Customer Ratings & Reviews

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!!

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.

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 returned it after the tripod had an issue (not sure if I tightened something too hard) but got a replacement. You can see the moon, Saturn, and Jupiter depending on your lens. The app is useless unless it’s designed for an older iPhone with only one camera. Still would recommend if you want a nice looking telescope that’s easy to assemble and to use.

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.

The manual leaves a lot to be desired. No mention of the on/off on the spotter scope, no mention of how to change battery. The spotter's knurled blots imply finger tight but they have to be tightened with pliers to stop the spotter from moving. Star Sense works OK but use the "night mode" (not mentioned in app} to align it and the telescope. Turn on "night mode" - check box at bottom of screen on phone - aim at moon - center and you're good to go. There is enough movement in the telescope / mount / altitude adjuster that it is very difficult to keep alignment so much so that the barlow lens is all but useless - by the time you install it the telescope will have shifted enough that you target will be lost. All in all, it works sorta of.

A gift for my husband's birthday, and he was so happy to receive this particular telescope! So many telescopes to choose from, but after researching and reading other reviews, this telescope is lightweight and seemed the easiest to use and set up. Best of all it comes with an app to help you manually direct to objects viewable in your sky, via your phone without internet or wifi. The alignment was a snap and the clarity is fantastic. Both my husband and I love this telescope!

This my first telescope. Very pleased with it. Easy to assemble. The smart phone guidance works great. One small issue is the finder scope. It uses a small disc battery. I forgot to turn the switch off, And it went dead in just a couple of days. No big deal, just annoying. Also, I have not been able to find any information on how to maintain the telescope. I'm sure it will eventually need some readjustment on mirror, etc.

This telescope was the best birthday present I bought my son! Hooks up perfectly to the cell phone and is 100% user friendly! I was unsure with the price but it was 110% worth it. Can’t put a price on quality time with my son.

Overall the telescope is good. A few things to consider… the app does not work well with the positioning of the telescope and some parts on this scope break a bit easy. I used mines very rarely and have the parts glued with superglue which makes it work. Overall pretty decent scope. :/

I got this to get back into stargazing, which I used to do as a little kid. This is shockingly good for the money. Was able to seem Jupiter, stripe, satellites, and all, on my first time out with it. The craters of the moon are so crisp you can almost feel them. Had a really good time, and my friend and I had passed two hours tinkering, viewing, and photographing before we knew it.

Best ever gift for my son easy to assemble and use

I bought this for my teenage son who has an interest in astronomy but not a ton of experience using telescopes. He absolutely loves it and it is tough to get him to come inside as he could play with this telescope for many hours. He is able to view and identify everything than he is looking for and did a great report in science class about his findings. His teacher was very impressed!

I had higher expectations for this telescope, especially the app that is supposed to guide you through the sky. Other than the moon, I wasn’t sure if I was looking at the object the app said I was locked on to. The tripod isn’t as stable as I would prefer, either. On the positive side, it was very easy to assemble. The next telescope will be computerized so I can have more time viewing and less time finding.

Easy to set up and easy to use.can see stars planets, pretty cool.

This telescope provides good value for money for a beginner like myself. With the provided eyepieces you can easily see craters and rushed in the moon. I could see Jupiter as a ball with at least 3 moons. Saturn shows as ball with a line through it. All from a suburban backyard. StarSense is very practical to find your way around. The limitations show when trying to do fine adjustments. There is no fine control over rotation and there is “play” like in an old car. That is when you want to make small adjustments in high magnification the position either jumps or bounces back.

Purchased as a birthday gift for 11-y/o Grandson interested in astronomy. After much research determined this was the best quality beginner telescope I might find. The child LOVED it maybe just a little bit more than his parents! Good quality, easy to set up, and the stargazing feature (cell phone sky mapping) is a perfect addition. Very glad for this purchase.

I bought this from Best buy a few days ago, and have hand 2 nights to use it for a few hours. First, let me say this, Im very experienced with telescopes, observing, Astrophotography etc. Astronomy is my passion and I own probably a dozen serious telescopes, tripods, mounts, accessories, astro cameras etc. I would not recommend this telescope. Ill start with the good, the Optical tube itself isnt bad at all. the optics arent bad, the focuser, although plasticy, is smooth and accepts larger 2" eyepieces and the 5" f/5 mirror offers some pleasing wide field views, and does decently well on the lunar, planetary, and brighter deep sky objects. The app itself, Star Sense Explorer, is really cool, its the best part of the whole package. it can be a little buggy but in general, its very accurate, and allows you to locate tons of objects with ease. The Bad: the tripod/ mount aren't great.. although it does have slow motion controls which is a plus, its cheap feeling, made of plastic, its shaky, with vibration taking a long time to settle down, and wost of all, probably the deal breaker for me, is that the telescope can not point to Zenith.. or anywhere near it.. the scope maxes out at maybe 70°, hitting the tripod. this blocks the scope from viewing a huge portion of the sky, the darkest and clearest part of it.. which is absolutely unacceptable for an astronomical telescope. The mount simply doesn't work with this optical tube. The accessories are also pretty poor.. a 25mm and 10mm Kellner, made with cheap plastic barrels, while my work acceptably well in a slower refractor, are heavily abberated and very poor performers in an f/5 Newtonian. Coma, and field curvature smear out stars everywhere but the exact center of view. Overall, the decent tube and good app are nullified by poor accessories and a completely incompatible tripod. Im may just use the OTA on another mount and adapt the star sense dock to another telescope. If you want a real telescope, buy from a telescope dealer. The new 8"-10" dobsonian versions of this series would be far far better, certainly worth the extra few hundred.

Great telescope for beginners. The assembly was a little tricky but do check out YouTube tutorials before assembling.

Why does jupiter look blurry with the 25mm eyepiece and the 10mm even though i put the 2x barlow lens. does my telescope need to be collimated? Observation date & time 1/7/2023 9-10pm