Celestron has reinvented the manual telescope with StarSense Explorer, the first telescope that uses your smartphone to analyse 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 guide of the night sky.
Leave complicated star charts, imprecise planetarium apps, and computerised mounts behind. With StarSense Explorer, locating objects has never been easier, faster, or more accurate. Within minutes of setting up the telescope, you’ll be navigating the sky with confidence. Simply place your phone in the unique StarSense dock and launch the StarSense Explorer app. After aligning your phone to the telescope’s optics (a quick, 2-minute procedure), StarSense Explorer generates a list of celestial objects currently visible. Make your selection, and arrows appear onscreen, guiding you as you move the telescope. When the object is ready to view, the bullseye turns green.
StarSense Explorer works with most modern smartphones, including iPhone 6 and up and most devices running Android 7.1.2 or later manufactured since 2016.
StarSense Explorer uses patent-pending 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.
StarSense Explorer LT’s simple altazimuth mount makes it easy to move the telescope to find your target. An altitude slow motion adjustment with a sliding rod helps you fine tune the telescope’s pointing position and follow targets as they appear to drift across the night sky. It’s all anchored by an adjustable, full-height tripod.
With a large 127mm (5”) objective lens, this telescope has enough light gathering ability to bring out detail in celestial objects. You can expect sharp, bright views of Jupiter’s four Galilean moons, its cloud bands and Great Red Spot, the rings of Saturn, the trapezium in the Orion Nebula, and the beautiful Pleaides Open Star Cluster.
Even if you live in a light polluted city location, StarSense Explorer is advanced enough to be able to pick out Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, the Orion Nebula, double stars, and a few more of the most famous celestial objects.
But if you can take the telescope to an even slightly darker location, more objects will become visible. With this 5” Newtonian and relatively dark skies, the Andromeda Galaxy, Hercules Open Star Cluster, and so many more are easily within your reach.
The entire telescope kit weighs just 11.4 pounds, so it’s perfectly portable and easy to bring on your next camping trip or to a remote observing site.
Features
- Unleash the power of your smartphone to take you on a guided tour of the night sky, no telescope experience required.
- Award-winning and patent-pending StarSense sky recognition technology uses your smartphone to analyse star patterns overhead and calculate its position in real time.
- StarSense Explorer app automatically generates a list of objects currently visible. View planets, brighter nebulae and galaxies, star clusters, and double stars from the city. Or take your telescope to darker skies to view faint, deep sky objects.
- Manual altazimuth mount with altitude slow motion adjustment with a sliding rod makes it easy to follow the onscreen arrows to your desired target. When the bullseye turns green, it’s ready to view in the telescope’s eyepiece.
- 127mm (5”) Newtonian reflector with highly reflective coatings and enough light gathering ability to view all the best celestial objects.
- Includes 25mm and 10mm eyepieces, 2x Barlow Lens, StarSense smartphone dock, a red dot finderscope (in case you want to use the telescope without your phone), and a full-height tripod.
Specifications
Optical Design: Newtonian Reflector
Aperture: 127mm (5")
Focal Length: 1000mm
Focal Ratio: f/7.87
Focal Length of Eyepiece 1: 25mm
Magnification of Eyepiece 1: 40x
Focal Length of Eyepiece 2: 10mm
Magnification of Eyepiece 2: 100x
Barlow Lens: 2x (1.25")
Finderscope: StarPointer red dot finderscope
Optical Tube: Steel
Highest Useful Magnification: 300x
Lowest Useful Magnification: 18x
Limiting Stellar Magnitude: 13
Resolution (Rayleigh): 1.1 arc seconds
Resolution (Dawes): .91 arc seconds
Light Gathering Power (Compared to human eye): 329x
Secondary Mirror Obstruction: 41mm
Secondary Mirror Obstruction by Diameter: 32%
Secondary Mirror Obstruction by Area: 10%
Optical Coatings: Glass mirrors coated with aluminium and SiO₂
Optical Tube Length: 457.2mm
Optical Tube Diameter: 165.1mm
Optical Tube Weight: 3.44 kg
Dovetail: None
Mount Info:
Mount Type: Manual Alt-Azimuth
Height adjustment range (includes mount and tripod): Aluminium, 1320.8mm max height
Tripod Leg Diameter: 31.75mm steel
Accessory Tray: Yes
Tripod Weight: 1.72 kg
Slew Speeds: Manual
GPS: Uses phone's GPS
Dovetail Compatibility: None
Power Requirements: None (Recommend PowerTank Glow to keep phone charged while using App)
Alignment Procedures: Use StarSense Explorer App
Software: StarSense Explorer App | SkyPortal App | Celestron Starry Night Basic Edition Software
Total Kit Weight: 11.4 lbs (5.17 kg)
Included Items: Optical tube | Mount and tripod (preassembled) | 25mm and 10mm eyepieces | 2x Barlow Lens | StarPointer finderscope | Accessory tray | StarSense Explorer phone dock
Note: Smartphone shown in images is not included.
