Features:

  • Aperture: 70mm; focal length: 900mm; focal ratio: 13
  • Focal length of eyepiece 1/2: 20mm/10mm; magnification of eyepiece 1/2: 45x/90x
  • Finder scope: built-on star pointer; Star diagonal: erect image diagonal - 1.25 inch
  • Mount type: cg-2 equatorial; limiting stellar magnitude: 11.7
  • Highest/lowest useful magnification: 165x/10x; light gathering power: 100x
A very fine first telescope

A fantastic buy as a first telescope for amateur astronomers. This is my first telescope, and I've only had it for about a week or so, but I've taken it out already about 5 times (every clear night and morning I've had) and been very happy with its performance. There's a bit of a learning curve to it, as there is with any telescope, but generally it's easy to use. The star-pointer is nice, but easy to bump out of alignment, but it does it's job even if it isn't the best out there. Even from my front yard in Athens, Ohio (Roughly Bortle Class 5 or 6 skies), the Orion nebula is a rather lovely gray mist, I can make out Andromeda (though finding it can be a trick when it's not a naked-eye object!), and the moon is absolutely brilliant. The planets are nice as well, and I've scoped out Jupiter and Mars so far. You can make out some details on the planets, but you've really got to be patient, focus it well, let your eyes focus, and wait for those fleeting moments of calmer atmosphere. I love the 20mm, eyepiece, and that's honestly the one I use most (I also purchased the Celestron Astromaster accessory kit with a 15mm and a 6mm, a Barlow lens, and a few filters). My biggest complaint is that even when it's aligned to the north pole properly and you've tightened the knobs down, I always manage to bump the scope ever so slightly off where it was pointing while changing eyepieces, and then I spend 10 minutes just trying to find what I was looking at again. That may be a bit of user error, but I think it's also partly that the scope isn't the most sturdy thing in the world despite the very nice tripod and mount it comes with. Even little tremors in my hands that I wouldn't normally notice set the whole view trembling so you have to really find what you want and let it sit for a second. Overall, a very fine telescope that does quite nicely. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for their first telescope, or perhaps just a cheaper scope that might be easier to pack up and travel with if you're going for a road trip.

Excellent quality and makes a wonderful and unique gift

Knowing almost nothing about telescopes, I did quite a bit of research before buying this telescope as a surprise birthday present for my husband. I considered ones that ranged from $130-300 before ultimately deciding on this one. Pros: - Easy and actually fun to assemble. However, the picture instructions provided are difficult to read and it seemed that some steps were glossed over. - Versatile - can be used for land or astronomy. My primary purpose was for astronomy, but since we live near the water, it's nice to have something that also works for seeing boats off in the distance. - Really sharp looking! It's always difficult to tell from the photos how the product will actually look. In this case, I think the photos were less impressive than the real thing. - Comes with 2 eyepieces (20mm with 50x magnification and 10mm with 100x) - 2 year warranty, covers defects and damage from normal wear and tear - Tripod is sturdy enough to sit on thick carpet or outdoors with no issues - Not designed for travel, but after seeing it fully assembled, I think it would be fairly easy to bring on a short road trip to the mountains. The tripod retracts for easy storage - Comes with manual and software that helps you identify stars/constellations and planets Cons: - The declination cable seemed a little bit wobbly, a minor thing, but felt like it detracted slightly from the overall quality - Not computerized -- but depending on how you look at it, that also means one less thing to break My husband loved it and immediately took it outside to use it right after we finished assembling it. Highly recommend!

Awesome I'm very happy but has only one CON

I just received this telescope today and couldn't wait for tonight.... Having said that I haven't had a telescope since I was a kid(a very long time ago) I researched telescopes for a long time looking for one I could use with my Nikon D5200. After about 3 weeks I decided on this one mainly for the price and having the basic requirements for astrophotography other than being a refractor. After about an hour of putting it together, which wasn't to bad seriously tho how much fun is putting anything together but it was painless and easy. Tripod fairly sturdy better than I expected, mount is heavy duty and simple to install, telescope is big (or at least I thought) but we'll build and simply slides and you lock it in place. This makes it easier to move around in your house and to the great outdoors. After setting up outside when the sun went down I had a little trouble finding Saturn, but a little patience and very slight tuning here and there I found it in about 15 minutes. I could see clearly the round planet with a perfectly visible ring. I used a 20mm to find it and switched out lenses to get a closer view. It was spectacular! I have never seen it through my own telescope. CONS The finder scope is kinda useless it's hard to tell where to put your head to align, after giving on that I stood behind the telescope and bent way down looking straight up the tube on the top and aligned it that way and found Saturn within a few minutes. Now I'm waiting on the T adapters for my camera to see what I can capture. My viewing ended early tonight due to clouds rolling in or I would have stayed out there instead of writing this review. Definitely worth the money and a great starter telescope. If I can work it so can you. I now can't wait for the moon( it's a new moon right now so I have to wait)

Well worth every penny!!!

I bought this for my wife as a birthday present and it is the most high-quality telescope I've ever laid my hands on. Everything about it is perfect I was even able to take really good pictures of the moon with just a smartphone through the eye lense. I would most definitely recommend this telescope for anyone looking to get into the world of star gazing!

I love this. Cons first

I am 40+ years old. I haven’t had a telescope since I was 12. I love this. Cons first. 1) it’s heavier than you think. I plan on dragging this all over the United States this summer, but it is a bit cumbersome. Finding a carrying case that you are sure this telescope will fit in is almost impossible. You really need to order a 2x Barlow lens (don’t bother with 3x or 5x...trust me). Pro’s next. 1) Easy to set up. Quite user friendly (I’m horrible at getting binoculars to focus, but I could easily bring the moon into focus and stare for hours). Once you figure out the dials and what-not, you just want to go find an open area on a clear night. There are a few good free moon rise/set and stargazer apps I use. As a beginner, I’ll write the review ending I wish someone else had written before... It’s worth the price. Get the 2x Barlow. Have fun.

Good scope shaky controls

I'm very happy with the scope itself & would give it 5 stars. I do recommend getting collimating eyepiece though. I'm not real happy with the equatorial mount. The quality is fine, it's the adjustment methods I have a problem with. I admit to being a novice with little experience. The mount has 3 adjustments. Up & down, left & right and tilt left or right. In my limited experience the most used controls are up & down and left & right. The only use I can see for the tilt control is to get the eyepiece to a position where you can look through it. Yet they put one of the slow motion controls on the tilt. The other is on left & right. To go up & down you have to turn a screw with a sliding bar and it's not very smooth. The only other scope I've used had the slow motion controls on up/down and left/right. Seems to me that's where they're needed. Overall, I'm very happy with the scope & the mount problems, while annoying, can be worked around. Update: Belay what I said about the mount. In all the pictures (like the one shown here) the scope is shown aiming perpendicular to the up/down axis. Simply rotating the scope 90 degrees corrects the axis so the slow motion controls can be used as intended. My bad.

Awesome.

Where do I start? Most of these reviews are super long. I'll keep it short. 49yrs old, amateur astronomer from my childhood but I remember a lot of what I learned. Great purchase. Easy assembly. Without Star Finder calibration I found the moon under three minutes. Awesome clarity. Filters and variety of eyepieces arrive tomorrow. Can't wait. Get this for your kids, grandchildren or yourself. Please read the instructions. Don't expect to see things like the Hubble Telescope. That's not what this is. If that's what you're looking for, expect to pay thousandssssss. Seriously. Do your research for what you're expecting to see. I don't think you can go wrong with this purchase. 7/13/17 I'm still loving this Telescope. It's all slowly coming back to me. Here are some moon photos. All captured within 10 minutes including setup. Taken with a canon T6 DSLR. Just a little blurry. Need a shutter remote so I don't have to touch the camera. Going for some nightscape pics next. Great purchase. Get the Celestron eyepiece kit as well.

Perfect for Newbies, like us!

We have been very impressed with this telescope. We can see the moon in full detail, Mars (as a red dot) and most of all we can see the rings of Saturn. Jupiter hasn't been in the right part of the sky for us to try yet, but so far we are very pleased. My only recommendation is to upgrade the lenses if you buy this model. The kit lenses aren't very great, but do work well. Great for beginners!

Great beginner scope for the price

I think this is a very fair telescope for the price. I used to own a 10" telescope that cost $3000 and had the full electronic controls. I was looking for something more portable as the other one was very large and weighed at least 50 pounds. I was surprised that this one worked pretty well, again for the price. Its not a substitute for $1000 or $3000 scope. Here's what I would want to know if I was new to telescopes and considering buying this. You MUST by the extra lense kit for an additional $150. The lense that comes with it is not that powerful. You'll thank yourself by taking the time to learn how to set up the equitorial mount correctly. And also learn about lenses - you can't just pop in the most powerful lense and get a clear image. Download the celestron app and plan out what you want to see before you're standing outside excited to see something. Astronomy is a lot of fun, but there's a lot to learn. Finally, temper your expectations. You will get great close-ups of the moon. Mars will appear as a reddish dot with no detail. You won't see the colors of Jupiters stripes like a picture from NASA. You'll see that Saturn has a ring, yes it will appear as one light band, not several. And with this scope, nebulae will appear as more of a haze than a colorful exploding cloud. Unlikely be able to make out a galaxy except if you're on a mountain top on a very clear night. If you're a beginner, buy this scope with the additional lense kit and patiently learn how to use it. If you're not a beginner, save your money and get an 8" at least.

Worth the extra cost over the Powerseeker 127EQ

Tried the Powerseeker 127EQ first and was only acceptable. Then I bought the Astromaster 130EQ and found it to be a fine quality sharp image excellent Reflector Telescope. You should be prepared to learn a bunch before feeling accustomed to this Reflector but you will be rewarded for your efforts. A laser collimator is a must to check, and if necessary, realign the mirrors, known as Collimating. I spent some time learning how to collimate this Scope, or align the mirrors and I devised an additional step in the beginning as I am a former technical writer. First, making sure the laser Collimator is NOT in the focuser tube and is definitely OFF, stand a few feet in front of the opening or aperture of the telescope and look into the opening where you will see the cross frame in front, the mirror in the back, and the reflection of the front cross frame in the back mirror. Then slowly and carefully concentrate on what you see and move your view slowly so the mirror and reflection of the cross frame appear centered within each other and the telescope tube. The point is to confirm that the main mirror is perpendicular to the axis of the tube such that all parts viewed appear to be all centered or concentric with each other. If looking straight down the tube center, you see the reflection of the secondary mirror frame up front off center and offset from the actual frame up front, then carefully adjust the primary mirror in back so everything looks aligned. That means the back mirror reflection of the front cross frame should be aligned behind the frame when looking absolutely down the center of the tube and the mirrors appear correctly centered. After you have assured a nearly aligned primary mirror when viewed from the front, then you can proceed to install the laser collimator into the eyepiece focuser with the indicator target pointing forward as the telescope does. Turn on the laser and DO NOT LOOK into the front of the telescope until you are done and the laser is out and OFF. Slowly adjust the secondary mirror up front carefully and slowly loosening and tightening very delicately each of the three screws until the laser dot is centered on the target. Remember to very delicately loosen and tighten the screws slowly and in steps between the three until you become accustomed to how the adjustments affect the laser dot on the target. Once you have centered the dot on the target adjusting the secondary mirror up front, then TURN OFF the laser and rotate the laser Collimator in the focuser tube such that the target opening is facing the back of the Telescope where the primary mirror is. Turn on the laser and observe the laser dot on or near the target. The dot should be centered in the target and likely will be close or off towards the outer part of the target. Very carefully loosen the locking phillip screws of the back large primary mirror to allow further adjustment with the larger knurled knobs that adjust the mirror. Very slowly adjust one knob at a time while you become accustomed to the results of each adjustment as they affect the movement of the laser light dot on the target of the collimator. Do this all slowly until you gradually learn the tricks to collimate. Do not make big adjustments to the primary mirror unless you have to. When done, turn OFF the laser collimator and remove it from the focusing tube. Once again, DO NOT look at the laser beam or the front of the telescope while the laser is in use. Now that the eyepiece focuser tube is open, look in the tube and you should see a reflection of your eye's pupil in the center of the small secondary mirror and mirrors and cross frame should all look centered upon each other or concentric. NEVER LOOK AT THE LASER BEAM END, ONLY THE DOT ON THE TARGET WHEN IT IS INSTALLED IN THE TELESCOPE. A laser collimator really is a must for easy collimation testing before each use of the telescope and especially after transporting the telescope as vibrations may change mirror alignment or collimation. I highly recommend pointing the telescope horizontal during mirror collimation outdoors as the laser light may be considered offensive by planes with resulting complaints and possible law actions. I collimate indoors. DANGER; never look at the laser beam as eye damage can result. Only look at the light dot on the target when the collimator is installed in the telescope. The laser collimators are very low power but safety practices should always be a way of life. In actual use, I just barely saw the cluster of galaxies between Virgo and Leo on a dark night near the new moon and gladly told myself it was worth the money and effort to have seen the dim but visible galaxies with the fuzzy center nuclei of stars. Dark conditions and eyes adjusted to the dark are necessary. I also viewed Jupiter and five of it's moons in very good detail on a marginal seeing night. The planet was actually too bright and required a filter to lower the the brightness and improve contrast. For the price, it is an excellent light gatherer. I also have a Powerseeker 80EQ Refractor that exhibits very clear images. The Telescope paid for itself when I could see deep space distant galaxies. That is a result of the larger light gathering ability of the Reflector. I recommend Dean Fuller's video on YOU TUBE on how to operate an equatorial mount and polar align for beginners. It was faster and easier to understand than the written instructions.

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