Celestron’s Starsense Explorer DX102AZ makes finding celestial objects easy. Its revolutionary technology takes the guesswork, star maps, or need for prior night sky knowledge out of the equation.
For those who’re used to using a smartphone to simplify tasks and quickly bring you up to the mark with latest tech or hobbies, this model could be just what you are in search of. We posted a deal about this model only recently when it was discounted to $399 offering great value considering this scope’s intermediate features.
Now reduced even further for Amazon Prime Day an additional $120 has been slashed from the deal price. You possibly can now pick this scope up for just $279.96. Like most Amazon Prime Day deals, this price will likely only last until 23:59 tonight.
While, as we mentioned in our StarSense Explorer DX 102AZ review, among the controls might feel ‘clumsy’ for more experienced users, when you’re just stepping into astronomy or have never used a telescope before, this would not feel like anything out of the strange. The convenience of quickly finding any subject within the night sky with the assistance of your smartphone outweighs the marginally stiff movement.
The 102mm aperture of this telescope offers superior statement. The 660mm focal length helps afford a great balance between magnification and field of view. Within the box, you get all the pieces that you must stand up and running as a newcomer to skywatching, including two eyepieces (providing magnifications of 26x and 66x, respectively), a red dot finder scope, a smartphone adaptor and a CG-5 dovetail mount.
With this scope, your smartphone app is your personal guide to the night sky. In addition to looking through the vast database of subjects, the app also suggests interesting targets through a ‘tonight’s best observing list,’ which is automatic based in your smartphone’s location.
Apart from the smartphone integration, the DX 102AZ contains a fully coated achromatic objective lens to maximise light transmission and reduce chromatic aberration. The result’s brighter and sharper images.
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Key Specs: The DX 102AZ is an achromatic refractor with an inexpensive 4-inch (102 mm) aperture. The best useful magnification is 240x and the bottom is 16x. The full kit weight is 14.2 lbs (6.44), so pretty heavy but not unattainable to maneuver around to different dark skies.
Consensus: As was the decision in our StarSense Explorer DX 102AZ review, we expect this technique is more suitable for beginners than dedicated observers, so when you’re a professional, it is advisable to look elsewhere. Newcomers to sky-watching will love how quickly it’s to stand up and running. You continue to should physically move the telescope (quite than it moving by itself routinely) makes it feel quite a bit more involved than it’s, which we expect is a great thing.
Buy if: You ought to quickly start exploring with all of the gear and accessories that you must benefit from the night sky with little previous knowledge. Buy it when it’s within the sale for one of the best value for money.
Do not buy if: You wish a telescope for astrophotography with anything aside from a smartphone — you’d need an equatorial mount for that.
Alternative models: For comparable models to the one featured here, head over to our greatest telescopes for beginners guide. These are models that we have chosen as models suited to newcomers. The primary that springs to mind is the Celestron Astro Fi 102, though that is way more expensive. If you should dip your toes into deep-sky exploration, consider the Celestron NexStar 4SE. This model utilizes a computerized mount that slews the scope point at the specified subject chosen from a database. While in our review, we didn’t think this scope represents one of the best value for money, that is another reason to go for the StarSense Explorer DX 102AZ as a substitute.