DwarfLab DWARF II Smart Telescope Review: Partially Recommended

Optics

The DwarfLab Dwarf II telescope is a versatile instrument, boasting dual objectives that cater to both wide-field and narrow-field observations. The telephoto lens is a 24mm f/4.2, offering a 100mm focal length and with the stock sensor reaching a 3-degree field of view (FOV), while the wide lens comes in at just ~2.5mm, with a focal ratio of f/2.4 and an expansive 50-degree FOV. 

When it comes to resolution, the Dwarf II’s telephoto lens has an 8-megapixel sensor, which translates to an image dimension of approximately 3264 x 2448 pixels. On the other hand, the wide view is supported by a 2-megapixel sensor, equating to around 1920 x 1080 pixels. DwarfLab claims both are running off SONY IMX415 Starvis sensors, with the wide-angle lens just compressing (binning) the pixels into larger ones. The IMX415 Starvis is a security camera sensor designed for high frame rates as well as low-light situations; the Dwarf II’s resulting ability to take video at high frame rates is fairly useless for astronomical purposes given that it is far too small and short in focal length to use such a capability for planetary imaging.

The Dwarf II shifts internal lenses and other components to focus and can do so extremely quickly. It also features auto-focus built into its software. Unlike a DSLR or smartphone camera, however, there is no iris mechanism to adjust the f-stop of either of the Dwarf II’s objectives.

Accessories

The Dwarf II’s basic package includes no accessories besides a microSD card and a well-designed carry bag that holds the Dwarf II, its tripod, and any additional necessary items. There is no charger provided with the Dwarf II base or deluxe packages; you’ll have to source a USB-C charger yourself. By default, the Dwarf II runs off a single lithium battery.

The “Deluxe Edition” Dwarf II includes a filter holder, two solar filters, and a “UHC” filter (actually a broadband light pollution filter). You also get an additional battery with the deluxe kit. The filter holder accepts standard screw-on 1.25” filters, which the provided filters are.

For solar viewing with the Dwarf II, you are supposed to screw on the provided pair of 1.25” “ND” solar filters. These solar filters are definitely not safe for actually looking through in any capacity, including with your unaided eye. This makes them especially dangerous to put in a 1.25” format. Eventually, there is going to be some curious user who threads a Dwarf II solar filter onto their eyepiece. Any safe white light solar filter (including the ones supplied with the Dwarf II) must go on the FRONT end of the telescope. Attempting to screw one of these filters onto a standard 1.25” telescope eyepiece or star diagonal will likely work for a short while but will allow UV rays from the Sun through, which damage your retina. Eventually, the placement of the filter near the focal plane will cause it to crack from the intense focused light and heat of the Sun, which will result in the destruction of the filter, possibly your eyepiece and send a beam of unfiltered sunlight straight out of the telescope to set ablaze any nearby objects or fry your retina. It need not even be stated: do not try this.

While the Dwarf II’s solar filters do work fine, it was an idiotic decision to make them in 1.25” format for the reasons above. The whole filter assembly should clip on in place of the 1.25” filter adapter, which would be quicker anyway.

The “UHC” filter provided with the Dwarf II can screw onto the filter holder in front of either the telephoto or wide-angle objectives. It works well for imaging nebulae with the Dwarf II, slightly decreasing the background sky glow, but it is fairly useless with a standard telescope eyepiece.

Mount & Tripod

The Dwarf II rides on a tiny alt-azimuth mount that is fully motorized with stepper motors. It can move at a maximum speed of about 30 degrees per second and has a 3.6-arcsecond resolution; the latter is an utterly abominable specification for a typical telescope mount, but the Dwarf II is so tiny that it does not matter too much.

Interestingly, the Dwarf II has no clutches or encoders of any kind. It tracks using automatic image recognition, so it does not really matter if you manually grab or jostle it as long as it is not taking a long exposure. The Dwarf II automatically slews to deep-sky objects, the Moon and the planets from an internal database and does so solely based on plate-solving of a reference area of sky, not with any sort of user input. This is made possible by the generous field of view and fairly low resolution of both cameras/telescopes.

Being on an alt-azimuth mount with fairly low resolution stepper ticks, the Dwarf II will have issues with field rotation over periods longer than about 30 minutes of stacked exposures. This limits the total amount of time you can capture deep-sky objects. The alt-azimuth and low-resolution nature of the mount’s tracking, combined with a lack of guiding or balance and the often too-light tripods used below the telescope, mean that you are going to get trailing in any long-exposure astrophotos.

The Dwarf II also comes with a tiny, folding plastic tabletop tripod with a ball head. It fits inside the provided case with the telescope. However, it is far too light and wobbly to support the Dwarf II. A proper photo tripod is a must for this device.

Software

The Dwarf II’s main selling points are really more in the telescope’s provided software, and it’s easy to see why. Here are some of the main features that are advertised and do in fact come with the Dwarf II app:

• Automatic tracking of celestial objects
• Live stacking of deep-sky images
• Easily-swappable wide-angle/main camera views
• Joystick pointing
• AI-powered image recognition

The tracking and stacking done by the Dwarf II is pretty seamless. It isn’t perfect with long-exposure astrophotos; a little bit of trailing is inevitable, which is disappointing for such a short focal length instrument. However, the images are recognizable and fairly crisp. The Dwarf II also tracks the Sun based solely on real-time software estimating its drift, which is convenient and a feature that no other automated telescope has actually demonstrated before.

The swapping of the wide-angle and main camera views of the Dwarf II is pretty high-tech, and you can manually adjust the alignment of the two(!). However, it’s a bit too easy to accidentally misalign the two cameras, and there is no way to automatically re-sync them; you must align them again by hand.

The joystick pointing of the Dwarf II is again unprecedented and is a lot cooler than the right-angle or diagonal angles of hand controllers or most other smart device-to-telescope interfaces. A slider on the right of the screen for your other thumb can be toggled to adjust the sensitivity of the joystick. However, the sensitivity at the lower end is hard to fine-tune.

The AI-powered image recognition is a huge selling point of the Dwarf II and really sounds more like something out of Tony Stark’s lab than a sub-$1000 product. There was clearly a legitimate attempt by the designers of the Dwarf II to make it work. However, tracking is limited to the confines of the narrow-angle camera view, and image recognition fails with all but the most evenly-illuminated and high-contrast objects. It could not possibly track birds or other wild animals, let alone satellites, rockets, or even slow-moving planes, to any degree of accuracy (or at all; it’ll just stop after a second or two).

The Dwarf II app is fairly well-designed but extremely glitchy. In addition to the issues we’ve already mentioned, it sometimes fails to connect to the telescope, gets stuck between “astronomy” and “regular” camera modes, freezes/crashes, or sends the telescope flailing wildly about when you try to aim the joystick. The focusing mechanism can also fail to respond to commands, either manual or auto-focus. This all happened in a 30-minute session multiple times. These problems are exacerbated by the Dwarf II’s tendency to overheat, which also causes the telescope/app to become unresponsive.

Heat Issues

Unfortunately, I’ve noticed that in addition to software bugs, the Dwarf II seems to have heat management issues.

The Dwarf II is powered by fairly standard batteries, similar to the clip-in units for a DSLR. These are not low-quality batteries that you should have to worry much about them catching fire, etc. from quality issues.

However, there is something wrong with the Dwarf II itself. During our tests, the Dwarf II quickly overheated on a September morning around room temperature when pointed at the Sun (a task for which it is designed and marketed as being useful). It became unable to adjust focus, and it did not respond consistently to motor commands. Later in the day, it froze up entirely in the Arizona heat. Obviously, that’s a bit of an extreme use case, but you should be able to point this telescope at the Sun on a pleasant day without problems at the very least.

Other users of Dwarf IIs have also reported that the unit seems to heat up at substantially lower temperatures, citing that these telescopes can still be warm to the touch under near-freezing conditions (though without any malfunctions). While we appreciate that Dwarflab has thoughtfully provided this anti-dew and anti-frost feature, it is probably a serious cause for concern, both for the longevity of the unit and for general safety purposes.

Should I buy a Used Dwarf II?

We would not recommend buying a used Dwarf II. There is no servicing of Dwarf II units aftermarket in any capacity, and doing it yourself is next to impossible. A used unit may also have hardware or software problems that are not disclosed by the seller.

What can you do with the Dwarf II?

The Dwarf II is primarily billed for terrestrial use, and it’s quite fun to play around with. You can use your fingers to digitally zoom in either view, and it’s extremely easy to pan the whole thing around with the joystick. Think of it kind of like a security camera with a better lens and the ability to point anywhere you want. A proper spotting scope would give you better views, sure, but the Dwarf II focuses automatically and lets you snap pictures with the push of a button.

The Dwarf II’s tendency to overheat exacerbates the already-present software bugs in many outdoor settings, and as mentioned, the AI tracking feature simply does not function as advertised. However, it will still work for close-up views of birds, whales, distant landmarks, etc.

Astrophotography Capabilities

The Dwarf II features an impressive amount of software for astrophotography, with the ability to automatically take dark and flat frames for calibration and noise reduction purposes. The live stacking gradually combines multiple short exposures into a single image, and you can see the brightness and detail progressively build up with each frame.

The short focal length and low resolution of both of the Dwarf II’s cameras mean it’s primarily suited for wide-field astrophotography targets. Large open star clusters like the Double Cluster, the Andromeda Galaxy, and the Veil Nebula are good examples of the kinds of targets that will produce satisfactory images through the Dwarf II. Smaller targets like globular clusters and more distant galaxies like the Leo Triplet are recognizable in long-exposure images through the Dwarf II but are far from impressive. Some trailing in your images is pretty much also inevitable.

The Dwarf II will show you the basic features of the Moon and planets, but it’s about as good as a pair of high-power binoculars in this regard – vastly inferior to even a fairly cheap telescope. You can see craters on the Moon, the moons and bands of Jupiter, the phases of Venus, and the rings of Saturn. However, Mercury and Mars are little more than fuzzy blurs, you can’t distinguish Uranus or Neptune from stars; and fine detail on the Moon or the gas giant planets is nonexistent in Dwarf II images. This is a telescope/camera designed for wide fields; it is far too small and lacking in focal length for close-ups of Solar System objects.

Perhaps the most interesting Solar System object to observe with the Dwarf II would be the Sun. In theory, the Dwarf II allows you to view sunspots from the comfort of the shade or indoors remotely, thanks to its automatic tracking and white-light solar filters. However, the Dwarf II will often overheat if pointed at the sun, even on a fairly brisk day, which causes focus and tracking operations to grind to a halt.