Unistellar at CES 2019: World’s Most Powerful Consumer Telescope, Now on Industrial Launch Pad, Will Boost Citizen Astronomy
Marseille and San Francisco, Jan. 4. Just one month after completing an historic crowdfunding campaign that raised more than $3 million in pre-orders for its revolutionary digital telescope, Unistellar has moved its eVscope, to the industrial launch pad. The citizen-astronomy-focused start-up will celebrate this key event in its history by demonstrating the telescope at two Las Vegas events.
The first will give city dwellers and CES attendees the chance to observe galaxies and nebulae in full color and unparalleled detail from downtown Las Vegas. The event will take place on Jan. 10 during the Kickstarter and Hardware Club’s CES 2019 Hardware Celebration private party. Then, on Jan. 12, members of the general public will get a chance to see this revolutionary device in operation at the Neon Museum during the Star & Stardust event organized by the Las Vegas Astronomical Society.
On both occasions, tech enthusiasts and amateur astronomers will experience a brand-new way of stargazing thanks to Unistellar’s eVscope. This compact, connected telescope benefits from a light-amplification technology that gives observers unparalleled, crisp, and detailed views of galaxies, nebulae, and comets live through its eyepiece. Smart and easy to use, the eVscope frees users of the need to study constellations or polar-star alignment: instead, they just turn it on, choose the object they want to see on the Unistellar app, and let the telescope find and track the desired object for them.
Unistellar’s story is directly connected to Las Vegas. Two years ago, the start-up held some of the earliest demonstrations of the eVscope, then in its proof-of-concept phase, at CES. The massive interest generated during those demos, and others in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, Marseille, and Berlin, helped Unistellar achieve one of the most successful startup campaigns in Kickstarter history. Thanks to this success and the success of a follow-up Indiegogo InDemand campaign targeted at later backers, Unistellar has now raised more than $3 million and will receive an Indiegogo Innovation award for its successful campaign.
“The eVscope is by far the most successful space-related crowdfunding project ever,” said Laurent Marfisi, Unistellar’s CEO “It’s vivid proof that the eVscope speaks directly to the pure sense of wonder astronomical observations inspire in human beings. And it further encouraged those of us who work at Unistellar to deliver on the expectations we’ve set, both for ourselves and for the eVscope!”
CES is also where Unistellar’s citizen-astronomy ambitions got an enormous boost when the company’s founders met Dr. Franck Marchis, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute. Dr. Marchis has since joined the start-up as Chief Scientific Officer and is determined to develop the company’s exciting citizen-science component. Thanks to a partnership between Unistellar and the SETI Institute, the eVscope’s users will be able to join a large community of observers who contribute to scientific discovery while witnessing special astronomical events like comets, supernovae, and asteroids, including ones that might threaten life on Earth.
We invite you to join Unistellar during CES 2019, as we demonstrate our final industrial prototype just before beginning industrial production. Journalists and VIPs are welcome to request an invitation to experience the eVscope on Jan. 10 at the CES 2019 Hardware Celebration private party. In partnership with the Las Vegas Astronomical Society, we’ll also hold a demonstration for the general public on Jan. 12 at the Neon Museum. Unistellar’s representatives, including Astronomer and Chief Scientific Officer Franck Marchis, will also be available during CES 2019 for interviews and public appearances.
About Unistellar
Created in 2015, Unistellar is a start-up that developed the eVscope, a revolutionary digital telescope. Compact and user-friendly, the eVscope’s light-amplification technology makes it possible to observe deep-sky objects from anywhere. In partnership with the SETI Institute, the eVscope also gives amateur astronomers the opportunity to participate in scientific observing campaigns.
The eVscope received a CES Innovation Award in 2018 in the category Tech for a Better World. The eVscope has raised more than $3 million through crowdfunding, making it Europe’s second largest technology crowd-funded project.
