Customer Ratings & Reviews

Call it the upper end of the lower end maybe, but it's not a bad place to be. Decided to buy a telescope and discovered that our local store had this one in stock. Having had very good experience with our local store, and seeing this had decent reviews certainly helped simplify the decision. Have had it out one night, but it seems to work exactly like I expected. It does take a little set up, but the instructions are pretty good about that. There are also a couple of youtube videos available that explain and show. I find it easy to set up and to move around, and the app does a pretty good job of finding itself even in a partial overcast. The attached picture was taken with a hand held cell phone camera in below freezing temperatures, through a light overcast. The image seen by eye through the eyepiece is considerably better.

gunna break down the pros and cons Pros: Very light weight and easy to carry, easy assembly and easy to move the telescope around. The view finder is great and has 2 dials to help with incisal alignment. now as far as the app is concerned. very very easy to use. It allows you to select from a list of things to see and breaks it into two different categories. Easy and challenging. you select an object and track and shows you where it is and uses guide arrows so you can move it into position. very fun to use. Cons: like a few comments I have seen already, the eye pieces are not great. you get a fair amount of refracting issues especially with the 10mm. with the 25mm I could see some stipes on Jupiter. and could make out the run around Saturn but with the 10mm it became more blurry. as far as the app goes, it doesn't always align perfectly. for a few it was off maybe 1 degree or so. not so far that you couldn't find it. I would love to give this a 5 star but I cant get over the eye pieces. easy to get new ones at least. the rest if great in my opinion.

Works As Advertised! Pros: Compact, Lightweight, Easy to assemble and dismount. Supported app and smartphone holster great additions combined with laser finderscope. Cons: Not motorized. Reflection and Magnification range from included eypieces, barlow and mirror not strong enough for distant targets outside of the Moon, Venus, Mars and Jupiter. No Sun or Moon filter.

Overall I am very pleased with my purchase. The scope is well constructed and fairly easy to use. I was hoping for better images of planets, but it still produces decent images for the price. Ypu won't see much detail on Mars or Mercury, but tou can see the rings of Saturn and make out some detail on Jupiter. The starsense app works like a charm. My only complaints are the eyepieces that come with it are very mediocre and the scope was not collimated, but that could be from shipping. Other wise, it's a good buy. Or should I say best buy? Haha. On that note, best buys in-store pick-up was quick and effortless! No issues at all.

Really cool telescope. The app is a little tricky at times but once you have it all dialed in right you can find what you are looking for in minutes. First night i used it i observed jupiter and its rings with the lenses provided with it. It is upgradable with better lense combos. Recommend a step stool for shorter people.

I am a new star/planet observer. I wanted something that could help me find objects in the sky. I haven't fully tested this out, but from what I can see and read from others, it works very well. The smartphone app does need very clear skies to work properly though. As far as the scope is concerned, views are very clear and I really like the focuser, it is very smooth. It is very light and easy to move around. Lastly, it does take some practice to get the tightness of the adjusting knobs tight enough to prevent movement but loose enough to make small adjustments. Overall, I do recommend this scope to those starting out and would like help finding things in the sky.

If you're looking for an affordable entry level scope this one is pretty decent. It's easy to use and seems well built. I've viewed Saturn, Mars, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, and the moon. Don't expect the planets to look huge for this price but when viewing Jupiter it looked a little bigger than a pea but I also could see 4 of it's Moons. If you're a beginner this is a nice scope to start with.

This was a Christmas present for my son. It’s an amazing product and fairly easy to setup and use. Great product at a great price.

Good scope.. but for this price one can get many more features even within celestron brand. The app they provide ( which supposedly finds objects in sky from your phone ) is a nightmare to calibrate.. .. The plate resolve tech they use in the app needs a computer not a phone. It lags like anything!! Be aware that the mechanism of clipping the phone to the scope and the pointing to an object (via a 90 degree mirror they provide ) has too much room for error.. There are just too many moving parts. So no matter what you do you are almost always fat off from the target.. and it might get quite frustrating if you are a beginner. It’ll take you close to an object but realistically you would have to do quite a bit of work. The tripods are light and even the tiniest of vibration is amplified.. But thats what you’d get for this price. Counter weights are recommended especially if you are outside and its windy.. The lens is pretty good imo. The views of moon were amazing, and clearly visible Saturn rings. Try going outside the city to really appreciate this scope. My recommendation is to go with a scope with an inbuilt goto system for this price if thats what you want, else get something with similar aperture (or even 90mm) without any goto system. There is no point in paying for a goto system such as this one because its far from useful.. In general, Reflectors begin to standout at around 8inch aperture... So I can’t see a very good reason to spend so much money on just a 130mm reflector..

I use this all the time, the stability on is great. I always take it with me to go camping and traveling. It is very easy to take apart and put together. I’m happy I got it for the sale price when I did get it. Very reasonable even not on sale. 10/10 always recommend to my family and friends

This is a great entry level telescope. Got this for my sons birthday (9) and he loves it. The views of the moon are great. Would recommend getting better eye pieces. First one that I ordered was damaged in transit but Best Buy got another sent and it was damage free!

Already created great memories with my daughters in looking at Saturn, Jupiter, the moon, the Andromeda galaxy, and Mars through this telescope! My daughter actually took couple of great pictures just using her smartphone through the telescope lens. The app also makes it a breeze to locate what you want to look for. It is a bit pricey for a "beginner's telescope" but is worth it.

Love this telescope. Second time purchasing it. The other was lost in a house fire. If you want an easy to assemble, easy to move and adjust, plus the StarSense explorer software is incredible. One star or planet “tagged” and your smart phone will show you where everything visible for the telescope is located. The eyepieces that come with it are pretty basic. I would say once you get used to them, there are only 2, get a 2X Barlow and then it almost the equivalent of having 4 eyepieces.

Got this for my wife’s birthday. She loves it! It’s easy to use and set up. Easy to travel with as its light weight and you can assemble it pretty quickly. Great purchase.

High quality telescope. Easy to assemble. In adequate instructions for use by a novice. Needed to use You-tube videos. The associated phone app is wonderful and enhances star-gazing.

It’s a great telescope but I felt pretty let down by the description and information. It comes with a 10x and 25x lens and a Mount to put your phone. I assumed the Mount was also one that allowed photos but all it is for is to have the app up to align the telescope with specific objects. If you are viewing the moon this telescope as it is works great! Very clear and detailed images. If you want to view planets you need a different lens which is sold separately for about $100. If you want to take photos you need a separate part not included that is another $20-30. I missed the planetary alignment because I didn’t know this information in time, so that’s a bummer. But I hope now with these extra parts I’ll be able to do what I want and see more than the moon.

We love our new Celestron Star Sense Explorer DX 130MM telescope! It was incredibly easy to assemble, and set up. The app was also very easy to install and launch. It took us about a half an hour to get our telescooe sighted in and app launched. We were immediately able to successfully star gaze!!

Facil de instalar. Pude ver bien la luna, se ve maravillosa.

For an entry level telescope I'm quite pleased! First night out was able to see Moon's of jupiter and rings of saturn, even a slightly blurry Andromeda! The star sense app is easy to use and makes finding targets a breeze for someone who isn't super telescope savvy. The only reason it gets 4 stars is the base is a bit cumbersome and heavy. The fine motion controls are nice but i wish there was a lockdown feature to help keep it aimed. Sometimes it seems like just breathing on it moves the telescope drastically. Worth mentioning it did need to be columated out of the box but a simple laser columator got the job quick and easy. It doesn't come with a collumation cap or Cheshire so I'd recommend picking up one of these with your telescope. once aligned ive barely had to adjust it even after some long drives out to star gaze. Overall a nice package! A good base to start your telescope journey that will be able to teach you how to locate objects and will be ready for upgrades when you are.

I read a lot of reviews before deciding on this telescope. It is exactly what I wanted. Easy assembly and so easy to use. Views are awesome. It travels well. I live near a lake and viewing the stars is amazing with this telescope. Very happy with purchase.