Features:

  • Multi Coated Optics
  • Maksutov-Cassegrain Optical Design
  • Compact and Portable Design
  • Erect Image System for Terrestrial and Astronomical Use
  • Built-in T-Adapter threads for Ease of Adapting SLR Cameras
  • Comes with 32 mm Eyepiece, 45° Erect Image Diagonal and 8x21 Erect Image Finderscope
  • Backpack Made of Nylon
This scope is more than just an "entry-level" telescope, it's a tool you'll use for years.

I bought this as a first telescope after doing some research and reading reviews. I cannot say enough good things about this as an entry level, and even intermediate telescope. I got it because it seemed to offer a good combination of portability and ease of care and maintenance. (The Schmidt Cassegrain designs generally offer those benefits. ) It does have a few small drawbacks in that some kinds of astro-photography suffer with this design, but at the 90mm objective size, it will not cause too much of a problem. I can toss this in the accompanying carrying case, grab my case of lenses, and go anywhere in a moment's notice to get a great view. I have seen Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Uranus and more in just the 6 months I've owned this. It is a sealed design, so barring an accident, it will not need re-collimating or special cleaning. It's robust, and well made, so it can stand up to travel and heavy use. 90mm may seem small, and you may be tempted to start with something bigger, but so far I have decided to get filters and eye-pieces for better views, but haven't really felt the need to move up in objective size yet. It's perfect at 24mms for viewing the sun and moon (ALWAYS use proper additional equipment for solar viewing. Without special equipment, that does NOT come with this scope, serious and permanent eye damage may result. Never point the scope at the sun without this equipment, and make sure the finder scope is also covered.) Both the sun and moon exactly fill the view with a 24mm, and you can use additional eyepieces or a zoom eyepiece to get smaller details like craters, sun spots, etc. you can easily see Saturn's rings and the striations of Jupiter's atmosphere, as well as the Galilean moons with just this scope. I imagine this scope will stay in my stable of equipment for years to come. It's got the right combination of portability, usability and quality fabrication. I'd recommend a decent EQ mount if you want to take photos, or at least a nice, solid tri-pod with slow motion, worm gear controls, as even at this size, objects move across the field of view rapidly, and you will need to adjust it frequently to keep celestial objects in site. I've attached a few photos, I've managed to take using this scope, and just a cell-phone cam held up to the eyepiece.

Some advise for astronomical use

I got this "spotting scope" mainly for astronomical use. The Maksutov Cassegrain design makes it an excellent travel scope, very capable optically, without the color aberration or "coma" of other telescopes. This scope is an excellent implementation of the design, and is optically great. However, there are a few caveats, which I list here: PRO: Because of it's high focal ratio (F13.9), it works great with economical eyepieces. CON: only comes with one eyepiece (32mm, for 56x magnification). To get this as a first telescope, I highly recommend you get the "Celestron 93230 8 to 24mm 1.25 Zoom Eyepiece". They work great together, awesome views of the planets and the moon. PRO: very lightweight, easy to take on hikes, airline carry-on bags, trips to dark skies, etc. Comes with a nice bag. CON: does not come with a tripod. This is it's crux, because for astronomy use not any photo tripod will do. A good astronomy tripod (with slow motion controls or tracking) will cost more than this telescope. It *can* be used with a good travel tripod with fluid head (which is what I use) but this way you sacrifice "ease of use" for portability. PRO: excellent optics, easy to get very high useful magnifications and outstanding views of moon and planets, easy to split double stars, and good views of a few of the brightest nebula. CON: Very narrow true field of view: Maxes at just 1°, in which many of the larger star clusters (like the Pleiades) won't fit. Also, faint nebula look very dim, because of the small 90mm aperture. PRO: fully erecting diagonal makes it easy to navigate the sky, and not "get lost" with inverted/mirrored images. CON: the 45° diagonal is just not suited for astronomical use, because it makes it really uncomfortable to look at things that are very high in the sky (near the zenith). To use this spotting scope as a telescope, you will need to purchase a "90° mirror diagonal" or your neck will hurt. (I got an $18 SVBONY 1.25 90° diagonal from Amazon, and it works) PRO: The finder is nice. Fully erecting, nice aperture, balanced magnification, easy to align. CON: The finder is "straight through". There are "RACI" (right angle) finders that are more comfortable to use, although those are very expensive, so the included finder works fine. PRO: the price of this scope just can't be beaten. It's optical performance per dollar is top notch. CON: Not a full package. Additional purchases of a 90° diagonal and tripod/mount are required. The Celestron C90 was my first telescope, and I'm very satisfied with it. It is best for the planets, the moon, splitting double stars, and a few of the brightest deep space objects (more if you can travel to a very dark sky). If portability or price is paramount, it is an excellent choice. However, for home use, a larger aperture telescope (150mm or more) for a bit higher cost, could serve you better. Note: these pictures were taken with a Motorola MotoG3, they don't do justice to what you see through the eyepiece.

Best scope for the money, hands down.

I've had mine about a year now. Summary first: For the money, it's a phenomenal scope for long range shooting and planet viewing. Things I've done with it: Looked at Saturn and Jupiter (what a great feeling it is to see planets with your own eyeballs instead of just seeing pictures in books and online). Used it at the range out to 200m so far, but it can see MUCH farther. I can read the writing on targets at 100m and with a 2x barlow, you can at 200m also, if mirage is not too bad. Using a t-adapter for my Nikon D600, tried putting it on an equatorial mount and taking a very long exposure of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), but was unsuccessful, mostly because my mount does not track well enough for exposures over 2 min. I just got a solar filter for it and viewed the sun for the first time today... so cool! Next up is imaging the sun... gonna wait until it's a little cooler outside for that. I wish I could afford an H-alpha filter, but holy crap those are expensive! Cons: f/13.89 f-ratio means it's not particularly good at seeing dim objects at night. Plenty for planets, the moon, and the orion nebula... not so much for everything else. Additional thoughts: 11/10 would buy it again... bar none, it's the best scope for the money. It's a great introductory scope for astronomy, and works fantastic at the range.

Celestron should call this little mak the Mighty Mak!

For what this scope does, it weighs practically nothing. Celestron is marketing this as a spotting scope which gives you a limited lifetime warranty. I would avoid any of the used ones as Celestron has said this is only for the initial owner. At $150 the $20 you will save on a used one may not be worth it, especially if you need support down the road. As of the date I ordered it, this scope no longer comes with the tripod. The tripod kit & scope is still available at a slightly higher cost and the tripod can also be purchased separately from Celestron. Most of the reviews say the included tripod was barely adequate and they seemed inclined to replace it with a sturdier tripod. For accessories you get the nylon backpack carrying case, a 32mm plossl eyepiece (not bad for an included eyepiece & gives you a 39X view), a 45° erecting diagonal, and finally an 8X21 finderscope. The finderscope can be easily replaced as it uses a semi-standard guide mounted dovetail and can be replaced with Celestron, or Orion products such as the 50mm guide scope and other products as well. With its long focal length of 1,250mm you WILL need a firm steady heavy tripod for any kind of viewing. A photo tripod, even with the legs unextended may still wobble enough where it will make focusing and using this telescope a serious chore. Making focusing a bigger chore, this telescope also has a narrow depth of field. That is, if you aim at a tree a few miles away, you may see the middle of the tree in focus while the further and closer parts may be blurry. I did mount this on my Celestron CG-5 Computerized German Equatorial Mount 91518 and it worked like a charm on the night sky and became really pleasant to focus and work with once on a firm enough mount. It does appear the interior may not be baffled as well as some other scopes. If you are nearing a bright object like Spica, Saturn etc. you will see a stretched out circle pointing towards the object. This however, does make it easier to find the object you are looking for. Adding an aftermarket dew shield will probably help with this if it bothers you. AstroZap Flexible Dew Shield For Meade ETX 90 and Celestron C-90 Telescopes AZ103 As I mentioned the C90 currently comes with one eyepiece, a 32mm plossl which will yield about 39X. This eyepiece will enable to you to see Saturn's rings when properly aimed and focused. I did use a Explore Scientific 6.7mm eyepiece which yielded about 187X which would be considered the 'upper limit' in magnification for this scope. Even though the night was windy and it was a hazy night this scope did a better job that I expected and it was able to easily view Saturn's rings! While mounted on firmly on the CG5 (the C90 has a dovetail with two standard 1/4X20 holes for use on photo tripods and three holes drilled for use on standard astronomy mounts) was a dream to focus. I actually found it easier than my Explore Scientific 102mm f/7 Air-Spaced Triplet ED Apochromatic Refractor Telescope and didn't even bother to use my Farpoint FP401 Bahtinov Focus Mask for Telescopes with Dew Shield or Front End Diameter from 3.5" to 6.5" when focusing on stars. This was just as easy to focus with an eyepiece or with a Canon 7d DSLR attached. The C90 comes with threads that will fit a standard T ring, so you do not need to order a T-adapter to use this scope at prime focus. When ordering a ring, make sure you don't order an M42 ring as the thread size is the same but one is a finer thread. They will connect up together but will only go on for one or two threads and if you force it, you will be cross threading and ruining one or both of your devices. Note, the 7D when directly attached to this scope for prime focus photography, the moon will just about fill the entire frame of view on the 7D and other camera's with a similar sensor size. I will be updating this review once I get a steady alt/az mount for bird watching & terrestrial viewing. All in all, I am pleasantly surprised with this scope as it has exceeded my expectations!

Fantastic solid little setup

Fantastic solid little setup! I have been playing with it for a whole week now and I am really satisfied by this purchase. The view of the moon is gorgeous and I can see the craters and all sorts of detailed structures (at ~50x or ~140 magnification). I also viewed the Jupiter, Venus and Mars on the morning sky for the last couple of days. At 140 magnification, I can clearly see the crescent shape of Venus, the orange ball of Mars and beautiful multiple ring structure on Jupiter plus its four moons. I was totally amazed when I saw these and I spend a lot of hours in the cold for the last week. There are some accessories I bought together with the scope based on studies online. Here are just some of my thoughts: 1. 2 explore scientific eyepieces, a 24mm 68 degree (for 52x, 1.3 degree FOV) and a 8.8mm 82 degree (for 140x, 0.6 degree FOV). Both of them are very sharp to the edges and free of aberrations. If money is tight, I would just buy the later one for high magnification. The 32mm plossl that comes with C90 mak is actually not bad at all. In addition, it provides the widest field of view C90 can do (24mm 68 degree basically provides the same field of view, but with higher magnification). 2. a dielectric diagonal: the 45 degree diagonal has the corrected view. However, it's not neccessary for astronomy so I bought a well-reviewed 90 degree dielectric diagonal (99% reflectivity). I could also have saved it. If I want better views, I could just put the eyepieces directly after the scope. The diagonals, except those 300 usd ones, lower the image quality to some noticeable extent. However, I still think it's a good step up from the 45 degree diagonal, which induce some flares when I was pointing the scope to bright objects. Living in a terribly light-polluted city, I don't have too much to talk about viewing deep sky objects. But I would say this mighty little guy definitely reaches way beyond my expectation. It's a great buy!!!

Best spotting scope for the money I've seen

Best spotting scope I've had - number 4. Tested at 525 yds with splash targets having 30 cal and 223 holes. No problem seeing every hole. A bit fuzzy but still no problem. Other scopes that cost more had problems at 300 m and 30 cal holes. I am very pleased. This is with the 32mm eye piece that comes with the scope. I have ordered the 8-24 mm lens but will not need it at the range or in the field. Thought it would be fun for celestial viewing. NOTE: this zoom lens will not fit the scope without an adapter. The first picture below is the targets used. The second picture was taken through the eye piece of the scope with my iPhone at 525 yds. You can see that even with this poor quality photo the shots are clearly discernible.

Great and affordable Shooting Range Spotting scope

I'm using this at the rifle range for spotting. Super clear out to 200 yds so far. Can easily see .243 hits on Shoot n See target but can also see hits t to the white backing board I use. I'm certain .223/5.56 round hits would also be easily seen at 200 Yds. This was with the 32mm eyepiece included with the scope. I plan to purchase an 8-24 Celestron eyepiece but if you have a 12mm already, that's all probably all you'd need if you don't mind using two or a looking at both close range and distant targets. Field of view is very good. I expect it to work well at 300 yds. Will update soon on that. My C90 sits on a Dolica GX600B200 tripod. I only extend the upper (thickest) legs and sit it to my left as I shoot. The combination of the the C90 and Dolica GX600 makes a solid enough platform. I used the included soft case to transport it. The Dolica tripod I purchased has it's own soft case. Set up and break down is quick enough. The scope is protected enough in the soft case for rolling around in a car, but I wouldn't do any drop tests on concrete. I don't think there's enough protection for a drop from table height to a concrete surface. If that's a concern, look into a separate hard case. I just plan to be careful. After searching for a good spotting scope for the range and trying similarly price purpose build 60mm and 80mm scopes, I'm glad I purchased the C90. Field of view is better than others I've tried and the useful magnification you can get on this 90mm scope is better than the fixed 50x or 60x spotting scopes you'll see. I'll be testing at 500 yds over the summer and I expect good results. Will follow up on that as well. If you need something out to 1000 yds, by best guess is this may be ok, but a 120mm Maksutov might be a better choice.

Not bad when used for Astro-Photography or a spotting scope

I am in no way a professional astronomer or professional photographer. I already own a Sony A6000 camera and wanted something I could start out with taking pictures of the planets, etc. as well as use as a spotting scope at the range. The Celestron C90 fits the bill. I purchased the scope and the (Fotodiox Lens Mount Adapter - T-Mount (T/T-2) Screw Mount SLR Lens to Sony Alpha E-Mount Mirrorless Camera Body) attached T-mount to the scope and my A6000 to the other end and the attached pic is one of the first ones I took right out of the box. It is not the sharpest pic in the world but given the C90 was mounted on a cheap camera tripod it is not bad. I have not taken it to the range to see how it will perform but used it to view some distant objects around the yard and feel very confident I will not have any trouble seeing shots on paper at the range at up to 200-300 yards with the included eyepiece. If you are just starting out in astro-photography and you don't want to break the bank the Celestron C90 is not a bad choice.

A great scope at a great price

I bought the C90 in order to have a scope small and light enough to carry down to the beach for star parties. The C90 has exceeded all my expectations. The quality is excellent. So far I've viewed Mars, Jupiter, the moon, the Pleiades, and the Orion nebula with pleasing results. I have numerous eyepieces and diagonals. I would strongly advise a 90 degree diagonal for astronomy. 17mm and a 10mm eye pieces would provide some useful additional magnification. Nice daytime views as well. I mount it on an Orion Tritech II tripod. Together the total weight amounts to about 8 pounds and is easily carried on the local bus. I'd recommend the C90 as a great first scope and as a grab and go for seasoned observers. Looking forward to taking some photos and seeing how they compare to my 80mm and 115mm apochromats.

Great general purpose spotting scope

Very nice little scope... I use it for dual-purpose; at the rifle range and star-watching at night. I purchased 15mm and 40mm eyepieces to complement the optics; the 40mm is used to check if my 200yd 308 "cloverleafs" are actually connected on the target (usually not). The Celestron C90 gets a little dark at higher magnifications, of course, but for general use it's great. The Andromeda galaxy is very good at w/15mm lense, and small open clusters and nebulae are easily observed. If you need a spotting scope while hunting in the field, you could use the C90; however, there are better ones for use out in the elements... but at the range this works perfectly.

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