Reviewing Celestron Telescopes with the Star Sense App

We recently had the opportunity to review two Celestron telescopes, the LT114AZ and the DX130, both of which utilize your smartphone to help you find objects in the night sky. As a reviewer, I have to say that nothing beats the excitement of using these innovative tools to explore the wonders of astronomy.

One thing that struck me about these telescopes is their unique design, which uses a Newtonian design named after and invented by Sir Isaac Newton. This design features a concave primary mirror and a flat diagonal secondary mirror housed in a large cylinder. The telescopes have a short focal length, which makes them more compact and portable than other types of telescopes.

The LT114AZ is definitely the more "toy-like" looking of the two telescopes, but it's also incredibly lightweight and easy to use. As a beginner, I found that this telescope was perfect for exploring the night sky - I was able to see the craters on the moon with ease, even at 25 millimeters of magnification. The only drawback is that the focus rings can be a bit finicky, and you'll need to adjust them carefully to get things into focus.

On the other hand, the DX130 is definitely sturdier and more robust than the LT114AZ. This makes it a great choice for those who want a telescope that can withstand rough handling and heavy use. However, this also means that it's heavier and less portable than the LT114AZ - which can be a pain if you need to move it frequently.

One feature that I really appreciated about both telescopes is their slow motion adjustment rods. These allow you to pan and tilt the telescope with precision, making it much easier to find objects in the night sky. The DX130 has these features in spades, but the LT114AZ also has a slow motion adjustment rod that makes finding objects relatively easy.

Despite some minor drawbacks, I have to say that both telescopes were incredibly useful for exploring the night sky. The included StarSense app is a handy tool that helps you find objects in the sky by using your smartphone's GPS and camera. However, there are some limitations to this app - it doesn't work consistently, and it would be great if it included more features like weather conditions data.

Overall, I was impressed with both of these telescopes, but for different reasons. The LT114AZ is perfect for beginners who want a lightweight and easy-to-use telescope that's still packed with features. The DX130, on the other hand, is a great choice for those who want a more robust and sturdier telescope that can withstand heavy use.

In terms of price, the DX130 is definitely worth considering if you're willing to invest in a higher-quality telescope. At $399, it's a bit steep for some budgets, but it's clear that Celestron has put a lot of thought into designing this telescope with precision and accuracy in mind. The LT114AZ, on the other hand, is a more affordable option at around $200 - which makes it an excellent choice for beginners who want to get started with astronomy without breaking the bank.

One thing that I wish Celestron had included was some sort of weather conditions data in their app. On certain nights, there are clear skies and perfect viewing conditions - but on others, it's cloudy or foggy. Having access to this information would make the StarSense app even more useful for finding objects in the night sky.

Despite this limitation, I have to say that I was thoroughly impressed with the StarSense app and both of these telescopes. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced astronomer, these tools are sure to enhance your stargazing experience and help you explore the wonders of the universe.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhere at cnet we get to review a lot of cool technology but i gotta say nothing as cool as these guys these celestron telescopes have one unique feature to them they utilize your smartphone to help you find objects in the night sky a couple of things to note we originally got these telescopes before the shelter in place order in san francisco the plan was to review them in the office and second i am not an expert in astronomy nor have i ever owned a telescope but i've always wanted to buy one so i was going to use this review to inform my decision on which one to purchase so first off these telescopes are of a newtonian design named after and invented by sir isaac newton it uses a concave primary mirror and a flat diagonal secondary mirror housed in this large cylinder these telescopes have a short focal length which means a wide field of view and like all telescopes the images appear upside down but despite these common designs the telescopes are actually quite different in terms of price and build the celestron lt114az costs 179 dollars it's pretty compact and lightweight it has a 114 millimeter or four and a half inch aperture and a focal length of a thousand millimeter or 39 inches the telescope can both pan and tilt and uses knobs to lock them in place respectably the lt also has an altitude slow motion adjustment rod the celestron dx130 retails for 399. it's quite heavier and sturdier the dx has a wider 130 millimeter or 5 inch aperture and 650 millimeter or 26 inch focal length the wider aperture means it collects more light allowing you to see more objects in the sky than the lt the dx also has two slow motion adjustment rods one for pan and one for tilt located below the telescope's tube both telescopes come with 25 millimeter and 10 millimeter lenses that you can easily swap out the lt also includes a barlow lens which attaches to any of the lenses and increases magnification two times there's also a red dot finder scope that you pair along with the telescope's eyepiece once aligned you can find things easily with the naked eye but let's say you don't know what you're looking for well that's when the star sense app comes in handy star sense app is basically a star chart in your pocket celestron packed this app with a wealth of information about the night sky each of the telescopes has a smartphone mount the mount has a mirror at the top you first align your phone's camera lens to the mirror so that the camera can see the sky above you then pair the lens of the telescope with the lens of the phone now a word of advice you should do the pairing during daylight or ample amount of light because it's just easier for you to align the telescope when you can see things there is a night mode in the app but it's a little clunky to use the app uses your phone's camera to scan the night sky and then analyzes the scans against an internal database to automatically align the telescope once aligned the app shows a map of the night sky from your location the app also lists what are the best visible objects at night it lists these objects as either city viewable or dark sky viewable now city viewable means just that objects you can view in the city dark sky viewable means you need to travel away from the city lights pollution to view these objects there are several handy websites online that can help you find the light pollution in your area like this one called light pollution map dot info the areas with purple and red have high amounts of light pollution while the greener areas have less light pollution the beauty of the app is you can select an object to view and you are taken to a screen that shows all the pertinent information about the object as well as some observing tips there is even a handy audio guided tour as well neptune is the most distant planet from the sun and the most challenging to observe select the locate button and the app immediately guides you to where the object is in the sky you simply move the telescope to that exact point now setting up the telescope was really simple i think i was up and running in five minutes but pairing the app and the telescope sometimes took 10 to 15 minutes and sometimes it wouldn't work at all remember the app uses your cell phone's camera to take scans of the night sky and send it back to celestron's database using those scans the app should know where you are and pairs itself with the telescope the conditions to do that though is that it must be dark outside and the telescope cannot be moving now even when it was dark and when i wasn't moving the telescope the app could still take a long time to pair and sometimes it wouldn't work at all so i'd have to restart the app go through the whole process again and maybe if i was lucky it would pair but sometimes it didn't now it didn't happen all the time but it was kind of an annoyance when you want to find something in the sky and you're waiting for the app to pair now another thing missing from the app are weather conditions data that to me is a big miss because there were certain nights where there are certain things i wanted to see in the sky they were available but when i went outside it was just too cloudy now taken as a whole however the app is still very useful especially for beginners like me exploring the night sky so what are the differences what is 200 worth of telescope get you well let's start with the dx the dx is definitely sturdier which means that let's say i found that object that really small object and i accidentally brushed up against it well i never felt like i was going to take it out of position but sturdiness also means heavier and heavier also means getting it in and out of my house is a pain so i rarely did that now the one thing about the dx to note is that you also have a wide viewing angle which is great to find things but if you want to get real detailed it doesn't really give you that much the other thing i wanted to note was that the focus rings see these focus rings are really robust but i could never get things in focus clearly i don't know why that is the saving grace on the dx are those slow motion adjustment rods i mean the ability to pan and tilt really precisely made finding things in the sky easy so what about the lt well the lt is definitely more toy like looking that is but it's also lightweight and being lightweight i was able to get it in and out of my house with ease and even into my car now the one thing i did love about the lt was the viewing angle i mean even at 25 millimeters i was able to see the craters on the moon so you can imagine what the 10 millimeter lens looked like now the other thing i noticed was that even the focus rings which look toy like i actually had an easier time focusing on things than the dx but the thing to keep in mind is you have two knobs that lock the pan and tilt respectively and depending on the position of the object you're looking at and the position of the telescope and where it's pointing those two knobs may not be next to each other so it can be a pain to lock the pan and paint the lock to tilt now you do have that slow motion adjustment rod but that only takes you so far it's not that viewing things in the lt is a problem in fact i actually prefer it over the dx but there's just no simple way to navigate and find objects with precision so which one do i prefer well you might think it's the dx because of the slow motion controls and the wide viewing angle but that's 399 dollars remember i came in this as a novice a beginner so i was looking for a beginner's telescope and the lt is perfect i mean i was using it to look at the moon and some bright stars nothing too complex so i didn't really need all that fancy stuff and remember the lt is lightweight so i can move it in and out of my house i can move it from one side of the yard to the other i could even put in my car but if you already have a beginner's telescope i would certainly look at the dx just because of the slow motion controls and just the sturdiness of the telescope now i can give up and forgive the focus rings and the viewing angle just because i just had an easier time finding things with the dx but to be honest with you you can't go wrong with either of them because the inclusion of the star sense app is just a handy companion to have honestly this was a fun exercise i learned a lot about astronomy and i learned a lot about telescopes now the star sense app is a handy tool to have especially if you're a beginner because it helps you find objects in the night sky i just wish it consistently worked all the time so if you have any telescope related content you'd like to see leave a comment below be safe be well everybody and thank you for watching\n"