The Direct Excitation Angular Tracking pHotovoltaic-Silicon Telescope ARray (DEATH-STAR) combines a series of 12 silicon detectors in a ΔE−E configuration for charged particle identification with a large-area array of 56 photovoltaic (solar) cells for detection of fission fragments. The combination of many scattering angles and fission fragment detectors allows for an angular-resolved tool to study reaction cross sections using the surrogate method, anisotropic fission distributions, and angular momentum transfers through stripping, transfer, inelastic scattering, and other direct nuclear reactions. The unique photovoltaic detectors efficiently detect fission fragments while being insensitive to light ions and have a timing resolution of 15.63±0.37ns. Alpha particles are detected with a resolution of 35.5keV 1σ at 7.9MeV. Measured fission fragment angular distributions are also presented.