Celestron | StarSense Explorer DX 102AZ

In brief

• Unleash the power of your smartphone for a guided tour of the night sky—no telescope experience required.
• The patented, award-winning StarSense sky recognition technology uses your smartphone to analyze the star configuration above your head and calculate the telescope's position in real-time.
• 102 mm (4") refractor with high-transmission XLT optical coatings and sufficient light-gathering ability to observe all the best celestial objects.
• The manual altazimuth mount with slow-motion controls on two axes makes it easy to follow the on-screen arrows to your desired target. When the crosshair turns green, it’s ready to be viewed in the telescope’s eyepiece.
• StarSense Explorer Powered by SkySafari™ app automatically generates a list of currently visible objects. Observe planets, brighter nebulae and galaxies, star clusters, and double stars from the city. Or take your telescope to a darker sky to see even more.
• Includes 25 mm and 10 mm Kellner eyepieces, StarSense smartphone dock, StarPointer™ red-dot finder, eyepiece holder, and collimation cap.

Celestron has reinvented the tabletop Dobsonian telescope with StarSense Explorer—the first tabletop Dobsonian that uses your smartphone to analyze the night sky and calculate its position in real-time. This Celestron StarSense Explorer with a 130 mm aperture is ideal for beginners, thanks to the app's user-friendly interface and detailed tutorials. It’s like having a personal tour guide for the night sky.

Position, move, explore

Leave behind complicated star charts, inaccurate planetarium apps, and computerized mounts. With StarSense Explorer, locating objects has never been easier, faster, or more precise. Just a few minutes after setting up the telescope, you’ll be navigating the sky with confidence. Simply place your phone in the StarSense dock and launch the StarSense Explorer app.

After aligning your phone with the telescope's optics (a simple and quick procedure), StarSense Explorer generates a list of currently visible celestial objects. Make your selection, and arrows appear on the screen, guiding you as you move the telescope. When the object is ready to be observed in the eyepiece, the bullseye turns green. While you observe, listen to hundreds of audio descriptions and access detailed information on thousands of objects in the app's robust database.

High-quality altazimuth mount with slow-motion control

An ultra-stable altazimuth mount provides a solid base for the StarSense Explorer DX. The friction clutches and slow-motion controls on both axes help you move the telescope smoothly and center your target. When celestial objects seem to drift across the night sky, you’ll be able to follow them with just a few turns of the knob. All of this is supported by a height-adjustable tripod.

Breathtaking views thanks to excellent optics

With a 130 mm (5.1") parabolic primary mirror, this telescope has sufficient light-gathering capacity to bring out details of celestial objects. You can expect sharp, bright views of Jupiter's four Galilean moons, its cloud bands and the Great Red Spot, Saturn's rings, the trapezium of the Orion Nebula, and the stunning Pleiades star cluster. You’ll be able to discern subtle details while observing the Moon and planets, as well as galaxies and nebulae.

This telescope is equipped with a 31.7 mm (1.25") rack-and-pinion focuser that accepts 31.7 mm (1.25") eyepieces and dust covers for the front of the tube and the focuser.

Perfect for city or dark sky sites

Even if you live in a light-polluted city, the Celestron StarSense Explorer 130 mm Tabletop Dobsonian is advanced enough to easily spot Jupiter, Saturn, open star clusters like the Pleiades, double stars like Albireo, the Orion Nebula, the Andromeda Galaxy, and other beautiful and bright celestial objects.

But if you can take the telescope to an even darker location, more objects will become visible. With this 130 mm Dobson and a relatively dark sky, hundreds of fascinating objects are within your reach.

The entire telescope kit weighs only 8.16 kg, making it perfectly portable and easy to take along on your next camping trip or to a remote observing site.

Smartphone compatibility

Celestron StarSense Explorer works with most modern smartphones, including iPhone 6 and newer, and most devices running Android 7.1.2 or newer made since 2016.

Patented StarSense sky recognition technology

StarSense Explorer uses patented technology and your smartphone to determine exactly where the telescope is pointed in the night sky. A LISA (Lost in Space Algorithm) algorithm, similar to those used by satellites in orbit to orient themselves correctly, helps the app match the star patterns it detects in the sky to its internal database.

Other astronomy apps claim to help you find objects, but they rely solely on the phone’s gyroscopes and accelerometers, which are not as precise as the LISA technology. No other app can accurately tell you when your target is visible in the eyepiece.

Everything you need to start observing right away

When you unpack your new StarSense Explorer DX, you’ll find:

• A 102 mm optical tube 
• StarSense dock for your smartphone
• Low-power (25 mm) and high-power (10 mm) eyepieces
• The StarPointer red-dot finder, perfect for using the telescope during the day or without the StarSense Explorer app.
• Altazimuth mount with slow-motion controls
• Height-adjustable tripod with an accessory tray to help you stay organized