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.

  • kbal@fedia.io
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    15 days ago

    I’m not a telescope expert by any means but I do have a little one which I use occasionally. As with any other device that works perfectly well without them, “smart” features involving an app are something I would go well out of my way to avoid.

    • imminent_nebula@lemmy.caOP
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      15 days ago

      Yeah that’s where I’m leaning. It’s a situation where I can’t see how smart features would be a benefit, and could just be something extra to break. That said, I don’t know much about telescopes yet so I wanted to get some real-world opinions.