The Meade 102mm StarNavigator computerized telescope is perfect for the 21st century. With cutting edge “GoTo” electronics, including a talking hand controller, the StarNavigator 102 will take you on a journey across the Universe and teach you about it to boot!
Meade AudioStar – Astronomer Inside
A lot of telescopes on the market today can find celestial objects for you, but there aren’t very many that can explain what you are looking at. The Meade AudioStar hand controller is one smart cookie. It is an easy-to-use computer keypad that is the brains of the StarNavigator 102 telescope. Inside, the AudioStar has a huge database of 30,000 objects, and over 500 audio presentation files on a selection of the most popular galaxies, nebulae, planets, clusters, and stars. Once your telescope is set up and aligned—a task made super easy by AudioStar—you can choose from a huge number of celestial objects to look at, or you can let the telescope take you on a guided tour.
Big 4 inch aperture for lots of light-gathering
The Meade StarNavigator 102 has a much larger aperture than many entry level refractors, and that is a good thing, because when it comes to telescopes, bigger is definitely better. The larger the lens, the more light it gathers, and since we are talking about deep, dark space here, pulling in as much light as possible translates to just how much you can see. A 102mm lens is large enough to show you objects that are millions of light years away, and outside of our solar system. You will enjoy objects like the Orion Nebula, the Andromeda Galaxy, sister to our own Milky Way, and the Great Hercules Star Cluster, to name a few.
Day and Night Use
The StarNavigator 102 is a refractor on an alt-azimuth mount, and can be used for terrestrial and celestial use. When not enjoying astronomy, take a closer look at the world around you. Watch a boat as it crosses the horizon or check out that bird’s nest high up in a tree. The star diagonal prism that comes standard with the Meade StarNavigator 102 will show objects right side up, but movements to the left and right will be reversed. This is easy to get used to, but if you want to use your StarNavigator often for terrestrial use, we recommend the Meade #928 Image Erecting Prism. It will provide a full up, down, right, left correct image.
The StarNavigator 102 comes with several accessories that will come in quite handy, including the star diagonal we talked about, plus two eyepieces which will provide 32X and 89X magnification. You will also receive AutoStar Suite Astronomer Edition Software and an instructional DVD, as well as a super cool red dot finder, that will help you find objects quickly and easily.
This computerized telescope is powered by eight AA batteries (user supplied). They fit into an internal battery compartment. We recommend Lithium batteries for longer life.