Originally posted by mattb123 Well I still wouldn't call it instant. Some recent big star stacks on my 8 core 3.65 GHz system with 32 GB RAM and a PCI SSD still gave me enough time to go get takeout or even make dinner before it would be done loading up the images.
I looked over a review of a new, astrophotography devoted automated telephoto device. A relative small telescope, 80mm diameter I think, with a very sophisticated tracking mechanism and an automated camera. Takes up to hundreds of short-exposure images and composites them, but if you have friends waiting to see, better have cocktails and cheese bedecked crackers aplenty.
I should add, the review, in a magazine devoted to astronomy that tests expensive amateur equipment regularly - 8 or 10 inch Schmidt Cassegrain reflector, apochromatic refractors, etc. - was highly impressed by the quality of images obtained with this radically new design fully automated astrograph.