Celestron PowerSeeker 127EQ Newtonian Reflector Telescope 21049

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I’m glad I was able to return this. Thank you Amazon! I bought this telescope as a Christmas gift to the family. I spent a couple of weeks learning about equatorial mounts, how to collimate, and how to set up this telescope. So you could say I was excited! Opening this, I was disappointed to realize that it was somewhere between a toy and Chinese junk. Right off I was missing a knob. It was so out of alignment that mirrors didn’t align to see. Tripod was ridiculously flimsy and thinly walled. I should have known better. A telescope with these features and size should cost $300-400. I read Amazon reviews and was influenced until I started reading on Stargazing forums and saw a repetitive history of bad experiences. I probably will not buy another product from Celestron. But I did order a replacement from Orion thru Amazon.

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Got this for my wife for Christmas so she hasn’t used it or opened it yet but she’s pretty excited about it. It looks well packaged and she’s excited to use it soon.

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Great telescope but a little complicated for young children

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This was a gift for my boyfriend and he absolutely loved it. He’s already ordered some attachments and accessories for it. It was quick and easy to set up and learn the basics of using it.

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My grandson just loves this. He uses it all the time.

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I bought this scope to replace a really old Tasco scope we couldn’t find manuals or instructions for anymore. The old scope allowed us to see Jupiter and the rings of saturn, so we were hoping with the higher magnification of this scope to be able to see even more. I will break this down into paragraphs to explain our experience.Out of the box, assembly was easy. The instructions contained pictures and the scope went together pretty well except for one of the long adjustment knobs. The thumb screw provided simply fell thru the threaded hole. I first thought that the knob had been drilled and tapped too large, but it seems the issue is with the thumb screw itself. Since we wanted to use the scope right away, I ran to the hardware store and found a M3x20 screw to substitute for the thumbscrew and i was able to secure the knob to the scope. It’s usable, but the screw is way longer than needed, so it’s kind of in the way. It was the only one they had. Other than that, the rest of the scope went together without issue.First use was in daylight when the moon was clearly visible. I used the provided spotting scope to find the moon and then tried to use the telescope to find it and was unsuccessful. Everyone said the spotting scope is useless and after about 20 min of trying to locate the moon in the telescope, I at first agreed. Finally, in desperation, I sighted the scope in on a woods on the horizon and found a tree that was taller than the rest to use as a marker. After focusing the telescope on that tree, I then spent the next half hour trying to focus the cross hairs of the spotting scope on the same tree. This was not an easy task. No matter how I adjusted the scope, I was not able to get it low enough to hit the tree. Finally, I took a piece of cardboard and used it as a shim under the rear of the spotting scope, and then I was able to set the cross hairs on the tree. Almost. They were slightly up and to the left of the actual location, but i hoped it was close enough.After that hour long struggle, i re-positioned the scope so that cross hairs of the spotting scope were on the moon, and voila, i found the moon immediately in the telescope viewfinder. The craters on the moon were much clearer than our other scope for sure. And the image was brighter as well. We waited for darkness to attempt Saturn and Jupiter. Once dark, I positioned the spotting scope on Jupiter (just down and to the right of the hairs to compensate for the amount i was off on my original tree adjustment) and I instantly found it. I could see the lines across the planet as well as it’s moons. The image was also better than our old scope, only marginally so. I tried the 4mm lens thinking it would be a better picture and it was not! I actually grabbed the 10mm lens off our old tasco and it provided a much better picture. We repeated the same process with Saturn and you could see the rings more clearly than the old scope as well. Again, the difference was marginal, which was kind of disappointing, but still an improvement. The moon is vastly greater though. The image of the moon has much more detail and is much brighter than our old reflective scope as well.One other thing I haven’t figured out is the mount. The scope tilts to the side and there’s a dial like you should be able to hold the scope on a tilt, but ours has no way to tighten anything down to lock it on the dial position. We didn’t notice this until dark so hopefully, I can figure that out in the light of day. They really could use a better manual for the operation of the whole scope overall. As in what knob does what and recommendations for how to use it. There’s nothing in the supplied instructions.Overall, I would say, this is a great scope for a beginner. Which is what we would consider ourselves. The motion of the scope is smooth so tracking a planet is pretty easy with the adjustment knobs. The spotting scope that everyone says is useless, really isn’t, if you spend a great deal of time adjusting it in. Again, this was not an easy task and I can understand why everyone complains about it. I almost gave up as well, and the expletives were flying! I would think they could have made something that would have been more easily set out of the box. But once we got it set, it was repeatable and worked perfectly every time. The images you see are pretty good for a beginner as well. Moon is stellar. Planets i wish were better. The 4mm lens for me isn’t the best but I’ll keep messing with it and see if I can figure out how to make it usable. We never did figure out the barlow lens. Others said that was useless as well and I guess I would have to agree. We never were able to see anything through it. I may consider purchasing an adjustable lens based on some others suggestions. I contemplated the laser spotting sight, but if the spotting scope it came with continues to work as it does, I’ll probably just keep it. The scope is heavy to move around. We have a large flight of stairs to carry it down to a lower deck for viewing and it’s awkward for that, but it’s manageable. I gave it 4 stars because of the spotting scope and the defective adjustment knob. I have contacted Celestron for a replacement. I will try to update if i get a new part. Their tech support answered back by email in about a day. I tried calling and got the unusually high call volume message, so I opened an email case instead. We’ll see how that goes.

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First I want to address some of the complaints about this scope being difficult to collimate. With a laser collimator that is simply not true. There are a couple of YouTube videos showing how to collimate this scope with a laser collimator. It took me less than 15 minutes to do and it was my first time collimating a scope.The good. Once properly setup the scope is enjoyable for a telescope in this price range. Remember, even though it is the top of the Celestron Powerseeker line, it is still a low end telescope. The picture of the moon taken above is from my cell phone camera held in front of the eyepiece under windy conditions. I had yet to properly collimate the scope. But on the same night I took this photo, I was able to view Jupiter through a 20mm eyepiece (the one included with the scope) and was able to discern the color variations in the cloud bands. I could also see several of the moons as bright spots around Jupiter. On my second and third nights I was able to get better views of Jupiter thanks to 8mm and 12.5mm eyepieces, and was also able to view Saturn and see the planet and its rings.It is important to properly setup your scope, align your finder scope, level your tripod and polar align your scope for your location. Once again there are videos available that explain and demonstrate those things. I will say that the included finder scope is cheap and will need to be aligned for each use. It is one of the items I recommend upgrading or adding to enhance your viewing experience. The included 4mm eyepiece and the included 20mm eypiece should be replaced at your earliest convenience, although the 20mm eyepiece is usable and will not immediately detract from your use of the scope.The bad. The included eypieces are cheap and should be replaced as soon as you can afford to, and the included finder scope is difficult to aim and keep airmed. A decent finder scope can be obtained relatively inexpensively and look for one that either has thumbwheel adjustments or front and rear adjustment screws to assist with aiming and to help keep the alignment in place. Also, the 3X Barlow lens is ill suited for this scope given the maximum recommended magnification is limited to 300X. The instructions are not super clear, especially for beginners, but to be fair, most instructions for products these days are equally terrible. However, there are enough videos online to help with setup and use of your scope, I don’t fault Celestron for poor instructions.Things I recommend buying to enhance your viewing experience. I highly recommend a laser collimator. Order it with your scope so you can make sure it is properly collimated right out of the box. It is an inexpensive tool that will allow you to focus on enjoying your scope as opposed to struggling to set it up. Next, get yourself a set of eyepieces and filters, especially a moon filter. There are various sets of filters and eyepieces available, either in kits with both, separate kits, or you can buy them individually. I ordered a kit with an 8mm, a 12.5mm, a 32mm, and a 2X Barlow lens. I also purchased a filter set consisting of 5 colored filters, a polarizing filter, and a moon filter (I used the moon filter with my 8mm eypiece when viewing the moon on my second night and it helped enhance the details of the lunar surface). And given that I do have some man-made light sources close by I purchased a light pollution filter which has yet to arrive. I also now have a 6mm eypiece on the way to replace the low quality 4mm eyepiece that came with the scope.With decent viewing conditions you should get many nights of enjoyment out of this scope. The views of the moon are quite impressive, and to be able to see Jupiter and Saturn well enough to see the colors in the Jupiter cloud bands and to see where Saturn ends and the rings began exceeded my expectations. I can’t wait to get views of Mars and to be able to see if I can hone in on some deep sky objects such as Andromeda and some of the more viewable nebulae that are visible from this hemisphere.

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This was my first telescope. The controls are a bit touchy. I have difficulty getting a sharp focus and keeping my targeted view in frame of the scope. I have so far used this to view the moon and the detail was stunning. I tried using a T-mount to attach my camera for astrophotography, but the knob to control focus is quite large. It is easy to overshoot as you’re trying to focus because the shake is so bad that you can’t really see what the image looks like until a few seconds after you’ve stopped touching the telescope. I also purchased a lens accessory kit and would recommend that.

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Bought it for my son, Assembled but couldn’t see a thing, disappointed

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So our daughter have been interested in spacey things, right? Well for Christmas we planned on getting her a good “beginner telescope”. Many “experts” pointed us at this one since it was the perfect one for her (she’s 11). Well, no. This is far, far from a beginner’s telescope. First it weights a lot. We know nothing about space, telescopes or astronomy. We’re also not idiots. But this thing was a challenge to put together. Collimation? What the hell is that? No. What we wanted was something I could put on a stand, look through it, and at least see the moon. I am not a scientist or an astronaut. If you want what? just a telescope… then DO NOT get this. This is NOT a telescope, it’s more like a science project. Not fun, too complicated for kids. I feel very bad at looking how she waited for me to get something on the damn thing for her to see. A total let down. I wish I didn’t buy it. Ridiculous.