National Park Foundation FirstScope Telescope

Purchased this for a friend as a first telescope. After some shipping issues that had nothing to do with Celestron it arrived just in time. My friend opened this box and within 10 min we were viewing the Moon, Venus and Mars. The detail of the moon was surprisingly good for the price point. The ease of use was great. The portability is excellent. It is a compact little gem. It is designed to sit on a table top for use. It has a mount ready for a view finder and I would recommend either a 45° or 90° type as it would help your experience but definitely not needed to enjoy this out of the box. A simple moon filter would also be a nice addition. Cheers

This series of 76mm newtonian reflectors is what we are using for the kids in our astronomy club. Perfect fro views of the moon. Nice views of Jupiter and the Galilean moons. You can just make out Saturn. Mars was good as well. I have not tried it on Venus yet but I would think it would be great there as well. It is big enough to see some brighter deep sky objects like the core of the Andromeda galaxy and the fuzzy patch of the Orion nebula. Globular star clusters show up as faint fuzzy patches of light. Great introductory telescope for the price.

Perfect for a 9-year-old.

Ordered the Dobson pictured, received a more expensive standard telescope.Sent it back and ordered a replacement.Got the same wrong order.Beware that the SKU may not be right for this scope.

My wife bought one of these as a Father's Day gift for me, from the Visitor's Center at Bryce Canyon National Park. I have two older telescopes, an 8" Dobsonian and a 10" Dobsonian, so this isn't my first telescope. As such, I have previous experience in astronomy and telescope use.The Celestron FirstScope is a 76mm, f3.96 Newtonian Reflector, on a tabletop Dobsonian style mounting. Compared to many other entry-level, low-priced telescopes, the mounting is stable and easy to use. The scope comes with 10mm and 20mm Kellner eyepieces, giving magnification of approximately 30x and 15x respectively. The eyepieces come in plastic containers with stretchy rubber lids, helping protect them from damage and dirt. At 30x, lunar details show up nicely, the rings of Saturn are clear, and the dark bands of Jupiter are visible along with the four Galilean moons. Out of the box, this scope can provide a terrific introduction to Astronomy without breaking the bank. With a few basic accessories, it can be a nice addition to a stable of scopes.One of the reasons my wife chose this scope as a gift for me, is its compact size. While my 8" and 10" scopes have stronger light-gathering power, they are also much larger. This scope is easy to take along on camping trips without taking up nearly half the cargo space in the back of our vehicle.I purchased a Celestron Star Pointer finder to install on the scope. The Star Pointer attaches easily to two pre-installed screw posts on the FirstScope, and is easy to adjust. Once aligned, it makes aiming the scope much simpler than "gunsighting" along the tube. At the time of purchase, the Star Pointer was about $17 on Amazon.For carrying the scope, I picked up a 22" Husky plastic toolbox from the local Big Box Home Improvement store for about $15. With a little bit of scrap packing foam cut to accommodate it, it makes a convenient protective case for storage and transport.You can buy more powerful scopes, but if you're looking for a scope to figuratively dip your toes in Astronomy, you'd be hard pressed to find a better scope for the money than the Celestron FirstScope. The National Park Foundation Edition is a bit more, having NPF graphics and providing proceeds to the NPF. If you want to save a few dollars, look for the non-NPF edition, also available on Amazon.

We love the telescope, but two of the teeth that hold the lens cover were broken on arrival. It does not effect the use at all. I just wanted to call it to your attention. Looking forward to many hours of star-gazing! Thanks.

Great little beginner’s telescope. Wonderful for moon and stars. Very portable tabletop design. Very clear in the eyepiece and easy focus knobs. Great fun for the whole family. And fun even for snapping a photo with a smartphone in manual iso and shutter speed settings. The eyepiece is clearer to the eye than my smartphone image; that’s my first attempt at photography through the eyepiece.