Celestron 22403 Inspire 100AZ Refractor Smartphone Adapter Built-In Refracting Telescope - Blue

Product Information

The sky may be too cloudy or hazy. Unfortunately, there’s not much that can be done about this beyond waiting for a clearer night to observe. As general rule, if you can’t see many stars with your eyes, then conditions will likely not permit the camera to “see” enough stars, either. But if you can take the telescope to an even slightly darker location, more objects will become visible. With this 4” refractor and relatively dark skies, the Andromeda Galaxy, Hercules Open Star Cluster, and so many more are easily within your reach. The finder included with the Inspire 100AZ is Celestron’s “StarPointer Pro” red dot finder. The StarPointer Pro, advertised as an improvement over Celestron’s standard “StarPointer” (itself a generic red dot finder like the kind sold with many beginner telescopes), is basically a failed attempt to copy the Telrad. It has two circles instead of a dot in the middle, both of which are exceedingly wide. It is somewhat hard to actually center anything in the finder, or align it precisely, or keep it aligned with the telescope particularly well. But for a telescope like the Inspire 100AZ, which has a short focal length and a wide field of view as a result, it works well enough to get most targets in the field of view. But if you’re hunting for faint fuzzies that you might not recognize at first glance, we might recommend replacing the StarPointer. It also includes a professional grade red dot finderscope, a ninety-degree erect image diagonal, a foldable steel tripod with a max extension of 47”, a red light flashlight, an attachable accessory tray and access to Starry Night Basic astronomy software. 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.

BBC Sky at Night magazine awarded the 100AZ 4.5 stars in their review, they said " The ease with which this scope can be set up is a real bonus for beginners wanting to start observing asap" 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. 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. The Inspire 100AZ telescope would be most suitable for younger beginners as the views and versatility would keep their interest going. Dust cap camera mountFor most people, this will be more than adequate. You will not run into the problem of running out of things to look at. If you get bored of the solar system, take a look at deep space. If deep space is too vague for your liking, take a look at the planets. Just because the images of each individual thing aren’t as sharp as its more focused competition doesn’t mean the views aren’t great. Because they are great, for the most part. Smooth Viewing 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!

With the Inspire 100AZ, it’s easy to see Saturn’s rings, the Cassini Division inside them, and a few cloud bands on the planet itself, though they aren’t very colorful and just look like symmetrical stripes. A few of Saturn’s moons can also be seen, with Titan being the brightest among them. Rhea, Tethys, and Dione are easy to spot; Enceladus and Iapetus are tougher.

Celestron Inspire 100AZ Refractor Telescope

The Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P provides a significant boost in light gathering and resolving power over the Inspire 100AZ at the same focal length, free of chromatic aberration and with a sturdy, easy-to-use tabletop Dobsonian mount. Although this telescope and its non-motorised mount are not designed with astrophotography in mind, the Inspire 100AZ’s dust cap has a novel feature – you can strap a smartphone to it and then attach the pairing to one of the two eyepieces that come with the scope. The Inspire 100AZ is an excellent entry-level telescope that will be enjoyed for years even as you progress in your astronomy experience. Can you use a Barlow lens with the Celestron Inspire Telescopes?

The Inspire 100AZ includes two standard, interchangeable 1.25” eyepieces: a 20mm Kellner providing 33x magnification and a 10mm Kellner providing 66x magnification. These are all-plastic in construction (the lenses are, thankfully, glass) and will work well. You’ll probably want additional eyepieces to get the most out of this telescope, however—both at the low power end for wide-field vistas of deep-sky objects and at the high power end for viewing the Moon and planets. Setting up the telescope is a breeze and will have you observing in no time. Even on your first time out, you can assemble the telescope and its accessories in just a few minutes. There is no extra tray to attach to the tripod as it is built in. The adjustable tripod legs allow you to customize the telescope’s height or place it on raised surfaces like a picnic table. The integrated flashlight fits in the mount to illuminate the tripod tray, so you can easily find your accessories. The total telescope kit is perfect for impromptu observing sessions or transporting wherever life’s adventures take you. 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? The 1.25″ star diagonal that comes with the Inspire 100AZ is also mostly made of plastic. It has an Amici erecting prism design, which makes sure that the images are correct both left to right and up to down. Unless you plan on frequently reading signs and snooping on people’s reading material from a distance, this feature is essentially worthless and comes at a cost, too. Due to the way it works, any Amici erecting prism produces annoying bright spikes, glare, and additional chromatic aberration on bright targets—which doesn’t help when there are already glare issues with the dew shield and chromatic aberration from the objective lens itself to begin with.During my tests I pointed the Celestron Inspire 100AZ at Venus, Jupiter and Saturn, as well as the moon moving through its many phases. It is possible to see a little chromatic aberration in the form of a purplish-yellowish line around bright objects, but it's nowhere near as distracting as on cheaper telescopes. Manually locating and then fixing on to much dimmer, harder to find objects is a challenge when using the Celestron Inspire 100AZ.