After many years of wanting a telescope, I was very pleased to find the Celestron Firstscope for such a reasonable price. It made trying to be a hobbyist astronomer a little less daunting, and it’s a great way to start. My first night with my telescope I looked at the moon from my bedroom window and was instantly pleased and knew I wanted more out of this little telescope.
I can’t really think of a con with this telescope, for the price, you get more than what you expect and it’s definitely a great value.
I would recommend a moon filter and a barlow lense just to give the telescope a little push to the top so that you really get the full experience of star gazing. Without it, the moon will look a little fuzzy and definitely be a little too bright to fully enjoy and watch for a long time. A barlow lense will give you a greater opportunity to see more of what the night sky has to offer.
Overall, I am very pleased with this telescope and would definitely give it as a gift to someone with an emerging interest in astronomy, or someone with a really great view of the night sky.
First of all I’ve just started amature astronomy this year so I’ve never owned a telescope, I’ve been applying a 15×70 celestron binocular on a tripod. I’ve had the Celestron Firstscope for a couple of weeks now and I’ve been please with it..considering how much I paid for it (big bang for the buck). Anyway, I know a lot of people suggest not to invest in the accessory but one thing I learn when I attended a star party prior to purchasing this telescope is Finder Scope is incredibly useful/important when trying to align your scope having a specific object. So I did buy the accessory, and I’m glad I did. Despite the fact that it’s true that using the finder scope is tricky to use if you have the telescope on best of a table or the ground, so what I did is I seem around my house which is tall enough that I can put it on best and I discovered an old cd rack within the garage that is about 5 feet tall. It was incredibly sturdy and produced making use of the telescope so easy using the finder scope.
While using the eyepiece that came while using telescope and accessory everybody who said that they’re useless…they are correct, those sort of eyepiece are genuinely tough to seem into and may perhaps disappoint you. So what I did is I baught a 2x Barlow and a 25mm plossl eyepeice from Orion as well as the diffrence are night and day, while using the eyepiece I purchase it made field of view very much clear, crisp and I saw far more stars. So far I’ve been out observing and star gazing as significantly as I could and as a great deal as the weather permits. The moon by means of this telescope while using 25mm and 2x barlow eypiece looks awesome the craters are incredibly clear, mars look like a tiny orange dot and saturn…so far same as mars appearance like a dot maybe using a medium or higher power eyepiece I might be able to see saturns ring. Overall great acquire specially for a starter like me, I will most likely use this until I’m ready to move to the next level at least now I can save up to a much powerful and high priced 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!
1st of all I’ve just started amature astronomy this year so I’ve never owned a telescope, I’ve been utilizing a 15×70 celestron binocular on a tripod. I’ve had the Celestron Firstscope for a couple of weeks now and I’ve been please with it..thinking about how very much I paid for it (big bang for the buck). Anyway, I know a lot of persons suggest not to obtain the accessory but one thing I learn when I attended a star party prior to purchasing this telescope is Finder Scope is quite useful/important when trying to align your scope with a specific object. So I did obtain the accessory, and I’m glad I did. Even though it’s true that employing the finder scope is tricky to use if you have the telescope on top of a table or the ground, so what I did is I glimpse around my house that may be tall enough that I can put it on top and I discovered an old cd rack within the garage that’s about 5 feet tall. It was quite sturdy and made applying the telescope so simple while using finder scope.
Using the eyepiece that came while using telescope and accessory everyone who said that they are useless…they are correct, those sort of eyepiece are really tough to appear into and may disappoint you. So what I did is I baught a 2x Barlow and a 25mm plossl eyepeice from Orion as well as the diffrence are night and day, while using the eyepiece I purchase it made field of view much clear, crisp and I saw more stars. So far I’ve been out observing and star gazing as very much as I could and as significantly as the weather permits. The moon via this telescope while using 25mm and 2x barlow eypiece looks awesome the craters are really clear, mars appear like a tiny orange dot and saturn…so far same as mars seem like a dot maybe with a medium or higher power eyepiece I may well be able to see saturns ring. Overall fantastic purchase specially for a starter like me, I will most likely use this until I’m ready to move to the next level at least now I can save up to a very much powerful and expensive telescope.
Optics are decent for a scope of this price with some coma around the edges. Lightweight and very portable (though you need a table to set it on). Telescope Reviews
Wide field views are great. But when you put in the high power (short focal length) eyepiece, it becomes nearly impossible to keep the object in the field of view. The mount simply isn’t smooth enough to move without jerkiness. This has been a disappointment in what could have been a very nice scope.
This telescope is adequate for seeing the moon in great detail, very small images of planets, and some detail in nebulae. However, don’t expect to see huge colorful gas clouds filling the viewing field of the eyepiece…I naievely thought I’d be able to see at least a smaller image of those beautiful Hubble-style nebula shots, but later learned that almost no amateur scope can deliver that kind of viewing. The best Telescope Reviews
You have to be willing to spend thousands to get that, and get into astrophotography to boot, with a specially mounted scope that follows the stars with the earth’s orbit so you can expose the film long enough to capture colors. However, we’ve had fun with the StarBlast, and the Orion company has excellent customer service & quick shipping.
FYI, you can usually get free shipping on “starter scopes” if you order directly from Orion (telescope.com), and despite what their website says they can work with you on shipping small-moderate size items to PO Boxes if you call them.
