This review is from: Celestron 21024 FirstScope Telescope
I have usually been a star gazer, and I wanted to be able to share the hobby with my nephew and niece. I found this telescope after some research, and heard some incredible things about it. I decided instantly to purchase it. I was excited to see how easy it was to use, and I wasn’t disappointed. Even without having a finder scope, I was able to very easily uncover objects inside the night sky by aiming down the left side of the tube using the finder scope mounts like a gun sight. This, combined while using 20mm (15x) eyepiece made it incredibly straightforward to locate what I was searching for. My advice for a person just starting with this telescope: Practice locating your objects while using 20mm eyepiece over and more than till you can do it efficiently. Once the object is inside middle of your field of view, you will be safe to throw in a higher magnification eyepiece.
Unlike cheap department store telescopes, the rotating mount is incredibly stable and only blurs for about 2-3 seconds when tapped. Also, the mount enables for simple tracking with its butter-smooth rotation. I could not be any happier while using the ease of use of this powerful minor telescope.
Now, the fine part:
With a little telescope like this, don’t be expecting Saturn to fill the field of view, but do expect to see the rings with all the 4mm eyepiece. You will need to focus quite slowly and carefully for the greatest results. Jupiter is also an awesome sight as a result of this small guy, with 4 moons incredibly visible. Also, viewing the moon is a pure pleasure as a result of either on the two packaged eyepieces. The craters are clear, and also the contrast is fantastic. It also resolved the Andromeda galaxy fairly well in lower lighting away from the city. Just a quick pass via the arm in the Milky Way provided an amazing view of thousands of stars.
For even greater views from the brighter objects (Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, as well as the Andromeda galaxy) I use the Celestron Omni 2x Barlow Lens (1.25″) which effectively doubles the magnification of any eyepiece. This is one of only two Barlow lenses that Celestron recommends for this scope due to its short focal length. I was surprised by how little light was lost when utilizing this barlow, and also the views are even much more incredible.
You can find only a few complaints that I can muster. The primary mirror is just not adjustable, so collimation on the optics isn’t easily possible. The eyepieces are adequate, however you may possibly need to invest is some higher good quality Plossl eyepieces for simpler viewing.
All-in-all, you will not come across a greater telescope for the cash ANYWHERE. I am accustomed to 6-10 inch telescopes, and this tiny 3-inch blew my socks off. It stays in my car nearly everywhere I go, and I’m not afraid to take it out with crazy children all above the place wanting to look as a result of it. My wife loves it, my niece and nephew adore it, and admittedly..
.I really like it. I can’t wait until my youngsters get their introduction to astronomy with this gem. Celestron genuinely went out of their solution to create something unique. What a solution to jump-start the minds of this upcoming generation!
