Review for Celestron PowerSeeker 80EQ Refractor Telescope Package w/ Motor Drive, Tripod

Author: montrose1504 {!} , astronomer and astrophysicist, from Bensalem, PA on Nov 7, 2009
Pros:  Very good quality, complete including motor drive, great bargain
Cons:  None outstanding, requires changing telescope to left side of scope because of motor drive, but not a major inconvenience.
Would recommend:  yes

montrose1504 wrote:

In all my years of astronomy, this is probably the best telescope buy I have seen because of the number of features included, its quality, and its very low cost. I was originally looking for just a tripod and equatorial mount with a clock drive to guide my hydrogen alpha solar telescope and found nothing affordable until I found this Celestron Powerseeker 80EQ with Motor Drive 93514. Not only did it supply the tripod, mount and drive that I needed for half the price of other mount/drive combinations, but a very good 3" aperture Celestron refracting telescope complete with optical accessories came with it. This is a beginner level scope for general astronomy observing. However, I realized that with an additional solar filter on the front of the 3" scope it would also make an excellent visible light solar telescope to accompany my hydrogen alpha scope that would also be driven by the equatorial mount and clock drive. This will be a dedicated solar telescope for me. However I was so impressed by the telescope package that I purchased a second one as a gift for a beginner astronomer within a few days. The optics of the 3" refractor are very good, and views of the almost full moon through the supplied 20mm eyepiece are sharp with no chromatic aberration. There is only slight aberration using the supplied 4mm eyepiece, but the 4mm eyepiece is 225 power which is too high for a 3" telescope. The high-quality tripod is aluminum and sturdy enough for this telescope and other accessories such as the hydrogen alpha scope I will also mount on it. The German equatorial mount is well-made with good machining, and functions smoothly in both declination and right ascension. There are slow motion controls for both axes that operate smoothly. The 9v battery-driven motor drive is rarely included in this type of beginner scope, but is an absolute necessity for anything more than casual observing. It replaces the right ascension slow motion control to automatically follow the motion of the sky. I tested the drive by following the sun in my hydrogen alpha scope for several hours with only minor corrections required. The scope comes with sky atlas software for any computer to generate views of the night sky. In summary, a great value for anyone interested in beginning astronomy.