Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

If anyone out there ever wanted to try out amateur astronomy but didn't know what telescope to buy or if you're an amateur looking for a lightweight smaller scope without compromising quality of views too significantly. Let me say from the start that I'm a refractor man and proud of it! I've always found chromatic aberration a minimal disturbance compared to the sharpness of resulting image due to a clean unobstructed tube of light. (and, yes, I know about and use off-axis aperture stops on my reflectors when higher magnification, but they are only practical with 8" mirrors or larger.) Refractors are virtually maintenance-free and, except for rare occasions, the tube remains completely sealed (i.e. nothing can fall in). I still have two old 8" and 13" Coulter Odysseys that I take out occasionally, but I've always found them awkward to use and move around and the views not all that satisfying despite their greater light gathering power (a slightly overrated attribute). I have two large refractors (a 6" Celestron and a 4" Tal) that I use and love, but they weight a ton and hard difficult to haul around. The Celestron takes at least 15 minutes or more (depending where you are) to set up properly. For several years, I've been looking for an inexpensive, lightweight scope with good optics I could keep fully loaded and assembled that I could quickly and easily take outside and start viewing. Several years ago I picked up a 90mm Meade refractor which was so overall terrible I didn't think the scope I wanted even existed. In November, I came across the Celestron 70 AZ Powerseeker for a super low price and sent to a young but sharp cousin of mine. I got such a favorable report, I decided to gamble on one for myself. I was so pleased with the quality of this scope, I decided to go one further and try this 80mm equatorially mounted version for only about twice the price. I can wholeheartedly recommend this scope without the slightest hesitation or reservation. You can find it on many online sources for only around $100 and $20 shipping...an unbelievable low price and easily the best telescope deal I've seen in my over fifty year "career" as an amateur astronomer. The cost scope is actually less than the fifty year old price of a nearly equivalent (though inferior in EVERY respect from lens to mount to eyepieces) scope the Edmund Scientific Company sold back in the the 1950's and 60's. The Edmund 3" refractor was considered by most to be the best for the money back then.) This Powerseeker has 3.15" high quality objective lens, comes with eyepieces that are actually usable, as well as a sturdy tripod (providing you don't extend the legs more than half way) AND an equatorial mount which is the preferred mount for astronomical use. Once you get used to it, you'll be hooked. Besides, if you rotate the polar axis all the way back until the back end rests on the adjustment screw, it becomes a first rate alt-azimuth scope, perfect for terrestrial applications. So a German equatorial mount is actually both mounts in one. I would belabor the point but the optics are unexpectedly good. Even deep space objects come through with unexpected clarity and detail, (I've long felt that the supposed "great" advantage of reflectors over refractors with respect to viewing deep space objects has been greatly overrated), stars focus to near pinpoints, the mountains, craters and other features of our moon come through with striking detail. Saturn's rings are clearly visible and resolve nicely even at low power, Jupiter's bands are clearly delineated, (the famous Red Spot is hard to spot these days as it is more orange than red and doesn't stand out as it did years ago), the greenish tinge of the Orion nebula is visible even when viewed only three miles west of downtown Miami, the tightly knit four-star trapezium in Nebula are beautifully resolved. For those of you that may be scared of an equatorial mount, don't be. Positions of celestial objects are located using the same latitude and longitude system on earth. Imagine a hollow earth with a bright light at the center projecting the latitude and longitude grid onto the celestial sphere. The only difference is that they use the old nautical terms: declination for latitude and right ascension for longitude. Point the tube and mount to geographic north, set the polar axis to your latitude then rotate the tube around the declination axis and right ascension axes to locate your object. You lock the declination (latitude) axis and then you just have to rotate the R. A. axis to track the object. I'll only be separated from this scope when they pry it from my cold, dead hands! I've been using it almost nightly since I got it. Fortunately, I live in Miami where the skies are clear most nights throughout the year and we have a nice stable turbulent-free atmosphere. On most nights stars twinkle so little, they look more like planets. Though it's possible, I would not ever attempt astrophotography with this or any scope. I agree with John Dobson that amateur astrophotography is not a hobby but a disease! For a tiny fraction of the cost of the necessary equipment, you can buy books of Hubble photos of nearly anything in the universe whose quality will so far surpass any photo an amateur could possibly achieve through our atmosphere ridden planet as to make the effort seem a complete and useless waste of time, energy, resources and certainly money. In closing, you cannot go wrong with this amazing little telescope, the views of everything are great and it's just so damn easy to haul around and set up. If you support it under the polar axis, it can be lifted with one hand EASILY.