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StarSense Explorer uses patented technology and your smartphone to determine exactly where the telescope is pointed in the night sky. A Lost in Space Algorithm (LISA), like the ones satellites use in orbit to correctly orient themselves, helps the app match star patterns it detects overhead to its internal database. This one-of-a-kind app uses patent-pending technology in combination with a Celestron StarSense Explorer telescope (sold separately) to analyze star patterns overhead to calculate the telescope’s position in real time with pinpoint accuracy. You can expect sharp, bright views through this 70mm refractor. Fully coated glass optics provide increased light transmission, enhancing details in celestial objects. The telescope also includes a 90-degree erect image diagonal, so you can use it during the day to view birds, wildlife, landscapes, and more. The object may be in the telescope’s eyepiece, but it could be too dim to see. This is more likely when observing faint deep sky objects from light polluted or moonlit skies. In this case, we recommend going to darker skies or waiting until a New Moon to get a better view. StarSense Explorer uses image data captured by the smartphone’s camera to determine its pointing position. The app captures an image of the night sky and then matches the star patterns within the image to its internal database in a process similar to fingerprint matching or facial recognition.
I've been using telescopes for 50 years and set up a DX 102 starsense explorer for a friend who bought this as a beginner scope. Let's start with the good. For a beginning achromat it is solid and very good quality. The red dot finder is great. The alt-az mount is sturdy and mount head movement is smooth and stays where you put it. Also very good assembly instructions. Now the app. I think the app itself is actually great as a tool for seeing what's out there. It has great graphical interface, a ton of information about the objects you're looking at. Unfortunately the whole smart-phone to telescope alignment and telescope orientation using that patented LISA algorithm or whatever does not seem to work very consistently if at all. I did get the telescope to orient initially and tried moving it to M42 and it was about 1 field width off. Then I tried improving telescope alignment and after that the telescope would not locate at all. For all their simplicity and supreme light-gathering powers, there's something about Dobsonians — and all Newtonian reflectors — that aren't very beginner-friendly. This telescope needs to be collimated, which basically means it needs to have its components specifically aligned to bring light to its best focus. That requires an Allen head wrench and a Phillips head screwdriver, which is a bit of a fiddle, but at no point during our review did we need to do this despite the product being in transit. Should you buy the Celestron StarSense Explorer 8-inch Dobsonian telescope? Patented, award-winning StarSense sky recognition technology uses your smartphone to analyze star patterns overhead and calculate the telescope’s position in real-time. If you received a red dot finderscope that looks like the unit pictured here, follow the instructions below to replace the battery: The word “achromatic” implies a freedom from the false color that bedevilled refractors in the very early days of telescopes, but this is a comparative term. Like other achromatic refractors, the Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 102AZ still has some false color, which reveals itself as colored fringes around the edges of objects, particularly at high magnification, and the short tube results in inherently more false color than with a longer focal-ratio achromatic instrument. To completely overcome false color you need a considerably more expensive apochromatic refractor or a reflector. However, refractors are traditionally more robust than reflectors, so there is no ideal instrument to suit everyone.Other astronomy apps do not use plate solving. Instead, they rely exclusively on the smartphone’s internal gyroscopes, accelerometers, and compass to estimate the smartphone’s pointing position. When coupled to a manual telescope, the resultant pointing is not accurate enough to place astronomical objects within the telescope’s field of view. The StarSense facility instructs you to move in a specific direction with the telescope and as you push the tube, drawing closer to the object, the app slowly zooms in — that's your cue to start using the slow-motion controls. Once centered in the bullseye graphic, you are ready to view the target object through the eyepiece. We were impressed to see Mars dazzling near the center of the field of view during our observations. The eyepieces are supplied with tight plastic covers — and how many beginners will try to twist these off, rather than prise them off? In instructions intended for raw beginners, points such as this are vital. The user-friendly planetarium interface allows you to scan the skies for objects you wish to view. You can also search for objects in the extensive database.
The Celestron StarSense DX 102AZ features a doublet lens composed of two different types of glass, offering bright views of targets. (Image credit: Celestron)StarSense Explorer uses patented technology and your smartphone to determine exactly where the telescope is pointed in the night sky. A Lost in Space Algorithm (LISA), like the ones satellites use in orbit to correctly orient themselves, helps the app match star patterns it detects overhead to its internal database. While other astronomy apps may claim that they can help you find objects, they rely exclusively on the phone's gyros and accelerometers, which aren't as accurate as LISA technology. No other app can accurately tell you when your target is visible in the eyepiece. Mitigation of potential damage caused by user attempting to use wrench to turn focus motor while powered on
Celestron has reinvented the manual telescope with StarSense Explorer—the first telescope that uses your smartphone to analyze the night sky and calculate its position in real time. StarSense Explorer is ideal for beginners thanks to the app’s user-friendly interface and detailed tutorials. It’s like having your own personal tour A close cousin of the StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ is the more affordable SkyWatcher Explorer 130M, another Newtonian reflector telescope aimed at beginners that trades smartphone aligning for a motorised equatorial mount. Instead of an app this ‘go to’ telescope has a handset from which you choose which targets you want to ‘scope to automatically slew to. With a large 10" Newtonian reflector optical tube, this telescope has enough light-gathering ability to bring out impressive detail in celestial objects while remaining remarkably portable. You can expect sharp, bright views of Jupiter's four Galilean moons, its cloud bands and Great Red Spot, the rings of Saturn, the gaseous glow of the Orion Nebula, dust lanes in the Lagoon Nebula, and our neighbor galaxy, Andromeda. Compared to the StarSense Explorer DX 130 AZ, the 10" Dobsonian has 380+% more light gathering area, providing better views of faint objects. Turn on “Save Images & Logs” from the Menu as described above. After you use StarSense Explorer at night, there will be images and log files stored on your phone. Accessing them requires connecting your smartphone to a computer. To retrieve the files:
The StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ Telescope is at the top of the range. It's 130mm Newtonian Reflector is highly reflective and is the best at light-gathering, showing planets and stars the brightest. The tripod and telescope together weigh just 8kg making this impressive telescope transportable too. Newtonian reflector with highly reflective coatings and enough light gathering ability to view all the best celestial objects. This great telescope is featured in our best telescopes for beginners guide, along with its highly-recommended cousin — the Celestron StarSense Explorer LT 114AZ — featured as one of our best telescopes for 2021. It may not be dark enough out. You’ll need to wait at least an hour after sunset for StarSense Explorer to be able to “see” enough stars to find its position. If you can’t see many stars with your eyes, it is not dark enough yet.
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