2024 the best telescopes review


Price: $239.95 - $199.95
(as of Oct 24, 2024 23:20:14 UTC - Details)

Warranty & Support

Manufacturer’s warranty can be requested from customer service. Click here to make a request to customer service.

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 guide of the night sky. Dock, Launch, Explore Leave complicated star charts, imprecise planetarium apps, and computerized 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 to move the telescope. When the object is ready to view, the bullseye turns green. Smartphone Compatibility 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 Sky Recognition Technology StarSense Explorer uses 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.
UNLEASH THE POWER OF YOUR SMARTPHONE: Let your iPhone or Android phone take you on a guided tour of the night sky—no telescope experience required. Just follow the arrows to locate stars, planets & more
PATENTED STARSENSE SKY RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY: This one-of-a-kind telescope uses patented, award-winning StarSense sky recognition technology and your smartphone to analyze star patterns overhead and calculate its position in real time.
STARSENSE EXPLORER APP: The app generates a list of the best objects to view based on your exact time & location. View planets, brighter nebulae, galaxies, and star clusters from the city PLUS fainter, deep sky objects from darker sites.
EASY TO SET UP AND USE: Manual altazimuth mount with slow motion rod makes it easy to follow the on-screen arrows to your desired target. When the bullseye turns green, it’s ready to view in the telescope’s eyepiece.
HIGH-QUALITY 114MM NEWTONIAN REFLECTOR: The 4.5" primary mirror features highly reflective coatings and enough light gathering ability to view craters on the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, and deep sky objects like the Orion Nebula.
UNBEATABLE WARRANTY & SUPPORT: Buy with confidence from Celestron, a leading telescope brand in California since 1960. Your purchase includes a 2-Year US Warranty and unlimited support from our team of US-based experts.
Reviewer: A Solar/IT guy
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Nice easy first telescope
Review: The StarSense Explorer is great; use your smartphone to find the stars you seek. The app is easy to download and easy to use once the alignment is complete. The tripod is OK but not strong, the up down and side movement need some improvement. OK for beginners. The price is reasonable on what you get; you will outgrow it if the hobby continues to an immediate level. The view of the moon is excellent, and the other planet is a disc, as you would be expected. It is a good tool for learning about the night sky.

Reviewer: Torres De Madera
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: The item is perfect! However...
Review: Before you buy, make sure your phone is compatible. It happened to me, which sucked.i set up the telescope, the alignment was excelent.. when I tried the phone...nope!!

Reviewer: airong sun
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great.
Review: I think that overall the telescope is a great buy. It’s that for me the unlock code for the app didn’t work

Reviewer: Chris
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great first telescope, we were viewing the moon within 20 min of opening the box
Review: We chose this as our first telescope. A major factor was to view the eclipse on April 8th, from Waco, TX (we have people from across the country joining us).The "Eclipsesafe Lense" was available for $20.I watched a pair of reviews, and the Setup guide from Celestron, and had no issues assembling, setting up, and using all the features of this telescope. Within 20 minutes, I had the app, and red dot aligned, and viewing the moon with my family. It was a great first experience, and we are looking forward to many stary nights, and joining our local Astronomical Society.For $200 delivered to my door, including the eclipse filter, the cost of entry was cheap. We hope to upgrade in a couple years, and give this to a friend, and draw them into the hobby.

Reviewer: Marie
Rating: 1.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Celestron Star Sense Explorer LT 114AZ Smartphone App-Enabled Reflector Telescope
Review: I ordered this Celestron telescope October 26, 2023; it was delivered October 30, 2023. This telescope arrived in a well padded and packaged set of two sturdy boxes (one inside the other) and within the estimated shipping dates. I give this product a one star for the following reasons:(1) The telescope was impossible to calibrate and focus. The hand-focus apparatus was not precise; the slightest movement caused the optical tube to move away from the target object and lose focus. I could never focus on one single terrestrial object (let alone any celestial object).(2) It did not come with a prism eye piece that corrects the up/down and left/right perspective. So, that had to be purchased separately and was hard to find for this particular telescope model.(3) The phone attachment piece and the app that was supposed to enable the automatic features of the telescope didn't work, even after several calls to Celestron Customer Support.(4) The multiple codes, which the Customer Support gave me over the phone, were supposed to activate the app, but none of the codes worked.(5) The app could only be downloaded to a desktop computer and not to my smart phone.(6) I was never able to use the phone camera to take pictures of terrestrial or celestial objects.(7) I called the Celestron Customer Support multiple times to help me set up the telescope and app, all to no avail. The Celestron customer support acted as if I was taking up too much of their time and came across as impatient and wanting to get me off the phone as soon as possible.(8) I am a seasoned telescope user and I own a wonderful Meade Refractor telescope that I have practically rebuilt with new parts. So I know something about telescopes. I'm not a novice or an idiot. Nevertheless, I kept trying to set up the Celestron telescope to work properly, and finally decided to return it just before the return period ended.I cannot convey how frustrating this experience was, which is one of the reasons why I waited so long before giving a product review; I wanted to communicate from a fact-based perspective rather than from only frustration. Considering the cost for this Celestron telescope, in my opinion, it was truly a piece of junk and I will never buy another Celestron product again.

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Very happy as I look to the stars
Review: 1. Assembly - Zero issue assembling the unit. The instructions are quite clear. 2. Usage - Being able to use your cell phone as a marker to help find stuff really is quite fun. I will admit that it's not always right on using this method, but the fact it helps me find something I want to see is fantastic for a beginner like me. The laser on the side is phenomenal for sighting in objects whether it be a star in the sky or a stop sign a mile away (for aligning). I have been very happy with this purchase. 3. Value - Well worth it. Feels good, looks good, works great.

Reviewer: Stephanie
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Not for beginners
Review: We were able to see the moon and craters. But to see the stars you have to really have it focus and know what your looking for.

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: I think this telescope is good
Review: The telescope was good seeing the moon, but I had trouble trying to see Jupiter. If I would try to look, I would only see the outlines of the mirror. Otherwise, it’s a pretty good telescope. I would recommend it if you love watching the moon it’s very good for that but the app is very bad at its job for me it didn’t work I’m not gonna said anybody else, but it didn’t work I was was trying to get my telescope to see the moon it’s hard and the only thing that help me was the light white coming from the moon and Jupiter was hard to but otherwise I would recommend it for your first telescope. Just get it at a good price.

Reviewer: Jorge:/-
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Gracias por el equipo excelente

Reviewer: Spriggan
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Good for viewing the planets.The App is great for people without prior knowledge.

Reviewer: Bharat
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: If it’s your first telescope, I highly recommend it 👍

Reviewer: Victor
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Llego en perfectas condiciones y antes de lo esperado. Es prefirible empezarlo a usar de dia para poder enfocar correctamente.Las observaciones que he hecho hasta el momento ha sido desde la ciudad y aun asi se logran apreciar varias estrellas que a simole vista parece no estan, incluso detalles de planetas.100% Recomendado

Reviewer: Leo
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Telescope looks great but with the summer that we've had, it rained throughout our summer holidays and very cloudy. Didn't have a chance to try it out afterwards. Hoping that I won't be disappointed.

Customers say

Customers like the telescope for its superior, brighter, and more substantial view. However, some customers have reported issues with functionality, build quality, and alignment. Opinions differ on the ease of setup, view angle, value for money, and app quality.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

THE END
QR code
<
Next article>>