Science & Technology
$600,000 for a Telescope: Bang For The Buck or Astronomically Overpriced? | WIRED
Hey, you. Yes you! Do you have roughly $600K to spend and an insatiable desire to explore the cosmos? The PlaneWave CDK1000 Telescope System is precisely the premium product you’re looking for. WIRED Luxury Gear Editor Jeremy White treks from Adrian, Michigan to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to explore and learn more about what went into…
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@jopo7996
February 13, 2025 at 12:11 pm
Thank you for magnifying this subject.
@SpamMouse
February 14, 2025 at 4:35 am
…and bringing the subject into focus.
@GrimReaper-xy4kr
February 13, 2025 at 12:11 pm
Very cool .600k is realy worth it.
@Lee-wk3cb
February 13, 2025 at 12:21 pm
.600K is 600 dollars
@eduvieraa
February 13, 2025 at 12:18 pm
It’s impressive how our technology is advacing a lot, like mark robert is about to lounch a satellite into space with space x
@MLove-777
February 13, 2025 at 12:18 pm
✨️💛✨️
@blahsomethingclever
February 13, 2025 at 12:44 pm
Looking at the stars makes me feel like a fruit fly.
@romanieo
February 13, 2025 at 1:06 pm
Phenomenal! I’m looking forward to meeting the team at Plane Wave.
@BreezeGolf89
February 13, 2025 at 1:30 pm
Thinking about getting one. Is it a fixed F2.8 and does it come in Sony E-mount 🤣
@sagefaribole
February 13, 2025 at 1:52 pm
yeahhh more astronomy content please! This is great!
@harshvardhan4771
February 13, 2025 at 1:54 pm
I was so happy watching this video, until one thought came to my mind and now I’m sad. That is-
There are people who have an interest in astronomy, and are as rich as to get themselves built a fu*king private observatory, but they’re still not quite as filthy rich as to be able to influence the policy-making process so that we can conserve these treasurous dark skies for everyone.
@manadoria
February 13, 2025 at 2:43 pm
PlaneWave CDK1000 Telescope: “cutting edge space optics technology”
James Webb: “Hold my primary mirror”
@circeus
February 13, 2025 at 7:54 pm
They’re barely comparable. JWST is an infrared telescope, this is visible light. Very different things.
Don’t get me wrong, James Webb is an AMAZING thing, but it also cost 10 billion dollars to develop and build (and I’m not even sure that includes the cost to put it into orbit) over more than two decades. 600k for something that can stay on earth and do stuff like *that* is genuinely impressive in its own right.
*waits patiently to see people not read half the comment*
@valeriejoines5037
February 13, 2025 at 3:49 pm
New life goals ❤
@ChristianSt97
February 13, 2025 at 4:36 pm
Beautiful
@matthewbartlett9222
February 13, 2025 at 4:59 pm
It was great to have you guys come out here. This telescope is truly a modern marvel, and we are excited to be conducting research and astrophotography with it.
@broscutzacupar
February 13, 2025 at 5:46 pm
i would go for a ASA 2.5-Meter telescope 😅
@brucecharlie8613
February 14, 2025 at 1:43 am
Only a mere six hundred grand, with change. 🤣
@MrAnthism
February 14, 2025 at 1:58 am
Big toys for big boys!
@desdrei8896
February 14, 2025 at 2:38 am
only 9/10 😂
@ElvydTanner
February 14, 2025 at 3:07 am
With corrections like this, trader strikes are inevitable. At least I’m still earning 1.35% daily with Moonacy Protocol
@grandmasteryoda9893
February 14, 2025 at 6:09 am
for astrophotography, the image in this video is not great. gues it was untracked. even small 8 inch scope can do better than shown here
@Eric-rh3dr
February 14, 2025 at 6:11 pm
I was thinking the same thing
@vbikcl
February 14, 2025 at 10:35 pm
Yeah the images they show in this absolutely do not do a CDK-1000 justice. The main problem is the atmosphere – it limits the real resolution you can get out of images taken with the instrument. But good data at full image resolution is so much better than what was shown in this video.
@invox9490
February 14, 2025 at 7:36 am
Gimme two of those and throw in a VR helmet. 😎
@horaciodortona574
February 14, 2025 at 8:11 am
The next step would be to upgrade these telescopes with adaptive optics and market them as the “deluxe” version of the CDK telescope.
@zapfanzapfan
February 14, 2025 at 1:46 pm
Dear Santa…
@deeb3272
February 14, 2025 at 2:07 pm
if i had tons of money, id get one too
@glenncurry3041
February 14, 2025 at 4:55 pm
Two of my main guilty pleasures are audio and cars. Costs have absolutely skyrocketed to where there are a variety of manufacturers of half million to million dollar systems. You can spend $250k on just the turntable for records plus the arm needed. And any number of $Million plus cars!
The current economic structure has a moderate number of uber wealthy.
@SomePoserStoleMyName
February 14, 2025 at 8:15 pm
Wow
@dizzysnakepilot
February 14, 2025 at 8:39 pm
I dunno. My last telescope is 1/3 the diameter, is way more efficient with the light, can be transported in a small sports car and cost about $1000
@gtleshow
February 15, 2025 at 1:25 am
because who doesn’t need a backyard observatory that could double as a space agency’s pride and joy? 😂
@hj45-s9k
February 15, 2025 at 3:34 am
Great video
@AlexRanous
February 15, 2025 at 3:44 am
The thing is, these telescopes are almost never used for visual observations. These scopes are outfitted with advanced scientific cameras or other instruments like spectrometers. In the video, when they showed people looking through an eyepiece, it was actually a modest 4″ refractor that cost ~4k.
@Sauvez_nos_ames
February 15, 2025 at 11:23 pm
Odd they never mentioned it. Al Nagler should be happy with the free marketing.
@markc7899
February 16, 2025 at 1:13 pm
thats not true you can see it goes into the cdk1000 at 09:17
@Sauvez_nos_ames
February 16, 2025 at 1:25 pm
@@markc7899 you are correct. There appears to be a telecentric extender at the telescopes focal point and the Tele Vue assembly is just serving to bring the viewing height down to ground level where users can focus and insert eyepieces. Neat
@kekz0r
February 15, 2025 at 2:56 pm
That is a hobby telescope for people with money. It has no bearing or weight in the scientific community.
@jaredwillson4702
February 17, 2025 at 5:42 pm
Not quite true. Telescopes in the one meter class are absolutely used for science as well as for things like space situational awareness. One meter class telescopes may not be doing things like determining the structures and sizes of the first generations of galaxies, but they are still used heavily by universities and aerospace companies.
@netanmaldoran4816
February 18, 2025 at 12:40 am
There are people making new discoveries every month with telescopes as small as 150mm. Planewaves are frequently used for research purposes.
@TroyRubert
February 15, 2025 at 3:16 pm
Astronomy should be a mandatory class in middle school.
@anthonygondola3086
February 15, 2025 at 3:46 pm
This isn’t a backyard telescope. It’s a professional quality observatory instrument that has to be housed in a permanent observatory. It’s a bit sad that there are people who can afford such a thing but that’s America isn’t it? Back to the point though, it has about as much relationship to a department store scope as an F1 race car has to a Prius.
@michaelanderson3096
February 15, 2025 at 5:24 pm
Build 100 of these telescopes and send them into space to act as one telescope 😮.
@neohavic6012
February 15, 2025 at 10:15 pm
No reason to, the atmosphere limits terrestrial seeing. That’s why the Hubble is only 1.4x as big. And besides, we’re already building the GMT, TMT, and ELT here on earth, and those *ARE* like 100 of these (or more, again, to get over the atmospheric seeing). And those will be even _more_ powerful than Hubble 😁
@michaelanderson3096
February 15, 2025 at 10:39 pm
@neohavic6012 Speak English.
@12oshinko
February 15, 2025 at 9:47 pm
Hysterical that they talk about 600k as if some barista has it lying around
@joshmccollumastrophotography
February 15, 2025 at 10:59 pm
Would love to one of these. No where to put it, but it’s so awesome I would have to own it.
@eonsprite6109
February 16, 2025 at 1:12 am
its a bit odd that the video almost makes it seem like this is just a fancy 600k visual observing toy. If it were just a 600k toy i would agree that’s a waste …but that’s not what it’s for. Scopes like these provide the data that detects and tracks the movements of asteroids (like the one that might hit in 2032), provide innovations in optical technology, detect what materials exist on/in an object light years away,. change our understanding of physics and the world that can affect us here on earth.
The images produced by scientific observatories like this are cool, but only represent a fraction of their usefulness
@brucea9871
February 16, 2025 at 10:27 am
No you don’t have to have three doctorates to be able to use it but you have to have a well endowed bank account to be able to afford it. While it may no longer cost over $1 million, $600,000 is still a lot more than the average person can afford. While I would love to own one I know I will never be able to afford one.
@OMaMaRMY
February 16, 2025 at 12:06 pm
i like them tubes nice and thick. the more light the better 🥵
@jrs77
February 16, 2025 at 3:41 pm
Just bought an Celestron 8″ EdgeHD with harmonic drive mount and APS-C sized astro-camera. Sure doesn’t compare to the resolution and detail you can get with this 1m mirror, but let’s me take awesome images of other galaxies aswell. 100th the cost and only 25kg alltogether so I can throw it in the back of the car and drive to a darksite.
@Chryoss
February 17, 2025 at 5:51 am
A ZWO AM5 and a ZWO 2600MC Pro camera ?
@jrs77
February 17, 2025 at 7:09 am
@@Chryoss No. Sky-Watcher Wave 150i and ToupTek ATR2600C. Allmost €2000 cheaper than the ZWO combo.
@PeterStaniforth
February 17, 2025 at 4:43 pm
Same here, only mine is a RASA 8 and to be honest, some of my images are almost as good as this. I’ll keep the RASA thanks and buy a house!
@jonathanbyrdmusic
February 17, 2025 at 5:39 am
“For the general public”
@allskynrl
February 17, 2025 at 8:42 am
Thanks for the video! Lots of good information. PlaneWave is an awesome manufacturer!
@khutikhuti
February 17, 2025 at 10:16 am
0:01 What do you get? Really badly edited astro pics by the looks of it 🤣🤣
@iamdmc
February 17, 2025 at 10:50 am
only $600K? I’ll take 3
@MOTIVATIONBYDAR
February 17, 2025 at 12:44 pm
This reminds me of the telescope made out of a cardboard box with mirrors as a kid.
@DjD1MAH
February 17, 2025 at 12:55 pm
without even watching it. people spend that money on a single watch so to buy a telescope for the same money is good value
@timtim4664
February 19, 2025 at 9:12 pm
The people who spend that much money on a watch are not the same people who buy telescopes.
@InternationalScoutIIHarvester
February 17, 2025 at 5:13 pm
I’m guessing this would be a good fit for Community Colleges in areas where planetariums or large observatories are not to be found or would cost too much?
@Postmaster101
February 17, 2025 at 6:46 pm
If they’ve been on the moon Mars in space with a spaceship with the aliens up there, got up there the angels up there even gonna satellite so Juan I need a telescope you could just carry your iPhone
@JemCruz
February 17, 2025 at 10:33 pm
The planewave scope has a focal length of 6000mm at f/6. Price includes an ALT-AZI mount. Dunno how you can get 5 minutes subs with an alt-azi, and without autoguiding. Also wonder if it can controlled by NINA…
@netanmaldoran4816
February 18, 2025 at 12:35 am
At this scale, you’re running extremely high resolution encoders on all of the motors. Don’t need to autoguide when you know your absolute position to the tiniest fraction of an arcsecond. Then to deal with field rotation, they have a derotator to have the camera rotate to exactly cancel it out.
@beatsntoons
February 18, 2025 at 7:46 am
Sky model. These mounts don’t need to guide. All of the big brands will allow you to build a sky model to improve the accuracy of your tracking because of their encoders. I’m sure this thing could easily do 30min unguided subs
(and yes it can be controlled by NINA)
@bazpearce9993
February 19, 2025 at 2:03 am
There will be a camera rotation system in there to prevent field rotation.
@ayhay4686
February 17, 2025 at 11:19 pm
We are clean and perfect, let’s seek future Abraham’s lambs.
@me-cq7wv
February 18, 2025 at 5:51 am
Big companies tell you BIG OPTICS. All depends on seeing conditions. Orion optics or Tele Vue have great optics for the money.
@Pathological100
February 18, 2025 at 8:02 am
I think planewave offer adaptive optics for some of their bigger scopes
@kbgogh7324
February 18, 2025 at 7:33 am
OceanGate – 2
@Ben_Stewart
February 18, 2025 at 7:31 pm
Too bad SpaceX Garbage Link is destroying the night sky.
@Lumber91
February 20, 2025 at 3:05 pm
Yeah what a shame that people in poverty countries or live in the middle of nowhere are getting access to the internet
@Ben_Stewart
February 20, 2025 at 3:23 pm
@ yup at the expense of our night sky. At least your kids can play Fortnite on the camping trip though.
@Lumber91
February 20, 2025 at 3:35 pm
@ I do astrophotography and I can tell you I couldn’t care about satellites when you are taking hundreds of photos before you stack them
@mtnimt4724
February 19, 2025 at 12:45 am
Think I’ll stick with my $500 Seestar S50
@bazpearce9993
February 19, 2025 at 3:14 am
I’ll have three please.
@juliansullivan102
February 19, 2025 at 2:11 pm
How much does it cost to construct the building and foundation
@MaconMedia
February 19, 2025 at 6:46 pm
If I had the money, this would 100% be something I would buy.
@astrokari9567
February 19, 2025 at 7:47 pm
One heck of a telescope! I’ve routinely use a couple of CDK 20s and they are marvelous… But I do find myself yearning for more aperture! Alas, I can’t actually afford any of them myself
@quantum_beeb
February 19, 2025 at 8:48 pm
USB port😂
@markolwick2223
February 19, 2025 at 10:26 pm
Typical Brit to only rate it 9/10. You’re like “Meh, could be better.” I think it’s incredible. Definitely on my lottery spend list now.
@fazergazer
February 20, 2025 at 12:39 am
I got a couple of PlaneWave 1000 scopes. One for a house in Australia, the other in west Texas. Honestly, I don’t know why more people don’t snap these up. Super cheap nowadays❤ I recently used it to visually observe the neutron star pulsar in M01, the Crab Nebula. With averted vision I could see the approximately 30hz flickering.
@3dfxvoodoocards6
February 20, 2025 at 6:38 am
Interesting
@stefansoptikkanal5632
February 20, 2025 at 7:47 am
Great Scope, great report, but it is a bit misleading for most people to only show higly processed astrophotography imgages and suggest it is something you can see visually by showing the picture while looking through the eyepiece.
You can barely see color at all, except on the orion nebula and the stars visually, and not even the amount of detail in the structures of the deep sky objects shown here.
@Cevan42
February 20, 2025 at 9:22 am
USB A port? 😂
@robertsonsid
February 20, 2025 at 12:06 pm
Asking “how far can it see” is a cringe question.
@stevenlarkin1706
February 20, 2025 at 1:12 pm
Great example of the law of diminishing returns. Compare the pictures shown to a $500 Seestar S50 and yes this 1 meter scope is fabulous but costs $600,000 dollars more. It fails to give 600,000 times the performance. Buy it if you can easily afford it, but most people can not.