22461 StarSense Explore DX 130 Newtonian Reflector Telescope with Smartphone App-enabled Technology, includes Two Eyepieces, Phone Dock and Height-adjustable Tripod, iOS/Android Compatible

As a long time (very) amateur astronomer I had been using a large Dobsonian. As my age and disability got the better of me I decided I needed something easier to handle. This Celestron DX130 AZ is perfect for me. It was easy to set up and get everything aligned. I can easily carry it to my car for some night-time viewing. Unfortunately I have only had a brief period of clear skies to try it out but a saw enough to know that it will be a great acquisition. The Star Sense phone app worked quickly and accurately and I was able to view Mars and a beautiful view of Jupiter and its moons before the cloud cover returned. This may not be the greatest telescope for a seasoned watcher but for a beginner or someone in my position it is an excellent choice. I am looking forward to some clear skies in the weeks to come and I may update this review once I have had a few sessions with it. First impressions though, are great.

Very good for beginner astronomers. I bought it for myself and my kids. I did A LOT of research before i purchased. I was close to buying the Celestron 102az, and I'm sure it would have been fine, but I am so glad i went with the StarSense explorer. I would not have known what I was looking at if I had another Telescope. Its excellent. Easy to use and very informative. Ive had good views of the moon in particular. Can also see Jupiter and its moons pretty clear. It’s easy to set up. Would recommend for beginners. You wont find better for the price. Trust me I did loads of research. Enjoy.

Really good but you need a big lense to help locate object

Despite what they say in their sales pitch, this doesn't support all modern phones. You have to carefully check the model against their list. The tech support just said check the list - no help offered. The telescope is still ok, but the whole software enhanced experience - not supported for my phone, which was released this year. Will consider sending it back.

This scope is a nice package, not too heavy or cumbersome to move around, fine controls help keep the object in view, and a handy tray to hold your eyepieces. I found it quite stable, still wobbly whilst looking at far objects after adjustment, but easily settling after a few moments. The mount for the phone is easily adjustable, and the app, once setup, is really useful. Pick from the list of objects and tap locate, and the app tells you which way to go. Get close to the object and it scans the sky, further calibrating so that you can be spot on with what you’re looking for. The eyepieces are fine, and offer nice, clear views. But I recommend a nice Plössl or two in different sizes to add to the collection. This scope is brilliant for a beginner, and a great way to learn about the night sky with ease. The app is full of details about the objects you’re looking at. Worth mentioning, the photo attached was taken by holding my phone over the eyepiece so it isn’t great, but the quality whilst looking with your eyes is spectacularly detailed. One final point, have a chair handy. The scope is reasonably long and the mount height means the eyepiece will be quite low. I’m six foot tall, and the eyepiece is around hip level when pointing up.

Really impressed with Celestron's Star Sense object finding software, which uses a mobile phone to detect the orientation and location of the telescope. Using this, I've managed to find objects easily which eluded me when using manual telescopes 25 years ago (e.g. M15 and M27). This kit is simple to use - just what I wanted. The optical quality of the tube seems fine too. The eyepieces are OK but I have upgraded these to some having a wider field of view.

This is a really good scope for beginners, looking at optical and photographic observation. Not really anything to compare for under £300. The inclusion of the mobile phone app is great - means no messing about with polar alignment, or knowing where in the sky everything is. There are a couple of downsides which each drop a star for me though. Firstly, the focuser is very jerky, a turn of the focus wheel makes the end of the tube jump, making it almost impossible to achieve fine focus. This might be a symptom of worm drive focusing, but it is really annoying. Secondly, using the fine adjustment is also very jerky - which appears to be a symptom of the design. The x and y fine movement is achieved by turning knobs on the end of spring loaded connections to the mount. The trouble is, the connections are bent, and the fact they're spring loaded, means tension builds up, then causes the mount to jump. If you could keep the connections totally straight, perhaps it would be reduced, but that's just not possible when you're looking through the telescope in order to adjust. The jumping is usually enough for you to completely lose the target. This happened a number of times trying to observe Jupiter. Again, really annoying, and warrants losing another star. I don't think there's anything actually "wrong" with my 'scope, so I suspect these are issues which will impact everyone - to a greater or lesser extent, depending on what you're trying to see.

Amazing 🤩🤩🤩🤩

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.

Hicimos la compra del StarSense Explorer DX 130. Es nuestro primer telescopio y es muy fácil su uso. La app de StarSense es un poco complicada, no es tan sencillo que se conecte y ubique su posición, entonces vas a batallar un poco, pero una vez que logras conectarlo, es muy intuitivo. De cualquier manera el telescopio es buenísimo aún sin la aplicación. Las fotos adjuntas son: las de la luna son con los dos lentes que vienen incluidos, sin filtros y sin edición, tal cual se ve directamente. Las fotos son tomadas con un iPhone 12. La otra es del eclipse en Mazatlán, es la foto del sol en su fase total, para este compramos un filtro solar. Como pueden ver, se ve súper súper bien, si estás iniciando, es maravilloso lo que se alcanza a ver. Recomiendo ver muchos videos en YouTube para poder armarlo y calibrarlo/conectarlo. Hay canales muy buenos en donde dan tips excelentes. Recomiendo mucho la compra.

مشاهدات رائعه

Para ser mi primer telescopio, realmente cumplió con mis expectativas.

The mount allows a little vibration which takes a few seconds to settle otherwise it’s a great package and I’m discovering many deep space objects with it