The StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ is a fine telescope for beginners wanting astronomical views. However, as well as recommending objects behind houses, the StarSense app did tend to suggest a lot of objects very close to the horizon, which is when they’re at their trickiest to see clearly. One thing modern telescopes don’t yet do is appraise your exact position vis-a-vis buildings and trees. That’s true, but the StarSense app sensibly has a red-light mode to lessen that (though you should also turn down the brightness on your smartphone). For example, you might think that the white light from an always-on smartphone attached to a telescope would interrupt your night vision. We also liked the StarSense app not just for its alignment skills, but for its spoken-word audio on hundreds of objects and its astro-centric design.

Put to work on several deep sky targets – including the M35 open cluster in Gemini, the nearby Orion Nebula and the Beehive Cluster – the StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ was equally impressive, with plenty of detail and contrast. We were able to take a quick image of the Moon through the eyepiece, but that’s about your lot for astrophotography with this telescope. However, as the Moon waxes towards full it becomes too bright to look at consider buying a ‘moon filter’ to cut out glare. It’s a joy to focus, with a tactile and low-gear focusing knob making it really easy and quick to get some sharp images, in this case using the 25mm eyepiece on the terminator line between light and dark on the lunar surface. Used initially on a crescent Moon, the StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ excelled with sharp views through its 25mm eyepiece.

The app doesn't just tell you where to direct the telescope, it gives you an education on the objects you're looking at. That could be a little daunting for beginners. There’s another slight complication in that Newtonian reflector telescopes do need to have their optics aligned, something called collimation. Overall we really enjoyed using the app to align the telescope with object after object, but having to constantly rely on your own smartphone can get a little tiresome.Īs well as being slightly annoyed that we couldn’t take it out of the mount to take a quick picture through the eyepiece we also found that the battery drained fairly quickly, particularly on cold nights. It’s not difficult – and it’s much easier than the traditional three-star alignment process that lots of beginners fail with immediately when using entry-level telescopes – but it still requires a little practice and some patience. You then have to use two fine motor controls to get it dead-on while you look through the eyepiece. Rather, it aligns the telescope with your smartphone’s GPS and the app’s database of stars and you have to physically align it with the night sky.Īlthough it’s a manual affair, the app holds your hand, presenting arrows and a ‘bullseye’ in the app to guide you in. However, it's important to note that it doesn’t align itself. It sounds impossible but, yes, the StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ can be aligned using a smartphone app. Build and handlingīeing a Newtonian reflector (this is the back, not the front!), the optics will need collimating (aligning).

Still, we like that StarSense lets you know whether an object is ‘City Viewable’ or ‘Dark Sky Viewable’, which helps keep expectations in check and helps beginners in urban areas avoid wasting time. Telescopes always behave better under dark skies, so we appreciate that the telescope is lightweight enough to be driven out to the countryside and set-up under dark skies, though the tripod doesn’t quite feel as solid as it could do. However impressive its StarSense app is for aligning it, the fact remains that it works better in a dark sky, with light pollution and a bright Moon making it less effective. There is, of course, a slight issue with that because your smartphone is actually busy being the control hub of the StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ. However, you're free to indulge in a little casual afocal smartphoneography just by holding your smartphone’s camera over the eyepiece and lining-up a shot of the Moon. After all, it needs repositioning every few minutes to keep the intended target within the crosshairs. Given its manual alt-azimuth mount the StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ is not a good choice for astrophotography.

Diy silver reflector photography