How does a UNISTELLAR Smart Telescope find and follow the Sun?

The GoTo Sun feature uses ephemeris data from the UNISTELLAR app to point the telescope at the Sun’s elevation, then a brightness-gradient detection algorithm locates the Sun, centers on its disc and tracks the center in real time, continuing on the Sun’s predicted position even when clouds pass.

Is it safe to watch the eclipse through a UNISTELLAR Smart Telescope?

Yes, when fitted with the Smart Solar Filter (on the eVscope and eQuinox). You observe on your phone or tablet, so there is no direct optical path between the Sun and your eye at any point.

What can you actually see during the eclipse?

Sunspots on the Sun’s face during the partial phases and, from inside the path of totality, the corona. The telescope adjusts its exposure automatically as the light drops and returns.

Be ready for it: the smart telescope built for the eclipse

Be ready for it

A total eclipse gives you barely two minutes, with the Sun low and the light changing fast. The instruments that make the most of it are the ones that find the Sun, hold it steady and keep it safe, without you fighting the gear.

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This is where a UNISTELLAR Smart Telescope earns its place on eclipse day. Not for marketing reasons, but for what its GoTo Sun and Sun-tracking technology actually removes: the fumbling, the danger, and the missed moment.

GoTo Sun: pointing, without the guesswork

Aiming any telescope at the Sun by hand is the one thing you should never improvise. UNISTELLAR’s GoTo Sun does it automatically, in three moves:

1
It finds the Sun

Using ephemeris data from the app, the telescope points to the Sun’s elevation, then a brightness-gradient detection algorithm scans for the brightest region of sky and calibrates.
2
It centers on the disc

It verifies the Sun’s circle (whose radius and brightness are known), finds its center, and locks the position. No star-hopping, no risky manual aiming.
3
It stays locked

The center of the disc is tracked in real time so the Sun stays framed throughout, and if clouds roll in, it keeps following the Sun’s predicted position until it clears.

Tracking that doesn’t blink at clouds

Once locked, the telescope tracks the center of the Sun’s disc in real time, keeping it framed for the full hour-plus of the event: no drift, no re-centering. The detail that matters here: even when clouds are present, it keeps following the Sun’s theoretical position, so a passing band of cloud doesn’t cost you the alignment when the sky clears again for totality.

Detail the eye can’t safely reach

Through the partial phases you can pick out sunspots on the Sun’s face. As totality approaches inside the path, the system calculates the light gain and adjusts the exposure automatically, so the view holds together as the Sun dims to the corona and then blazes back. You are watching a live, tracked, correctly-exposed image the whole time.

Safe by design, not by discipline

Fitted with the Smart Solar Filter (on the eVscope and eQuinox), the instrument observes the Sun through a purpose-made front solar filter. Crucially, you watch on your phone or tablet: no direct optical path between the Sun and your eye at any point, only the sensor’s live image. That live view is easy to share with everyone around you, which turns a solo-through-the-eyepiece moment into a group one. It still obeys the one rule that governs everything on this site: read the safety guide before the day.

The same telescope does real science

The instrument you point at the eclipse is the same one that powers the UNISTELLAR network: with the SETI Institute, its community of citizen astronomers tracks asteroid occultations, comets and exoplanets throughout the year. The eclipse is your two minutes; the science is what the telescope keeps doing after. More on eclipses as science.

The honest version

Any properly filtered telescope will show you sunspots, and your own eyes (inside the path, for those two minutes) will show you the corona for free. What the smart telescope changes is the friction: it finds and holds the Sun for you, keeps it safe, exposes it correctly, shares it, and records it. On a day that lasts two minutes and won’t come back, that is the difference between wrestling the gear and actually being there for it.

See the technology

The full breakdown of GoTo Sun and Sun-tracking lives on UNISTELLAR’s site.

GoTo Sun & Sun-tracking technology Compare all six ways to watch

Frequently asked

How does a UNISTELLAR Smart Telescope find and follow the Sun?: The GoTo Sun feature uses ephemeris data from the UNISTELLAR app to point the telescope at the Sun’s elevation, then a brightness-gradient detection algorithm locates the Sun, centers on its disc and tracks the center in real time, continuing on the Sun’s predicted position even when clouds pass.
Is it safe to watch the eclipse through a UNISTELLAR Smart Telescope?: Yes, when fitted with the Smart Solar Filter (on the eVscope and eQuinox). You observe on your phone or tablet, so there is no direct optical path between the Sun and your eye at any point.
What can you actually see during the eclipse?: Sunspots on the Sun’s face during the partial phases and, from inside the path of totality, the corona. The telescope adjusts its exposure automatically as the light drops and returns.