CELESTRON PowerSeeker 50 AZ Telescope CELESTRON PowerSeeker 50 AZ Telescope

Pros: This telescope is inexpensive and great for viewing planets and the moon, as well as terrestrial objects. It's very light, which makes it incredibly easy to haul around, and the user manual is thorough for newbies, and even with my physics background, made finding the magnification of various lenses much easier than I was going to let it. The lens assortment is adequate, with the necessary bits of high, medium and low power, a Barlow lens, and an image erector to counter the blasted Star Diagonal.

Cons: This telescope effectively maxes out around 80x. The equipment included can theoretically hit 225x, but the aperture size is much too small to let in enough light to use that. It makes the choice of high-power lens somewhat baffling, as even the moon doesn't put off enough light for good contrast with it. The lightness of the 'scope also is something of a hindrance, in that it will knock about a bit in a wind, and can easily be bumped. Lastly, the lack of fine-focusing knobs is sorely missed, but understandable at this price point.

Other Thoughts: This is a great starter telescope, though don't base your opinions on those highest magnifications. The 'scope just isn't big enough for them. In it's stock trim, it's just able, in my experience, to see the moons of Jupiter on the included medium eyepiece. That's more than enough for me out of something that many people spend thousands on.