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Celestron Astro Fi: beginner telescopes with App

January 16 2017, Stefan Taube

It all started with the NexStar Evolution: Celestron had this telescope series equipped with WIFI. This enables you to connect your tablet or smartphone with the telescope. This not only gives you the opportunity to control your telescope without cables, you can also utilize all functionalities of the free-of-charge App Celestron SkyPortal: Your display screen uses an appealing planetarium view to show the current view of the sky and provides you with a lot of background information. The most popular objects are available as images and even an Auto-Guide (in English).

Celestron now offers this technology also for reasonable starter telescopes. At present this series Astro Fi consists of four different instruments:

Newton telescope N 130/650 AZ GoTo Astro Fi 130

Refractor N 90/910 AZ GoTo Astro Fi 90

Maksutov telescope MC 102/1325 AZ GoTo Astro Fi 102

Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope SC 127/1250 AZ GoTo Astro Fi 5

Our tip: The Astro Fi telescope with SC optics.

The model Astro Fi 5 mentioned last is particularly interesting. With its aperture of 5 inches it is already relatively fast. However, the telescope is very compact and thus only has a minor leverage effect on the tripod. The closed tube protects the main mirror against contamination. Moreover, SC optics show a high adjustment stability. Despite their compact design and the high focal length, SC optics are highly suitable for taking photos of moon and planets – a well suited camera is the NexImage 5.

As already described before, all four Astro Fi telescopes generate a WIFI for the control via the SkyPortal App. In contrast to the NexStar Evolution, Celestron delivers the Astro Fi without an additional manual control box.

Just like the bigger Celestron telescopes, the Astro Fi also come with the SkyAlign technology. This is a particularly simple technique for aligning the computer control to the actual night sky and your station. At the beginning of your stargazing session you must align the telescope to three bright celestial objects, that is all. The telescope uses the angles between the objects and the GPS-data from the smartphone or tablet to calculate the actual view of the sky. After this short procedure you can automatically approach any object that the SkyPortal-App shows you. All you must do, just touch the object on the touchscreen.

The special feature of this SkyAlign method is the fact that you even don’t need to know the names of the three bright objects you use for initializing the control. For beginners this is a great help, but it is also a useful feature for experienced stargazers, because at dawn the number of visible stars is often too low to assign the correct names.

The Astro Fi telescopes are equipped with a battery compartment. However, the best power supply method surely is the LiFePO4 powerpack from Celestron.

Tags: Celestron, telescope, Astro Fi
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Celestron Inspire: New ideas for starter telescopes!

October 17 2016, Stefan Taube

My first telescope was a small, 60 millimetre refractor on a very wobbly azimuthal mount with a wooden tripod. Even though it was only a very simple piece of equipment, I had fun with it right from the beginning. I can still remember the fascination when looking at the Orion nebula for the first time. Even today I gladly use this simple achromatic telescope to watch sunspots – obviously through a solar filter!

However, such reasonable starter telescopes do not have to be wobbly! Telescope manufacturer Celestron shows that even budget-priced refractors on azimuthal mounts can feature exquisite product design. The new Inspire series features a few really innovative improvements.

This starts with a solid steel tripod. The accessory plate, which also stabilizes the tripod, no longer needs to be unscrewed after a star gazing session (the screw required for this purpose will sooner or later be lost in the grass anyway). Just simply open the interlock instead and fold down the tripod including the accessory plate. It has never been more convenient to set up or disassemble a tripod!

Apart from this, the clamping screws for the extendable tripod legs point inwards to make sure that you will not accidentally get entangled with your trousers.

Further features of the Inspire series:

The newly developed red dot finder comes with target circles instead of an annoying centre mark.
The Amici prism ensures an upright image, so that daytime nature observations are also possible.
The focusing screws of the focuser are big and have a good grip to allow the use of gloves.
The dust protection lid for the eyepiece also serves as a smartphone adapter. All eyepieces included in the scope of delivery can be clamped into this lid, just like the smartphone. This allows you to use your smartphone to take magnified photos of the Moon and planets through the eyepieces.
The mount is equipped with an integrated red light lamp. The diffuse light of this lamp illuminates the accessories plate without dazzling the eyes. However, you can easily pull the lamp out of the mount to use it as a pocket torch.

Currently, Celestron offers three models of the Inspire series

AC 70/700 AZ Ins pire The most budget-priced model.
AC 80/900 AZ Inspire The good aperture ratio suppresses colour related faults, perfect for the Moon, planets and for twin stars.
AC 100/660 AZ Inspire The model with the largest aperture.

Each of these three models is far better than my first telescope, but I still had a lot of fun with it!

Tags: Inspire, Celestron, telescope
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New: Celestron Powertank Lithium 86 Wh

August 8 2016, Stefan Taube

The Powertank portable, rechargeable batteries are an easy and economical way of ensuring power supply to the motorized mounts. With its lithium-vivianite rechargeable battery, the manufacturer, Celestron, has introduced a new Powertank to the market: the Celestron Lithium 86 Wh.

Celestron Powertank Lithium LiFePO4 84Wh

This new Powertank combines the advantages of lithium technology – high power density, cycle life, better environmental compatibility – with a well thought-out design. Using the supplied Velcro tape, the Powertank Lithium 86 Wh can be simply fastened to the tripod leg.

It not only provides a 12 Volt output voltage for the telescope mount, but is also equipped with charging sockets for your tablet and smartphone.

A cable with utility plug connects the telescope with the Powertank. This standard originating from the cigarette lighter in a car has become well established. Most mounts include a corresponding cable in their scope of delivery. You can, however, also buy the cable separately here.

The Celestron Powertank Lithium 86 Wh also has a torch (flashlight) function, optionally with white or red light. All switches and sockets are protected by hinged lids, making sure that they stay free of dirt or dust during long-term storage.

Talking of storage: There is a problem with the classic Powertanks, in that they will fail, if not used for a long time. They suffer self-discharge, which is accompanied by a loss of storage capacity. Starting to use a telescope again after an extended period of not observing the night sky may result in a very unpleasant surprise indeed. In this area – the so-called storage life – the new Powertank Lithium 86 Wh is also superior to its predecessor!

Tags: Celestron, Powertank
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