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

Product Information

Included in this kit are two fully coated eyepieces: 20mm and 10mm. The 20mm provides a 33x optical magnification that is wide enough to locate deep-sky objects whilst also providing excellent detail. The 10mm eyepiece provides a 65x magnification for highly detailed observations of such objects as the Moon’s craters, the Orion Nebular and the Andromeda Galaxy. Both eyepieces are manufactured to Celestron’s high-quality standards to ensure a bright, sharp view of the night sky every time. It may not be dark enough out. You’ll need to wait at least an hour after sunset for StarSense Explorer to be able to “see” enough stars to find its position. If you can’t see many stars with your eyes, it is not dark enough yet. For the most part you can add your smartphone with its case on, but if you have an extra large case you may need to take it off for it to fit the adapter. Additional Accessories Being a larger achromat with a relatively fast focal ratio (by refractor standards, anything below f/10 is considered fast), the Inspire 100AZ does suffer from some chromatic aberration, or “false color”, which manifests itself as an obnoxious purple halo around bright targets such as the Moon, Jupiter, Venus, and many double stars. Some people will spend thousands of dollars on an ED triplet apochromatic refractor to get basically the same views as the Inspire 100AZ without the color; you can simply choose to ignore it. Though it does prevent one from getting the sharpest images possible of the Moon and planets, for 99% of viewing, the Inspire 100AZ’s optics do just fine. You really need not worry. Unleash the power of your smartphone to take you on a guided tour of the night sky—no telescope experience required.

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.Turn on “Save Images & Logs” from the Menu as described above. After you use StarSense Explorer at night, there will be images and log files stored on your phone. Accessing them requires connecting your iPhone to a computer that has iTunes. Follow these steps to retrieve the files: Aperture is without doubt the most fundamental of the specification to consider. Not just for a Refractor but for any telescope for that matter. Aperture is defined in mm; which simply refers to the the diameter of the light collecting region of the telescope. The larger this diameter the better as it means it can collect more light and present brighter and sharper images (which in turn allows for more magnification) Being a larger achromat with a relatively fast focal ratio (by refractor standards, anything below f/10 is considered fast), the Inspire 100AZ does suffer from some chromatic aberration, or “false colour”, which manifests itself as an obnoxious purple halo around bright targets such as the Moon, Jupiter, Venus, and many double stars. Some people will spend thousands of dollars on an ED triplet apochromatic refractor to get basically the same views as the Inspire 100AZ without the colour; you can simply choose to ignore it. Though it does prevent one from getting the sharpest images possible of the Moon and planets, for 99% of viewing, the Inspire 100AZ’s optics do just fine. You really need not worry. 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. This telescope also features fully coated glass optics which decreases potential anomalies in the viewing and increases image quality. Not all telescopes have coated optics, in fact, you would be surprised how many do not. These coatings are a great addition to an already solid telescope and really make the views pop.

This is possible because of the large 100mm objective lens, fairly low focal ratio, and smooth altazimuth mount. This combination gives you the ability to scan the sky and get great views of each different kind of celestial body.Saturn’s rings are easy to spot with the Inspire 100AZ, as is the Cassini Division within them and a few cloud bands on the planet itself, though they are not particularly colourful and appear as purely symmetrical strips. A few of Saturn’s moons can also be seen, with Titan being the brightest among them. Rhea, Tethys, and Dione are easy to spot; Enceladus and Iapetus are tougher.