Celestron PowerSeeker 70EQ Telescope

by people ...

Product Specifications

Aperture: 70mm; focal length: 700mm
Focal ratio: 10; focal length of eyepiece ¹⁄₂: 20mm/4mm
Magnification of eyepiece ¹⁄₂: 35x/175x
Barlow lens: 3x; finder scope: 5x24
Star diagonal: 1.25 inch erect image diagonal; mount type: German equatorial
Surprisingly good optics
Correct image diagonal included
EQ mount with slow motion controls
High and low power eyepieces

Product Description

Style:70MM EQ Refractor The power seeker 70eq telescope is a Great way to open up the Wonders of the universe to the aspiring astronomer! it is designed to give the first-time buyer a Great combination of quality, value, features, and power. Set up is quick and easy with no tools necessary. View the stars with slow motion controls for smooth tracking. Erect image optics are excellent for terrestrial and astronomical use. Fully coated glass optical components are covered with high transmission coatings for enhanced image brightness and clarity while the 3x Barlow lens triples the magnifying power of each eyepiece. An accessory tray is provided for easy storage of your accessories.

Product Reviews

Superb Optics out of the Box ! Nice Solid Equatorial Mount.

This is a review specifically for the Celestron PS 114mm EQ.I got this as a gift from my daughter. After using it a few nights, I did check the mirror collimation with the $28 Celestron 1.25” collimation eyepiece (which I already had). The mirror alignment was very very close, so it needed only minimal adjustment which had no observable effects.On the third night I was able to see the moon (again) and the Orion nebula at various magnification (20mm eyepiece with and without Barlow). I was also able to see - with a Celestron Ploessel 9mm eyepiece - Jupiter and it four moons, the two main cloud stripes on Jupiter itself, and maybe some weaker ones. And the shadow of one moon on Jupiter itself, a tiny black dot near one of the poles.I do like the lightweight aluminum mount as well, it is solid if the legs are not completely extended, and it is light enough to carry around without getting a hernia. The finder scope works well for me, just in case I re-align it every time I take the telescope out.This telescope is very sharp, and a very good value right out of the box. And easy to focus. Five stars!!EDIT: Recently (February) I did buy and install the Celestron motor drive ($33 on Amazon) and it works perfectly. Once the motor drive speed is adjusted properly with the small knob (which is fairly easy to do), it keeps say Jupiter centered for close to an hour with a 7mm eyepiece. Note that the drive speed only needs to be set once, for a given latitude.Note that the Celestron 127EQ and 114EQ are quite similar in design and price, nevertheless this one has a much longer tube and does not have a correcting eyepiece in the focus tube, which seems to make it significantly sharper, or at least much easier to collimate.Recently (April) I got an inexpensive laser collimator (lk1 from seben dot com, identical to the orion lasermate) and tried it on this scope, even though it did not seem to need it. The whole job is very easy, takes less than 5-10 mins if you know what to do (there is no focuser lens in the focusing tube, this is NOT a Bird-Jones design!). The adjustments were minimal and there was no noticeable change in sharpness, as I said above mine was flawless out of the box. Look in the picture section to see my recent picture of Jupiter.Best additions to this telescope are imo the $30 Celestron motor drive (I love it!), a better quality achromatic $40 Celestron 2x Omni Barlow, and a 9mm Celestron Omni eyepiece($20 ; the telescope seems capable of a lot more than what the rather basic included eyepieces suggest). You will then be in telescope heaven, for very little money.I have also found that this scope is quite well suited to astrophotography of the planets, in my case in combination with the very reliable Celestron clock drive (have not changed a battery yet on that on in three months of use) and an inexpensive webcam (a logitech C310 in my case).PS. Added pictures of Jupiter and the Moon (April 2014). Added more pictures of Jupiter and Mars, on the latter I can clearly see one of the polar ice caps (April 2014). Took a nice picture of the Cassini division on Saturn (May 2014). Added another excellent picture I got of Jupiter on a very clear day (March 2015), you can clearly see multiple rings as well as details of the main ring clouds.

Best telescope for the money I’ve ever seen in my life and I don’t think I’m putting myself out on a limb with this one.

If anyone out there ever wanted to try out amateur astronomy but didn’t know what telescope to buy or if you’re an amateur looking for a lightweight smaller scope without compromising quality of views too significantly.Let me say from the start that I’m a refractor man and proud of it! I’ve always found chromatic aberration a minimal disturbance compared to the sharpness of resulting image due to a clean unobstructed tube of light. (and, yes, I know about and use off-axis aperture stops on my reflectors when higher magnification, but they are only practical with 8” mirrors or larger.) Refractors are virtually maintenance-free and, except for rare occasions, the tube remains completely sealed (i.e. nothing can fall in). I still have two old 8” and 13” Coulter Odysseys that I take out occasionally, but I’ve always found them awkward to use and move around and the views not all that satisfying despite their greater light gathering power (a slightly overrated attribute).I have two large refractors (a 6” Celestron and a 4” Tal) that I use and love, but they weight a ton and hard difficult to haul around. The Celestron takes at least 15 minutes or more (depending where you are) to set up properly. For several years, I’ve been looking for an inexpensive, lightweight scope with good optics I could keep fully loaded and assembled that I could quickly and easily take outside and start viewing.Several years ago I picked up a 90mm Meade refractor which was so overall terrible I didn’t think the scope I wanted even existed. In November, I came across the Celestron 70 AZ Powerseeker for a super low price and sent to a young but sharp cousin of mine. I got such a favorable report, I decided to gamble on one for myself. I was so pleased with the quality of this scope, I decided to go one further and try this 80mm equatorially mounted version for only about twice the price.I can wholeheartedly recommend this scope without the slightest hesitation or reservation. You can find it on many online sources for only around $100 and $20 shipping…an unbelievable low price and easily the best telescope deal I’ve seen in my over fifty year “career” as an amateur astronomer. The cost scope is actually less than the fifty year old price of a nearly equivalent (though inferior in EVERY respect from lens to mount to eyepieces) scope the Edmund Scientific Company sold back in the the 1950’s and 60’s. The Edmund 3” refractor was considered by most to be the best for the money back then.) This Powerseeker has 3.15” high quality objective lens, comes with eyepieces that are actually usable, as well as a sturdy tripod (providing you don’t extend the legs more than half way) AND an equatorial mount which is the preferred mount for astronomical use. Once you get used to it, you’ll be hooked. Besides, if you rotate the polar axis all the way back until the back end rests on the adjustment screw, it becomes a first rate alt-azimuth scope, perfect for terrestrial applications. So a German equatorial mount is actually both mounts in one.I would belabor the point but the optics are unexpectedly good. Even deep space objects come through with unexpected clarity and detail, (I’ve long felt that the supposed “great” advantage of reflectors over refractors with respect to viewing deep space objects has been greatly overrated), stars focus to near pinpoints, the mountains, craters and other features of our moon come through with striking detail. Saturn’s rings are clearly visible and resolve nicely even at low power, Jupiter’s bands are clearly delineated, (the famous Red Spot is hard to spot these days as it is more orange than red and doesn’t stand out as it did years ago), the greenish tinge of the Orion nebula is visible even when viewed only three miles west of downtown Miami, the tightly knit four-star trapezium in Nebula are beautifully resolved.For those of you that may be scared of an equatorial mount, don’t be. Positions of celestial objects are located using the same latitude and longitude system on earth. Imagine a hollow earth with a bright light at the center projecting the latitude and longitude grid onto the celestial sphere. The only difference is that they use the old nautical terms: declination for latitude and right ascension for longitude. Point the tube and mount to geographic north, set the polar axis to your latitude then rotate the tube around the declination axis and right ascension axes to locate your object. You lock the declination (latitude) axis and then you just have to rotate the R. A. axis to track the object.I’ll only be separated from this scope when they pry it from my cold, dead hands! I’ve been using it almost nightly since I got it. Fortunately, I live in Miami where the skies are clear most nights throughout the year and we have a nice stable turbulent-free atmosphere. On most nights stars twinkle so little, they look more like planets.Though it’s possible, I would not ever attempt astrophotography with this or any scope. I agree with John Dobson that amateur astrophotography is not a hobby but a disease! For a tiny fraction of the cost of the necessary equipment, you can buy books of Hubble photos of nearly anything in the universe whose quality will so far surpass any photo an amateur could possibly achieve through our atmosphere ridden planet as to make the effort seem a complete and useless waste of time, energy, resources and certainly money.In closing, you cannot go wrong with this amazing little telescope, the views of everything are great and it’s just so damn easy to haul around and set up. If you support it under the polar axis, it can be lifted with one hand EASILY.

Powerful telescope delivering crystal clear images

My kids like to see the night skies and constellations, so I’ve bought this telescope for its price and reach. Assembly was straightforward, although the instructions were sometimes not complete, i.e. leaving some room for guessing, especially for a novice astronomy enthusiast. Anyway, a few months passed since we got this, we have not got a chance to take it out due to the cold weather. Until last weekend. We were able to see the moon up and close for the first time. It was so clear and it almost felt like watching a movie, and if a little guy is walking on the moon we should be able to see him.The only complaint I have is the difficulty in finding the target. Perhaps this is my skills, but I found that the finder scope is not always useful: even if the object is at the crosshair, I still need to adjust the telescope quite a bit to center the object to see it.Overall a nice telescope and we expect much fun with it down the road.

Good telescope but…

The telescope is fine for the one that use it for first time…I will talk about the device in other occasion but here are some pictures that I made with…Picture were taken by mobitel so sorry about quality

Four Stars

Great price but very complicated to assemble. You will need help

First telescope, good value

First telescope for me. I live in the burbs about 20 miles north of Manhattan, lots of light pollution. I was impressed with the ease of setup.

I know we will enjoy many more hours gazing through this wonderful telescope

This telescope is every bit impressive as it looks! Works really well and has a guide book. Instructions were not complicated and we put it together in a few minuets.

Five Stars

No problems

You can see better with your plain eye

DOES NOT WORK. You can see better with your plain eye.

Parts missing.

Missing a bunch of stuff.

Five Stars

Great scope, especially for the price.

Everything works as it should but if you get this …

Everything works as it should but if you get this you should get a different barlow. No matter what i do i cant get the telescope to focus with this barlow.