Celestron StarSense Explorer 130mm Tabletop Dobsonian Smartphone App-Enabled Telescope

Explore the night sky with a modern twist on the classic Dobsonian design with the Celestron StarSense Explorer 130mm Tabletop Dobsonian Telescope. Celestron combines the simplicity and portability of a tabletop Dobsonian with innovative StarSense Explorer smartphone technology, allowing your smartphone to analyze the night sky and determine the telescope’s position in real time. With its 130mm aperture, this telescope provides impressive light-gathering capability for a compact tabletop system. The larger aperture helps reveal greater detail across a variety of celestial targets, making it an excellent platform for exploring the Moon, planets, star clusters, nebulae, and other deep-sky objects. Finding celestial objects is made easier with the StarSense Explorer app. Its intuitive interface analyzes the night sky and helps guide you toward visible targets, while detailed tutorials provide helpful guidance for beginners. Instead of navigating the sky entirely on your own, your smartphone becomes a convenient personal guide to discovering new celestial objects. The tabletop Dobsonian design keeps operation straightforward and accessible, while the 130mm aperture provides plenty of optical capability for beginners as they develop their observing skills. Whether you're beginning your astronomy journey or looking for a simple telescope that's easy to use and explore with, the StarSense Explorer 130mm offers an engaging way to discover the universe.

Dock, Launch, Explore

Leave complicated star charts, imprecise planetarium apps, and computerized mounts behind. With StarSense Explorer, locating objects has never been easier, faster, or more accurate. Within minutes of setting up the telescope, you'll be navigating the sky with confidence. Simply place your phone in the unique StarSense dock and launch the StarSense Explorer app. After aligning your phone to the telescope's optics (a quick and easy procedure), StarSense Explorer generates a list of celestial objects currently visible. Make your selection and arrows appear on-screen, guiding you as you move the telescope. When the object is ready to view in the eyepiece, the bullseye turns green. As you observe, listen to hundreds of audio descriptions and view detailed information about thousands of objects within the app’s robust database.

High-Quality Altazimuth Base

The stable Tabletop Dobsonian base provides a sturdy foundation for StarSense Explorer. The tabletop base is compact, lightweight, and easy to transport, making it perfect for travel. The base’s low-profile makes accessing the eyepiece easier for some observers (especially children). You can also place the base on a stable platform, like a table or hood of a car to raise it to a comfortable viewing height. Consider adding the optional tripod for even more viewing options. Teflon bearings provide smooth motion in both altitude and azimuth. The integrated altitude "brake" system allows you to adjust the tension along the altitude axis to ensure the smoothest motion even with slight imbalances. As celestial objects appear to drift across the night sky, you'll be able to follow them easily. The optical tube connects to the base via tube rings and a dovetail bar. It’s easy to adjust the tube’s position in the rings so the focuser is in the most ergonomic viewing position. The base features an eyepiece rack to keep your extra eyepiece(s) close at hand.

Dazzling Views with Excellent Optics

With a 130mm (5.1”) parabolic primary mirror, this telescope has enough light gathering ability to bring out detail in celestial objects. You can expect sharp, bright views of Jupiter’s four Galilean moons, its cloud bands and Great Red Spot, the rings of Saturn, the trapezium in the Orion Nebula, and the beautiful Pleiades Open Star Cluster. You'll be able to discern subtle details while viewing the Moon and planets, as well as faint galaxies and nebulae. This telescope features a 1.25” rack-and-pinion focuser that accepts 1.25” eyepieces and dust covers for the front of the tube and the focuser.

Perfect for the City or Dark Sky Sites

Even if you live in a light-polluted city location, the Celestron StarSense Explorer 130mm Tabletop Dobsonian is advanced enough to easily pick out Jupiter, Saturn, open star clusters like the Pleiades, double stars like Alberio, the Orion Nebula, Andromeda Galaxy, and more of the best and brightest celestial objects. But if you can take the telescope to an even slightly darker location, more objects will become visible. With this 130mm Dobsonian and relatively dark skies, hundreds of fascinating objects are well within your reach. The StarSense Explorer Tabletop Dobsonian is lightweight and equipped with carry handles, making it easy to transport to your observing site.

Smartphone Compatibility

StarSense Explorer works with most modern smartphones; it is compatible with Android 12 and later, as well as iOS 18 and newer, including iPhone XR and newer models.  Users with older phones can still use this app, but will not be able to reinstall the app if they uninstall it.

Patented StarSense Sky Recognition Technology

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. While 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.

Observe Longer with the PowerTank Glow 5000

Keep your phone charged all night while exploring with your StarSense Explorer by adding the PowerTank Glow 5000 (sold separately). Our team engineered this 2-in-1 accessory with StarSense Explorer Dobs in mind. It has a red flashlight PLUS a USB power bank for charging mobile devices in the field. Two included bands attach the PowerTank Glow 5000 to the tabletop Dob base handle, an ideal location for charging your smartphone as you observe.

Features

• Unleash the power of your smartphone to take you on a guided tour of the night sky—no telescope experience required.
• Patented, award-winning StarSense sky recognition technology uses your smartphone to analyze star patterns overhead and calculate the telescope’s position in real-time.
• A 130mm parabolic primary mirror helps you make the most of StarSense technology. Locate faint, deep-sky objects in seconds and see them in more detail than ever before.
• A sturdy tabletop Dobsonian-style base that makes it easy to follow the on-screen arrows to your desired target. When the bullseye turns green, it's ready to view in the telescope's eyepiece.
• StarSense Explorer Powered by SkySafari™ app automatically generates a list of objects currently visible. View planets, brighter nebulae and galaxies, star clusters, and double stars from the city. Or take your telescope to darker skies to see even more.
• Includes a 25mm and 10mm Kellner eyepiece, the StarSense smartphone dock, a StarPointer™ red dot finderscope, an eyepiece rack, and a collimation cap.