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

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One of the standout features of this telescope is its ease of use; you can assemble it in a matter of minutes and do not require any difficult tools to do so. In addition, the tripod legs are fully adjustable so you can alter the high of the telescope or even place it on a raised surface. This makes it great for impromptu observation sessions which come by more than you expect! 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. Although your smartphone camera already has a lens and therefore can’t be used at prime focus, light collected by the telescope can be projected into your phone’s camera by an eyepiece in a process known as afocal photography.

The Inspire 100AZ isn't just about astrophotography, but it’s not as able with deep sky objects as it may appear. A reasonably short focal length of 660mm makes this achromatic refractor primarily ideal for observing targets within our solar system, but its f/6.5 focal ratio is just enough to get eyes-on with some reasonably faint deep-sky objects. That’s a lot of added extras. IThe Popular Science by Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 100AZ uses the same optical tube and includes the same accessories as the Inspire 100AZ, but with an improved alt-azimuth mount that has slow-motion adjustments – further aided by Celestron’s StarSense Explorer technology to make aiming the telescope even easier. Aperture is without doubt the most fundamental of the specification to consider. Not just for a Refractor but for any telescope for that matter. Aperture is defined in mm; which simply refers to the the diameter of the light collecting region of the telescope. The larger this diameter the better as it means it can collect more light and present brighter and sharper images (which in turn allows for more magnification)

Celestron Inspire 100az Refractor Telescope - Getting Started Equipment Help and Advice - Stargazers Lounge Jump to content A basic 4-inch/100 mm refractor, it's got no 'go-to' features so you're going to have to be confident enough to find your own targets in the night sky.

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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. For the most part you can add your smartphone with its case on, but if you have an extra large case you may need to take it off for it to fit the adapter. Additional Accessories Here are some other features that users report to be thoroughly impressed with: Variable and High Magnification Personally, however, I do find it a little expensive for what it is. If you haven't yet bought it, there are perhaps better alternatives. As D4N says, phone adapters are readily available. For example https://www.firstlightoptics.com/celestron-astromaster-series/astromaster-90az-telescope.html would leave some money left over to upgrade eyepieces etc., or a little dearer, https://www.firstlightoptics.com/startravel/skywatcher-startravel-120-az3.html has more aperture and probably better optics.