10 reviews for Celestron – PowerSeeker 70EQ Telescope – Manual German Equatorial Telescope for Beginners – Compact and Portable – Bonus Astronomy Software Package – 70mm Aperture

1. 

   5 out of 5

   david curtis – February 22, 2020

   First of all, knowledge does not come with any telescope. That is on you and if you don’t want to work and study at it, astronomy isn’t for you. HOWEVER, My six year old son and I have had a ball with this scope. Jupiter and its moons are brilliant. Saturn and its rings are fabulous. But you cant see all that with this or any other telescope without the right lenses!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I bought a meade 12.4 and a 6 mm lenses and this telescope came to life. The lenses are the trick!!! I live in Birmingham Alabama and I can see all the planets fine. All that light pollution stuff is bull. That is for people wanting to see far far away objects. If you don’t like to work at something then astronomy isn’t for you. I would talk more but my son and I have to go look at a beautiful view of Saturn. I have my whole neighborhood looking at the planets!!! All this scope needs is a little knowledge, a few you tube videos, and LENSES. THE LENSES ARE LIKE EYEGLASSES, WITHOUT THEM YOU WILL NOT SEE ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2. 

   5 out of 5

   Anthony – March 25, 2020

   This was my first real telescope.. Watch a few videos on how to use the EQ tripod. and it was very easy for me to get the hang of it.the tuneing knobs on the tripod make it easy to case what your viewing. Works better then i expected. Very satisfied. Me and th kids have viewed the moon Venus,Jupiter,Saturn and m3 galaxy. Galaxy had no real detail but palnets look great. Even in the middle of Sacramento CA. I ordered a 3pc. Svbony Eyepiece set on Amazon 25mm 17.5mm and a 9mm it was like $30 and are a little better then the ones it comes with..i recommend you do the same because the 4mm it comes with is just to blury 9mm works good on this scope

3. 

   5 out of 5

   Bobparr67 – April 15, 2020

   It’s a very good quality Telescope with equatorial mount. It requires effort and learning to assemble and use, but is not overly complicated. It allows you to lock in an object and fine tune the view so that it can be shared with others. It was a hit with the grand kids!

4. 

   5 out of 5

   Billy – April 17, 2020

   just a beginner in astro photography using this scope with my dslr it works good just I am not very good with it there is a learning curve with this setup.

5. 

   5 out of 5

   chasity – June 18, 2020

   I purchased this telescope for my boyfriend for his birthday. He absolutely loves all things related to the universe and is fascinated by the stars and space. He has never had a telescope so I thought this would be a perfect gift for him but was nervous about buying one. I did not want to purchase a cheap one that he wouldn’t get real enjoyment out of, but I also didn’t want to purchase an expensive fancy one that would be too much for a beginner. This telescope is perfect. It was pretty easy to assemble but did take a little getting used to how to use it. The first night we used it we did not have much luck with figuring it out so we waited until a night with a full moon so that we had a large target to practice using all of the functions with which is what I recommend if you have never used a telescope before. Great buy!

6. 

   5 out of 5

   R.G.E. Tiegs – July 12, 2020

   Bought this as a gift for my 12 y/o granddaughter who is thrilled with it and the capabilities of it. The equatorital mount is very helpful for tracking what you are viewing due to earth’s movement. while the mechanism is manual it is better than the alternative. I would recommend this for a begining or early intermediate astronomer/star seeker. Shipping was quicker than I thought it would be for the holiday season and the unit is wonderfully solidly packed. Have fun.

7. 

   5 out of 5

   PRNLM – July 12, 2020

   So I was in the market for an astroscope for my kids. It’s been decades since I used to truck my newtonian reflector around and when I dug it out in the garage, I just didn’t want to tackle the job of pulling it back from the brink and getting it into shape.I read some fairly pannish reviews of the Celestron basic scopes online, including a fairly pannish review of this one, but I went with it anyway because it seemed that the price couldn’t be beaten for an 80mm refractor.I was apprehensive, but I need not have worried. Optics are great, very well aligned, very easy and smooth to focus, with very little in the way of chromatic aberration or visual defects. Got ahold of a variety of Plossl eyepieces from 26mm down to 4.x mm and have now had a chance to use all of them. Found all to be very usable.The tripod is excellent for this price and I’m not going out on a limb to say that if you had to just buy the tripod from a science shop, you’d pay more in a retail store for the tripod alone. It’s well made, the fine adjustments work well and are precise and modular, and it’s just generally very robust.This is a delightful beginner scope at a very, very affordable price and I really can’t find anything to complain about. The reviews for this scope on hobbyist sites specifically mentioned a lackluster tripod, iffy optics, and a lackluster set of eyepieces included. I find all of these complaints to be either verrry nitpicky or just plain wrong.The kids have already spent several evenings breathlessly exploring the surface of the moon in very good detail, and we’ve taken a few shots through it as well with a camera phone that turned out very nicely.I guess if you’re a serious hobbyist that has a $1k+ scope that you take to meet-ups or something then this may seem like an amateur piece. But if you’re just a family looking to explore the sky and get excited while doing it, this fits the bill perfectly, and is a significantly better choice (IMO) than the 70mm scopes or scopes with worse tripods that will only save you $30-$50.I’d argue that this scope strikes precisely the right balance between “serious” and “affordable” for any family with a couple curious, science-minded kids ready to pick up a new hobby. Then, if they get really into it, spend 4x-10x as much later, in a few years, when they really outgrow this scope—which won’t happen for a while.

8. 

   5 out of 5

   Stacy BrassStacy Brass – July 23, 2020

   This is the best telescope for beginners!! I saw Venus,mars,Jupiter and Saturn ! They all looked awesome! The photo that I sent was a picture of Saturn (Saturn doesn’t look that bad,it was hard to align the phone with telescope) and I’m a beginner too,Venus looks very bright! For the price it is WORTH IT!!! And if you are seeing this in April of may 2022,u have to get this telescope,it is in the top 1 at the best telescope for planets(for your budget) and a few tips is to get a few eyepieces, 8mm,12.5mm,32mm and 2xbarwol lens cause it will do a better job than the ones it comes with! And another tip is that get a eyepiece that says 1.25 inches,that will fit into the hole for the eyepieces,if you get a 2inch it won’t work! Anyway those are my tips!!! Byeeeeee

9. 

   5 out of 5

   Jesus Corona – August 22, 2020

   I could not say enough good things about this telescope. Because of the price, I was expecting something cheaply made and flimsy and delicate to where I would have to be really careful with it. NOPE! This thing is definitely worth the price. On the first night, I took it out to look at the moon just to test it out. This shows great detail and it was easy to operate and use the finder to locate the moon without having to more the stand or telescope itself.As other users pointed out, the stand is kinda flimsy if you extend all the way out. The way I see it though, the quality of the telescope outweighs the quality of the stand. For the price this is a great deal. My friend who has a telescope for which he paid 10 dollars less than this one was convinced to get rid of the other one and get this one. And a couple of other friends are getting it as well. I totally recommend it.

10. 

    5 out of 5

    Thomas P. McGrane – August 24, 2020

    Terrific beginner scope for adults or families that can teach older children it’s use. A little more complicated to use the Equatorial mount than a simpler alt-az mount but necessary to learn how to find faint objects using the North Star polar aligned mount and star maps. The 80 mm objective lens is a good size for the money and provides good clear sharp images from stunning views of the moon and some planets to nebulla.If you are a beginner, don’t be overwhelmed by the appearance and instructions for polar aligning and use of the mount. It’s very much worth the effort to learn. I recommend YOUTUBE videos on use of Equatorial mounts. I found Dean Fuller’s video too fast but very good and after just a couple of repeated views was an old hat at using the telescope as this was my first Equatorial mount.The eyepieces are very good and I chose to buy a 2x Barlow lens to replace the supplied 3x Barlow lens.The finder scope is a challenge to align and use as it seems to be too close to the tube and difficult to hold a solid alignment. I bought a better finder scope and it works out much better and holds alignment between uses.An issue occurred with the mount still under warranty and I received dependable, fast, rock solid, exemplary service.I also have another Celestron; an Astromaster 130EQ Reflector with similar excellent image clarity.I managed to observe the Cassini divide in the rings of Saturn and the red spot and bands of Jupiter and four moons during moments of atmospheric stability on a good viewing night with the 80 EQ.