If you examine the images, it may be easy to determine what is going wrong. Here are some examples: StarSense Explorer LT’s simple altazimuth mount makes it easy to move the telescope to find your target. An altitude slow motion adjustment with a sliding rod helps you fine tune the telescope’s pointing position and follow targets as they appear to drift across the night sky. It’s all anchored by an adjustable, full-height tripod. Place the new CR-2032 battery, positive (+) side up, under the two copper battery clips at the front of the battery compartment. StarSense Explorer uses patented 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.

The Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ is supplied with two eyepieces, but would benefit from accessories — such as a Barlow lens — to achieve high-powered, detailed views of the planets. (Image credit: Celestron)

Celestron LT 80AZ StarSense Explorer Telescope

Celestron has reinvented the Dobsonian telescope with StarSense Explorer—the first Dobsonian that uses your smartphone to analyze the night sky and calculate its position in real-time. This large-aperture Celestron StarSense Explorer is ideal for serious 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. The large aperture will ensure that you won’t outgrow the telescope as you continue on in your astronomical adventures.

Once you select an object, the app displays pointing arrows onscreen. These indicate where to move the telescope to find it. Follow the arrows until the bullseye appears centered on target. When the bullseye turns green, the object is visible in the telescope’s lower powered eyepiece. The StarSense Explorer app is the first app ever developed that uses plate solving to determine the smartphone’s current pointing position. Other astronomy apps rely on the smartphone’s gyroscopes, accelerometers, and compass to estimate its pointing position. These methods are not accurate enough to place objects within the telescope’s field of view. The process of extracting star pattern data in images to determine a telescope’s current pointing position is called “plate solving.” It is the same method used by professional observatories and orbiting satellites. Because all these mountings use a standard Vixen-type or CG-5 dovetail attachment, you can attach any other instrument that uses the same dovetail, taking into account the load capacity of the mounting. StarSense Explorer uses patented 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.If you decide to forgo using the app, the supplied red-dot finder proved to be useful for star-hopping. (Image credit: Celestron)

Mitigation of potential damage caused by user attempting to use wrench to turn focus motor while powered on StarPointer red dot finderscope, perfect for using the telescope during the day or without the StarSense Explorer appWhile 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. Optically the telescope is well up to standard for a short-focus achromatic refractor and is well-suited to deep-sky observing. The eyepieces supplied, although in lightweight plastic barrels, are of good optical quality. Boosting the magnification using a Celestron 2x Barlow lens revealed false color in lunar and planetary images, so this is not an ideal high-power or planetary instrument. The erect-image diagonal (which is necessary to allow the instrument to focus) introduces very little distortion, only marginally noticeable on a star image using a magnification of 130x. Should you buy the Celestron StarSense DX 102AZ?

StarSense Explorer uses image data captured by the smartphone’s camera to determine its pointing position. The app captures an image of the night sky and then matches the star patterns within the image to its internal database in a process similar to fingerprint matching or facial recognition. Not compatible with #93648 Off-Axis Guider, not compatible with #93519 2" Mirror Diagonal (discontinued)

The process of extracting star pattern data in images to determine a telescope’s current pointing position is called “plate solving.” It is the same method used by professional observatories and even orbiting satellites. With a large 10" Newtonian reflector optical tube, this telescope has enough light grasp to bring out impressive detail in celestial objects while remaining remarkably portable. You can expect sharp, bright views of Jupiter's four Galilean moons, its cloud bands and Great Red Spot, the rings of Saturn, the gaseous glow of the Orion Nebula, dust lanes in the Lagoon Nebula, and our neighbour galaxy, Andromeda. Compared to the StarSense Explorer DX 130 AZ, the 10" Dobsonian has 380+% more light gathering area, providing better views of faint objects.