Vaonis will be taking part in the AFA Astronomy Event taking place at the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie held in Paris, between Thursday 1st and Saturday 3rd of November 2018.

The AFA Astronomy Event, or RCE in French, is the biggest gathering of astronomy enthusiasts in France, offering hundred of conferences, round tables, forums and workshops in order to satisfy the curiosity of a large audience.
The public will also be able to enjoy the shopping area and discover the latest products in the astronomy sector, visit the exhibitions and meet scientific and industry key actors.

Organised by the AFA (French Astronomy Association) since 1998, this biennial event attracts more than 2500 visitors every day and represents undoubtedly the most important event of the astronomical community, both professionals and amateurs, in Europe.

Vaonis, with the presence of its Technical Director and Marketing Manager, will present the evolutions of Stellina since its last appearance at the AFA Astronomy Event in 2016, where the product was still a prototype. It will also be a great opportunity to meet Vaonis’ first customers and other astronomy enthusiasts willing to know more about this next generation telescope, a game changer in the field of astrophotography.

A conference will also be led by Gilles, Technical Director at Vaonis, on November 1, 4pm where we will be discussing The future of Astrophotography.

More details: www.afastronomie.fr

The AFA Astronomy event 2016:

Vaonis is glad to announce its participation to Sónar+D, taking place in Barcelona from June 13-16 2018.

Startup Garden 2017

Sónar+D is an international congress, organized in conjunction with Sonar electronic music festival, that explores how creativity is changing our present and imagining new futures, in collaboration with researchers, innovators and business leaders. Since 2013, this meeting gathers in Barcelona leading artists, creative technologists, musicians, filmmakers, designers, thinkers, scientists, entrepreneurs, makers and hackers to participate in a carefully commissioned program with the aim at inspiration and networking.

This 6th edition will cover 5 key topics aimed at imagining the future, while asking: what are the new creative and technological territories that remain unexplored? And who are the people leading these initiatives. One of this topic is about the Future of Space Exploration: Exoplanets, nanosatellites and a vision of the future in 10,000 years from now. This theme will be covered by "Makers", artists and scientists, democratizing the conquest of space, with guests and speakers from NASA, MIT Media
Lab or SETI.

The stand out activities from this year's program include a workshop on how to build nanosatelites; The Glass Room Experience, an installation that shows the dark side of the technology we use day to day; as well as an opportunity to meet the creators investigating how art can exist in space, creating instruments designed to be played in zero gravity.

Vaonis will be attending specifically the Startup Garden area, dedicated to the entrepreneurial ecosystem, the chosen way, more and more, to channel innovation for large companies as well as for creatives, technologists and entrepreneurs. The Startup Garden will promote more than 25 selected startups presenting their new technology to change the future.
Meet the team (founder, technical director and marketing manager) and discover Stellina smart telescope during this event celebrating music, creativity and technology.

This is Sónar+D 2017 :

Vaonis is proud to announce its participation in the SpaceBus France project, a travelling bus created by researchers working at the Paris Observatory in order to promote stargazing and astronomy for the general public and children. Thanks to the generosity of one Vaonis customer, SpaceBus France’s crowdfunding campaign reached its goal of raising €10,000, making it possible to finance the purchase of the bus and its transformation into a travelling space shuttle.

SpaceBus France is a free event open to all that offers the opportunity to discover astronomy and life in space. The SpaceBus will meet locals and tourists this summer to offer fun and accessible animations (escape game, treasure hunts, enigmas, manual workshops) and observations of the sky, animated by professional astronomers and local amateur astronomers.

After a first edition organized in Morocco, the team will travel this year across South of France from July 29 to August 24, 2018. The bus will visit 20 cities in 26 days, from Agde to Nice, to enjoy starry nights with the public.

Vaonis has joined the project and is happy to support the project by lending Stellina telescope for the duration of the event. Indeed, Vaonis and the SpaceBus France project share the same mission and the same will to make discover astronomy to the general public, a science which seems inaccessible for many. By offering a simple and playful way to approach scientific fields, we wish to transmit our passion and make the general public rediscover the sky and the stars, in an environment more and more polluted by city light.

The SpaceBus project has several goals:

Introducing the general public to astronomy
– Discover science in a fun way
– Initiation to the scientific approach
– Creation of vocations

Raising awareness of environmental issues
– Study of our planet and our environment from space and the ground
– Awareness of light pollution and space debris

Enhancing the place of women in science
– Intervention of many astronomy professionals
– Intervention of the Women & Science Society

Visit SpaceBus this summer to enjoy all the activities offered by SpaceBus and its amazing team. You will also be able to preview Stellina telescope a few months before its official store release.

More info:
Crowdfunding campaign
SpaceBus France

From Las Vegas to New York, journey of a French cutting edge product shooting for the stars.

For its pre-launch, Stellina smart telescope will be available exclusively at MoMA Design Store during NYCxDesign in May.

Vaonis is pleased to announce that MoMA Design Store is going to showcase Stellina new telescope for NYCxDesign in May 2018.

Stellina, the award-winning next generation telescope, has a new occasion to shine after being noticed at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last January. MoMA Design Store has selected the telescope as part of their product suite launching during NYCxDesign in May. It will be the first telescope that the MoMA Design Store will offer in their store.

On the occasion of the New York City’s annual celebration of design, MoMA Design Store will shine a spotlight on the dynamic French Tech startup scene. The store collaborated with La French Tech, an innovative public policy initiative that has fostered the booming French startup community, to select over twenty of the country’s most innovative new technology products with standout design.

The full assortment will go on view and be available for sale starting May 10 at MoMA Design Store locations in Soho and Midtown, New York and online at store.moma.org. The Stellina telescope will be available for avant-première since the official launch of the product is expected in September 2018. The price will be $2,999.

About MoMA Design Store
MoMA Design Store offers curator-approved products that bring quality, creativity, and design innovation to everyday living. Every purchase supports groundbreaking exhibitions at The Museum of Modern Art, a wide range of education programs, and the preservation of the Museum’s collection. In 1932, MoMA was the first art museum to establish a curatorial department dedicated to Architecture & Design, and by mid-century, it was playing a leading role in defining and promoting the values of “Good Design”, which MoMA Design Store continues to champion.

Space.com, major website in space exploration, innovation and astronomy news, featured an article about Stellina telescope in their Tech category on March 30, 2018.

This Smart Telescope for Newbies Looks Like a Sci-Fi Space Robot

Observe the cosmos and take photos of deep-space objects with Stellina, a new app-enabled smart telescope.

NEW YORK — The makers of a new fully automated, motorized, app-enabled telescope say the smart device makes stargazing and astrophotography easier than ever and takes the hassle out of setting up and operating a telescope, so that you can just kick back and enjoy the view.

So, naturally, here at Space.com, we couldn’t wait to check it out and see if it lived up to the claims. We had a chance to see the smart telescope, called Stellina, here at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), where the telescope will go on sale on May 10. Designed and built by the French company Vaonis, Stellina looks nothing like any telescope we’ve seen before.

The sleek, compact and rectangular body is about the size of a backpack and could easily pass for some kind of sci-fi space robot. There’s no eyepiece on it; instead of peering directly into the telescope, the user conducts astronomical observations from the screen of a smartphone or tablet. Cyril Dupuy, CEO of Vaonis, gave us a demo of this futuristic stargazing machine.

Perhaps the most exciting thing about Stellina is that it requires almost no setup. With other auto-guided telescopes, calibrating and aligning the equipment can be a long and tedious process. The Dobsonian telescopes I used in my college astronomy class took about 45 minutes to get up and running. Stellina is smart enough to calibrate itself, so all you have to do is attach the tripod, turn it on and load the app — and you’re ready to go! Just use the mobile app to select a target in the sky, and Stellina will automatically locate it and display the object on your screen. 

Another feature that stands out is Stellina’s catalog and search function. While other telescopes will have you scrolling through long lists of objects on a tiny display, you can search Stellina’s catalog by typing in the name of whatever object you’re trying to find. Stellina’s catalog also includes gorgeous images for each entry. This makes for a much more pleasant user experience — but it could also eat up your mobile data if you aren’t connected to a Wi-Fi network.

During the demo, Dupuy selected a beautiful spiral galaxy, and with the touch of a finger, the telescope automatically steered its lens toward that galaxy’s location in the sky. 

Stellina can capture images and videos of deep-space objects like galaxies, nebulas and star clusters, but it’s also a great tool for looking at the moon, watching eclipses, and even tracking comets and asteroids in our solar system. 

It provides a simple way to do astrophotography, but professional astrophotographers should note that this telescope has an altitude-azimuth mount, which isn’t ideal for long-exposure shots. For serious astrophotography, equatorial mounts are “virtually mandatory,” as they are better at compensating for Earth’s rotation, according to Sky & Telescope. However, Stellina does have a built-in field derotator that allows the camera to capture exposures of up to 5 minutes.

Another downside is that the telescope depends on wireless networks and GPS, so it’s probably not ideal for stargazing adventures in rural areas where your phone can’t get a signal. 

On the bright side, the telescope has a built-in light-pollution filter, which is helpful for skywatchers in light-polluted areas like cities and suburbs. You can also add a solar filter to observe sunspots and solar eclipses. 

While this telescope is perfect for beginners, it also comes with a hefty price tag of $2,999. You can find out more about the telescope’s specs and preorder it at Vaonis.com. It goes on sale May 10 exclusively at the MoMA Design Store (both online and at the store’s SoHo and Midtown locations in New York City). 

Editor’s note: This article was updated to reflect that Stellina is no longer available at the discounted price of $2,499 from Vaonis.com. It has also been updated to clarify that Stellina’s camera can capture up to 5-minute-long exposures. 

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Read the original article on Space.com here.

Buying a telescope is good thing, buying a telescope which is certified is better! In March, our poor Stellina has gone through several days of torture in order to guarantee you a good functioning and a total safety of use. We passed several required certifications for the European and American markets: electrostatic discharges and electro-magnetic waves have tried to knock down our dear telescope but Stellina stayed steady as a rock. The device held up to 16 000 volts without flinching when the standard only requires 4000… A great achievement that rewards three years of intense development.

Three years designing, prototyping and testing the 272 parts that compose Stellina. Each element, from the small screw to the lens, had specifications requiring the best quality and stability in order to create a telescope as design as powerful. After selecting each component, we assembled the pieces to verify that they all worked in harmony. This step took longer than expected but we are now at the end of the optimization step. The engineering team is gathering all its energy to build a Stellina that will keep its promises of being a telescope letting you observe the universe in all ease and simplicity.

After passing first the certifications for the European and American markets, we won’t change anything about Stellina anymore! The production is currently in progress to deliver you this telescope that you are all waiting for!

About CEM tests

CEM qualification requires particular attention for safe equipment or specific operating conditions. An electromagnetic environment is the component of natural sources (solar radiation, electrical charges in the atmosphere – storm…) and artificial sources like radiofrequency wave emitters or interfering phenomena related to any electrical equipment running.
In sectors where electromagnetic constraints may be important and/or where safe equipment is concerned, the requirements set by specifications are generally very important. After an electromagnetic qualification, it can be determined whether or not the equipment is compatible with its electromagnetic environment. We are talking about electromagnetic compatibility qualification tests.

Source: Emitech

Summer is coming and you’re wondering where you could spend your next holidays. Why not run away the endless activity of cities or crowded tourist destinations to reconnect with nature and the starry sky? When was the last time you saw the Milky Way or a shower of shooting stars? Maybe a long time (and for some children, maybe never!). The Vaonis team wanted to share with you its list of favorite places around the world for stargazing.

Chile – The Atacama Desert

This is probably the most favorite destination of all amateur astronomers from all over the world. The Atacama Desert, located in the northern part of Chile in South America, is one of the driest regions in the world and covers more than 100,000km² (40,500 sq. mi.). Astronomical research centres like NASA have established there to benefit from the purity and clarity of the starry sky. You will be able to visit for instance the La Silla Observatory, the Alma Observatory with its giant antennas or the Cerro Paranal Observatory which hosts the Very Large Telescope. The landscapes of the Atacama desert are breathtaking: turquoise lagoons, salty deserts, volcanoes and geysers, mountains and valleys…  The biodiversity will surprise you by its extraordinary variety of life, despite the extreme weather. Day or night, you will be amazed by the beauty of the Atacama desert landscapes.

Iceland – Its Northern Lights

More accessible than Chile if you live in Europe, Iceland also offers breathtaking landscapes. The destination is particularly appreciated for the observation of aurora borealis, but you will need to invest in warm clothes because you will have to be patient until you manage to see northern lights. Iceland also offers varied and beautiful wild landscapes: you can hike among glaciers, volcanoes, geysers, hot springs and lava fields, but the weather is difficult to predict.
The good thing in Iceland is that you will not have to drive several hours before enjoying a sky and air free from pollution (there’s only 330 000 inhabitants in Iceland, the population of a small town in France!).
Be careful, the summer days are very long there. At the June solstice, locals can observe the sun for up to 24 hours… It is called the Midnight Sun. To enjoy the beauty of the starry nights and the auroras, you will have to wait until the end of August to visit the island (until the end of April). In winter, the nights are very long (only 5 hours of sunshine in December).

Source: hellocanaryislands.com

Spain – Canary Islands

Spanish archipelago located in the Atlantic near Morocco, the Canary Islands are also easily accessible for Europeans, with the difference that this destination benefits from a more stable weather (320 days of sun/year). The archipelago is composed of 7 islands, two of which are very appreciated by starry sky lovers, amateurs and professionals alike:
– Tenerife: its national park, located at an average altitude of 2000m, and its Teide volcano have been awarded with the “Starlight Destination” label. Depending on the night, you can observe up to 83 of the 88 recognized constellations. El Palmar viewpoint , located further north of the island, will allow you to enjoy a night under the stars and observe all the beauty of the Milky Way.
– La Palma: here you can find the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, one of the most important in the world, belonging to the Canary Islands Astrophysical Institute (IAC). Depending on the weather conditions, you will be able to observe a surprising cloud formation: the sea of clouds.
Guided tours are organized in several observatories of the archipelago, where you will be accompanied by astronomy enthusiasts who will share with your their passion of the universe.

Hawaï – Mauna Kea

Mauna Kea is located on the American island of Hawaii, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It is a volcano culminating at more than 4 000m altitude, which hosts several observatories and the largest and most powerful telescopes in the world (it will host one of the Extremely Large Telescopes: the Thirty Meter Telescope). It is one of the most important scientific observation sites in the world. Thanks to its geographical situation and climate (little humidity), the island offers an exceptional night sky, very dark with a very pure air, ideal conditions to observe the stars.

France – The Pic du Midi

Located in the Pyrenees mountains, between Spain and France, the Pic du Midi reaches an altitude of 2800m and hosts an astronomical and meteorological observatory. Because of its proximity to our offices, it remains one of the favourite places to observe the stars. Accessible using the unique aerial tramway, the site offers an unobstructed view on the mountain range or on the sea of clouds that occasionally forms. The observatory offers stays, guided tours and workshops led by astronomers and scientists. The Pic du Midi has obtained the Dark Sky Reserve label enabling it to enhance and protect its sky as a natural and cultural heritage. Thanks to its involvement and actions (public education, awareness of light pollution, responsible lighting), the site offers exceptionally pure nights. Today, it is the only Dark Sky Reserve labelled by the International Dark-sky Association in France!