Looked at a Celestron 102GT at Costco

[tazzilla]

Took a really good look at the Celestron 102 GT from Costco. They have it for $200 with tripod and 5 eyepiece kit. Took it home and set it up was very easy compared it to my nexstar 4GT got to say was some what close between the two as far as fuction. The 4GT had better optics. What I found I do not like about the 102 GT is the size it is huge compared to my 4Gt and would be a pain to store and take places so I boxed it up and will return it. I did not know how big it really was intill I had it set up in my home and it just seems too big for my space. The other thing I noticed was the 102 GT was way to wobbly for my taste.

[damnut]

Hi Tazzilla,

Compactness is one of the benfits of a Mak!, the 102 gt is a refractor and a short one at that. A side by side comaprison is a great way of making the right choice.

[tazzilla]

I have to say I really like the idea of the shorter Telescope much easier to store and move around. I am just getting into the hobby so I am not worried about having the best just the best for my needs. At this point I feel the nexstar 4GT really will work fine for my needs.

[cnoland]

How long was it?

[tazzilla]

21" tube

[Coco]

Amazing value... Our friends just bought one.. Longer tube than the 102 SLT also... Should be better for planets...

Would

Also make a great guide scope / panorama imaging device / spare hand set. It's a no brainer

[John]

I don't think a 102mm F/10 refractor will be steady on that mount at high magnifications. The Mak would be a better bet. There is a force called moment arm which means that long tubed scopes transmit vibration much more than short tube ones and therefore need more robust mounts.

An undermounted scope is such a frustating experience.

[Coco]

I don't think a 102mm F/10 refractor will be steady on that mount at high magnifications. The Mak would be a better bet. There is a force called moment arm which means that long tubed scopes transmit vibration much more than short tube ones and therefore need more robust mounts.

An undermounted scope is such a frustating experience.

There are work arounds such as heavy sand bag underslung... Problem solved for very little.. If you have a favourite spot screw a loop in the floor and use a 50p bungy to pull the mount down... Again very cheap to resolve... Considering the scopes £200+ cheaper than typical astro suppliers including this forums main sponsor.. Good entry into the hobby for liitle cash, as I said before, the parts alone make it cheap.. Good on you those who buy one..

[TROJAN]

My celeston C11 is quite compact considering it nearly has a three metre focal length...

[TNT4U]

howdy......

well I did end up with the 102 refractor from cosco just yesterday and put it together in about 15 minutes flat.....totally stunned me there as for the setup because I am an old person who purchased and old celestron ultima 8 20 years ago(my first scope) and it took me about 5 or 6 hour with the stores help that I purchased it from to get it going...anyways I bought this one for my 10 year old son but no way was I going to let him start off without my help...HEHEHE....trust me he has been bugging me for a telescope for awhile because he see's mine sitting in the corner..sadly to lift a hundred pounds these days to the porch is rather ruff for me.....so it sits alot in the house.....well anyways I took this scope out for a test drive.....WOAH....WOW and a few other words came out of my mouth and my son's when viewing.....first off I did everything manually....no guiding or alinement ...nothing.....just point and view....and use the controller to keep the object in the eyepiece.....easy as pie for me to do.....first off I tried the eye pieces given in the box....3 out of 5 did really well....and I got some great views of jupiter right off.....3 moons / 2 bands ...not bad....not bad at all......then I started using my personal eye pieces that I have had 4 20 years.....acouple of televue nagglers....plosill pieces and others I had......OMG wow did this telescope exceed every expectation I had......this baby rocks.....26mm eyepiece started off the viewing.....woah super wide field viewing all the way.....super crisp view of the whole moon.....perfect focus .....then I jumped to my televue 15mm and moon filter.....the moon was in the whole eye piece view almost to the edges.....woah crisp again.....stunning view....took me totally by surprise.....it looked like I was using my 8 inch SC.....then I wanted to push the scope abit so I put on my 6mm naggler.....forget about it....this is a pro scope.....perfect focusing .....clear as a bell....checking out the mountains and seas on the moon....then well lets push it even more....so I put on my 2x barlow.....and the result was the same......clear as a bell ....focused right on a mountain on the edge.....thats how close I was ....some where near 300 plus in magnification.....my son and I looked at each other and started to laugh.....totally blowen away by the views we had all night.....oh yes with the naggler I jumped the scope toward jupiter before the barlow was on and we got a view of 4 rings around the planet and 3 moons.....awesome there also.....well these are the pros of the scope......now comes the cons......yes the tripod on the porch was abit shakey.....vibration was a factor....3 to 4 seconds before subsiding and viewing the object.....not impossible to live threw by any means.....when I took the scope to the ground.....1 to 2 second wait before the vibration stopped and you could view the object well.....much better....but not that big a deal.....the sand bags or the ties to the porch will be more than enough to stablize the whole thing.....and I will do both to see what happens......anyway the overall personal view I have for this scope is an A plus.....to my 10 year old it was 110 PERCENT....he was super happy......the key to this scope is the eyepieces......get great eyepieces and this telescope will rock for you everytime.....tonight we will be right back at it.....and yes where I live is way in the country.....very few street lights around and thats it......excellent skies almost every night.....especially in the winter out here....it was a perfect 50 degrees F great conditions to go star gazing.......and the rest of the week will be the same......ooopps sorry lastly.....cosco dropped the price to $159 american dollars just yesterday.....so it was even cheaper by 50 bucks out here.....and yes it is super light in weight.....25 lbs max.....a joke to carry out into your backyard.....one hand type thing.....anyways this is my humble opinion on this scope.....I hope this helps anyone deciding on this scope......don't let it go at this price......you can't loose....and as someone said before.....a no brainer......T

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I don't think a 102mm F/10 refractor will be steady on that mount at high magnifications. The Mak would be a better bet. There is a force called moment arm which means that long tubed scopes transmit vibration much more than short tube ones and therefore need more robust mounts.

An undermounted scope is such a frustating experience.

I thought the 102GT was an F/5 (see also 21" tube length). A 4" Mak would most likely be better on planets as an F/5 achro is best used for wide field. At high mag it will show chromatic aberration.

[TNT4U]

nope the 102 gt refractor is 35 inches long with a F ratio of 9.8.....that is the scope I bought FROM COSCOS......she is really big.....but very very light in weight...easy piece to move arround......aberations were not much of a factor at all......and unfortunately I was hoping to use a flat field focal reducer to about 6 would have even been better ...but the piece just was shy of fitting.....I may make an adapter my self and see how it goes with a focal reducer.....that would be a blast if it works.......T

[TNT4U]

OOPPPS SORRY FOR BUDDING IN.....didn't mean to answer the other folks question.....T

[John]

I thought the 102GT was an F/5 (see also 21" tube length). A 4" Mak would most likely be better on planets as an F/5 achro is best used for wide field. At high mag it will show chromatic aberration.

I believe the US version (or at least the one under discussion here) is an F/9.8 Michael.

[TNT4U]

just something that I hope some will find usefull.......I found with this scope that looking at objects directly over head.....you had to kneel on the ground because the barrel is rather long......so what I did is turn this scope into a tabletop scope for the objects over head......because of it's light weight......almost any wooden table on the porch should work great...EVEN METAL IF IT'S STURDY......also I retracked the tripod leggs making it shorter and very very much sturdier.....hardly any vibration now.....and as a complete joke I found coffee cup coasters with rubber on the bottom side and coark on the top side to put under the leggs of the tripod.....after I did this .....by the time I could view into the eyepiece ....there was no vibration at all......maybe this will help someone tame this beast to his or her liking......but anyways this peculiar method works great for me for overhead objects......and some great benefits for old folk like myself.....you get to sit in a nice chair and do your sky hoping with a table top type of scope.....I hope it helps......now I gotta find a nice ,not to expensive CCD camera so I can photogragh a bunch of stuff I see in the skies out here onto my computer to edit .....to me thats where the fun begins in astophotography......my 2 cents worth......T

[TNT4U]

and yes I have hijacked my son's telescope......lololololol......don't worry.....he reaps the benefits .....T

[Terrynak]

Great to read the positive review from TNT4U! I just purchased this scope yesterday from Costco (still $199), after an observing friend notified me about it the day before. Yes I noticed that the 5 eyepieces are 2-element Huygens and Ramsden types, so that the key to this scope are the eyepieces. Good to hear that chromatic aberration is not a problem with this f/9.8 scope.

Haven't yet assembled this scope and tested it out. Looking forward to doing so.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I must say I thought I had seen the last Huygens and Ramsden EPs. It would make much more sense to supply the scope with two (or even just one) decent EP (like the old, Vixen built, Celestron 26mm Plossl), than to offer 5 2-element EPs. Still, with a few decent Plossls this should be a very nice scope.

[BuzzBomb]

That is an interesting mount! Is it GOTO?

Sent from my GT-I9001 using Tapatalk 2

[Terrynak]

That is an interesting mount! Is it GOTO?

Sent from my GT-I9001 using Tapatalk 2

Yup, it's a GOTO.

[Carbon]

Good thing Costco has a unconditional return policy.

[Terrynak]

Celestron is making this scope available only through CostCo retail outlets. It's mentioned in the Celestron website, but it's not available for purchase there!! That's why it's becoming increasingly known as the "CostCo scope".

Another example is Bushnell - they distributed their Ares Bushnell 6 (6" Dob with 2" focuser) and the Ares Bushnell 5 (5.1" tabletop with collapsible OTA) only through Optics Planet online. Once the supply from Optics Planet ran out - that was it - Bushnell no longer made these scopes available anymore.