Vaonis Hestia vs Vespera Pro: 30 Second Summary
- The Vaonis Hestia is a compact and easy to use device that enhances your smartphone’s capacity for astrophotography. It doesn’t have a camera in-built like a smart telescope but instead uses your smartphone’s camera.
- It is small and light, relatively affordable, and will effectively be upgraded every time you get a new smartphone with a better camera in the future.
- However, it will not track objects in the night sky like the Vaonis Vespera Pro, or any other traditional smart telescope. This is a barrier to deep sky astrophotography and will mostly limit you to photographing the Sun and Moon, but the app can guide manual tracking and an accompanying tracking mount will eventually be released.
- The Hestia also occupies your smartphone when in use. This means you cannot set it up in your backyard and operate it from inside while it takes images, as you can with a regular smart telescope.
- The Vaonis Vespera Pro is one of the best smart telescopes on the market.
- It is significantly more expensive, but it is an all-in-one package including telescope, camera, mount and tripod.
- It has the highest megapixel camera of any smart telescope on the market. It also features a built-in dew heater, which many other smart telescopes lack.
Why choose the Vaonis Hestia over the Vespera Pro?
The Hestia, from French company Vaonis, is not a smart telescope. It is a device to use with your smartphone for astrophotography to effectively turn it into a smart telescope.
Its advantages over the Vespera Pro are:
- It is smaller and lighter.
- Because it has no camera or electronics inside, it is safer to carry and travel with without risk of breaking anything.
- It is much cheaper – the Vespera Pro costs roughly ten times that of the Hestia.
- It can improve as your smartphone camera improves. I.e. if you get a better phone that upgrades you from a 12 megapixel to an 80 megapixel, then so does your Hestia.
Why choose the Vaonis Vespera Pro over the Hestia?
The Vaonis Vespera Pro is a compact, premium smart telescope from French manufacturer Vaonis that was released in 2024.
The reasons to consider it over the Hestia are:
- The key specifications are better – it has higher telescope aperture and the highest megapixel camera of any smart telescope.
- It is an all-in-one smart telescope package, that includes a tracking mount so that you can photograph deep sky objects.
- You can set it up in your backyard at night and from inside with your phone. With the Hestia, you have to have the phone on it so you cannot operate it remotely and you have to stay close to it as you are unlikely to want to leave your smartphone in your garden or anywhere unoccupied.
Telescope Specifications
The Vaonis Hestia has 30 mm (1.2 inch) aperture and 1.8° x 1.8° field of view.
The Vaonis Vespera Pro has 50 mm (2 inch) aperture, 250 mm focal length, f/5 focal ratio, and 1.6° x 1.6° field of view.
Camera Specifications
The Vaonis Vespera Pro has a 12.5MP resolution camera of 3536 x 3536 size using a Sony IMX676 sensor and a pixel size of 2 µm.
The Vaonis Hestia uses your smartphone’s camera and so we cannot make a direct comparison here, but, for example, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has a 200 MP resolution camera and a pixel size of 0.6 μm.
Size and Weight
The Vaonis Hestia weighs 0.85 kg (1.9 lb) and has dimensions of 17 x 24 x 5.5 ((H x W x L in cm).
The Vaonis Vespera Pro weighs 5 kg (11 lb) and has dimensions of 48 x 20 x 9 ((H x W x L in cm).
Price and Value for Money
The Vaonis Hestia costs $299, and the Vaonis Vespera Pro costs $2,999.
Note, these may vary so check the links to compare retailers if thinking about buying.
Specifications
| Vaonis Hestia | Vaonis Vespera Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 2024 | 2023 |
| Aperture | 30mm (1.2 inch) | 50mm (2 inch) |
| Focal Length | Unknown | 250mm |
| Focal Ratio | Unknown | f/5 |
| Limiting Magnitude | 10.09 | 11.19 |
| OTA type | Refractor | Refractor |
| Eyepiece | No | No |
| Field of View | 1.8° x 1.8° | 1.6° x 1.6° |
| Resolution | N/A | 12.5MP |
| Sensor Size | N/A | 3536 x 3536 |
| Sensor | N/A | Sony IMX676 |
| Pixel Size | N/A | 2 µm |
| Image Formats | JPEG, TIFF | TIFF, FITS |
| Mosaic Mode | No | Yes |
| Size (H x W x L) cm | 17 x 24 x 5.5 | 48 x 20 x 9 |
| Weight | 0.85kg (1.9 lb) | 5kg (11 lb) |
| Mount | Not included | Included |
| Tripod | Included | Included |
| Battery Life | N/A | 11 hrs |
| Internal Storage | N/A | 225GB |
| Dew Control | None | Built-in |
| Retail Price* | $299 | $2,999 |
Vaonis Vespera Pro vs Hestia: Verdict
The Vespera Pro and Hestia are substantially different devices, as the disparity in price would suggest.
The Hestia is a casual device to use with your smartphone for photographing the Sun and Moon.
The Vespera Pro is an ultra premium smart telescope for those that want to do deep sky and planetary astrophotography in their backyard.
It is one of the best smart telescopes available in 2024 and undoubtedly a better device than the Hestia, but a lot more expensive.
Budget Portability  | Ultra-Premium Performance  |
$275.00 | $2,990.00 |
Related content and more information
- Best Smart Telescopes Comparison
- Vaonis website: Vespera Pro
- Vaonis website: Hestia
- Vespera Pro review
- Hestia review
Other Hestia comparisons:
- Vaonis Hestia vs Vespera II
- Vaonis Hestia vs Dwarf II
- Vaonis Hestia vs ZWO Seestar S50
- Vaonis Hestia vs Celestron Origin
Other Vespera Pro comparisons: