Product Description

Meet the perfect beginners Telescope... the Celestron PowerSeeker 60 EQ. Offers first-timers an ideal mix of quality, value, features and star-seeking POWER! Up to 675X... the heavens will be at your doorstep. Sharp image clarity and brightness, plus an easy-tracking equatorial mount that makes it simple to follow celestial bodies across the moon-lit sky. Refractor design with 900 mm focal length, 60 mm aperture for greater light gathering ability and better resolution of distant objects; All-glass optical components with high transmission coatings; Includes 45X, 225X eyepieces and a 3X Barlow lens that increase power up to a whopping 675X! Comes with 5 x 24 mm Finderscope, adjustable aluminum Tripod and accessory tray; Scope weighs 11 lbs. Order ONLINE Today! Celestron PowerSeeker 60 EQ Telescope with Tripod

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7447 in Camera & Photo
• Brand: Celestron
• Model: 21043
• Dimensions: 7.00" h x 9.00" w x 37.00" l, 15.00 pounds

Features

• Affordable telescope for beginning astronomer; portable yet powerful
• All-glass optical components with high transmission coatings for enhanced image brighness and clarity
• Refractor optical design with a 60mm aperture and 900mm focal length
• Equatorial mount for tracking the sky
• Includes 3x Barlow Lens (1.25"), 20mm eyepiece, 4mm eyepiece, aluminum tripod with accessory tray

Manufacturer Description
PowerSeeker telescopes are a great way to open up the wonders of the Universe to the aspiring astronomer! The Celestron PowerSeeker series of telescopes is designed to give the first-time buyer the perfect combination of quality, value, features and power. Offering exceptional value, these telescopes feature portable yet powerful designs with ample optical performance to excite any newcomer to the world of amateur astronomy.

The PowerSeekers come in a choice of refractor or reflector, equatorial or altazimuth mount design. The PowerSeekers come with all coated glass optical components with for enhanced image brightness and clarity. The Newtonian reflectors offer larger aperture and greater light gathering power needed to resolve the faint detail of hundreds of deep-sky and other celestial objects.

All PowerSeekers come on either sturdy equatorial mounts for tracking the sky, or collapsible altazimuth mounts suitable for terrestrial viewing as well as astronomical use.

The PowerSeekers come with a full range of eyepieces plus a 3x Barlow lens, allowing an increase in viewing power hundreds of times greater than that of an unaided eye! A great choice for children and families.

About Refractor Telescopes

A refractor telescope uses a lens as the primary. The lens at the front of the telescope bends the light passing through it until it comes to a single point called the "focal plane." The long, thin tubes of refractor telescopes look much the same as those Galileo used centuries ago. High quality optical glass and multi-coatings provide today’s sky watchers views Galileo never dreamed of. The refractor type of telescope is very popular with individuals who want mechanical simplicity, rugged reliability and ease of use. Because the focal length is limited by the length of the tube, refractor telescopes become quite bulky and expensive beyond a four inch aperture. This limits the light gathering properties of refractor telescopes, but they are an excellent choice for beginners and those who prefer simple operation and versatility. Refractor telescopes are also a popular choice because of their unobstructed view, high contrast and good definition.

60EQ Highlights

• Easy to assemble 60mm German Equatorial refractor
• Pre-assembled aluminum tripod and accessory tray
• Slow motion controls for smooth tracking
• 3x Barlow lens triples the magnifying power of each eyepiece
• Finderscope: 5x24
• Includes two 1.25-inch eyepieces and Star diagonal
• Includes CD-ROM "The Sky" Astronomy software
• Suitable for celestial and terrestrial viewing

Customer Reviews

Not a Good Starter Scope
This scope is not a good starter scope for anyone interested in astronomy. Here's why:

1. The objective is too small, only 60 mm, 2.36 inches, so it is too small to bring in the light necessary for even a beginning look at the universe. I suppose it is adequate for the moon, but that is it. The planets will appear as very small disks. One will be able to see Saturn's rings, but the image will be very small. Forget it for deep sky objects, clusters, galaxies, etc.

2. The 4mm eyepiece is too powerful for this scope. The observer will find it hard to look through (very small eye opening), and will in most cases cause blurred images. The 20 mm eyepiece is the only functional eyepiece. The barlow is a 3x, which again is too poweerful for this scope.

3. The mount will vibrate when touched, which will cause the image in the eyepiece to "shiver", which is very frustrating.

Even for the low price, don't be enticed by this scope; it has too many flaws. Save your money for a larger scope with a better mount.

Jim "Konedog" Koenig, astronomy buff

Great beginner scope!
I bought this scope for an amazing bargain of just $30 at a Christmas tree shop. I had read lot about it and was sure that it was a great buy. As soon as I brought it home I took it out of the box and gasped in awe. It was a high quality peice that looked great. This model has an equatorial mount so you can synchronize it with the celestial pole(poloaris) and it gives you the ability to track objects across the sky.It has a large solid tripod that can be adjusted easily. The two lenses it comes with can magnify objects either 45 or 125 times. When I first took the telescope out with my dad we found the moon and I was amazed at what I could see on the lunar surface at just 45 times magnifacation! The moon took up nearly the entire field of vision at lowest magnifacation and the detail was amazing!Using the other lens was even better I could see craters the maria and all sorts of amazing things. Just a few days ago I used my Night Sky magazine(which is a great magazine by the way) and was able to find Saturn for it is high in the sky right by the beehive cluster and close to Gemini right now. After a few minutes of searching through the low power eyepiece I found it. A bright blob of golden light in the eypiece.Hands trembling I carfully adjusted the focusing nobs and I saw it. Saturn in all its glory was in my eypeice. I could just make out the rings and though it was small it was clear and sharp. I hurredly popped that lens out and put in the more powerful one and I saw Saturn in even more detail. I could see the Cassini division! Fortunetly the atmosphere was coraperating so I could see somthing most would need a large reflector to see. I was amazing and I could see it with so small a telescope. And in my Night Sky magazine it says in the March/April issue that you can see nebulae,galaxies,clusters and amazing things in just low magnifacations such as 30 or 50 times. I can even see M41(the beehive cluster) in just binoculars! I saw that cluster when I was looking for saturn.So if you see this telescpope even at 50 or a 100 dollars buy it and you wont be disapointed.

Stay away from this scope
This is a good example of the kind of scope astronomers warn beginners against.

The first red flag is the ridiculously high maximum magnification of over 700x. Do you know what you will see at 700x in this scope? Nothing but a dim blur. Note that the objective (main) lens is 60mm. All telescope optics have inherent limitations; maximum useful magnification per millimeter of aperture is about 2x. Therefore, with any attempt to use this scope at magnification of over 120-140x, increase in image size will be more than offset by breakdown, and that's even assuming the quality of the objective lens is any good.

The finder is useless, smaller than the bare minimum size of 6x30. Finding anything but the moon will be time-consuming and frustrating. The low power 20mm eyepiece may or may not be usable on the scope, depending on its design and field of view. That the design information is not given in the ad is disturbing. And don't even think of using the 4mm (high power) eyepiece or the barlow.

I do not recommend equatorial mounts for beginners. Their tracking properties are primarily for astrophotography, and for this they require careful setup. The equatorial mount on this scope is provided primarily as a marketing gimmick to impress naïve buyers with its complex "scientific" appearance.

In a way, it is hard to fault Celestron for making and marketing this scope. Their upper-tier instruments are quite good, but the big money appears to be made on mass market toys like this. In one sense the sale of these scopes subsidizes their good models. Just make sure, gentle reader, to stay away from the toys.

Using an astronomical telescope is not like playing an MP3 file and but rather like playing a guitar. It is a learned skill. And you must do a lot of homework before you buy a telescope. Buying without prior experience is like buying a car without knowing anything about driving. If you want to see the wonders of the sky, contact your local astronomy club and attend one of their star parties. The members love sharing their hobby and can set you straight as to how to get started. The best way is to learn the sky with the unaided eye and 10x50 binoculars (decent ones are available on Amazon), then graduate to something along the lines of a 150-200mm (6-8") Dobsonian; Celestron's own 6" Starhopper can be found on Amazon for under $290.

For more information on buying telescopes, see my encyclopedic guide on Amazon: "So you want to buy a telescope."