Dwarf 3 Review: Is This Tiny Telescope A Genuine Wonder?

When you think of a telescope, you think of an enormous long lens poking out of a skylight window. The aptly named Dwarf 3 will make you think again, with this compact smart telescope reduced to the size of an old-fashioned camcorder.

Does reducing a telescope to such a portable size involve too many compromises when it comes to image quality? Or is it as full of wonder as the night sky?

Dwarf 3 Specifications

As the name suggests, this isn’t the first telescope in its range to roll off the production line. It’s had a significant specs bump on its predecessor. The telescope has an aperture of 35mm and focal length of 150mm, up from 24mm and 100mm on the Dwarf 2. The sensor (Sony IMX678), storage (128GB built in) and battery (1,000mAh) have all been improved too.

That still leaves it trailing more conventional-looking smart telescopes, such as the Unistellar Odyssey Pro, which has a focal length of 320mm, and that obviously affects how close you can get to objects in the sky. This isn’t a great telescope for shooting planets – even the moon and sun (solar filters are supplied) don’t exactly fill the frame.

But then, this has enormous advantages of devices such as the Odyssey Pro. It’s $500, not $4,000, for a start. And that compact frame means it won’t swallow storage space in your home and makes it immensely portable. You can take this with you on trips with almost zero effort, given it weighs only 1.3kg. It even comes with a neat camera-bag-like carry case.

The Dwarf 3 App

The telescope is controlled via a mobile app, which is available for both iOS and Android.

I had my issues with the Android app using a Google Pixel 8a phone. Sometimes it would take repeated attempts to connect to the telescope, at other times the connection dropped, even when stood within a meter of the Dwarf 3. That’s not ideal when you’re taking multiple exposures that might take 30 mins or more to complete.

The app itself could also be more friendly – it’s certainly not as easy to use as the one that came with the Odyssey Pro. However, the “recommended” wonders to shoot in the night sky are easy to find, and with a couple of clicks, the telescope will be automatically hunting for them.

The device itself is whisper quiet as it spins around, trying to find the object you’re seeking or when automatically calibrating its lenses. I found you really do need a very clear night with lots of stars in the sky for the telescope to get its bearings. In the five or six weeks I’ve been testing this telescope, those nights only came around three or four times, but this is the U.K. in deepest winter. It’s bleak.

The Dwarf 3 is capable of taking impactful shots of the sky. The shot below of the Andromeda Galaxy has only been slightly tweaked in Photoshop to enhance its colors and contrast – the best results are achieved by using specialist software that stacks the multiple exposures the telescope takes. The image below is relying on the telescope’s own image stacking.

Overall, I was more impressed with the quality and depth of color from the images taken by the Odyssey Pro, but you have to bear in mind the difference in optics, size and price of the two devices. They are, well, galaxies apart.

The Dwarf 3 can also be used for more conventional photography: taking photos of wildlife, panoramic scenes and even timelapse videos. I’m not sure this device would be my first choice for any of those activities. You’ll get much better results with a DSLR, but not everyone has access to one, and so it could come in handy for those other jobs.

Dwarf 3 Review Verdict

You can’t deny this dinky device packs an awful lot in for $500. If you’re curious about exploring the night sky, it’s a much cheaper entry point than some rivals.

That said, you have to moderate your expectations about what it’s capable of capturing. You’re not going to get a stunning full-frame snap of Mars or the clarity and detail that bigger telescopes offer. It’s a cute starting point, but the Dwarf 3 might end up being a gateway device to a much more expensive hobby.