Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ
Clear, crisp views and suitable for the beginner, this reflector also hits the mark for modest budgets
Choosing a telescope as a beginner is a process often fraught with pitfalls. These days we are spoilt for choice with the enormous range of equipment available. Telescopes for beginners have developed a huge amount over the years. The Celestron StarSense range seeks to truly unveil the wonders of the night sky to those with even the most rudimentary knowledge and experience.
Apertures from 80 up to 130mm are offered in both refractor and Newtonian reflector designs, and all at very affordable price points. Here we review the largest telescope in the range. The DX 130AZ is a 130mm Newtonian reflector telescope. Its focal ratio of f/5 means it is a fast telescope more suited to general lower power viewing of celestial objects. The telescope tube itself attaches to an alt-azimuth mount with dual-axis slow-motion controls.
Both the telescope and mount are nicely made and of good quality. One especially convenient point that we quickly realised is how lightweight and portable the whole system is. One person can easily move around the entire telescope set-up with no problem. Assembly is simple and straightforward following the included instructions.
The telescope itself is moved manually – either by pushing the telescope tube with your hand or using the slow-motion control knobs for fine adjustments. Overall, the whole assembly process took around 15 minutes.
The next step in the process is downloading the StarSense app to your phone. It should be noted that the telescope can be used without a phone and the app – this is not essential, but this is where the telescope really excels for the novice observer.
Being a Newtonian, it’s very important to collimate the telescope, and this is quite easy to achieve following the included instructions. We cannot stress enough how important this is if you really want to get the most out of the DX 130AZ – it will make a significant difference to your enjoyment of the telescope.
The telescope comes with two eyepieces, a
25mm and 10mm, giving powers of 26x and 65x respectively, which are suitable for low-power widefield observing. If you wish to use higher powers, we’d recommend purchasing a good-quality Barlow lens. To see details on the planets you will need magnifications of at least 150x, which is well above what the included eyepieces offer.
Once the telescope is assembled, you’re ready to download the StarSense app. The vast majority of popular phones support operation of the app, so it’s pretty unlikely you’ll come up against a compatibility issue. For the purpose of this review we used a Samsung Galaxy S10+ phone for operation of the app, with no issues encountered.
The StarSense app itself is very easy to use, with an attractive graphical interface and easy-tounderstand commands. Once downloaded, you can then dock your phone into the docking station on the telescope, adjusting your phone so its camera is pointing correctly at the docking station mirror. Many different objects are included within the app, such as planets, stars, nebulae and galaxies – enough to keep you busy for a very long time!
“a telescope more suited to general lower power viewing of objects”
Once you are prepared and have a clear night, you are ready to attempt using the telescope under the night sky. We would advise playing around during the daytime to get a feel for everything – it’s much easier to resolve initial problems during the daytime than outside in the cold and dark.
Once you’re all set up outside, it’s time to align the telescope to the night sky. The alignment process is quite clever and straightforward. The StarSense app solves the image it sees from your phone camera to identify where the telescope is pointed, and works quickly and accurately. That advanced alignment technology such as this is now available in beginner telescopes is impressive, and completely takes away the countless hours you would otherwise spend star hopping to different objects – a process that takes far more time and patience! Once everything is aligned, you are ready to start observing objects.
Once set up and aligned, you’re ready to begin observing. This is where the DX 130AZ really does impress. Our first target for the telescope was Mars, shining brightly in the southeast. The app instructs you in which direction to move the telescope. As
you move by pushing the tube and you draw closer to the object, the app slowly zooms in to allow you to start using the slow-motion controls. Once centred in the bullseye graphic, you are ready to view the target object through the eyepiece. We were impressed to see Mars shining brightly near the centre of the field of view upon glancing in – the telescope passed its first test.
We next decided to move to a variety of different objects, from galaxies to nebulae, all of which were located without issue. Our selected object was always within the low-power field of view. Messier 31, Messier 33, Messier 42, Messier 81 and Messier 82 were all observed, and the views were impressively sharp and contrasty. Afterwards we chose to move back to Mars again and try observing at higher powers using a Barlow lens we had on hand. At around 150x magnification Mars appeared sharp, with the familiar albedo markings visible. Even the tiny south polar cap could be glimpsed. The Moon also showed impressive detail, with a myriad of craters and mountains observed.
Star testing the telescope at higher powers revealed well-corrected optics, and stars focused nicely into tiny, airy discs, as you would expect from a good-quality telescope. It’s a shame a higher power eyepiece or Barlow lens isn’t included, as for seeing details on the planets you need higher powers than what the included eyepieces offer.
We also decided to try operating the telescope without the StarSense app. The telescope includes a small red-dot finderscope which works really well. It should be noted that it’s best to align the finderscope during the daytime on terrestrial objects to save fiddling around in the dark. Even as a simple manual telescope, this set-up works nicely. Of course, using it without the app you have to locate objects ‘the hard way’, but the motions in moving the telescope are smooth and the slow-motion controls work nicely for centring and keeping objects within the field of view.
While the DX 130AZ is a fine telescope for visual observing, it is not really suited to astrophotography. Since the mount is undriven, long-exposure work is impossible. You can take simple afocal images by holding a phone to the eyepiece, however, and the Moon is a great target for this purpose.
Overall, the DX 130AZ is a nice telescope for the beginner or those just starting out. It would make an ideal gift for a budding young astronomer – we can only imagine how delighted we would have been to have received such a telescope back when we started out! Another great point here is the affordable price tag. You get a very capable system for your money. It’s also extremely user friendly, even younger observers would be able to get to grips with it and view some fascinating objects.
No telescope is perfect, however, and this is no exception. It would be good to see a higher power eyepiece or Barlow lens included to allow better views of the planets, essential if you wish to see details on them. Another point worth mentioning is that the telescope must be collimated to perform properly, and collimation isn’t the simplest task for the beginner, especially with a Newtonian. That said, its small size makes the process far more rapid than on larger telescopes where you are constantly moving between collimation screws and the eyepiece. The DX 130AZ is a great choice for a first telescope or for those just starting out. Its great user friendliness and capable StarSense app make this telescope an impressively powerful tool that will offer many hours of observing pleasure.