Celestron STARSENSE EXPLORER 10" SMARTPHONE APP-ENABLED DOBSONIAN TELESCOPE

I would give it 4.5 stars just because it's a little expensive and not everyone will think it's a great value. For me, it made it much easier to find objects that require a lot of starhopping in my suburban skies. I've been in the hobby for a while, and I know how to find a lot of objects by sight if they are close to other stars: like M13, Ring Nebula, Orion Nebula, etc. It was getting difficult to find objects that were in dimmer areas of the sky, and this is where the StarSense tech works so great. For example, Cat's Eye nebula (NGC 6543) in Draco was always hard for me to find, and once I was aligned with StarSense, it was in the center of my medium power eyepiece after it was in the bullseye on my phone. You need to wait until deep twilight to get the tech going, but once your phone camera can do the plate solving, it works extremely well. It's nice to use push-to rather than wait for the telescope to move itself into place.
For what it's worth, the tube is a few pounds lighter and couple inches shorter than other 10-inch dobs, which is helpful to me since I need to bring it up the basement stairs to observe. The handle on the tube is nice too. I wish it had a dual-speed focuser for this price, but otherwise, I am having a lot of fun with the telescope. (Posted on 6/22/2023)

I've had any number of telescopes - simple and complex. This is the most FUN telescope I ever had. Simple to set up, very easy to use - I often turn this telescope over to some astronomy-interested kid at star parties. Their parents are amazed that with very little instruction, they are soon finding Saturn, the Ring Nebula, M-13 - easy, because the StarSense phone app generates a list of what's visible in YOUR sky right now. Click on one of the objects in the list and the app generates an arrow to tell you which way to move the 'scope - when you get the green box, your object is in the eyepiece - crazy simple!!! I got mine several months ago directly from Celestron and it has become my go-to grab and go telescope - sure, I still use the 9.25 Edge HD for lots of things, but this gives great views with very little set-up, no alignment except to align the phone with the optical tube - easy, by the way. This is a great family scope that you will be using many nights into your future. I LOVE this telescope!!! (Posted on 12/6/2022)