<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Great buy
Review: For the money this telescope is hard to beat. The OTA is well made; the 102mm Achromat being housed in a adjustable metal lens cell. The tube has three internal baffles and has a nice focuser which will accomadate 2" eypieces. My focuser was originally rather sloppy but after tinkering with several screws it tightened up nicely and is now quite serviceable. It also includes a 5.5" removeable felt lined aluminum dew cap. The 30mm finder scope is to small and it would be good to replace it with 50mm. The equatorial head is solid and well matched to the OTA. It has the standard(rather small)setting circles with a vernier. The slow motion controls work fine with no backlash although the locks have to have a slight amount of tension otherwise there may be some slippage. It's also supplied with two conterweights one large and one small. The small weight tightend all the way to the end of the counterweight shaft leaves the scope perfectly balanced. The larger weight is to be employed if photography is desired. I added the single axis clock drive and it tracks well. Again there has to be a slight amount of tension(via RA lock)on the RA axis or there will be some slippage. The weakest point of this model is the aluminum legs. Aliminum has the advantage of being light but has a very low dampening coeficent. Thus, focusing at higher powers can be a challenge. My remedy to this problem was to add a JMI electronic focuser. Focusing is a breeze now as I don't have to touch the OTA when adjusting. Another alternative used by some is the addition of wooden tripod legs. The scope is supplied with a nice 20mm Plossl; But figure on buying a couple more plus a barlow as this scope handles 200mag. well. Optically it does very well on the star test with only a slight amount of spherical abberation present. Ronchi grating test shows sraight lines in and out of focus. There is some false color, as to be expected from an achromat, around bright objects. All and all a very nice package. I would have given a five were it not for the tripod. Keep in mind this is a telescope best used for planetary use and double star splitting. Deep sky object are best served by more aperture. So if that's your fancy consider a "light bucket"(Dobsonian). I have heard of some cases of people getting poor optics with this scope, but that seems to be the exception not the rule. So if that happens to you, send it back to the factory till you get a good one.
Cheers.
Rating: 
Summary: WoW
Review: I finally had a clear night although it was a bit on the windy side, and I was very impressed with the performance of my C102HD refractor. I have never really had a real Telescope I alway's Fell to the ads of those high powered store sold 60mm. refractors, those are junk. I saw more on that one night than I have all of my life, I saw the Orion Nebula for the first time,it was great at 50 power with the 20mm. eyepiece, also the moons of Jupiter were very sharp plus the rings of Saturn, I also bought the Celestron accessory kit so I have plenty of options when it comes to power. I just can't say enough to express my delight with my new scope and probably can't say it right. But this a real quality item,and amazon.com is a great place to purchase it, they have great service and the scope came very well packed. So I would really recommend one of these scopes you will really be pleased and amazed at it's performance.
Rating:
Summary: Every bit worth the wait!
Review: I used to work on 10" and 12" refractors and in comparison this scopes only lacks in size. I started running around in circles after looking at the amazingly sharp views of Saturn, Jupiter, the Moon, and the Orion nebula the first night. Stars are sharp pinpoints. Plan to buy additional eyepieces as this 20mm Plossl (pretty decent per se) is just a starter. My 6mm eyepiece works beautifully at 150x. With the 2x Barlow lens, the 20mm gives you 100x. In a light polluted city (like where I live), the best I could get was around 200x.I saw the Cassini division and bands on Saturn, bands on Jupiter and its 4 moons as pinpoints of light. The full moon gives a purple halo, but only at high mags. A moon filter solves that problem. The finderscope takes some fussing with the get it centered and the mount is VERY shaky. I plan to buy a better mount anyway. From reading other scope review sites and from my personal experience, this Celestron 102HD is a definite ***** winner. Everywhere I asked, "pro-amateurs" were telling me its the perfect scope for a beginner. Its still very portable - just carry the weights separately out to the field/backyard for viewing. From a beginner's perspective, to really learn how to navigate the stars, this scope gives you the best bang (optics) for the buck as opposed to smaller apertured GOTO scopes (ahem Meade 90etx) for the same money. You won't be disappointed!
Rating:
Summary: Every bit worth the wait!
Review: I used to work on 10" and 12" refractors and in comparison this scopes only lacks in size. I started running around in circles after looking at the amazingly sharp views of Saturn, Jupiter, the Moon, and the Orion nebula the first night. Stars are sharp pinpoints. Plan to buy additional eyepieces as this 20mm Plossl (pretty decent per se) is just a starter. My 6mm eyepiece works beautifully at 150x. With the 2x Barlow lens, the 20mm gives you 100x. In a light polluted city (like where I live), the best I could get was around 200x. I saw the Cassini division and bands on Saturn, bands on Jupiter and its 4 moons as pinpoints of light. The full moon gives a purple halo, but only at high mags. A moon filter solves that problem. The finderscope takes some fussing with the get it centered and the mount is VERY shaky. I plan to buy a better mount anyway. From reading other scope review sites and from my personal experience, this Celestron 102HD is a definite ***** winner. Everywhere I asked, "pro-amateurs" were telling me its the perfect scope for a beginner. Its still very portable - just carry the weights separately out to the field/backyard for viewing. From a beginner's perspective, to really learn how to navigate the stars, this scope gives you the best bang (optics) for the buck as opposed to smaller apertured GOTO scopes (ahem Meade 90etx) for the same money. You won't be disappointed!
Rating:
Summary: Low-Contrast Detail and Portable Too
Review: This is a good scope for the price. It provides refractor-sharp views of the Cassini division in Saturn`s rings and cloud bands as well as the shadow of the rings on the planet. I`ve also seen as many as 8 cloud bands on Jupiter and the two reddish equatorial belts. The bands look like they`ve been colored in with a very sharp pencil point. The 4 Galilean moons are easily seen and, with good seeing, the Great Red Spot is also visible. Also, views of the moon are contrasty and filled with lots of details. Mercury, the phases of Venus, Mars, 100`s of deep space objects, etc., are also easy targets. For instance, the Orion nebula is a spectacular sight with it`s greenish glow. Most images are extremely clear, sharp and bright with almost no spurious color on bright objects. One has to sometimes look for the spurious color to see it. IMHO, the mount-tripod seems to be fine even for high-power views if everything is tightened up all the way and vibration suppression pads are used. In fact, this makes for a very portable set-up which can be carried around pretty easily and can be ready for use at a moment`s notice. Conclusion: This scope excels at showing low-contrast details. This is one of the refractor`s most superior features and is one of the main reasons why they often make better planetary scopes than other types of scopes much larger. The C-102HD is no exception!
Rating: 
Summary: bought too quickly
Review: This was the first real telescope I purchased. The product description fits, but, as I found out later, I should have started with a good pair of binoculars. The mount is the culprit that caused me to give the telescope a 3 rating. It isn't the quality I expected from Celestron. After carefully carrying this heavy (equatorial mount) scope in and out of my van numerous times, there is evident play in the mount. Other than that, I have seen beautiful views of Saturn, Jupiter and Orion Nebula. Another problem is straight up viewing, virtually impossible. Would recommend a good pair of binoculars (7X50 or 10X50) and a dobsonian mount at least 8 to 10 inches for starting astronomers. As you may or not know, what you see in this telescope (as all others) will not look like the beautiful pictures in astronomy mags and books. It takes a lot of viewing to start dectecting any colors, and the size of the object won't be very large, other than the moon. I know I am adding a lot about astronomy, but I learned the hard way, join an astronomy club,and try out all the scopes they offer before you commit to something that will collect dust. Clear Skies, don
<< 1 >>
|
