Celestron - PowerSeeker 50AZ Telescope - Manual Alt-Azimuth Telescope for Beginners - Compact and Portable - Bonus Astronomy Software Package - 50mm Aperture

Why did you pick this product vs others?:I bought this telescope in the hopes of seeing some details of the moon for the first time in my life and it did not disappoint!Yes it could be better and have better equipment from what I've been told but for my purposes it suits me and my needs!

This review is my honest attempt to tell folks about a great little scope, before I purchased this scope I had to read the reviews to find out if the scope is any good , bad ,or reviews written by people that are clueless to the cause.i always start out with the one stars, there you weed out the clueless and people that just like to complain and hear themselves fuss, I definitely ignored the folks that said I can’t see a thing, or you can do just as good looking with your bare eyes in your back yard, for these people I recommend finding a life, now will jump to the 3 stars, this group I find have legitimate claims, like maybe the Barlow lens doesn’t work, with this scope it doesn’t work , I for the life of me cannot figure out why they included a 3x Barlow lens with this scope , way to powerful, 2 times would have been better, and now the 5 star reviews sometimes seem to go over board, and that’s what I’m about to do, I bought this for my granddaughter for her birthday which is about two weeks away, yes I opened it to make sure it was not broken and in good working order, I was impressed with its ability with power and sharpness, I liked it so much I bought grand pop one two, thank you grandmom, just an added note I have many scopes in many sizes and styles, so I know enough to get around the hobby, I live in the northeast and it’s February here and cold out under the night skies, took scope out early to cool off and set the finder scope with ease, and waited till Orion what’s high in the southern sky, with two pocket warmers one in each glove started my search for Orion Nebula, useind a 62* 6 mm lens found it with ease, the view was great, small of course but was able to see a,b,c,d, stars with separation and you could def see e and f siting in the background, I was impressed with how sharp and bright the image was, no joke, for. $100.00 scope I’d say money well spent , I started to look for the horse head nebula but my fingers hurt and the cold won out, so now the wait for warmer weather stairing me down like it does most folks , as I said before I have many scopes , many great scopes, this one I just had to have , did I really need it , probably not , want won out , besides it looks good on my wall with all my other smaller group of scopes, so all in all I think it’s worth the buy, as with all scopes ,it’s a must to have good lenses, , could one do better with a different scope , sure you could, and it will cost ya I’m sure , I can say read between the reviews and take the plunge, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed at all, I don’t receive anything for my reviews just peace of mine knowing I told the truth and give ya my best with my purchase, have fun

Why did you pick this product vs others?:This was a great budget friendly telescope. Great if you're just starting out.

First time user here. I know nothing about telescopes or stargazing, but after watching a few space movies (Interstellar, Apollo 13, and the like) I had the space travel itch, but had to settle for land-based viewing.My wife purchased this for me for my birthday. It was easy to put together and seems like good quality. I looked at the moon the first time I put it up. Got some nice views of it.However, it is very difficult to find stars. Moving up and down is fairly easy by loosening one of the screws, but there isn't a reliable and easy way to move left to right. Once I was able to get in the general area of a star, I had to move the telescope around for an eternity to finally get the star in my sights. At that point, my hand was usually in an uncomfortable position and it became impossible to try to switch lenses for a better view without having to start the whole process over again.Perhaps it is just that my mind has to adjust to the whole upside-down left-to-right nature of telescoping. I've never used another telescope besides at a star party in 5th grade, so I really can't say how this compares to others. It does seem rather shaky as others have mentioned, but for the price, perhaps it is a good start.

August 2022: I arrived at this sub-$100 scope from the Astrobiscuit video on YouTube. Surprised to hear that this narrow refractor out guns some larger reflectors in the same price range. My telescope budget was limited so I opted for this one based on the low price and glowing review by Astrobiscuit where he captures Jupiter, Ganymede, IO, Callisto, and Europa.It’s $70, so don’t expect a rugged tripod or any useable accessories (seriously, the 4mm eyepiece and 3X Barlow are essentially useless). The tripod is fairly flimsy but even so, I was able to align the spotter scope during the daylight my first day with the scope. You have to make subtle movements (it helps to keep the lateral rotation nut completely loose, and learn to use the vertical adjustment knob rather than moving the entire scope for up/down).Jupiter was going to visible in the valley where I live from about 1:30am to 5:00am tonight, so I went outside and located the giant planet. It was cloudy (actually good seeing conditions if you can get a break in the clouds) and I had very limited windows of time between passing clouds.Just as Jupiter was passing through a narrow gap between my roof, a tree, and a heavy cloud, I was able to line up on him, focus, let the vibration die out, and BOOM! There, clear as day, was Jupiter and the Galilean moons. I could even make out the colorful bands on the giant gas planet. I was completely shaken up. Pictures are one thing; but viewing an object that is over 300 MILLION miles away from earth (over 4x further from us than we are from the SUN) AND being able to see its colored bands absolutely blew me away.Bottom line: this telescope is absolutely useable for viewing larger planets, the moon, and (so I’ve heard) Andromeda. I’m sold.I will be upgrading the eyepieces and getting a better Barlow lens. I probably won’t even bother with the mount or spotting scope until I upgrade to a bigger telescope. But if you want to see something out of this world in real life without breaking the bank, buy this telescope.