Celestron21024 FirstScope Telescope & 21024-ACC FirstScope Accessory Kit (Black)

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.

I recently purchased the Celestron FirstScope 21024 Telescope along with the Celestron Accessories Kit and 50 Things To See With A Small Telescope. I am an adult, who is new to astronomy, and this is my first telescope. So far, according to the book I've seen Europa. I haven't seen anything else yet due to bad weather. It was really simple to set up and I can take it anywhere I go because it is lightweight. Many people ask about sitting the telescope on a tripod. You can't do it with an actual, traditional tripod because there is nothing to screw it to. However, a friend of mine came up with an excellent idea. I bought a portable, adjustable laptop, projector stand. It is the Pyle PLPTS3 (23"-41"). It's perfect. To begin with, I no longer have to twist, turn or bend into uncomfortable positions to look into the scope. I can now view in total comfort. Also I can take the scope anywhere I go, along with the stand, which sets up in less than two minutes and I can put it at whatever height is comfortable for me, whether sitting or standing.

I bought this telescope as a present for my son on his 5th birthday after looking at reviews, and reading that this scope should be good for viewing the moon and our inner planets. The pictures online made it look like the perfect option since we like to go camping and could take this scope with us. My son was so excited he could hardly contain himself. You can image his disappointment, and my heart break, when we set it up to look at Saturn and Mars and all we could see was a blurry dot no larger than what we could see with our naked eye, and yes, I was using the proper eye piece. I contacted customer support and here's what they said."Good evening Sean,The Firstscope is an inexpensive very basic entry-level, easy to use, low power telescope designed to introduce kids to the sky. Its 300mm focal length combined with the low power eyepiece is only 15X and the high power eyepiece is 60X. With this small telescope, the planets will be a mere dot. The telescope works best showing the phases of the moon or large objects like the Orion Nebula or the Pleiades. It is too small of a telescope to display planetary detail. For that, a larger, more capable telescope will be needed.Celestron Technical Support"Huge disappointment.

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 on the 10mm kellner with the 2x Barlow you can see Saturn just below the moon. Switch to the 6mm Plossl eyepiece with the blue filter and the 2x Barlow and you can see Saturn at the size of an eraser head with enough clarity to see the space between the rings and the planet. For the moon the 10mm kellner with the 2x Barlow and moon filter works best. You can very easily see individual craters and canyons. We sit in a city of 50k at 5000 feet.

Short version: Cool for beginners and kids, but not incredibly powerful. Great intro to the night sky, especially for the price.Longer version: I've got to admit, I'm just getting into this...but I'm loving it.I was looking for something that 1) wasn't expensive, 2) could be used by my kids, 3) somewhat portable.Power - I realized it wouldn't be the most powerful telescope, but I wasn't too concerned about that. Moon views are great, and I can see stars a bit closer than naked eye.Price - I felt it was a good value for something to start with. I didn't want to pay $200 and up to find out I wasn't interested. So I'm thankful this was there as an option.Ease of use - I wanted something I could use as well as my kids. I think it's pretty easy to use for the most part. It's tough sometimes to line up on a star, and I don't really know how to adjust magnifications too well, but I'm getting better. My 5 year old daughter enjoys when I focus on the moon and let her look at it. I want to spark her interest, and I'm already seeing her enjoy it.Portability - This is great. I can grab it off the shelf, head outside, and start looking around. No huge setup or anything.Bottom line - I enjoy it. Granted, it's not the most powerful thing. It has, however, confirmed my interest and sparked my daughter's interest in astronomy.*Photo taken with my cell phone by just holding next to the eyepiece.

Way out of collimation, nothing comes to a clear focus. The best it can do with either eyepiece are fuzzy stars and chromatically-aberrated moon views. A headache to look at - simple binoculars do a way better job. I'd recommend keeping the box and being ready to return if you get a lemon. Also difficult to find objects in the sky without a finder scope (not included) as everything is backwards horizontally and vertically.Update: apparently mine shipped without a rubber o-ring behind the secondary (small) mirror that allows it to be adjusted with its 3 screws. I made a replacement out of a cut-up rubber band and fiddled with it to get it into decent collimation. But seems like quality control issues.

Bought this expecting not great things, but it still managed to massively disappoint the entire family.The focus range is tiny and even letting go of the adjustment wheel is enough to put it out of focus again. Even when (if) you do finally manage to focus the image is so poor as to be worthless. Trying to get your eye in the correct position to see anything at all risks knocking it which either loses focus or the object you're looking at. I managed to focus on the moon but was underwhelemed by the extra "detail" the telescope offered. As for looking at one of the planets, might as well forget it as it just turns a small white dot into a marginally bigger white dot. A set of binoculars offers a way better image and is simpler to use.My advice is to avoid this telescope as if somebody had just sneezed on it, and buy something a bit more expensive from a company other than Celestron...trust me whatever you buy can't be worse than this.

Bought this for my Son for Christmas, along with the book and the Accessory kit. The book was fine. The Accessory kit was ok, apart from it was missing the Sky X CD it said it was supposed to come with...And when we took the telescope out to assemble it, we noticed that two of the feet were snapped off! :0 No idea how that happened as the box was all intact. So we had a sad little boy Christmas morning for a while until we'd manage to convince him that Mummy and Daddy would "sort it" for him.So now we have the problem / hassle of either sending it all back, or doing without the CD and trying to fix new holes in the bottom of the telescope. I have managed to hold it up to look at the moon already and i have to say the quality is really good, and my boy was pretty impressed as well. Hopefully you will have a better experience/purchase than what we had.

Great little starter scope for the moon and near solar system object. Compact size. Good price. Focus is a little fussy but ok. SADLY HOWEVER on opening the box (on Christmas Day) it looked a return / someone hated there under payed job of putting scopes together. The mounting bracket from the hinge / tube was missing a bolt and the remainder was lose. Optics were misaligned. Thankfully it’s a fairly simple piece of kit and easily remedied with a little fettling and now my 6 yr old girl & I can stare happily into the mind crushing expanse of space.

What a wicked good telescope this is! I bought this for my husband for Christmas and he said he got the money's worth within ten minutes of sitting in the back garden!Easy to set up and use he would recommend to anyone.

Whilst this isn't the most powerful scope out there, the quality of the optics is great for the price. It's perfect for looking at the moon and very easy to use once you get familiar with lining it up. It also looks pretty smart when you are not using it. Well worth the money.