But if you can take the telescope to an even slightly darker location, more objects will become visible. With this 4” refractor and relatively dark skies, the Andromeda Galaxy, Hercules Open Star Cluster, and so many more are easily within your reach. Stars examined through the Inspire 100AZ retained good shapes up to almost 80% of the field of view.

Although this telescope and its non-motorised mount are not designed with astrophotography in mind, the Inspire 100AZ’s dust cap has a novel feature – you can strap a smartphone to it and then attach the pairing to one of the two eyepieces that come with the scope. This telescope features in our lists of the best telescopes for beginners, the best telescopes for astrophotography, best telescopes for kids and the best budget telescopes Celestron Inspire 100AZ refractor. Credit: BBC Sky at Night Magazine Celestron Inspire 100AZ Focus and colour That's because its bearings are a little stiff and imprecise, though with a little practice it’s possible to get good views of the star clusters and galaxies. However, the darker the sky, the better. A 100mm refractor has the capability to do a surprising amount of stuff. The Inspire 100AZ works like a 114mm or so reflector because it doesn’t have any mirror surfaces that reflect light or anything in the middle that gets in the way. You won’t quite be able to resolve globular star clusters or see much in the way of detail in galaxies, even under dark skies, but the 100AZ can still show you the entirety of the Messier catalog and a wealth of detail on the Moon and planets. The relative size and weight of all the components affect its overall portability. The mount will of course add to this. If a telescope has a shorter Focal Length it is typically more portable, but will require better quality eyepieces to ensure great views. Pros and Cons of a Refractor:The Inspire 100AZ telescope would be most suitable for younger beginners as the views and versatility would keep their interest going. Dust cap camera mount The Inspire 100AZ isn't just about astrophotography, but it’s not as able with deep sky objects as it may appear. A reasonably short focal length of 660mm makes this achromatic refractor primarily ideal for observing targets within our solar system, but its f/6.5 focal ratio is just enough to get eyes-on with some reasonably faint deep-sky objects.

Other measurements such as the PV and RMS are important too. With these measurements, the lower the number the better as it shows less curvature on the lens. The flatter an optical lens, the better it will perform. The PV rating (Peak To Valley) is a measurement from the highest point (Peak) to the lowest point (Valley). From this we get the RMS (Root, Mean, Square). This is a similar figure to the PV and measured exactly the same way. The RMS is basically an average height difference from the PV so again, the lower the better. As you can see form the example below, we measured an RMS of just 0.027 wave which is a very good value. You may be wondering what actually is a Refractor? In short, it is all to do with how the telescope works. Basically, its a type of telescope that uses various components and mechanisms to refract light, compared to reflecting it in (like Reflecting Telescopes do) Uranus and Neptune aren’t very interesting to look at with the Inspire 100AZ because it’s hard to tell them apart from stars, their disks are so small that you can barely s The StarPointer Pro red dot finderscope, StarPointer Pro eyepieces (20mm and 10mm), 90° erect image diagonal, integrated smartphone adapter, and red LED flashlight are all included with the Inspire 100AZ. The 1.25” star diagonal included with the Inspire 100AZ is also mostly plastic, and the design is an Amici erecting prism, which provides correct images both left-right and up-down. Unless you plan on frequently reading signs and snooping on people’s reading material from a distance, this feature is essentially worthless and comes at a cost, too. Due to the way it works, any Amici erecting prism produces annoying bright spikes, glare, and additional chromatic aberration on bright targets – which doesn’t help when there are already glare issues with the dew shield and chromatic aberration from the objective lens itself to begin with.The included accessories give you a great value right out of the box and enhance this telescope’s strengths immediately.

During my tests I pointed the Celestron Inspire 100AZ at Venus, Jupiter and Saturn, as well as the moon moving through its many phases. It is possible to see a little chromatic aberration in the form of a purplish-yellowish line around bright objects, but it's nowhere near as distracting as on cheaper telescopes. Manually locating and then fixing on to much dimmer, harder to find objects is a challenge when using the Celestron Inspire 100AZ. For this process to work, it’s important that your camera’s lens is aligned centrally with the eyepiece and the adjustable elastic straps on the dust cap make doing that easy.Next, the dust cap is placed over the eyepiece and held in position with two thumbscrews.

Alternative Products

For most people, this will be more than adequate. You will not run into the problem of running out of things to look at. If you get bored of the solar system, take a look at deep space. If deep space is too vague for your liking, take a look at the planets. Just because the images of each individual thing aren’t as sharp as its more focused competition doesn’t mean the views aren’t great. Because they are great, for the most part. Smooth Viewing It also includes a professional grade red dot finderscope, a ninety-degree erect image diagonal, a foldable steel tripod with a max extension of 47”, a red light flashlight, an attachable accessory tray and access to Starry Night Basic astronomy software. The Inspire 100AZ has an achromatic doublet objective lens with a generous aperture of 4 inches, the largest in the Inspire range. Larger apertures increase the light grasp of a telescope making it easier to observe dimmer objects. The fully coated lens surfaces increase light transmission by decreasing reflections. 10mm & 20mm Eyepieces The mount is a free form altazimuth mount that moves very smoothly and has functional settings that allow for you to cruise around the night sky with fluid ease or hone in a specific spot with the same amount of precision. If you are considering the Celestron Inspire 100az, then its good to know the features that make a great Refractor. Here are the main three: Aperture:

Despite that, it will not get as clear and sharp views of deep sky objects as a dedicated reflector geared for deep space viewing. It will also lag behind more focused refractors that excel at getting views of high contrast things like the rings of Saturn. Again, it can do everything well but nothing spectacularly.The Zhumell Z100 and Orion SkyScanner 100mm technically have slightly less light-gathering ability than the Inspire 100AZ, but don’t suffer from chromatic aberration and are much easier to aim. The shorter focal length and resultingly wider field of view helps, too.