eQuinox 2 or Odyssey: Unistellar's two middle-band scopes

Where they differ

The Unistellar eQuinox 2 carries a 114 mm mirror at 450 mm focal length; the Unistellar Odyssey an 85 mm mirror at 320 mm. Unistellar quotes a limiting magnitude of 18.2 for the first and 17.2 for the second, a gap of one magnitude, or about two and a half times in brightness. On this site the light score follows the mirror: 8.4 against 7.0.

The Odyssey answers with finer sampling. Its 1.45 µm pixels at 320 mm give it a detail score of 8.1, the highest here, against 6.5 for the eQuinox 2 with its 2.9 µm pixels. Both frame about half a degree by three quarters, so the field score is the same low 1.8.

Carrying and running them

• Weight: 7 kg for the eQuinox 2 and 4 kg for the Odyssey, before tripods of 2 kg and 2.5 kg.
• Battery: 11 hours for the eQuinox 2 by Unistellar's figure, 5 hours for the Odyssey.
• Autofocus: the Odyssey has it; the eQuinox 2 does not.
• Light pollution: both rely on Unistellar's processing rather than a physical filter.

The ease score balances these: 5.7 for the eQuinox 2, held back by the missing autofocus, and 7.3 for the Odyssey, held back by its shorter battery. Overall the Odyssey reaches Good seeing and the eQuinox 2 Thin cloud, mostly because of weight.

Which sky suits which

From a dark rural garden, where galaxies are the main prize, the eQuinox 2's extra mirror area is the stronger argument, and its long battery covers a whole winter night. From a town, or for anyone who carries the telescope out and back each time, the Odyssey's 4 kg and autofocus make the evenings simpler. Neither has a wide field: large nebulae need a mosaic or a different telescope.

The neighbours

The Unistellar Odyssey Pro is the Odyssey with an electronic eyepiece, in the top band. The Unistellar eVscope 2 is the eQuinox 2 with one. Outside the brand, the Seestar S50 Pro and the Dwarf 3 trade mirror size for a much wider field and far less weight, both in the entry band.

Six to compare