Customer Reviews

Celestron 21043 60mm Equatorial PowerSeeker Telescope

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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

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.

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."

This excellent, small, light, extremely portable telescope that I can carry for blocks on my fingers to set up in the darkest place is something I've been waiting to find ever since I bought my first telescope in 1986, 21 years ago for Halley's Comet. I wish I had bought this Celestron then but I didn't know anything about telescopes then, about different mounts, tripods, optical quality, or brands. This is the greatest first scope for anybody and it has enough real quality to be used interestingly for decades.

First off, many of these reviews address the actual use with this telescope....I cannot even comment on how well this telecope works because the TWO that were sent to me were BROKEN!

I ordered well before Christmas as a gift for my son...but to be his big gift from Santa Claus. My husband opened the telescope up late Christmas Eve to put it together and have it ready in front of the Christmas tree and right away it was clear that this telescope was broken. The 2 mounting screws were bent, very bent. This puts you in quite a position when it needs to be up and ready for your child.

After A WHOLE LOT OF EFFORT with Amazon's customer service (from another country!) they sent a replacement...to the WRONG ADDRESS!! (long story that I will not bore you with.)

When the 2nd telescope arrived my husband once again opens it up and guess what? They same screws were again bent. The box on the outside was not damaged, but something is not working for them.

I am so disapointed with them. This was the first time I had purchased something this big from Amazon. I have mainly done music and movies, small stuff.

After this experience I will NO LONGER buy a big ticket item that would have the possibility of damage. It's just not worth the headache and problems, not to mention DISAPOINTMENT, to my son.

I would proceed with caution when ordering this item from Amazon. If you get a broken one...you just might be receiving the 2 I have had to return!

AWESOME telescope. Especially for the price. Get the case of lenses too. $119.00 more, and worth every penny. Quality all the way. Don't forget to get the adjustment levers on the telescope, or if you can afford it, the auto tracking system. The tripod itself, is so high quality,(made in Germany) and it is nice to be able to fold it up without unscrewing it, and taking it all apart.
Just fold it up, put it in the car, and your off.
Knowing what I know now, I would have tried to get a better price on both together.
Wish I could have spent more on the telescope, and known about the lenses, but for $89.00, I got a GREAT deal.
Wish someone had told me to spend maybe a little more on the telescope, or look for both the lenses and telescope sold together.
I have NEVER seen such quality at such a low price.
Jupiter and it's moons looks AWESOME!!!!

Before getting this telescope, I did not expect to much due to the low price(remember the YUGO). But I was really surpised at the great optics in the OPTICAL TUBE ASSEMBLY(OTA).
The views of the moon, jupiter, saturn, m42, and many double stars, mizar and alcor(horse and rider),epsylon bootes,alberio, and many star clusters m-3,m-13,m-41, and other deep sky objects m31,m42, not to mention the terestial views when the sun is behind you, and coming over your shoulders, and shining onto your subject your viewing on low power, WERE JUST TOTALLY AWESOME. LET ME SAY THAT AGAIN, THE OTA WAS A TOTAL SURPRISE AS TO HOW FANTASTIC IT WORKED. That said, Yes, the mount needed to be replaced with an Orion EQ-2 and the electric clock drive, to get a more solid purchase, and yes one should get a Celestron ZOOM eyepiece, and sell, or get rid of the eyepieces that came with the telescope. But the OTA is well worth the money, if you add on the upgrades mentioned. After you have the OTA,the EQ-2 mount, and clock drive, and have the Celestron ZOOM eyepiece(you don't need any other eyepieces with this OTA), and if you get a Celestron heavy duty altazimuth tripod. You have got quite a nice setup. You just switch from the German equatorial mount(GEM) when your doing astronomy, and put the OTA onto the altazimuth mount when viewing terestial objects, and switch back to the GEM when you want to do view terestial objects. THE OTA is worth the money alone. But as it comes, No, don't expect to much for the money. So, when you buy this telescope, you should pretty much throw everything away, except the OTA, barlow, and erect image lens,and add the EQ-2 mount, Celestron ZOOM eyepiece, and Celestron Altazimuth tripod. When used with the upgrades mentioned-----------WOW---------works quite well, and well worth the upgrades. I liked the Celestron 21043 60mm Powerseeker telescope so much, I bought two of them, one on the GEM, and one on the altazimuth mount. After 45 years of using 60mm refractors, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. (Please read Psalms 8:1-4 and Psalms 19:1).

THIS PRODUCT IS GOOD FOR SEEING STARS AT NIGHT, BUT WHEN IT COMES TO SEEING COMETS OR MARS MOVING CLOSER TO EARTH. IT CAN BE A PAIN BECAUSE IT WONT BE ABLE TO GET TO THAT RANGE!!! IF YOU WANT TO SEE SHOOTING STARS THIS CAN BE THE PRODUCT FOR YOUR. BUT IF YOU WANT TO SEE OUR MOST OF THE STUFF IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM, THEN GET YOURSELF A MORE ADVANCE SCOPE LIKE THE COMPUTER GENERATED MODELS.

I have to agree with the other reviews of this scope. I purchased this scope as a Christmas gift. When I opened it, the equatorial mount (the basis for the ENTIRE scope) was broken. I contacted Celestron and was promised another part for it, which never arrived. I contacted the company again and finally had the replacement part shipped to me. It DIDN'T FIT. Finally, I was sent another telescope to replace the original telescope. The equatorial mount was in 1 piece.. yeah! Too bad the optical tube had a screw that was bent and I could not assemble this one. I even had the chance to speak with the manager of the technical support (who was the original person who offered to send me the part that never arrived) and all I got was a bunch of excuses.
I finally took peices from both boxes and made myself one ENTIRE telescope. It's February and I just now have a product that works. (I haven't had time to try it though!) Celestron offered no refunds for this telescope, so buyer beware. If they are not willing to satisfy customers, your business is better served with a company who will stand behind the product it sells. Good luck!

I bought this scope this year.. so far.. the only thing I can see is the moon with the x45 eyepiece, well.. I might say its a good scope for lunar observations. When I saw it.. I was happy.. hoping to see planets. I say Venus, used my barlow lens with the x 225 eyepeice.. couldn't see ANYTHING at all. Bad quality, it broke.. the mirror for the triangular thing came off.. and the silver metal thing.. got stuck inside. Just DON'T GET IT, BEWARE!