celestron powerseeker 127

[ivanhoe]

Hi im new as of yesterday to the forum im also new to astronomy used bins for a while just getting my head around all this must say it gets your attention bought above yesterday hope its not a bad entry level scope but im sure you guys will tell me if its not, but please be gentle with me im frail and old lol

kind regards Ivan

[Capricorn]

Strange scope in some ways.

The one review that seemed "honest" says better built then expected but the optics aren't great.

Reading the spec it is 127mm dia and 1000mm focal length, making it f/8 approximately.

Nothing says it is parabolic so I assume that it is a spherical mirror. The f/8 half suggests it and the comment of poor optics would add to that idea.

Says it comes with a 4mm eyepiece to give 250x magnification. With the above I would say that this is too much for the scope and I would also guess that the 4mm eyepiece isn't good either. Throw in that most say 200x is the general maximum for the UK the majority of the time then I suggest you forget ideas of 250x and so the 4mm eyepiece.

Will suggest an 8mm eyepiece to give 125x, if that gives reasonable results then something for 150x - 6.5mm eyepiece. If 150x if usable it will really cover 95% or more of your observing, I think you might want a bit more for Mars, but that is about it. 125x and 150x is good for Jupiter and Saturn if the image is decent. For DSO's etc you want to gather light so magnification is not the primary intention.

The mount looks like an EQ2 so a bit on the light side, when looking through it the image may shake.

The scope sounds reasonable, has an apparent downside, but it is a scope and will show a lot of things so long as your expectations are realistic. You have it now so enjoy it. Ultimately there are better, there are also worse.

Being a reflector it will need collimating at times, better look up that aspect.

From the spec I would suggest a few more eyepieces. Go for reasonable plossl's, say 8mm, 12mm and 25 or 32mm - cannot recall which ones the scope comes with, (maybe a 10mm for a round 100x). You will collect eyepieces in this hobby.

Find a club if possible and pay them a visit, might be a good source of information, also someone may have an eyepiece or three for sale, or at least to try out.

[ivanhoe]

thanx for the info will take your advice on the eye pieces kind regards Ivan

[ivanhoe]

HI it came with a 20mm erecting eye piece / a 4mm /and a 3xbarlow ?

[ronin]

A 20mm erecting eyepiece sounds as if it, the eyepiece, is intended for looking at distant objects like trees and buildings. It should put the image in the normal way we see things, as in upright.

Problem could be that the prism used to do this may well be poor. So if there is one in the eyepiece what you see may not be sharp.

The eyepiece could however flip the image by a couple of additional lens, the eyepiece would then be fairly long, but again unless everything is designed and matches up the image could lose sharpness.

I think that instead of what could be called gimmicky extras if they simply supplied a couple of half decent eyepieces of sensible focal lengths everyone would be happier.