Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #155667 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Celestron
• Model: 21046
• Released on: 2005-11-29
• Dimensions: 6.00" h x 10.00" w x 29.00" l, 9.00 pounds

Customer Reviews

A decent starter scope with a good selection of eyepieces
When I was looking for a telescope I found it extremely difficult. Not because of the two main types of telescope Refractor and Reflector nor terms such as aperture, focal length and F ratio but because of large amount of people advising against this price range of telescope (the x525 power on the box won't help convince them either), the sheer number of 60mm Refractors out there (some good, some not so) and not knowing what I would see in this type of scope. The advise was often get a good pair of binoculars but I already had a pair of 10 x 50 coated optics and I wanted something more but had next to nothing of a budget. So I narrowed it down to the Celestron 76mm reflector also on Amazon and this 60mm refractor. It seemed right I go for this as just a few hours earlier I had seen the Powerseeker 2 and got to use it in the store and was impressed (but it was £[...]) so getting it for under £[...] seemed like the way to go.

The problem is that Amazon did not provide an adequate description and I soon found out there are two versions of the 60mm one with 3 lenses and A tri Ocular eyepiece holder and this the 2 lens, single ocular holder.

I started to worry that what I had bought would only come with the useful 20mm lens and the not so useful 4mm lens. No whether it was a mistake or I got lucky the telescope came with the 3 lens' the nice wide x35 20mm lens, the very useful x52 12mm lens and the tricky to use x175 4mm lens. IT also came with the x3 Barlow adapter which triples the magnification of each lens usually at the expense of eye relief but I didn't find it a problem. It was with this lens adapter and the 20mm eyepiece where I has the best results (more later). a typical AltAlizmuth aluminium tripod is supplied which I'm sorry to say is the worst part about this telescope it is quite cheap and not particularly solid (it does stop shaking after and adjustment very quickly though under 2 seconds sound bad but within 3-5 is recommended) it is light weight which is a plus (kind of).

What can I see?

This was the question that worried me is a sub £50 scope going to see anything, thankfully that question was soon answered in spectacular fashion.

20mm lens, a nice wide field of view with low magnification best suited for open and globular star clusters and fainter nebulae and galaxies (on a good night) the first thing I did was point the finder scope at the bright 'star' past the middle of the Leo question mark and there it was, small but very bright, crisp and sharp.....Saturn...with its rings in full view and even with a near full moon its 8.4 magnitude moon Titan appearing as a grey dot close by. Next object was the Orion Nebula, and even with the lowest power lens and very poor conditions (street lights, faint cloud) you could see the nebulosity and the trapezium The moon makes a nice sight in the lens but you couldn't see a vast amount of detail, the Pleiades and the Hyades cluster fit perfectly into the field of view with many more stars than in binoculars. And despite the full moon and street lights there was the andromeda galaxy M31, the brighter core was visible with the faint edges disappearing out of the field of view.

Next Day Jupiter a small, dark cream disk with 3 moons clearly visible and then I started to sketch and catalogue the Messier objects in Orion got to NGC 1981 before the clouds came rolling over, can't wait for a clear night and really nice to use high quality lens.

12mm lens, Not so good for large open star clusters due to the narrow field of view but the moon was great through it as was Saturn which appeared larger and more impressive than in the 20mm and Jupiter was visible as a larger dark cream disk with 3 moons and some darker banding across the disk. A happy medium between the large field of view of the 20mm and the magnification of the 4mm or 20mm W/Barlow

4mm Lens, Sorry to say very tricky to use on anything other than the moon and Saturn, both of which are actually quite impressive through it.

x3 Barlow W/20mm lens, well we have a winner the benefits of the comfortable 20mm lens with the benefits of double the magnification of the 12mm. The moon and Saturn were fantastic through this lens and while its trickier to track and you have to move a bit away from the eye piece the results were no less impressive, I found the schiller crater on the moon and saw more banding around Jupiter as well as differing shades on the globe of Saturn. M42 the Orion nebula filled the eye piece.

Its not worth commenting on the Barlow with the 12mm or esp. the 4mm because it takes the magnification beyond what this (and many telescopes) can do. The quality of the optics overall is very good.

The 5 x 20 finder isn't great but it works well enough.

Overall I'm very happy with this scope and at under £50 I think it complements a good pair of binoculars very well, The mounts not great so maybe the purchase of a better quality one might work out well (the one I have is very solid and sturdy and it cost £[...])

To get the best out of it buy a book such as turn left at Orion or a Messier cataloguing book and try to spot various objects, record and sketch them.

Thank you for reading this review and should you get a Telescope may I wish you clear