DwarfLab Draco Telescope Uses Rotating Sensor to Fix Star Trails

Draco, DwarfLab’s new smart telescope, solves the oldest problem in deep-sky astrophotography with a sensor that physically rotates to cancel out star trails caused by Earth’s rotation. It does not require an equatorial mount, guide telescope or polar alignment. Just a larger 90mm lens and a bet that raw aperture trumps miniaturization.

Smart telescopes have competed primarily in terms of convenience: point, tap, and let an app do the rest. What they’ve given up is the raw light-gathering power that serious deep-sky work needs, since a larger mirror or lens usually means a larger, more expensive mount to keep it stable. Draco is DwarfLab’s attempt to have both. It’s the company’s first real attempt to match entry-level telescopes in optical power, without asking a beginner to learn what an equatorial mount is.

The mechanical trick Draco uses to resolve the field’s rotation, the slow twisting of the sky image that causes those star trails, is almost the other way around. Instead of relying on a motorized mount to track the sky, its CMOS sensor physically rotates to cancel out that rotation, right in the image plane. This is supported by continuous stellar drift correction and precision drive. Together, they allowed Draco to take single exposures of up to 300 seconds in its simplest altitude-azimuth mode (pointing up and sideways rather than following the Earth’s axis of rotation) without smearing the stars into streaks.

It’s a clever solution, but it also solves a problem that DwarfLab’s own compact design helped create: a lighter, simpler mount is easier to sell but harder to keep stable during long exposures. The rotary sensor solves that trade-off in hardware. Photographers who still prefer traditional focusing can activate an optional equatorial tracking mode or delve into Pro mode to manually control exposure and gain, from 1/10,000th of a second up to that 300-second limit.

The new telescope weighs approximately 5.5 kg (12.1 lb). The Dwarf III weighed 1.35 kg (3 lb), and the Dwarf Mini, released in late 2025, reduced this further to 840 g (1.85 lb). Draco maintains the same one-touch simplicity that defined those previous models, just with a much larger optical system. It carries a 90mm lens with a focal length of 340mm and a focal ratio of f/3.8, folded into a body just 386mm (15.2 inches) long. Small enough for a suitcase, but designed with the idea that more glass, not less weight, is what really improves images.

That f/3.8 speed isn’t just a number on the spec sheet. DwarfLab says it captures about 2.2 times more light than a typical f/5.6 setting. In real terms, that means shorter exposure times to get a clean image of a faint galaxy or nebula and fewer hours standing in the cold waiting for enough photons to reach the sensor.

Its 77 Wh battery runs for up to five hours per charge, depending on mode and imaging conditions, and has an IP56 rating for dust and water resistance, operating from –20°C to 45°C (–4°F to 113°F).

The Draco’s main camera uses a 50-megapixel 1/1.3-inch sensor that does double duty. For deep-sky targets, it groups the pixels 2×2, merging four into one, to increase light sensitivity at the cost of resolution (about 12 MP). For the Sun, Moon, and planets, switch to full native resolution to capture fine details like lunar craters or the rings of Saturn.

DwarfLab has opened pre-orders for two versions. The standard edition ($1,299) includes a dual narrowband H-alpha plus OIII filter (tuned to the exact wavelengths that hydrogen and oxygen emit in nebulae) with a built-in solar ND filter, covering nebulae and casual solar images in a single box.

The SHO edition ($1,499) swaps out the internal solar filter for a built-in S II plus OIII filter, adding sulfur to the mix so it can automatically capture and combine all three gases to achieve the blue and gold look of the Hubble palette. It still comes with an ND filter for solar imaging, but as an external accessory rather than built-in, so it needs to be attached by hand. Proof that not everything can be automated, at least not yet.

Source: DwarfLab