Celestron 21061 AstroMaster 70AZ Refractor Telescope, Dark Blue

This is a fantastic beginners refractor telescope. I bought this for my sons 8th birthday earlier this year. Unfortunately we just missed out on the clear skies we had in March with the Jupiter Venus conjunction. That said we've had a few clear skies since then to get good use out of the scope where we have seen some fabulous views of the moon, Jupiter, Venus & Saturn. I would highly recommend an additional purchase of the Celestron eyepiece set to use with this scope. The refractor comes with two eyepieces, a 20mm & 10mm. The 20mm is ok but the 10mm in my opinion is a poor eyepiece. Since purchasing the eyepiece set I don't think I have bothered with either of the two included eyepieces as the set one's are far better quality (in particular the 32mm eyepiece). Getting back to the telescope I was impressed with the build quality of both the tripod and scope. The tripod is an Alt-Azimuth. At first I regretted not getting an equatorial mount for the scope which is recommended over the Alt-Azimuth for astronomy. I'm not so bothered about it now as I find the tripod very easy to set up which means I can get it out of the house and into the garden quickly. My son has also used the scope for spotting on the seafront which an Alt-Azimuth is recommended for so you now have more than one use for the telescope. Perhaps in the future we may purchase an equatorial mount when it's time to upgrade but this suits us perfectly for now. The scope has a dove tail mount for the tripod, I noticed some reviewers complain about the scope wobbling at the mount which I have also experienced but I got round this by taking my time carefully mounting the scope to the tripod. Once done you don't really need to do this again as I tend to put the telescope away by removing the tray and collapsing the tripod legs rather than removing the scope from the tripod. With the stock 20mm eyepiece you will see Jupiter and it's four largest moons, the phases of Venus, Saturn with it's rings visible and as expected with most telescopes very clear close up images of the moon. I think this is excellent for what is a sub £100 telescope. There are of course things not to like at this price range. I've already commented on what I think about the stock eyepieces. My only other gripe is with the diagonal which has a cheap plastic feel to it. It's perfectly functional but I found over time it loosened with the screws not doing a good job of holding it tightly to the back of the scope. I ended up replacing this for a better quality celestron diagonal which cost about £25. Money well spent. Hopefully you can see an image I have attached of the moon taken with a compact camera mounted to this telescope via a 32mm eyepiece. Definitely recommend upgrading your eyepieces, that said at less than £100 this is the scope to get and perfect for starting out in Astronomy. Update - 19-Sep-2012 :- Just like to add that I recently purchased a Telrad red dot finder to use with this telescope which I'm very glad I did as it helped me locate the Andromeda Galaxy last night! Seeing conditions were as good as they get with no moon but still some light pollution what with living 35 miles outside of London and near an airport. People who say that this scope is limited to just solar objects are wrong! You can use this for viewing Deep Sky Objects (DSO) as well. Ok Andromeda was just a faint grey smudge but I still managed to locate it with this telescope using the stock 20mm eyepiece. Simply amazing!

I bought both the 50AZ and 70AZ and they are worlds apart! The 70AZ has a very useable tripod and the Eyepieces are of good enough quality for starters. Obviously using more expensive/better quality eyepieces will improve performance. my only gripe with the telescope i recieved was some of the polystyrene packaging(a few specks) had got inside the tube either during packing or delivery. i shook them out without much dificulty. Performance wise the telescope is good, the red dot finder is reasonably easy to set up, but when looking at objects overhead you have to get right under it which needs some contortions at times. i would recommend this scope to starters, it's light weight and reasonable construction make it worth the £65.00 spent. The 50AZ was £40 cheaper but absolutely useless, i wrote a review about it, but in summary i was deeply saddened by celestrons decision to let the 50AZ be marketed under their name. especially as their other products of 60mm and upwards are all good budget kit. Dont believe all you may read on other sites telling you that you need a big reflector telescope to see anything. these long focal length refractors are virtually CA free (chromatic aberation) and give good views for beginners. the whole myth of poor optics on small refractors comes from cheap telescopes like the 50AZ and other toyshop telescopes.

As far as introductory scopes go, this is exceptionally good for the price. You can see a fair amount with it such as pleiades (a beautiful cluster of stars with a faint cloud), and the craters and dents of the moon (you will need to purchase a moon filter as the moon is very bright). You can also see jupiter and if you strain your eyes hard enough you can JUST about make out the very faint stripes. The greatest problem I have had with the scope is the mount. It does not allow for precision scanning of the sky and you have to pull/push the telescope itself into position. Also, once it is in position, it does not stay there and moves - this makes it hard to look at an object for a while or to take pictures (you may need to purchase additional kits to take pictures, i got a kit for my nikkon camera). But lets be honest here, for the price, the makers have to cut corners on something and in this instance, the mount lost out. You can buy different mounts which allow for much more precision as they have twisty knobs which tilt the scope in minute directions and hold it there. I've had great fun learning with this telescope over the last few months, and i am now upgrading to a skywatcher one (with a better mount!). If you are a beginner, don't know if astronomy is for you and don't want to spend ridiculous amounts of money then this could be the scope for you. If you are hoping to see massive cloudy nebulas and great details of planets (i.e all the lines and the great red spot of jupiter) then avoid this scope and invest in something more expensive. Bear in mind that the multicoloured nebulas you see in magazines are the result of thousands of photos stacked upon each other, with coloured filters and hours of work - you wont see these sorts of images with your eyes.

Bought as a gift for my Dad which was very well received, he absolutely loves it and as it keeps him quiet, so does my Mum! :) After reading several reviews on other Telescopes ranging from budget to ridiculous, this seemed the better option, Dad has found it easy to use and view the stars with, so as a cheaper scope that will keep his attention this has been a useful and handy introduction to Astronomy, maybe in a couple of years he may need an upgrade to a more expensive model, but for now this does the job very well. Definitely recommended for the budding astronomer.

The Celestron Astromaster 70AZ is a lovely starter scope for anyone. After re-searching for ages and not really having an idea what is good for a beginner & what’s not I went with this. Easy to set up. Everything is very well made and it comes with two lens pieces that are 20mm & 10mm which for a beginner is more than enough. You can see the moon superbly & the craters. Aswell as other cool clusters & nebulas such as the Pleides & the Orion Nebula. Had great fun with it so far and very happy with the price. I’ve attached a photo & video of the moon. Photo with the 20mm & video with the 10mm. Both using a moon filter.

Not quite as easy to see the stars as we thought. Although it wasn't expected to be a plug and play item, it did take a lot of understanding the instructions given before we can get any enjoyment out of it,.

It's easy to assemble and quickly learn to use. It comes with 20mm and 10mm eyepieces. I bought a 2x Barlow lens to improve magnification. I was able to see the rings of Saturn along with a couple of moons very clearly with the 2x attached to the10mm. Also saw Jupiter with its four Galilean moons. It is mostly useful for greater detail of what's already visible with the naked eye. And of course viewing conditions are always extremely important. The finder scope is a little flimsy and difficult to use at times.

Ive recently bought this telescope and im very impressed with all the features,its easy to set up and easy to use. It has a good sturdy tripod and the eyepieces work well, you can move it around and up and down so you can track stars and planets easily. It came packaged well with clear instructions and delivery was quick. Im waiting for a clear night so i can see the moon and other planets but overall its good value for money and i recommend it :)

The celestron Astromaster 70 As is just an astronomical marvel .First of all the packaging was very good taking care that non of the components were damaged during transit. The components of the scope were very easy to assemble requiring no use of the manual at all. The tripod is sturdy,heavy and made of cast iron which gives this awesome tripod a lot of stability. The pan handle of this tripod makes movement both in horizontal and vertical direction very easy. The tripod comes with lock capability to stabilize the scope at a particular site in the sky. Coming to the telescope itself,its just a beauty with a dark glossy blue paint which gives the scope a lot of glamour. The optics are fully coated to give crisp view. The objective is covered with a 2 inch collar which prevents scattered light to enter the objective . its also has its own cap to prevent dust entry. The scope comes with fully coated 20 mm and 10 mm eyepieces of 1.25 diameter. Even though both are Kellner eyepieces the 10 mm gives excellent view of both land and sky objects. The 10 mm is a bit letdown. However upgradation to 15 mm super plossl gives awesome views. The moon has gotten so near coz of this scope.All craters are easily visible and the smooth rack and pinion focuser makes focusing a glory. Venus going through its lunar like transits are easily visible, Jupiter with its moons.the cloud band of Jupiter can be easily appreciated. Saturn with its rings is just a sight to take ones breathe away.mars with a little adjustment reveals its ice caps with this scope. The orion nebula and deep sky objects like Andromeda galaxy are visible through it. The scope also has its own utility tray for keeping spare eyepieces.The scope comes along with a led finderscope which can be adjusted with two finger screws to bring the finder's dots in alignment with the telescope. This telescope even comes with its own sky software which is also very easy to use. One can chose his own location in the pc and locate objects in the sky with ease.However there is always room for improvement by celestron.The telescope is little jerky at high magnificatins which needs correction. The 10 mm eyepiece should be changed.it has very little eye relief. Since its a 70 mm f13 objective so one should not hope of getting useable magnifications above 140x. I had a 6 inch reflector but this gives much clearer images. Another great part of all refractors is that they don't need any maintenance. The reflectors require constant collimation which is a pain. Then the mirrors slowly lose their optical abilities requiring realuminization which is an even greater pain. But such tragedies are avoided if one buys any refractor telescopes. Overall its a great scope , worth the price. Only thing is that one should buy a plossl 15 mm for best results.....

it is a great scope for beginners! I bought it for my 5 yr old son who could see the moon and its craters in his first try!! super easy to setup, looks sturdy and made of quality materials. Displacement not sharp so I guess it will be a good challenge to visualize smaller objects such as Jupiter or Saturn. we only looked at the moon which was amazing! very sharp image ( you do not see same quality in the picture attached taken by my cellphone). all in all highly recommended for beginners who look for sth that motivates you in astronomy. UPDATED: we bought this in last winter so no chance to try it regularly (winter=coldddd), until now (May 2021) that weather is pleasant. and now we started to discover this little powerful scope! the second picture I uploaded is taken with my phone just through the eyepiece! the same way and the same phone I used for the first picture but as you get used to the scope and better adjust it you can enjoy it more and more. the picture quality is that good that I decided to buy the T ring adaptor for my Nikon SLR camera to mount it on the scope and take even better quality pictures. also I bought a set of eyepieces with different magnification plus a set of filters to level up our sky watching experience. all said, I recommend this scope 100%.

Muito bom telescópio, principalmente para iniciantes!

Oyuncak gibi

Tenía dudas de comprar el telescopio debido a reseñas que indicaban que llegaba en mal estado o que les enviaban el modelo LT, sin embargo llegó en perfecto estado y justo el modelo que es Astromaster 70az incluye todo lo que dice la publicación y el manual de usuario y ensamble es bastante claro.