Celestron StarSense Explorer 150AZ App-Enabled Telescope – 150mm Tabletop Dobsonian with Smartphone Dock & StarSense App – iPhone & Android Compatible – Easy-to-Use for Beginners

I got this telescope as an upgrade to my simpler telescope from the same brand, and I was impressed by its quality. I feel it is quite easy to use. (The app and the computer program are also pretty awesome, and they make everything much easier to see and to make sense of!)The assembly part was fairly easy, but the instruction manual is not very helpful. That would be my one criticism of the product.It is very sturdy, and the base sets easily on a table or the ground. It is stable, and the view angle is adequate and easy to adjust. The lens that came with it and we got some great viewings of the moon and planets.This item was not cheap but I feel it delivers great quality for the money.

Pretty easy to use once you get familiar with it and the app. Pleased with viewing quality although heavily dependent on ambient conditions as with all telescopes. Might have been slightly off with the Apollo 11 landing site but somewhere in that area i think (photo). I bought some extra lens and a 2x Barlow. I really like the app; it separates "easy targets" from "challenge objects". It gives you viewing tips and tells you whether something is too difficult with ambient city lights etc. it guides you through it.

The setup takes a few hours to assemble right out of the box. The instructions could have been better. They need a good set of orientation pictures at better angles. The only trouble I had with the assembly was that the holes that were predrilled were drilled too short. An easy fix to this problem was with a hand drill. I took the 150mm Celestron out for a test after assembly and found that it worked as expected. The lenses were just ok! And, I will be buying Possel lenses with better eye relief. The moons of Jupiter came in as clear points of light even with the packaged 10mm & 25mm lenses. The focus wheel was a little stiff, but a drop oil helped. The DOB frame and base are solid and are easy to handle. But, the 150mm DOB table top is a little heavy. So, if you are thinking about the weight being a problem, then the 114mm desktop DOB might be a better choice. The DOB was on sale at the time I ordered it, and at a discounted price. So for the price I paid it was great.

This seemed to be a nice telescope. I have a lot of trees around my house and planned on taking it. And setting it up somewhere else. Unfortunately, this particular model is not ideal for transporting to another location, other than your home. I had a lot of problems with setting up the programs to make it work.And also it's a main program that it's forty nine ninety nine that is given free is only good for the computer. Not good for out in the field. I was a little bit disappointed with that. I put this together and realized how much effort it was going to take. To use this anywhere so I had to return mine because it was just gonna end up sitting somewhere. And not being used due to the amount of foliage around my property. The telescope seemed like it was very well made and looked to be pretty nice. There was a lot of assembly and the base of it was there. Very heavy, I'm not sure that this is meant for anyone. But an adult or a teenage child at a minimum. The actual base of this telescope was pretty heavy and I was disappointed that they used press board for it other than a quality product like solid wood or or an aluminum, especially at the cost. The other issue I had was the tripod, and any other things that you would definitely need to have with it. We're extremely costly. I tried to use it one time and the moon looked pretty good, but it wasn't really what I expected, to be honest, not based on what I've read from other reviews. Was slightly disappointing, but it's probably a good start off point.

Fantastic tabletop telescope. Optics are very clear and the lenses were collated right out of the box. Set up was not difficult and all the instructions, tools and parts were included and easy to follow. It is a bit on the heavier side but not to the point it can’t be moved from spot to spot. Setting up you mobile device to use with the Starsense app and telescope was simple and the Starsense app makes night sky viewing easy, fun and educational. I am very happy with this telescope and think it is one of the better telescopes at this price point.

Awesome first telescope, even with cloudy skies we could find some star clusters with starsense. If you can score the 150mm for under 500 grab it! The smaller appetures may be pretty underwhelming, Id get at least the 6" to make the starsense premium worth it or there are cheaper options for smaller sizes.Recommend getting the svbony zoom eye piece if your a newbie and maybe a 20-30$ 32mm to find stuff, itll be way better than the stock ones and its really all you need.The scope is light enough to pick up and move around fairly easily but heavy enough to be stable while observing. I can carry the whole assembly a small distance with one hand by the handle in the mount. Assembly isn't that difficult if you're competent. If you can't figure out how to assemble it there's very little hope for you figuring out how to get starsense working and actually find and focus on objects.. Just make sure to remove the brackets that come attached to the scope and attach them to the mount before locking the scope on to them. Also remember to remove the mirror cover on the starsense mount... and get a cheap laser collimator - Dont worry too much about how to collimate, once you have the laser its honestly self explanatory. look down into the mirror and center it then center on the lil target (more or less).Ive deffinetly had a lot of fun with this thing. Even when I take it out with high moonlight or light pollution its powerful enough to get an at least faint look at some nebulas and star clusters. Any significant upgrade over this scope will be either huge and expensive or around the same size and INSANELY expensive, so if your interested in astrology this is a safe first bet. Im glad i got the starsense app with my first scope, its taught me how to find things very effectively and easily right from the start. Every time i go out i learn something new and improve my skills.