Gravity by Vaonis

Hitmonstahp

2 months ago

The eclipse mode didn't work at all. And I couldn't even get the sun mode to work during the eclipse (I've already used it, so fairly sure it wasn't user error). My entire experience with this company has been absolutely horrendous. I wouldn't even give one star, were it an option. Thanks for all the disappointment, Vaonis!

Pierangelo De Pace

1 month ago

Disappointing. The app produces low-resolution images. Deep sky and planet modes do not work. Stacking is not available. Does not assist with locating stars. Several hundred dollars spent on an Hestia for nothing. This is not what is promised and showed on their website. Don't buy it. It's a waste of money.

Bryan Carpenter

2 months ago

Issues with seeing anything other than a black screen most of the time during the eclipse. Had to close and reopen app just to take some pictures that were subpar compared to just opening pro view on camera app. Should just use the camera app and not mess with this app. Took it out at night to try taking some stacked pictures,and it was a horrible experience. Astronomy mode on my Samsung raw camera was far better in every way possible. Used the hestia as a camera stand to photograph the stars 🤣

Jude Niro

1 week ago

Incompatible with Sony Xperia 1 IV. Vaonis are absolutely useless chumps who are eager to take your money and then ignore you. Absolutely worthless app. Limiting how many devices can use the telescope you paid for is the ultimate slap to the face of consumers.

Jill B. Hart

1 week ago

On Android, this app is useless. Half of the time it shows only a black circle when the camera should be active. In Deep Sky mode it doesn't show any guidance to point to an object (as I believe it does on iPhone). Its probably too late for me to return my Hestia, but if you only have an Android device I would not buy a Hestia.

Jen Lavery

1 week ago

The app has two fatal flaws. It doesn't work with the camera even with full permissions, which means I cannot use the Hestia telescope. Also, when going to the Catalogue, selecting "observe" on a particular celestial body / event, the "observe" button changes to "observing" but doesn't actually bring up the data / guidance. Completely unusable.

Gordon Mancuso

4 months ago

This app is a long way from being useful. Hopefully it gets some love soon. Frequent crashing, lockups, key functionality missing, often looks like it's capturing images but nothing is actually being displayed, have to restart the app to change modes after capturing a single image, does not remember settings...the list goes on. I'm surprised it hasn't had an update in 2 months. That is a bit worrisome.

C J

3 months ago

I'm accepting the new legal language by checking the box, and the app won't move past this screen. It was annoying that it doesn't let you choose a zoom lense on your phone. It's annoying that the autofocus assist only works so far zoomed out that you can't tell if it's blurry or not. But now it's absolutely useless just days before the eclipse I bought it for... Please fix this ASAP!

Jerome Darnell

3 months ago

I purchased the Hestia for the startracker functionality for DSOs. That does not appear to be ready yet on the app. Quite unfortunate, as it is the core benefit of the app over the standard camera app, other than perhaps some multi-frame "magic" that may or may not be added in (I don't know, because I won't bother finding DSOs with the phone absent a tracker). Truly unfortunate, as Vaonis had a great reputation.

Jules L

1 month ago

Most issues are my own/user error, like understanding focus should be done on the Hestia itself prinarily, not within the app. My photos are 100x better than without it, but it loses points for small file size and that the stargazing feature doesn't seem to work (but who needs it). Looking forward to capturing many more pics to come!

Jamshid Mahdavi

2 months ago

I've had better luck than a lot of the 1 star reviews. Hestia itself I had to go to the camera store to get an adapter ring so it would mount on my tripod. I was able to get some good pictures of the eclipse in San Jose, CA, where we only had about 35%. The time lapse video option did not do well, very bouncy. I just got my first night photos and this is where I see a lot of room for improvement. I'll probably attach a finder scope to make up for features that ought to be in the app.

Andrea Cortright

2 months ago

Got great pictures of the eclipse, but missed totality. Wish there were better instructions included for time lapse. We tracked the sun as best we could, but it moves, so when it's partly cloudy you can't find it until the clouds part, which could be a minute. A "viewfinder" mode would be super helpful!

Nathan “KK7MAP” Maysonet

2 months ago

I hope that all of you who used this app to view the 2024 eclipse had success, because I did not and I'm furious that I waited so long to get my Hestia telescope, for this app to fail so spectacularly. 1. The app crashed every time I took a photo manually, Everytime. 2. The time lapse function failed to capture any photos beyond photo one. I realized this 20 minutes into the time lapse before seeing that only one photo was captured. I'm so glad I was not dependent on this app for this memory.

Heather Lewis

3 months ago

This app just doesn't work on Android. The iPhone app is far and away superior to this. Auto focus on the Android app does not work, but if you manually focus the app will rarely let you take a pic after. It just keeps saying it's waiting for stabilization, no pic. Additionally, focus assistance doesn't work. It just takes a bunch of grey/blank images. Usually it stops at 5 images. Auto exposure and ISO also give bad settings. But when you change those manually, again it won't take a pic.

Bob Garber

1 month ago

app needs alot of work, I get location not enabled errors when using anything that needs location, in particulsr planet mode, there is no location option in settings. in the app permissions location is enabled. not sure why it doesnt work. also deep sky, I cannot locate objects as in the demos. And while I did get great eclipse photos, I cannot use the app to locate deep sky objects, stacking does not work, no matter where I point it, the image looks the same, even with a star in preview

Jason M

2 months ago

Kept freezing taking pictures waiting for stabilization. If it s going to be that sensitive you needed a sturdier tripod. A light breeze will cause it to shake. I could see sun spots if I blocked some of the light by cupping my hand around the lense. It would be nice if there were a way to adjust brightness in the app. If there is a way I didn't see it. Hopefully it improves.

Ryan Barshick

2 months ago

This app is good but needs a lot of work. The settings are quick and easy to adjust. Stableiztion is messed up. If there is any movement, it will not take a photo. You clock the camera button, and it spins like its working and never takes a picture. Really made the eclipse experience hard to calture. If this issue is fixed this could be a good app