Customer Reviews

Celestron 21062 AstroMaster 70 EQ Refractor Telescope

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

At first I was skeptical about the quality of this telescope because of it's price range, but once I received it, I was pleasantly surprised.

The build quality is quite good. The tripod is very sturdy and the equatorial mount is well constructed. If I am not mistaken, some of the more expensive Celestron telescopes use this same tripod and mount. This package comes with a software that helps you locate stars and planets, so as long as you set the telescope to the north correctly, trying to locate stars is not a problem.

One thing I wished I had paid more attention to is the dimensions of the whole telescope kit. It is much larger than I anticipated; my reasoning was: it is a kid's telescope, it is probably not full sized. Not so!

Most telescope books I read said you cannot get a decent telescope for under $300, but for the beginner, the price and quality of this telescope is a great buy.

I bought this telescope for my 7 year old daughter's birthday. She was absolutely delighted when she and I viewed Jupiter and its moons, and Venus.

This telescope provides stunning views of the Moon. You can also see "naked eye" planets e.g. Venus, Jupiter, however, they are a bit small. If you want to see them in greater detail I would suggest purchasing a telescope with a higher magnification rating.

The equatorial mount is worth the additional money over the altazimuth mount (Astromaster 70 AZ) in my opinion. The ability to track objects with one slight turn of a nob (after you accurately align the scope to Polaris) with the equatorial mount is much more convenient. Also, this mount is a "must have" if you plan to get the optional tracking motor and intend to take pictures with the optional camera mount.

I purchased this piece of equipment for a Christmas present for my then seven year old grand daughter. It turned out to be complicated to learn to use, even for her well educated parents but with patience, became an important device that is now used regularly with crisp, clear observation of the heavens. I would recommend the Celestron 21062 refractor telescope to the more serious amateur.

I bought a pair of big binos for my daughter thinking that they would be easier to use for looking at the moon, and was pleased that I could see the moons of Jupiter. But not very useful for much else, and the rings of Saturn were not visible with the binos.
Once I saw the price of the 70eq, I decided to take the chance and purchase. I'm not dissastisfied. The pictures of Saturn above are close to the visible quality you will see. (it has been hazy here, so that might be a limiting factor) It won't be as large though. Planet photographers are able to take batches of pictures, stack them onto each other, clarify & edit some more, and get great images. But looking through this telescope won't be the same as image-stacking.
I'm very pleased with my Celestron purchase, and the telescope was easy to assemble It can be tricky to use at first, but I think the more I use it, the easier it will become.
The tripod is very sturdy, I'm really pleased with the fine adjustment knobs that allow for easy tracking of objects without having to man-handle the telescope. So yeah, very stoked that I get to watch Saturn for a while, and can't wait till we get back around to Jupiter (and it's moons!)
And who knows, maybe even one day getting a bigger/better Celestron telescope.

First, this telescope nearly falls together without having to use your tool kit. Secondly, the equatorial mount is well-built and settles out nicely. Thirdly, the erecting prism comes in very handy for daytime viewing.

I have been making reflecting telescopes for over 40 years, including monster 18-inch telescopes. Yes, I am a reflector bigot, but this telescope can be used by sitting in a chair, and its achromatic primary is well color-corrected.

The additional 10mm over the more common 60mm refractor is only barely noticeable in some nebulae to the trained eye, but you know its there, even though this feels like a 60mm. IOW -- It is not too large or heavy.

It comes with a 20mm and a very short focal length eyepiece that is nearly unusable. Not so good. It really needs to come with a 12.5mm eyepiece!

There is simply no better telescope for a beginner, including a 4/14" reflector. Man, that was hard to type, but it is true. Don't argue this point unless you own this scope.

This company also makes an 80mm with a clock drive! Amazon needs to list it, and try to keep it in stock!

After reading the other reviews, which were mostly good, I was disappointed at the quality of this telescope.

The pieces don't fit well against each other. The tripod shelf (which has been well reviewed by others) doesn't quite snap into place. The two weights don't sit flush against each other on the rod (which is surprising because they would only need to be flat on their bottoms to sit flush against each other). There is lots of wiggle in the clutch rods because they are two piece rods. The two pieces are held together by using a hand screw (barrel head screw is the best description I can come up with, although "barrel" is kind of ironic because they are so small and hard to grasp, even with only two fingers). Anyway, the overall effect is that the clutches, the most sensititive control device on any telecope, end up with "play" or "travel." In fact, everything that moves on the telescope does so grudgingly, it's not smooth- it grinds, rubs, wiggles, or jerks. Also, The metal pointer wedge used to point at the latitude scale and set the latitude actually blocks out the unecessarily small and hard to see latitude scale, making this most basic task confoundingly difficult.

Finally, the pointer scope is just, well, it's pointless. An old reliable crosshair pointer would be far more useful. The dots on this pointer scope don't allow for decent pinpoint spotting (they can actually block out the object you're spotting) and they are miserable to adjust with two more hand screws which are themselves difficult to grasp and turn with any sort of control and accurracy.

So what did I like? Well the optics and the cheap price. The two eyepieces are the right choices at 10mm and 20mm and they're well made (even though they're held in place by another hand screw). Perhaps my expectations of pieces fitting together and moving smoothly were too high for this price range. I also should have been more suspicious of the spotter scope, I should have known it wouldn't work very well.

Nice product,and looks great in my living room as well have not really had a chance to use it as of yet,but this summer i will take it outside and give it a run for it's money. Well built product and strong legs.

I bought this for my kids. It's a high quality beginning telescope. We were able to get a good shot of Jupiter and it's 4 largest moons. The waxing crescent moon looked beautiful. We also got a good shot of Venus. We haven't tried Saturn yet, it's only visible early in the morning when we're asleep. We'll try later this spring, and I'll post an update.

On the downside, the star finder is hard to use. The calibration between the telescope and the star finder appears to be off, and I'm not sure how to adjust it. I found Jupiter and Venus using the elevation controls. The elevation was off 6 degrees, probably because the tripod wasn't completely level. It doesn't have a leveling bubble, so you need to eyeball it to make sure the tripod is level.

In summary, it's a good deal for the price - but not perfect.

I read the reviews of this telescope and I thought that this would be a good fit for my mom, the amatuer and beginner, stargazer. Well, this thing can look at the craters on Mars LOL! It's a little more complicated than I think she'd hope for, but once she gets the hang of it, she will be fine :)

This was a great gift. Packaged well, arrived in a timely manner, quality for the price was amazing. Just what a novice needs.