Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 102AZ App-Enabled Telescope – 102mm Refractor with Smartphone Dock & StarSense App – iPhone & Android Compatible – Easy-to-Use for Beginners

I've always been interested in astronomy. Got a decent little refractor scope when I was in elementary school, and received a little 3" SCT for a graduation gift because Halley’s Comet was due back the following year (yes, I'm old). Life happened and I paused that hobby, but always wanted to go back. Finally took the plunge and looked through many forum posts and pages of reviews until I settled on getting the Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ as my return ticket to backyard astronomy. I am really glad I did.I live in a major city with lots of light pollution. There's a street light right behind my house, my neighbors (all our houses are fairly close together) have high wattage security lights, etc. So I wasn't expecting much. Figured I would need to plan some nights out at places away from the city. But of course when the scope arrived I wanted to try it out right away.Putting it together took about 30 minutes, but I was purposely going slow so that I was sure I got everything right. The only hiccup was when I was "attaching" the accessory tray to the tripod. The instructions make it seem like you're screwing it into the cross braces of the tripod, but there are no threads or nuts in the holes. So you're just cranking the screws all the way into the tray so that when you position the tray over the cross braces, the screws go down through those holes keeping the cross braces from closing on you unexpectedly. I'm guessing it's designed that way so you don't have to unscrew everything to get the tripod closed. Just lift out the tray.Getting the red dot finder sighted in was easy. I did it during the day as noted in the setup guide. The ease with which I was able to find things later that night let me know it was working perfectly.My first surprise was how much I could see even with all of the light pollution. Naked eye viewing around here I maybe see 50 or so stars. The planets from Mercury to Saturn are usually pretty visible. Since Saturn was sitting right there in the southern sky that night, I started with it. I had never seen the rings of Saturn through the dinky little scopes I'd had in the past. That night I saw them clearly for the first time (too bad they're nearly edge-on now). It was awesome. From there I was like a kid in a candy store. Jupiter with the just-past-full moon right above it came up, so I spent a lot of time on them. And then the Pleiades. Once I put the red dot finder on something, it was in the eyepiece and the slow motion controls made it easy to keep it there.That was about the time I remembered the other major feature of this scope - the Starsense Explorer app. I opened the cover over the mirrored portion of the phone holder. Started the app and placed the phone in the holder, then followed the quick instructions on getting it setup. I pointed the scope at Vega which was shining brightly in the west, told the app that was the star I was looking at by zooming in on it on the phone, hit done and in 5 seconds the app told me it knew where it was. Testing it out, I told it to take me back to Saturn, and in 10 seconds I was seeing the ringed planet again.I went to go back to Vega and chanced across something that looked interesting. In the low power 25mm eyepiece it was a bright start that looked like it had a partner. Popped in the 10mm eyepiece and used the slow motion controls to get back on it, and saw it was a very pretty double star. One was bright orange-gold while the other was a cooler blue. I checked the app and it told me I was looking at Albireo/Beta Cygni. I hadn't ever heard of it. Clicked on the info and there was even an audio explanation of the stars. Awesome.Figuring out I could just slew the scope around and then check the app for what was interesting in that section of sky, I was off to the races again. I forget how many things I looked at - more double stars (I definitely recall looking at the double double/epsilon lyrae), Rigel, Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, and could even just make out a blurry cloud that was Andromeda. All from my very light polluted front and back yards.I did buy a phone mount to go with it, but hadn't even looked at that mount yet. I didn't get the scope for any kind of astrophotography, but figured I might want to take a few pix here and there. Now I wanted to show my wife and kids what I got to see, so I set about connecting it up. It's really difficult to get it lined up correctly with the eyepiece, but I got there in the end. I attached a couple of the better photos, but they're all terribly over-exposed and a little blurry as it was hard to get the phone camera to focus. Just know that this was done basically out-of-the-box after just a couple hours of use. No special camera or photo app or good viewing conditions. I was having a blast.The summary: This scope is perfect for a beginner (or a not-quite beginner that hasn't done any backyard astronomy for a looooong time). The price was less than I was expecting when I started looking, but it doesn't feel cheap. And I didn't want to break the bank in case this wasn't as fun as I recalled (it's even more fun/exciting/satisfying than I remembered). And the performance to me is exceptional. I've had it for two weeks now and I've been out every night that the weather has let me. I've gotten a couple upgraded eyepieces and a 2X barlow, and it's only gotten more fun. The app is extremely useful letting me get on what I want to look at in seconds, or as a source of info when I just want to start randomly touring the sky. And newtonians are a simple design, after looking over the hardware I don't think I'll have any problems when any maintenance (like collimation) is needed.

I’ve been observing the night sky with telescopes for 35 years, have owned almost 20 different telescopes and have been asked many times for suggestions by people looking to buy a “starter” telescope. When I heard about the new Celestron StarSense Explorer line of telescopes, I was super intrigued and decided I’d purchase one to try out.Spending $399 on anything is a lot to spend. Spending $399 on a telescope, is relatively inexpensive compared to most telescopes on the market and certainly is within the price range of other beginner telescopes. So, what did I think of the Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ? The short answer is, as an entry level telescope, I loved it! If you want to know why, read further.I’ll start by saying the telescope was well packed. It came in an attractive box with the components packed in smaller boxes inside. All of it was packed within a standard shipping box.The instructions made assembly very smooth although I’m sure it doesn’t hurt that I have assembled a lot of telescopes. I went into it though trying to have the perspective of someone who is new to telescopes. Having said that, I did jump to one conclusion that I was happy to be wrong about. The StarSense Explorer DX 102AZ and 130AZ telescopes have slow motion controls for moving the telescope left and right as well as up and down. Every slow-motion control I’ve ever seen attaches to the mount using visible small thumb screws. The slow-motion controls for the DX telescopes use sunken Allen head screws that are not readily visible. This is in no way a negative. I’m simply mentioning it for anyone else like me that would expect to see the typical thumb screws. Unboxing everything and assembling the telescope took less than 30 minutes.The Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ is a 5.1” diameter reflecting telescope on an alt-azimuth mount with an adjustable height tripod. It comes with two entry level eyepieces; a 25mm that provides 26x and a 10mm that provides 65x. It also comes with a Celestron StarPointer red dot finder. The StarPointer is very similar to the finders I use on my more expensive and more sophisticated telescopes. It makes pointing the telescope at the targets you know the location of without using the StarSense app, very easy. It does need to be aligned with the telescope which can be done quite easily when you follow the included instructions.In my opinion, the real strength of the Celestron StarSense Explorer line of telescopes is the StarSense app. Using this app on your smartphone, coupled with this quality beginner telescope, makes finding objects in the night sky an almost effortless pleasure. The StarSense app walks you through aligning the night sky in the app with where the telescope is pointed. Once the two are aligned, click on the StarSense icon at the bottom of the screen on your smartphone, pick an object you want to look at and the app will guide you to move the scope manually to the chosen object. It does this with great accuracy which I’ll touch on later. It also provides a description, observing tips, and data for each object while standing at the telescope. StarSense is a very intuitive and informative app.I chose the Celestron Explorer DX 130AZ because it has the largest aperture in this new line of telescopes. The aperture of a telescope is the real power of the telescope. The larger the aperture, the more light it will collect, and the brighter objects will be. A 130mm (5.1”) telescope is enough aperture to keep an avid observer busy for years. Don’t get hung up on the advertised magnification of a telescope. After many years of using large 18” and 25” reflecting telescopes that required step ladders and stools to look through, I do all my observing with 4”, 5” and 6” refracting telescopes nowadays.During my first night out with the Celestron StarSense Explorer DX I observed 20 different objects including the planet Venus, the Orion Nebula, the Pleiades Star Cluster, four galaxies (M65, M66, M81, M82), and quite a few various other open star clusters. I used the StarSense app to guide me to each object. When using the supplied 25mm eyepiece, every object was placed in the center of the field of view. I was super impressed by just how accurate it was! I currently have a couple different expensive computerized GoTo telescope mounts that automatically slew whatever telescope I have on them to the selected object. The StarSense app pointed the DX 130AZ telescope with more consistent accuracy than I have experienced with my GoTo telescope mounts. Optically, stars were sharp, and objects appeared as I would expect when observing from my front yard with more than one streetlight keeping my eyes from being adapted to the dark. To truly experience the potential of any telescope, observe from the darkest location you can and let your eyes adapt to the dark. Use a red flashlight if possible. Also, take advantage of the night vision mode in the StarSense app. Doing so will tint your smartphone screen red, which will help your eyes stay adapted to the dark.In summary, the Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ is surprisingly enjoyable and easy to use. This is the most fun I’ve had with any telescope in its price range and in my opinion, it has the potential to change astronomy for beginners in a very positive way. What a fun way to be introduced to the universe! I can only imagine how different my early years under the stars would have been if I had this telescope coupled with a smartphone and the StarSense app. I highly recommend this for anyone wanting to start their journey into amateur astronomy!

The Telescope came Double boxed. Box was in good condition. Was easy to follow the instructions to put the Telescope together. Yes, it has an actual paper instruction booklet. :). Everything is very nicely made and easy to use. The tripod seems very sturdy. (People have said their screws broke but just don't crank them down so hard.) I was able to go to Zenith by lowering 2 of the legs. My only issue is that one of the screws on the eye piece was sheared off. I was able to get it out of the hole so it's ready for a new screw if I get one. (see picture)I don't think the scope is Collimated. I can see clearly but the view is not horizontal or vertical or both. it on the diagonal. I'm not sure if it matters or not. I'm just a perfectionist. So if a tree is supposed to be straight up/down I don't want to see it on an angle. I'll have to investigate this.I love the StarSense and the Starry night software. With StarSense I was able to hook up my iphone and it only took a moment to set up. easy to use and fun.4 Stars due to the broken screw and the non-Culmination issue.