Have you ever pointed binoculars at something spectacular in the night sky, then clumsily tried to point to where it is so a companion can have a look?
Binocular astronomy has always been rewarding but also intensely personal: two eyepieces, one view and no easy way to guide others or share the experience.
That frustration may be ending with Unistellar’s new Envision smart binoculars, which open for pre-order on 1 October 2025.
More binocular astronomy
Envision smart binoculars – how they work
At their core, the Envision smart binoculars are Nikon-designed 10x50 Porro-prism binoculars.
This is the gold standard for stargazers thanks to a balance of magnification, brightness and wide field of view.
The optics themselves are solid: six degrees of sky at 10x magnification through fully multi-coated BAK4 glass.
But layered on top is an augmented reality system that projects data into the right eyepiece.
Your brain fuses the views, so labels and markers appear naturally centred.
Orientation is achieved through gyros, accelerometers and magnetometers, while a database of roughly 200,000 stars, 1,000 deep-sky objects and over a million terrestrial landmarks powers the overlays.
Centre your target
The most striking feature is Target Lock Sharing.
With a tap, you can centre an object and pin it. When someone else looks through the binoculars, arrows guide them directly to the same target.
Under Bortle 3 skies in Provence, France, I used this to show a companion M13, the Hercules Cluster, and later M31, the Andromeda Galaxy.
Instead of me having to describe the exact spot or hoping they stumbled onto it, the view snapped into place for them.
For the first time, binocular astronomy – normally a solitary pursuit – can be social.
How the augmented reality overlays work
The Unistellar Envision smart binoculars can be used at any time, day or night.
In daylight, Smart Scouting overlays red lines on ridges and peaks, identifying them with data from OpenStreetMap and Peak Finder.
At night, its AR mode outlines constellations by connecting stars with red lines, while subtly circling star clusters, nebulae and galaxies in red circles as you pass the optics over them.
It names them on the bottom half of the screen, but it’s quick and unobtrusive.
Occasionally, the overlays drift due to magnetic interference, but recalibration is simple: drag and drop a constellation line back into place, and it instantly realigns with the entire sky.
Crucially, the overlays respect the limits of 10x50 binoculars.
Everything circled is genuinely visible, from star clusters and galaxies to bright nebulae.
If you prefer a traditional view, Disconnect Mode disables the augmented reality completely.
During my test, I often challenged myself to star-hop manually, then switched on the AR overlays switched on for confirmation, or to learn a minor constellation I had never quite figured out.
That transition is far more seamless than interrupting the night by using an app on a glowing smartphone screen.
How the Envision performed
The prototype software that we used for this review wasn’t flawless.
Saturn, easily visible as a tiny golden oval in the binoculars, went unrecognised by the augmented reality system.
Planetary support is promised at launch, and calibration quirks should be resolved with updates.
Still, the overall experience worked smoothly, and the overlays consistently enhanced rather than distracted.
If I had to be even fussier, I would say that the red lines were a little too bright.
However, they were dimmer than I had expected, and I’m told that brightness will be customisable.
At 1.2 kilograms, the Unistellar Envision smart binoculars are heavier than typical 10x50 binoculars.
And they lack image stabilisation – a wise cost-saving measure (image stablisation would easily double the price).
A tripod mount is built in, and Unistellar suggests a monopod for long sessions, though during my testing, I instead used a sun lounger, sat back and scanned Sagittarius.
What impressed me most with the Unistellar Envision smart binoculars was the light-touch design philosophy.
The AR never shouts for attention; instead, it deepens awareness of what you’re seeing and makes sharing effortless.
If Unistellar delivers on software polish, planetary recognition and expanded catalogues, Envision could redefine binocular astronomy.
It respects the purity of glass-on-sky viewing while solving its greatest limitation: the inability to easily share the view.
It’s harder to think of a better way to learn the night sky.
Unistellar Envision smart binoculars – key specs
- Magnification: x10
- Diameter: 50mm
- Architecture: Porro
- AR Battery life: 5h or 1,000 binocular engagements per charge (battery required only for AR)
- Field of view: 6°
- Exit pupil diameter: 5mm
- Optical glass: BAC4 fully multicoated
- Astronomical targets: 1,000+ sky objects
- Number of visible stars: 200,000
- Number of terrestrial targets: +1 million points of interest
- Weight: 1.2 kg (2.65 lbs)
