In all of these things, the Celestron Inspire 100AZ Refractor performs well and is a great way to fool around and learn each in turn. What Can It See? Your telescope has a 1.25 inch focuser tube and diagonal - this means that any 1.25" eyepiece (EP) will fit. EPs start at about 20 pounds and go up to over 400 pounds each so you have a very wide choice. There are a lot of good eyepieces at the cheaper end though which will work very well. Prices depend on optical quality and also on design. Also a great book to consider is one called "Turn Left At Orion". It shows you hundreds of objects in the night sky and how to find them easily. It shows them well and how to expect them to look in different size scopes from small to large (and i think the newest edition even shows what to expect when using binoculars). Well worth buying. The achromatic doublet lens is fully coated. It’s only a thin coating, but it’s evenly applied with no bad spots.Stars examined through the Inspire 100AZ retained good shapes up to almost 80 per cent of the field of view. Please complete the form below for a quote - Please be as accurate as possible to help us give an accurate quote.

The erect image diagonal ensures that all of the images are upright when you are looking through the telescope. Without it, refractor telescopes naturally display images upside down due to the way they collect light and process images. This also makes it so you can technically use this telescope as a terrestrial scope where you can take a look at things right here on Earth as well. Just make sure never to look at the sun if you are using it during the day! A used Inspire 100AZ is a nice scope, but if it’s not taken care of well, its many plastic parts could cause irreparable damage if it’s not kept up. Barring that, however, a used Inspire 100AZ will be fine if you can get it for a reasonable price-our recommendation is to never pay more than 80% of the new cost for a new telescope, eyepiece, or piece of astronomical gear. Alternative Recommendations The extra magnification of your eyepiece will help you to take great photos of whatever it is you are observing, whether that is the the Moon and the Planets or anything on the ground if you are using it for terrestrial purposes (e.g. Wildlife). To fit the adapter, all you need to do is fit it on top of one of the eyepieces (instructions on how to do this are included in the box) and attaching the bungee cords. Your smartphone will then be held firmly in position.

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The Celestron Inspire 100AZ is part of the Inspire line of refractors, so named because they are meant to inspire children and so forth, as well as be extremely easy to use. Other than the poor-quality telescopes making up Celestron’s poor-quality bargain lines like the PowerSeeker and AstroMaster series of telescopes, the Inspire refractors are meant to be Celestron’s flagship line of all-manual instruments. They’re a bit unusual in that they neither try to offer purely an aperture-for-price value (as with most reflectors) nor a “professional” appearance like many cheap equatorial or fork-mounted refractors. This telescope also features fully coated glass optics which decreases potential anomalies in the viewing and increases image quality. Not all telescopes have coated optics, in fact, you would be surprised how many do not. These coatings are a great addition to an already solid telescope and really make the views pop. With a large 100mm (4”) objective lens, this telescope has enough light gathering ability to bring out impressive detail in celestial objects. You can expect sharp, bright views of Jupiter’s four Galilean moons, its cloud bands and Great Red Spot, the rings of Saturn, the trapezium in the Orion Nebula, and beautiful Ple ia des Open Star Cluster. Celestron’s XLT optical coatings improve light transmission, enhancing the views even more. The telescope also includes a 90-degree erect image diagonal, so you can use it during the day to view birds, wildlife, landscapes, and more. The battery compartment on this finderscope is located on top of the unit. Use a Philips-head screwdriver to loosen the screw holding the battery door closed. The screw is captured and will not fall out when you open the battery door.

Uranus and Neptune are unfortunately rather unexciting with the Inspire 100AZ-they’re difficult to distinguish from stars, their disks are so small that they are barely resolvable, and their moons are simply dim enough to be well out of reach of a telescope with only 100mm of aperture.The Inspire 100AZ telescope would be most suitable for younger beginners as the views and versatility would keep their interest going. Dust cap camera mount

Uranus and Neptune aren’t very interesting to look at with the Inspire 100AZ because it’s hard to tell them apart from stars, their disks are so small that you can barely see them, and their moons are just too dim to see with a 100mm telescope. Weight wise, if you're interested in which is the most portable option, there is not a great deal in it between our contenders, as both are around a weighty though not restrictive 10kg. Celestron Inspire 100AZ and Meade Polaris 114mm: price & extras Never look directly at the Sun with the naked eye or with an optic (unless you have the proper solar filter). Permanent and irreversible eye damage may result. Includes 1 free year of the “SLOOH Astronomer” subscription. Remotely reserve, control, and image through professional grade telescopes, access to livestream SLOOH shows, and many other featuresAs expected, bright stars showed some chromatic aberration but, generally, the correct star colours were observed – orange Aldebaran, the blue-white Pleiades and the lovely contrasting pair of Albireo were all accurately represented. After an initial alignment with the main telescope, the red dot finder proved useful and, again, is an ideal addition for beginners taking their first steps into stargazing – especially if they’re learning how to find objects by star hopping with a star chart and the supplied red flashlight. Lastly, and most controversially, is the lens cap/smartphone adapter. Celestron’s design here is straight up bizarre. By removing a small plug from the cap and removing the eyecup from your desired eyepiece, then camping the assembly together with a small plastic screw, you can slide your smartphone between the elastic straps on the lens cap and use it as a crude smartphone “digiscoping” adapter. However, this has a few caveats. For one, it won’t fit any aftermarket eyepieces that don’t have a flush barrel and removable eyecup. Secondly, it obstructs a portion of your smartphone’s screen, which can make setting your phone camera’s focus and other features somewhat difficult. Last but not least, you are entrusting your smartphone’s safety to some cheap elastic straps and a singular nylon thumb screw. So keep that in mind.

It’s then a simple matter of pointing the Inspire 100AZ at a Solar System object (including the Sun if a suitable front-mounted solar filter is used), adjusting the focus and capturing a short video for processing in AutoStakkert! or RegiStax. Celestron Inspire 100AZ refractor. Credit: BBC Sky at Night Magazine StarPointer Pro Red Dot Finder The Inspire 100AZ has a lens cap with a built-in smartphone adapter. Set your device up against the rubberized friction surface on the exterior of the lens cap so that the camera is observing via the imaging port. Two adjustable bungee cords help safeguard your smartphone. The interior of the lens cap features a fitting that fastens to your eyepiece using two set screws. This is all you need to take high power images through your Celestron Inspire 100AZ! The included accessories give you a great value right out of the box and enhance this telescope’s strengths immediately.

An affordable refractor with lots of aperture, a built-in red light and a novel solution for smartphone astrophotography.

If you do go with the Celestron Inspire, remember the maximum magnification with the supplied eyepieces is x66. For the Moon and planets, your son would probably enjoy more power. You have two possibilities, get an additional eyepiece - perhaps 5mm or 6mm which would give x132 and x110 respectively. A Plossl design would perform well, but these have little eye relief at higher powers. The Inspire 100AZ is realistically the best refractor you’re going to get in its price range. The Inspire 100AZ is only an acceptable, but so-so telescope. We would recommend you consider a reflector instead, as few refractors of acceptable quality exist in this price range. All reflectors have larger apertures and, in some ways, better mounts and optics than the Inspire 100AZ. Here are some of our favorites. The Zhumell Z100 and Orion SkyScanner 100mm technically have slightly less light-gathering ability than the Inspire 100AZ, but don’t suffer from chromatic aberration and are much easier to aim. The shorter focal length and resultingly wider field of view helps, too. Celestron provide a comprehensive set of accessories to use with this scope. The following come included in the box: Extras Red-dot finder, erect image star diagonal, 10mm and 20mm eyepieces, red light LED torch, printed instruction manual