Celestron 21024 FirstScope Telescope

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Product Specifications

FirstScope Telescope
76mm aperture reflector optical tube
Moveable tube for ease of navigation for viewing
Lightweight, portable
Two eyepieces included

Product Description

Style:FirstScope | Product Packaging:Standard Packaging FirstScope Telescope Official Product of the 2009 International Year of Astronomy. Ideal astronomical entry level telescope. The FirstScope Telescope pays tribute to Galileo Galilei and may of history’s most notable astronomers and scientists. We honor these men and women for their contributions bringing us one step closer to understanding the universe around us. The compact design makes it easy to take with you on your next outdoor adventure. The FirstScope is also stylish enough to be used as a decorative fixture on your bookshelves or desk.

Product Reviews

Fantastic Beginner Table-top

I have one regret from purchasing this item, and that is that I’m a more serious beginner than this scope allows. But that doesn’t mean that this is not an excellent scope. It is crystal clear and catches a ton of light for its size. I have another beginner scope from T**sRUs (4-inch 150mm), and it is horrible compared to this one. In fact, I almost exclusively use this scope for viewing the night sky (until, at least, I modify the 4-inch to have an adjustable primary mirror).I’m not sure how you would collimate this scope, as it doesn’t have an adjustable primary mirror or spider vanes. But it didn’t need collimation when I got it (unlike the 4-inch), and it doesn’t need it now.The moon is ultra-sharp through this scope, and you can check my user photo of Saturn for what to expect from the planets.

IMPORTANT! You will not see Jupiter as large as in the pictures of the “vanilla” FirstScope.

IMPORTANT! You will not see Jupiter as large as in the pictures of the “vanilla” FirstScope. This Cometron version comes with different eyepieces than the Celestron FirstScope with the names of astronomers on it (the “vanilla” FirstScope). The Cometron verrsion comes with 20mm and 10mm eyepieces, yielding 15x and 30x magnification, respectively. The “vanilla” version comes with 20mm and 4mm eyepieces, yielding 15x and 75x magnification. You can still see Jupiter and its moons with the Cometron version, but they look like stars.Despite the lack of extreme magnification (which frankly will look blurry with such a small scope), this scope is a wonderful device! I’ve used it every clear night since it arrived (about three weeks ago), and I am never disappointed. The included finder scope is a bit of a pain to zero in properly, as it is manual and not an electronic red dot scope, but it works well after some effort. The moon is wonderful, as is seeing star clusters which are invisible to the naked eye. I have not gone out to a dark sky location yet, but I am sure this scope will only impress me even more.

Great telescope at a great price!

I bought this for my 7 year old nephew who is interested in astronomy. I own two large pro telescopes so I was interested to see how this compares. I was very surprised at how well this works. This is a great starter scope with good optics and I’m considering getting one for myself. My other scopes take about 10 minutes to set up and this scope would make for quick and easy viewing on nights when I don’t have a lot of time to go outside and observe. The one suggestion I would make is to buy one or two Celestron Omni eyepieces as they are better quality. I would suggest a 25mm, 12mm or 9mm. The two eyepieces that come with the scope are ok, which is to be expected at this price, but better eyepieces make viewing much more enjoyable. If you are looking for a good telescope but are on a budget, this is the one to get.

Completely happy with it.

At first I was hesitant with the reviews. I’m so glad I bought this. It is a great beginners scope. It teaches you one thing you need in this hobby. Patience. It easy to set up and maintain. For the price I don’t have to worry about a huge loss if my two year old breaks it. That’s who I bought it for. He loves the moon, and this gives great views of the moon. He can even adjust it! If you are just starting out. Buy it!Side note. A buddy of mine that is stationed in Hawaii bought it because I did. Says the views are absolutely amazing there with it.

Great first telescope, or first Dobson

This was a bargain for under $40 around Christmastime. Excellent first telescope, sighting is easy to learn, good picture. And if you want to buy more lenses, these take the same diameter lenses (1.25”) as the more expensive telescopes (but not the gigantic observatory-quality 2” diameter lenses), not the tiny (⁷⁄₈”) cheap-telescope lenses.This means that if you become more interested, you can start to improve your viewing by buying some nice Tele Vue brand lenses – because, face it, the crispest view will take expensive lenses – (like maybe a few plossl lenses http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001GO16M/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 of various sizes, maybe a barlow 2xhttp://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001GJCIE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)… and later if you buy “up” to more expensive telescope (whether it’s a Dobson, an SC reflector, or a refractor), you’ll be able to use the same quality Tele Vue lenses (or whatever brand you prefer.)And even after you have your more expensive telescope, this is a highly portable, easy to set up, not too hard to re-collimate (Celestron has a good collimation eyepiece for low cost, with step-by-step instructions http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00009R7RJ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ) scope to grab and go.BUT - even without buying anything else, this has all you need to get started with some nice views of the moon, or planets in our solar system, and to start to appreciate the night sky a little more.

Thumbs up.

Not the quality I was looking for. Absolutely incredible and a great price to boot! Can’t go wrong! Will definitely buy several more sets in the future!

My 5-year-old grandson, a budding scientist, loves it and wants to look at stars and the moon every chance he gets. Would definitely recommend this as a first telescope.

Fun Scope

Fun for first-timers: portable and convenient.

Views of saturn

Great starter scope for kids. Out of the box my favorite eyepiece is the 10mm Kellner. I bought the Celestron 94308 observers accessory kit and by using the blue planetary filter…