Rob speaks with Lance Lucero from Celestron about the StarSense Explorer tabletop Dobsonian telescopes. Lance walks Rob through the main features of the StarSense Explorer and they both share stories of their experience as leaders of outreach groups where they share their passion for astronomy with the public. One thing is for sure, Celestron's StarSense Explorer Tabletop Dob is one of my favorite scopes right now.
A Special Thanks to Will Young at https://www.deepskydude.com/ for the right to use his awesome music.
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Celestron - StarSense Explorer 114mm Tabletop Dobsonian | https://bit.ly/3Rc05kY
Celestron - StarSense Explorer 130mm Tabletop Dobsonian | https://bit.ly/48hy4Ok
Celestron - StarSense Explorer 150mm Tabletop Dobsonian | https://bit.ly/3UM0g94
Celestron - Starsense Explorer 10" Dobsonian | https://bit.ly/49kiFhy
Celestron - StarSense Explorer 8" Dobsonian | https://bit.ly/3QPOpTM
Celestron - StarSense Explorer 12" Dobsonian | https://bit.ly/48m2zmf
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Episode Transcript
I'm here with Lance from Celestron and we were going
to talk a little bit about theStarSense X4 DAW.
It looks to me like it's a goodlike beginner scope for a
family, like they want to spenda couple bucks on the scope and
actually get started in thehobby, and it sounds like it
might be more accessible topeople.
(00:30):
Can you tell me a bit aboutthat?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
absolutely.
What we've gone for here isbasically larger aperture scopes
with the most simplistic mountthat we could possibly make for
it just a simple alt azimuthmount.
The key factors to this is thatit does use our StarSense
technology, which we have usedon previous smaller scopes, and
it basically takes thecomputerization that you would
(00:52):
normally have to pay for in ago-to scope and utilizes the
computer that everybody has intheir pocket.
So you would simply attach yourphone, start the app, you
adjust your camera so that thecamera's looking through this
mirror and it sees what thescope is seeing.
Then, to find an object thatyou want to see, you can either
(01:15):
select it from a list ofsuggested objects or you can use
the star map, select the objectand tell it that's what you
want to find.
Hit the star map, select theobject and tell it that's what
you want to find.
Hit the star sense button.
It will provide arrows showingyou the direction that you need
to move the scope.
So then you would just manuallymove the scope following the
arrows and when, as you getcloser, it zooms in on your
(01:38):
target and the crosshairs willturn green when it appears in
your eyepiece.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
That's fantastic.
That sounds super easy, so youdon't even need to know the
night sky.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
It's all done by plate solving the sky, just like
the larger telescopes,observatory telescopes have been
doing forever, using thecomputational power of your
smartphone.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
That's fantastic.
I'm just thinking of the newfamily taking this out, because
I've heard from many families asa planetarium guy.
Many families are like, hey, Ibought this telescope and it
doesn't work.
And I'm like, no, it works, youjust need to use it right.
But then it takes a while toget in.
It sounds like you can justtake this out of the box and set
it up, put the phone in andthen it just tells you where to
(02:21):
go.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Once you get your phone in and you've calibrated
the image where it's lookingover the mirror, you're finding
your first target in under aminute.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
That's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Whether it's a star, whether it's a planet, whether
it's a deep sky object like agalaxy, Andromeda, anything like
that.
Yes, it's so easy.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
That's fantastic.
I love it, and it's going to beon the cheaper side because
it's a Dobsonian right, exactlyso it's going to be a lower
price point.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Exactly, but what?
Speaker 1 (02:50):
if I wanted, can I do something even bigger than this
.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Yes, now we do offer the tabletop version in three
different sizes.
We have the 114, the 130, andthis is the 150.
Okay, but for people who areinterested in even larger
apertures, we do have the 8, the10, and the 12.
Oh, wow, so we've got full-sizeversions Now.
One thing I do want to pointout about this is that we do
(03:14):
show this on a tripod Right,this is an optional tripod.
Being a tabletop mount, it'smeant to go on like a picnic
table if you're at a park orsomething of that nature, but we
do find that sometimes it canstill be a little awkward.
If you have a very long tableLooking at certain parts of the
sky, you kind of have to leanover the table to get to the
eyepiece.
So we created a tripod thatjust simply bolts to the bottom
(03:37):
of the base that you would see,so it can be used either on or
off the tripod, on table orfreestanding.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
That's fantastic.
I like that.
That ability to switchdefinitely helps Exactly.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
It makes it much easier to access the eyepiece
without having to contortyourself around the table.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yeah, I've been out with some scout groups and such
and I've set up my telescope andthen we set it and we're going
to look at the moon.
But then the moon is like youhave to the eyepiece is over
here but the rest of the table'sover there, so you're like
holding people on shoulders andtrying to make sure that they
can see it, it's, it's a wholemess exactly so I, I like that,
and just being able to uh moveit to where you want it to go
(04:16):
sounds amazing absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
So it's a push to scope.
No again.
No built-in computerization,right.
So, and again, the.
The beauty of the dobsonianmount is that you're putting
more of your money into theoptics, which are really the
important part of the telescope,and not worrying about, you
know, having a high-tech mountyeah well, thank you for showing
(04:38):
me this this is fantastic.
Appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Thanks a lot, thank you if you're still listening
and like this podcast, pleaseconsider becoming one of our
patreon patrons.
Memberships start as low asthree.
Appreciate it.
Thanks a lot.
Thank you.
You think the podcast will beavailable every third Tuesday of
(05:04):
the month.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
When I was seven, first time I ever looked through
a scope, I was given thislittle tiny toy store refractor.
I pointed it at the brighteststar I could see, looked through
the eyepiece, realized I waslooking at Jupiter.
Oh nice.
Oh, it blew my mind.
I've been hooked ever since.
Yeah, but yeah, just theconcept that you have the
ability to have someone with noknowledge and a smartphone find
(05:50):
anything they want to see ontheir first night without having
to worry about, well, starhopping or star maps or anything
like that.
It's all in the power of yourphone.
That's cool.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
And it's nice that you can adjust and go to
different sizes then too.
Yes, that's cool, nice, thankyou.
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