they can actually deliver on what they announce and advertise. But I don’t find the use cases compelling and wouldn’t trust the results.
If you really care about a particular concert, would you believe Siri about how the tickets work and that it will auto-create a reminder at the right time? Why should I believe that it can figure out whether a particular irregularly shaped object can fit inside an irregularly shaped container when said shapes are probably not even published on the Web? Can it really dig into my e-mail to find the right flight info? An answer without being able to see the sources is not useful. And I certainly don’t want it to pick for itself which vacation photos to send out.
I just want the basic features—from a decade or so ago, like music controls, reminders, and access to my purchases—to work quickly, reliably, and offline to the extent possible. I did not hear anything to suggest that this was a focus. Instead, everyone is celebrating how slow the demos were because that proves they weren’t fake.
The other interesting thing to note from the keynote: watching the demos, there is ZERO doubt these are real, recorded demonstrations on live devices. There will be no confusion about what is real or fake like there was at WWDC 2024 and the initial attempt at the new Siri.
And, if your standards are the state of the art in AI circa June 2024, when Apple took their first crack at answering the question, they did quite well.
[…]
What’s fascinating about this specific demo is that it also showed just how far behind Apple is.
[…]
Still, the bubble was strong enough to convince OpenAI to make the exact same mistake Dropbox did: the company somehow convinced itself that it could make enough money selling subscriptions to consumers; Anthropic, meanwhile, realized that it was enterprises who were willing to pay for AI’s massive productivity benefits, even as OpenAI failed to capitalize on their consumer market penetration by refusing to build an advertising product.
This is a long-winded way of saying that I don’t think that Apple’s agentic shortcomings are a big deal, at least for now. Agents help you do work and be more productive, and consumers don’t want to work or care about being productive. What they do want to do is watch short-form video, and an iPhone is simply much better at that than any other device ever will be; in that context, Siri being good enough is enough, and it appears that Apple crossed that bar.
They need to execute, they need to prove this can scale, and most of all, they need to get third-party apps on board with App Intents and App Schemas. But it seems like they’re doing all of that. This is not a done deal but it is very realistic.
Siri doesn’t have access to the filesystem or tool-calling, so it’s completely unable to do the kinds of tasks you might easily do with Codex or Claude. It’s a good start, but the state of the art has already dramatically shifted over the past year. The question is will Siri move in this direction, or stick to providing answers from the web?
Will Apple introduce its own distinct Codex-style agentic programming model that can do all this, and work with Xcode? You would hope so…
The revamped version of Siri that is officially named “Siri AI” will be available to test in the iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, and visionOS 27 developer betas starting today, and it is coming to the Apple Watch in a future watchOS 27 beta. “Siri AI” will also be included in the public betas of each platform that are launching in July.
“Siri AI” requires a device that is compatible with Apple Intelligence.
Apple senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi has explained why the company launched a standalone Siri app in iOS 27, after previously characterizing a dedicated chatbot as contrary to its Apple Intelligence strategy.
[…]
“We see Siri not as a separate chatbot, just an unintegrated place you go and chit-chat, but rather as an integral, conversational tool that you use in the moment, deeply integrated into your experience.”
…And playlists, contacts, settings and preferences. Peel off the agentic slop bandwagon and focus on core performance, smarter caching, and resilience under adverse network conditions.
Though this is a test conducted on the very first version of Siri A.I. from a fixed point in Calgary, it seems to work quite well. So far, it is better than any version of Siri Apple has released yet and, as you can see above, it is almost as good as the original 2010 demo, before Apple acquired the company.
On the one hand, if Siri has indeed become this reliable at understanding queries like those demoed so far, it’s indeed impressive. On the other hand, I can’t help but ask myself, once again, whether people at Apple even know how regular people actually use their phones and devices.
Apple executives downplay and obfuscate the role of Google in Siri AI. The Siri AI announcement didn’t even mention Google or Gemini once! Does anyone actually believe Apple’s BS? The argument seems to be that since Google made a bespoke implementation for Apple, Google is not really involved, and it’s all Apple. Ridiculous.
It’s really odd to me that Apple is getting so much credit for Google’s work. Siri now “works” to the extent it does because Siri is to a very large extent Gemini, and Apple has wrapped that in a bow.
Apple didn’t “nail” anything. Apple failed at its own internal efforts and was forced to outsource.
This is the advantage of being a platform: you can fail and still win.
Apple’s Siri team, led by Craig Federighi, held a post-WWDC keynote tech talk with members of the press this afternoon to talk through iOS 27 and the new Siri AI.
During the talk, Federighi shared more details about Apple’s collaboration with Google.
Apple looks like it will use some combination of Google Gemini models, combined with Google’s Confidential Inference and Apple’s own Private Cloud Compute for private hosting. These systems will process both your queries and evaluate private data from your devices.
[…]
Apple has since “expanded” PCC to encompass Google’s hardware as well. I will confess that I find the details of the new “expanded” PCC just a bit vague. It sounds a lot like Apple is primarily going to rely on Google’s existing confidential compute (running in Google datacenters) to process this data, but they’re bolting on a new layer of technical security to control which models are actually running. In any case: security experts can argue about whether this is good enough to keep Cozy Bear away from your data. What I will grant is that it’s probably good enough to keep Google and Apple from accessing your stuff, which is what most people are worried about in the first place.
So why am I so nervous?
[…]
So far we’ve discussed two adversaries: the misaligned designers of private agents (such as search operators), and the possibility of remote prompt injection attacks. But of course, in any discussion of technical privacy systems we need to talk about the last elephant in the room: your government.
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