Telescope for a newbie: Smart app enabled? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 1 month ago by imminent_nebula@lemmy.ca to c/astronomy@mander.xyz

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I'm starting my journey into astronomy and looking for a beginner telescope to start. I've found a few on telescopescanada.ca that fit my budget between $350 and $400 CAD but noticed a lot have "smartphone app-enabled" as a feature.

Over the last few years I've found that smart connected tech just complicates things and have been reverting my tech back, often to the point of wired over wireless. What's the consensus when it comes to telescopes?

Is app-connection a feature you use? I'm looking at the Celestron StarSense Explorer LT 114AZ but wondering if I'll be paying for smart features that aren't necessary.

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[-] LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 month ago

Seriously, just get a pair of binoculars.

You don't need a telescope to see a lot of cool shit. Just a dark sky and time.

Telescopes, especially ones you look into without a camera, generally only add a handful of targets to look at.

Download the Stellarium app, grab a pair of binoculars, and go sit out and look at stuff.

https://stellarium-web.org/

If you really like that, upgrade to a used Dobsonian 6" manual telescope.

If you really like that, get a seestar smart scope to get cool pictures you can share with people.

If you really like that, then start building a high end camera getup that uses open ASCOM apis that you can control from a laptop.

There's baby steps to the process, and no real benefits from skipping steps.

this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2026

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