Reddit reviews Celestron 21024 FirstScope Telescope

Celestron First Scope (or Cometron if you want to stretch the budget).

It is not going to be an amazing scope, but it was my first and I was able to see that Saturn had rings with it (rather than that Saturn was an oval shape). M31 and M13 as well as other deep sky targets will not look amazing, but will be visible in it.

I think they strike the right balance between not being complete shite so as to turn any interest they have into annoyance and disinterest, but also it not being the end of the world if they use it once and never use it again.

I don't know if it's improved lately or not, but Tasco used to not have the greatest reputation. This sort of small refractor in particular is generally considered very poor.

I don't own one personably, but I've read generally favorable reviews of the Celestron Firstscope. It's less expensive, likely to be better quality, and much more portable. It's probably a good idea to also pick up the accessory kit for that.

Whatever you end up getting, it's probably not worth spending too much on unless you know you'll really like using a telescope. A cheap beginner scope will give you an idea of whether or not you like telescopes, and if you do, what sort of things in particular you like. Then you'll be ready to buy a better, more specialized scope.

Well, the traditional starter is a 50-mm refractor...what most people think of as a telescope. The optics are usually fine, but the mounts are horrible. I still remember battling mine. And the one my wife bought at the thrift store has confounded my kids. Tradition!

Another option would be a Newtonian telescope, which uses a mirror instead of a lens. They don't look like a "normal" telescope. However, they work just as well...and the mounts are a lot easier to use. The tabletop versions are portable and are intended for kids...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FM4A108/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001UQ6E4Y/

That's what I would have gotten myself way back when.

Amazon has that scope on sale for only $25! Awesome deal.

Under $50: 76mm newtonian w/dobson mount

Under $100: an 80mm refractor for each eye (tripod not included)

Under $200: 127mm newtonian w/ equatorial mount, tripod, starfinder and 3 lenses

Any decent camera for astro-photography is quite expensive, several thousand $ or more. At your price range I would agree with the others and get good binoculars, they will provide a better beginning experience, especially for tracking faster objects.

In my limited experinece the biggest problem with low end scopes is the poor mounts which make it difficult to track and line up on objects. I did buy this scope (http://www.amazon.com/Celestron-21024-FirstScope-Telescope/dp/B001UQ6E4Y/) and have enjoyed it even if the images are far from perfect due to distortion, much more glamorous for my kids than looking through binoculars and the mount is very stable, so I don't have too worry much about the kids moving it and losing site of what was there. It is possible to see the great red spot on Jupiter with it on a good night.

As far as pictures go, I am planning on getting a good DLSR with a good zoom lens once I can afford one. This will work for me for pictures of the planets, star clusters, etc. Then I hope to buy a tracking mount and trying my hand at some of the dimmer objects out there that require longer exposures.

For a 5 year old - Celestron Firstscope, Orion Funscope or Meade Lightbridge Mini 82, or Skywatcher Heritage Mini.

Do not buy a refractor on your budget, it will be useless.

Ack, don't buy that telescope it's crap. I'd advise you save a bit more and get something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Orion-10015-StarBlast-Reflector-Telescope/dp/B00D12U1IK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1374094182&sr=8-2&keywords=starblast+4.5

But if $60 is your top dollar you can do better than the Barska with these:

http://www.amazon.com/Celestron-21024-FirstScope-Telescope/dp/B001UQ6E4Y/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1374093969&sr=8-3&keywords=celestron+tabletop

http://www.amazon.com/Orion-10021-FunScope-Reflector-Telescope/dp/B00D05BIGC/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1374093969&sr=8-7&keywords=celestron+tabletop

http://www.amazon.com/Celestron-21036-PowerSeeker-70AZ-Telescope/dp/B003AM87PU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374094004&sr=8-1&keywords=celestron+70az

Hello :-)

What is your budget?

Most cheap and small telescopes are utter garbage, sorry. "Small" and "Pocket" suggest a small aperture and flimsy mount. For astronomy, that's a deadly combo :-)

• Binoculars. As /u/sflamel wrote :-) Even cheaper $30 binoculars such as the Cometron 7x50 are OK, but you get what you pay for. Still, a better choice than anything in the sub-$100 range.
  
  
• Verdict: Yes!
  
  
• $20: Astromedia Cardboard newtonian, plumber's telescope kit or Galilean kit (US). These work, are educational and fun to build. Overall they make more sense than a small telescope. IF the person likes to build stuff.
  
  
• Verdict: Yes?
  
  
  
• 50mm refractor. These cost under $50, but mount and accessories simply suck. Sorry. They might look like your normal telescope, and beginners will think: "This is great!" but they are not. Some start at 27 dollars. Even the ones from Brands like Celestron or Meade (e.g. 50az, 60az, 60eq) share some of the issues (stability, accessories).
  
  
• Verdict: Please No.
  
  
• $40-$60: Firstscope 76/300, Meade Lightbridge Mini 82 and similar.
  
  
• Travelscope.
  
  
• Those are cute small telescopes, but they do not show a lot. I used mine a couple of nights, but moved on. They have flawed optics making them less ideal for planets, and for wide-field, binoculars are much easier to use.
  
  
  
• Verdict: Firstscope/Mini: Maybe yes. Travelscope: Maybe No.
  
  
• 70eq, 70az and similar telescopes: Mount often not ideal. They work, but 70mm aperture is pretty limited by today's "standard".
  
  
• Verdict: Inspire or LT 70az maybe, but you can usually get a better telescope for a similar price-tag.
  
  
• $70-$100: Orion Skyscanner 100; Often $75 as "2nd" (used/refurbished) via Telescope.com. For that, it's a nice table-top telescope that already is more useful than the 3" table-tops. Still, it's not ideal.
  
  
• Verdict: Maybe. Beats most, far from perfect.
  
  
• $130 Dazzle 4.5. This is where it starts to get a bit better. 4.5" aperture already shows quite a bit compared to the other entry-level telescopes. It's not ideal for planets, but still outperforms all the cheap 3" telescopes.
  
  
• Verdict: Yes. Better choice in this price-range!
  
  
• Ignore all the 127eq and 114eq in this price-range. They either have flawed optics (bird-jones 114/1000, 127/1000; Spherical mirror: Astromaster 130) or a weak mount (All of them).
  
  
• Verdict: Burn. ... Especially these and the smaller refractors can often be found for $10-$20 on the classifieds, because no one wants them anymore.
  
  
• $180-200: Lightbridge Mini 130, Zhumell z130, AWB Oneksy (Europe: Heritage 130p). These are among the best entry-level telescopes despite some quirks. Other telescopes in a similar price-range are the Meade Inifnity 102mm (short, not ideal for planets, but decent otherwise), 90eq (decent but small aperture shows less), Orion xt4.5 (a bit more expensive, focal-ratio has some benefits compared to the 130mm table-tops, but it's price is close to a great 6" dobsonian). These might look like toys to some, but they are much less than an overpriced, bad, weak little refractor with 5 star rating on Amazon.
  
  
• Verdict: Wow!
  
  
• $300, $400: Skywatcher 6" or 8" dobsonian, Zhumell z8. Big. More expensive. Show so much more. z8 has so many accessories it's one of the best deals out there.
  
  
• Celestron Nexstar 130 or 127 SLT: Computerized, but GoTo will NOT make everything easier for beginners. Relatively compact. 8" will show a lot more though.
  
  
• Verdict: DO NOT get these. You will have tired employees all the time. They will stay up all night looking through their great telescope and come to work sleepy every other day!
  
  Difference a large aperture makes
  
  Size, Portability
  
   
  
  If you where thinking of something like a small $10-$20 handheld monocular or a $20-$50 spotting-scope: These work well for day-time and the moon. They are pretty bad for astronomy though. Anything with zoom in this price-range is. And over 10x magnification is difficult to hold free-handed, during the night, when you try to focus on a small detail. It's tolerable during the day, but not for nebulae and such.
  
  &nbp;
  
  TL;DR: "Turn left at Orion" or "Nightwatch" plus binoculars -> Best entry level set for beginners. Or at least the telescope in the $120-$200 range.
  
  
  Clear skies!

I own one, and I like it a lot. The biggest advantage that it has is that it is very portable. And since it is so inexpensive, you don't need to worry about it getting broken or lost. It is of course not going to give Hubble-like views. You'll be able to identify Jupiter and Saturn, but its strength is on things like open star clusters. It has a f/4 mirror, so it has a very wide field of view. I can still picture in my mind the awesome view of the Pleiades in close proximity to Venus last year. I suppose it is important to keep in mind that the Firstscope is not my only telescope (I have an 8" dob). Also it can be a challenge to align things to what you want to look at, so it will probably be best to get the finder option (or build one yourself from some PVC pipe and dental floss). Also, you can get it cheaper on Amazon. Overall, I think this is a much better first purchase for someone compared to binoculars, since you can place it on a table, and get steady views (heresy, I know). I'm probably the only person in the world to make degree circles for the Firstscope. Just keep in mind that this isn't a high performance instrument. It has a spherical mirror, and if you want to attempt to collimate it, you have to do it with secondary mirror only.

Oh wow. Thank you so much for putting in your time to write this. Honestly the criteria & budget (and this whole idea) is set by my wife. I have a solar system book and went over it with my daughter one day, and she seemed to be very into it so my wife wants to get something to encourage her to explore into her love for science.

I was going to get this one because it was recommended by a website I browsed earlier, but my wife said she wants to get the one with tripod.

Happy Zambambo!
What a wonderful thing to do on your birthday. This would be great to take camping next weekend.

I got a VERY inexpensive starter scope ($40), the celestron firstscope and it's been great to get the family started. It's very portable too.

The only reason I broke the "get binoculars for your first telescope" rule is that I could point the scope, take my eye away and let the kids look.

http://www.amazon.com/Celestron-21024-FirstScope-Telescope/dp/B001UQ6E4Y

But take this with a grain of salt, I'm still just starting out.

i have this one
i'm happy when i see jupiter and its moons.

and i need a new DSLR. my minolta X500 is just too old.

I had quite some fun with this Celestron and the extras.

It depends on how good the smart phone is, how much you want to do, if the camera has apps. Sony is introducing a 22MP CMOS camera chip for smart phones. This could be close to using a DSLR as the telescope camera.

http://www.stuff.tv/news/sonys-new-camera-sensor-will-make-your-smartphone-snaps-sparkle-videos-stable

That telescope is really low end, so it might be good for nature shots, the examples on the Amazon review page shows really blurry Moon shots, recognizable Jupiter.

http://www.amazon.com/Celestron-21024-FirstScope-Telescope/dp/B001UQ6E4Y

I started with a Celestron FirstScope (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001UQ6E4Y). Very inexpensive - ~$40 - easy to use will get you some great sky viewing with no real effort or investment. It was enough to see if it was a hobby I'd really get into before I dropped serious money.

Got some binoculars? A good set will let you view the four Galilean moons.

If not, try this: http://www.amazon.com/Celestron-21024-FirstScope-Telescope/dp/B001UQ6E4Y/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1319565331&sr=8-2

Good little "grab and go" telescope for $40. Despite the price it's well built and NOT a toy. ;-)

Tbh that looks like a really good beginner scope. It's not meant to be an investment, it's meant to help you determine if stargazing is right for you.

You could also look at:
http://www.amazon.com/Celestron-21024-FirstScope-Telescope/dp/B001UQ6E4Y
http://www.amazon.com/Celestron-21049-AZ-DS-127EQ-PowerSeeker-Telescope/dp/B0007UQNKY

Portability might be a factor for you, I know it is for me...so always read the reviews carefully!