Sky & Telescope - August 2020 - 65

that can operate the app is available
at starsenseexplorer.simcur.com. To
activate the app, you'll need to input the
unlock code that came with your telescope. The app then walks you through
its simple telescope-alignment procedure with a few embedded videos.
The StarSense dock allows the phone
to see a wide swath of sky in the direction the telescope is pointing. The app
works by taking short photos of the
sky, then matching patterns of stars to
known patterns in its internal database.
It's like ﬁngerprint matching or facial
recognition, but in astronomy the process is known as plate solving.
S After centering your camera over the mirror
in the StarSense dock, you then look through
the eyepiece in the telescope and drag the
screen so that the object in the eyepiece view
is centered under the red crosshair.

knobs on ﬂexible extensions to ﬁnetune the telescope pointing. Celestron
has replaced the tiny thumbscrews typically used to attach these knobs with
recessed hex screws. And it stores the
required hex wrench in the mount head
in case you need to tighten the screws
- a nice touch. The only assembly
required for the telescope tube is to add
the diagonal and red-dot ﬁnder.
The 102-mm telescope connects
to the mount via a short, Vixen-style
dovetail saddle. This feature makes it,
as well as the larger StarSense Explorer
130-mm f/5 Newtonian reﬂector, more
versatile than the smaller LT models,
which have the StarSense docking
port permanently attached to 80- and
114-mm tube assemblies. Having the
ability to easily detach the telescope
tube from the mount makes transportation and storage easier, and it allows
users to swap out the telescope tube
with another they may own, provided it
attaches with a Vixen-style dovetail.
After everything is assembled,
you need to download and install
Celestron's StarSense Explorer app on
your Apple or Android smartphone.
Celestron states that your phone should
be of recent vintage, including Android
devices running Android 7.1.2 or higher,
or an iPhone 6 or later. A list of phones

Under the Stars
Here's how a typical session begins.
After twilight ends, you click on the
StarSense icon in the app at lower right.
It asks you if your phone is still aligned
with the telescope, and after adjusting
the pointing of your phone (if necessary) it directs you to point the scope
toward a clear area of the sky. Using my
Samsung Galaxy 9, within about 15 seconds the app would display a message
at the top of the screen announcing,
"Telescope position found. Follow location arrow to line up bullseye on target
object." As you push the scope towards
the chosen object, the arrow shrinks as

S Included with the scope are 25- and 10-mm
1¼-inch eyepieces with plastic barrels providing 26× and 66×, respectively.

you approach your goal, and the screen
zooms in just as it enters the bullseye.
When you've reached your target, the
app takes a photo, veriﬁes its position,
and states, "Telescope on target. Look
through eyepiece. To select a new target,
tap on an object in the Sky Chart or
tap the Star icon." You're then free to
wander about the sky.
Perhaps the best part of the system
is that once it is aligned, you can bump
the tripod or even pick it up, move it
across the yard, and place it back down.

TX The StarSense Explorer DX 102AZ's tube
assembly connects to the alt-az head using a
short, Vixen-style dovetail bar. Both axes of the
mount use slip-clutches with geared slow motion controls that allow you to push the scope
around the sky, then make fine adjustments
with the slow-motion controls. A small hex
wrench to tighten the screws on the flexible
slow-motion control extensions is conveniently
hidden in the front of the mount (seen below).

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Sky & Telescope - August 2020

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