Brand
Computerised pointing, and the accessories around it
Most of the Celestron products on this site answer the same question: where is the object. StarSense Explorer puts a phone on the tube and tells the observer where to push it; the StarSense Autoguider does the equivalent for a mount; the StarPointer is the simplest version of the same idea.
They span a tabletop 130 mm reflector, a 130 mm on a full tripod, an 8 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain on a computerised fork, a 70 mm travel refractor and a spotting scope. The common thread is not aperture or price — it is that each is sold with a way of aiming it.
The accessory line is cut for Celestron hardware: a dew heater ring for a 6 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain, a 40 inch bag sized for a telescope with its mount and trays, a three-axis phone adapter. Their listings publish dimensions more often than most.
The pointing system is a real specification and it is treated as one. What it does not change is aperture: a 130 mm reflector collects what a 130 mm reflector collects, however it is aimed.
8–24 mm variable · 40°–60° apparent field · 1.25 in
An 8–24 mm zoom eyepiece in a 1.25 in barrel, multi-coated, with a fold-down eyecup and an apparent field running from 40 to 60 degrees across the range.
Best for: Observers who want to stop swapping eyepieces in the cold
≈ £125 / €126
14 kg stated capacity · computerised GoTo · alignment without Polaris
A computerised German equatorial GoTo mount with a stated capacity of 14 kg and an alignment routine that does not require sight of Polaris.
Best for: Imaging from a site where the pole is behind a building
≈ $1099 / €1199
8-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain · computerised GoTo fork
An eight-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain on a single-arm computerised fork mount, with a 40 000-object database and the maker’s SkyAlign alignment routine.
Best for: An observer who wants serious aperture that still fits in a car boot
≈ $1499 / £1500 / €1537
20–60x · 80 mm ED · 1.25 in eyepiece mount · magnesium body
An ED-glass 20–60x80 angled spotting scope in a magnesium alloy body, with XLT coatings, dual focus, a rotating tripod collar, a 1.25 in astronomical eyepiece mount and a T-adapter ring.
Best for: The observer who wants one instrument for birds by day and the Moon and planets by night
≈ $799 / £786 / €718
Automatic alignment accessory · four-element optics
An accessory that bolts to a computerised Celestron mount and aligns it on the sky automatically in about three minutes, then improves its pointing and assists polar alignment.
Best for: An owner of a computerised Celestron mount who is tired of three-star alignments
≈ $827 / £652 / €792
130 mm parabolic mirror · tabletop Dobsonian
A 130 mm parabolic Newtonian on a manual tabletop Dobsonian base with Teflon bearings, steered by the maker’s smartphone sky-recognition app.
Best for: A beginner with somewhere solid to stand it who wants aperture without a tripod
≈ $430 / £299 / €400
130 mm aperture · smartphone sky recognition
A 130 mm Newtonian on a manual alt-azimuth mount whose dock and app read the star field through the phone camera and steer the observer to a target with on-screen arrows.
Best for: A beginner who wants to see things this month rather than learn to star-hop first
≈ $500 / £399 / €436
70 mm aperture · focal length not published
A 70 mm travel refractor sold with a backpack, a full-height tripod, two eyepieces, and — in this Amazon-exclusive version — an extra 4 mm eyepiece and a 3x Barlow.
Best for: A 70 mm that travels with a proper tripod rather than a tabletop stand
≈ £86 / €120
12 mm focal length · 60° apparent field · six elements
A six-element fully multi-coated eyepiece of 12 mm focal length with a 60-degree apparent field, a twist-up eyecup and a knurled rubber grip.
Best for: The eyepiece that stays on the planets, used with gloves on a cold night
≈ $93 / £88 / €106
A 90-degree mirror diagonal for 1.25 in focusers, giving an image that is the right way up and reversed left to right.
Best for: A refractor or a Maksutov used visually, where looking up is otherwise uncomfortable
A 40 inch padded bag taking a telescope, mount, tripod and accessory trays, with movable internal walls and a PVC-reinforced base.
Best for: Carrying a complete telescope, mount and tripod in one bag
An aluminium dew heater ring specified for the 6 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain, with no description published at all.
Best for: A 6 in Schmidt-Cassegrain whose corrector plate dews on every clear night
A patented three-axis phone adapter whose X, Y and Z knobs align the camera to the eyepiece in seconds, for eyepiece bodies of 35 to 60 mm.
Best for: Frequent digiscoping where the setup time of a cheaper clamp becomes the obstacle
A red dot finder that projects an artificial star onto a window so a target can be aimed at with both eyes open, supplied with several mounting plates.
Best for: Complementing an optical finder on a telescope that already has the bracket
A two-element polarising filter for 1.25 in eyepieces with transmission adjustable from 1 to 40 per cent by rotating its lower ring.
Best for: The Moon across its whole cycle, where a fixed filter is right at only one phase
Any figure written into the body of this page was true on the day it was written. The amount shown next to each instrument is requested from the retailer as the page loads, and it is that amount, not the text, that stands.
