Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 5" App-Enabled Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope

As I approached a milestone birthday (I won’t tell you which milestone though), I found myself wanting to fulfill my childhood dream of owning a nice telescope. After much deliberation, I decided to treat myself to the Celestron StarSense Explorer 5". It felt like a nod to that starry-eyed kid within me, yearning to explore the mysteries of the cosmos. All my research and effort paid off…and hopefully it helps others out there too. (This scope rocks, go for it!!) Given the budget I had in mind, I quickly stumbled into the world of electronic telescopes with motors and little remote controls that steer themselves to things in the sky. I must have watched 30 YouTube videos on these types of scopes. While they seemed cool, I got the impression that I would be spending more time fumbling with the electronics than actually enjoying the stars. I have enough stress in my real life, and I wanted this scope to be simple and hassle free to use, just grab and go. No fumbling looking for batteries or doing a long set up process. The Celestron StarSense Explorer 5" caught my attention because it promised to be a telescope that didn't require a PhD to operate. Instead of a robotic telescope that steers itself to objects, you place your phone into the dock and move the telescope yourself. It made big promises of being equally as accurate as the electronic version, but simpler because you are moving it manually. There are a lot of StarSense models to choose from, but for me, the 5” is the best blend of quality and “grab and go” I was looking for. I live on a few acres of land, and I didn’t want to have to haul a large and bulky Dobsonian out to my astronomy spot. This 5” is the largest one that is still more of a traditional telescope. It also has the sturdier base and fancier controls compared to the budget models. When it arrived, I was pleasantly surprised by the telescope’s sleek and sturdy construction. It looks good enough to keep assembled near my back door so it’s always ready when I am. I actually followed the instruction manual step by step (not normal for me) and found that setting it up was a breeze. After a certain point, I didn’t need the manual because the app guided me through matching up the telescope with my phone. This was the part I was most nervous about, but it honestly took less than 5 minutes. And now that I have done it before, it takes me about 20 seconds. One feature that really got me excited was the smartphone app. I have some familiarity with the big constellations and brighter stars in the sky but I’m no expert by any means. So having the phone was like a cheat code to help me find things I am sure I could not find on my own. With the app, finding things with my scope became as easy as ordering a pizza. There’s even an audio feature to listen to info about what you are looking at. I like to pop in my earbuds and listen as I look in the eyepiece. Speaking of which, let’s talk about the real highlight—the views. From the rings of Saturn to the tiniest little galaxies and star clusters, each observation left me in awe. Although I am not in the middle of the city, there’s still some light pollution from the town and neighboring medium sized city. The scope cut through all that light pollution. I could see things in the eyepiece when it looked to my naked eye that there was nothing there. Of course, no product is without its imperfections. The main limitation I have with this scope is that I can’t do celestial photography. You need one of the electronic ones to track the sky so you can hook up a camera. But that’s a small price to pay for the simplicity of the StarSense Explorer. And I still have gotten some pretty great images of the moon by just holding my phone up to the eyepiece. I honestly have been using this scope regularly for months now, and now with warmer weather coming I am looking forward to a summer of stargazing every chance I get. In conclusion, the Celestron StarSense Explorer 5" is a solid choice for anyone looking to dip their toes into the world of stargazing. It's simple enough for beginners like me to use, yet powerful enough to keep things interesting and keep you coming back night after night. So go ahead, treat yourself to a little slice of the cosmos…you won't regret it.

Excellent five-inch telescope. However, mine came without the two hex screws for the two adjustment arms. Easy fix after trip to hardware store.

Let me start off by saying that if you are looking to use this rig for astrophotography then please forget it. If you want to do that be prepared to spend 4-5 times what this cost, and that’s just for the telescope and mount. If you want to do astrophotography at this price point, then buy one of the several ‘smart’ scopes in this price range. But if you want a small scope for beginning visual observing, read on.. Most people will tell beginners to get a 6 or 8 inch Dobsonian telescope and I would have to concur. I still use my 8 inch dob to this day and I will continue to use it because it’s the best bang for the buck when it comes to visual observation, but it can take up a bit of real estate in your home plus you have to move it in and out and put it in your car to head to dark skies, unless you live in dark skies in which case if you do, then go for a 10 inch dob haha. But in urban areas of bortle 7-8 you can see some nice stuff with a decent sized dob. Now Celestron does make a StarSense 8 and 10 inch dobsonian telescope and if you don’t own a telescope and you have the space in your home and you can tote them around, I would recommend either one of these as your first telescope. But I digress. The OTA: So this is pretty much Celestron’s C5 that has been in production since the 1970’s and was flown on the space shuttle back in the day. This one is f10 and is extremely serviceable, it came well collimated from the factory and has a solid feel and build quality to it. I bought this for the telescope since I was looking for a good ‘grab and go’ rig, something smaller and lighter than the dob to throw in the car. The focuser is spot on, visual back is typical Celestron SCT quality and of course you get serviceable eyepieces for a beginner scope, but all of this is easily upgraded especially if you already have some of these items in hand and if you don’t, what comes in the package will work and you can always upgrade at a later point. The main reason I ended up with this model was that I was in the market for a small SCT and with this years ‘Black Friday’ sales, I got this for a price I could not pass up. I’ve had a few clear nights since I bought this and took it in the yard along with my 8 inch dob and pointed them at the same objects and, using the same eyepiece did an A/B test between the two and I had a hard time telling the difference in visuals between them - the SCT does a great job gathering light in my light polluted sky. In short for what it is, I love this optical tube. StarSense: Now we come to it. So you can only get access to this app if you buy one of the telescopes in this line. There is a holder for your phone that’s on the mount for this model and after you download the app, you secure your phone to this holder and the app will help you align to the telescope. It’s easy to do and once done, the app will easily guide you through the sky. This is not a ‘go to’ mount, where the mount will move the telescope for you. Just follow the arrows on the phone screen to whatever object you selected by pushing the telescope, and once you find the object through the phone, if you did your due diligence with the alignment (again, pretty simple) the object will be in the eyepiece of the scope. I found it very intuitive and novel, and what a great way to start learning your way around the night sky. I’ve read that people have bought the cheapest scope in this series just for the StarSense and have figured out a way to rig the phone holder onto their much higher priced telescopes. Yeah, I’m not sure I would be willing to do that. But the app really works well and it’s been a lot of fun using it. The Mount: Here’s always the problem with beginner telescopes. They may give you a decent OTA (like this C5) but in order to save money they will give you a cheap mount. Yes the legs are some sort of stamped metal and can extend to a comfortable viewing height but the optical tube is held on by a plastic arm and it will shake with the slightest adjustment and that’s what you do not want. So I’ve seen that this mount is included in a lot of the StarSense line (except for the dobs, they are on a truly stable Dobsonian mount) but from what I can see, this mount is suited best for the 5” SCT. This mount is an Alt/Az mount (up/down, left right) which is fine for visual observation. Included in the mount are slow motion knobs which really help mitigate planetary drift and since these knobs are situated behind the mount and the visual of this small SCT is in the back, the knobs are decently situated and are easy to get to. On other models where you look into the side of the telescope these knobs are a joke as they are too far away to be of any use. Also don’t bother with any refractor telescope in this series, as they are nothing but junk scopes and will frustrate you. Bottom line: If you must get StarSense and you are new, or getting back into the hobby then I highly recommend either the DX 5” CST, or the 8 or 10 inch Dobsonian. Anything else will frustrate you. With the C5 you can easily upgrade and make a good scope even better, especially if you can get it for a good price. CSTs will always cost more than comparable dobs, but less than comparable refractors. To me if I were just starting in this hobby the C5 StarSense rig would really rock my world due to the size of the OTA and ease of use. I took two stars off due to the mount - but added one back due to the C5 and StarSense. Do as much research as you can and if possible reach out to a local astronomy club for some hands on experience before you spend any of your hard earned money. Try and figure out what you want in a telescope, what is really important to you because there is no one telescope that fits all. Just keep in mind, the best telescope is the one you use the most.

The Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 5 is a good entry-level telescope, especially for those who appreciate the convenience of the StarSense app. The StarSense app makes it incredibly easy to find celestial objects. Ideal for those with limited space or needing a portable option. Provides clear views of planets and brighter deep-sky objects. The mount and tripod are a bit shaky, which can be frustrating. The StarSense app is necessary for the PushTo feature. I purchased mine as a used in like new condition, and I was not disappointed. I mounted the DX 5 to a Nextar 4SE goto mount and tripod. This setup works perfect.

Perhaps this is a very good telescope but the only thing I found in the box received was a roll of a perfectly insulated cable of a sort. I would have to drag it all the way to UPS store tomorrow. It looks very durable and easy to assemble though. Thank you very much!)))

I used to have a Celestron 9.25 and a 14 and sold them. I decided to go simple and thought I would try out this scope. I have had experience with the C5 in the past (over 40 years ago) I can see M27 and M57 in light polluted skies. It’s a bit of a challenge but you can see them. I would recommend the Astromania O-III Filter 1.25inch Telescope Filter Narrowband Nebula Filter or the Astromania Telescope Filter 1.25 Inch UHC Filter Improve Contrast Nebula. Without the filters they are really faint. The filters really make the nebulae pop out in light polluted skies. The way they have the app set up with the phone is rather cool. Once you have the phone lined up with the scope you can move the scope around if a tree is in the way blocking your view of the object you are trying to look at without losing the alignment. Pretty cool.

I bought this for my wife. I should have gotten it 50 years ago. She used to watch things like the Academy Awards and figure skating. Now she goes outside to watch the stars. She seems to like it. I would say it is a good entry level telescope, but don't expect to see little green men on Mars.

It’s a great telescope. Especially for beginners. I can see Jupiter and its Galilean moons (not super up close obviously), Saturn also, and the Orin nebula. It’s a great pick up and go telescope it’s small and can fit anywhere. Also the star sense works so amazing with your phone makes it so much easier. One issue I had was the clamp down system, it slip and it fell one time while using; so make sure you slide the dove tail correctly and screw the clamp down very snug.

Para ser mi primer telescopio, realmente cumplió con mis expectativas.

Very pleased

Dopo qualche tempo a smesso di mettere a fuoco

Un telescopio fácil de usar. De buena calidad. La app no funciona si el cielo está nublado o muy contaminado, mejor usar el buscador de punto rojo.