Today in this article, we will see a short unboxing review of the Celestron PowerSeeker 50AZ telescope. This telescope is the cheapest one in the Celestron telescope list. It is a refractor telescope with just a 50mm aperture. Now, if you are a reader of this site then you already know that an aperture is the most important part of the telescope, and everything a telescope will show you completely depends upon the aperture size and its light-collecting ability. A 50 mm aperture is too small but let’s what this telescope offers.
Unboxing Celestron PowerSeeker 50AZ
When you open the box you see there is a refractor optical tube assembly. A small box that has eyepieces, screws & some accessories, and below these two items there is a mount which we will see later.
Inside this small box, you get one 3X Barlow lens. This lens is of plastic and is very lightweight. This is a holder to fit the finder scope on your telescope tube.
You also get a 1.5X erecting eyepiece. This is the finderscope, which you will fit in the finderscope holder.
Then we have a star diagonal for the eyepiece. You can attach this at the end of the telescope and place an eyepiece and you are ready to go.
You get 3 eyepieces with this telescope. This one is a 4mm eyepiece.
This one is a 2.5mm eyepiece and the last one is a 20mm eyepiece. Some screws and knobs to fit the telescope.
Another item you have here is the eyepiece stand that you attach to the tripod.
Optical tube assembly
The optical tube assembly is just 50mm. It is made up of metal a little bit stronger. The OTA is very lightweight and can easily be handled by anyone. The OTA has prefixed bolts to fit the finderscope holder stand.
Mount
The mount of this telescope is very lightweight and just garbage. It doesn’t offer any stability & can be easily deflected even with the small wind. The mount does have an eyepiece stand which helps in to place different eyepieces.
Accessories
The accessories which come with this telescope are the 3 eyepieces. One 3X Barlow lens. One 1.5X erecting lens. All the accessories are of very cheap material. None of the accessories are of quality. The eyepieces are the Kellner eyepieces.
Assembling this telescope.
Let’s first open the tripod and then fix the eyepiece tray stand.
Attach the optical tube with the tripod with one of the screws provided. Then we’ll fix the finderscope holder and fit the finderscope.
Then you fix the eyepiece holder to put in the eyepieces, & you are done. Your telescope is assembled.
The total weight of this telescope is around 8kg.
Observing through the PowerSeeker 50AZ telescope?
With such a beginner telescope you can only see the moon. Planets will look like small dots through this telescope.
We tried to observe the moon with this telescope but apparently, the mount of this telescope was not able to fix the telescope at one single point. It was kind of damaged and the telescope was not able to focus on the moon for a long time.
Still, we tried to capture some images of the moon through this telescope.
So overall this is a very beginner telescope and one of the cheapest ones.
Should you buy this telescope?
If you are serious about astronomy then avoid buying this telescope. You can go with some intermediate-level telescope like Celestron 130SLT. You can also find the best suitable telescope for you with our telescope suggestion tool.
This telescope is only good for bird watching and looking at the moon and is mostly suitable for kids. Other objects like planets will look mostly like a dot through this telescope.
As most beginner telescopes will show you the moon and some planets. It is very easy to outrun these telescopes. So there is a possibility that if you get a very beginner telescope then instead of exciting you about astronomy it might discourage you from pursuing it further. So it is always better to go for an aperture of 80-90mm for your first telescope. If you can stretch your budget then go for a good mid-range, slightly expensive telescope. You can choose a good beginner telescope from this list.
