Celestron 22403 Inspire 100AZ Refractor Smartphone Adapter Built-In Refracting Telescope - Blue

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After an initial alignment with the main telescope, the red dot finder proved useful and, again, is an ideal addition for beginners taking their first steps into stargazing – especially if they’re learning how to find objects by star hopping with a star chart and the supplied red flashlight. The Inspire 100az comes with two eyepieces; a 10mm and a 20mm. This is excellent and provides you with a variable magnification range depending on your preferences. At the lower end you can expect a 33x magnification and at the higher end it scales to 241x. StaryNight Software

The mount features an integrated red LED flashlight that when turned on will highlight your accessory tray with a soft red glow. Furthermore, the flashlight can easily be taken from the mount if you desire red light elsewhere. The 1.25” star diagonal included with the Inspire 100AZ is also mostly plastic, and the design is an Amici erecting prism, which provides correct images both left-right and up-down. Unless you plan on frequently reading signs and snooping on people’s reading material from a distance, this feature is essentially worthless and comes at a cost, too. Due to the way it works, any Amici erecting prism produces annoying bright spikes, glare, and additional chromatic aberration on bright targets – which doesn’t help when there are already glare issues with the dew shield and chromatic aberration from the objective lens itself to begin with. A basic 4-inch/100 mm refractor, it's got no 'go-to' features so you're going to have to be confident enough to find your own targets in the night sky. The Zhumell Z100 and Sky-Watcher Heritage 100P technically have slightly less light-gathering ability than the Inspire 100AZ, but don’t suffer from chromatic aberration and are much easier to aim. The shorter focal length and resultingly wider field of view helps, too.The Inspire 100AZ comes with a 10mm Kellner eyepiece providing 66x, but it can handle a fair bit more magnification than that—up to about 200x. As such, we might recommend a 6mm “gold-line” for 110x, which is probably all you really need for the Moon, planets, and double stars. A little more power (165x) can be achieved with a 4mm Aspheric or 4mm planetary eyepiece. You could also use a 2x Barlow with the 10mm for 132x or with the 6mm for 220x, which is usable, albeit a bit above what one should really be using with this telescope due to its aperture and optical quality.

During my tests I pointed the Celestron Inspire 100AZ at Venus, Jupiter and Saturn, as well as the moon moving through its many phases. It is possible to see a little chromatic aberration in the form of a purplish-yellowish line around bright objects, but it's nowhere near as distracting as on cheaper telescopes. Manually locating and then fixing on to much dimmer, harder to find objects is a challenge when using the Celestron Inspire 100AZ. Not compatible with #93648 Off-Axis Guider, not compatible with #93519 2" Mirror Diagonal (discontinued) It's not perfect and it excels and like most refractors, it does its best work with the moon and planets, but the Celestron Inspire 100AZ has more to get excited about than many of its cut-price rivals. The build quality — particularly its tripod — is a step up while its aperture is just enough to allow beginners to explore objects beyond the solar system. The icing on the cake is its clever lens cap, which turns into a smartphone holder for astrophotography, which instantly gives it another dimension. If you want to avoid the bottom of the market but don't want to spend big, the 100AZ is an appealing solution. If the Celestron Inspire 100AZ telescope isn't for you The StarPointer Pro red-dot finder provided with the Celestron Inspire 100AZ is excellent. A bullseye-style device, it doesn’t magnify the sky at all, which actually makes it easier to use. It’s simple to align with the telescope using a couple of knobs while it’s also possible to nudge its brightness up and down. The Celestron Inspire 100AZ ships with both 10mm and 20mm Kellner eyepieces, which offer 66x and 33x magnification, respectively. It’s the latter that’s the standout, not just because it’s much easier to locate targets with, but it gives much sharper images. No. StarSense Explorer only shows the sky as it currently appears. This is to avoid any confusion when using the app to find objects in the night sky, as the date and time needs to be current for StarSense Explorer to work. The app automatically obtains the current date and time information from your smartphone.

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If you are unsure how to align the camera, tap the Menu icon button and turn on the Camera Setup Assistant. Now, when you go through the camera alignment screens, there will be information and videos to walk you through the process.

D4N's suggestion of the Rigel Quikfinder is also excellent if you don't get on with the supplied red dot finder, but try it first. Lastly, and most controversially, is the lens cap/smartphone adapter. Celestron’s design here is straight up bizarre. By removing a small plug from the cap and removing the eyecup from your desired eyepiece, then camping the assembly together with a small plastic screw, you can slide your smartphone between the elastic straps on the lens cap and use it as a crude smartphone “digiscoping” adapter. However, this has a few caveats. For one, it won’t fit any aftermarket eyepieces that don’t have a flush barrel and removable eyecup. Secondly, it obstructs a portion of your smartphone’s screen, which can make setting your phone camera’s focus and other features somewhat difficult. Last but not least, you are entrusting your smartphone’s safety to some cheap elastic straps and a singular nylon thumb screw. So keep that in mind. Celestron’s FREE planetarium app is an astronomy suite that redefines how you experience the night sky. The Moon may be very bright in the night sky. The Moon’s big, bright disc can blind StarSense Explorer so that it cannot locate objects near the Moon. To see if this is the problem, try selecting another object to view in a different part of the night sky. Also, keep in mind that any deep-sky objects will appear washed out when the Moon is bright in the night sky. The best nights to observe are when the Moon is in or near the New Moon phase. Holding your phone up to the eyepiece with a steady hand is nearly as good an option as using the Inspire’s included phone adapter, and dedicated smartphone adapters are not that expensive to buy aftermarket and will be a safer and easier to use option for your phone. Alt-Azimuth MountI did a little homework since the boy has been using a nice set of Celestron binoculars until now, and decided to go for the Inspire mostly due to its phone mount that lets the phone see what the telescope sees for photographing. Ideal for both terrestrial and celestial viewing. The optical tube can be used as a Spotting Scope for additional day-time use. The Inspire 100AZ includes two standard, interchangeable 1.25” eyepieces: a 20mm Kellner providing 33x magnification and a 10mm Kellner providing 66x magnification. These are all-plastic in construction (the lenses are, thankfully, glass) and will work well. You’ll probably want additional eyepieces to get the most out of this telescope, however—both at the low power end for wide-field vistas of deep-sky objects and at the high power end for viewing the Moon and planets.