If you are considering the Celestron Inspire 100az then this review and guide will help you decide whether or not it is going to be best for you.

Unleash the power of your smartphone to take you on a guided tour of the night sky—no telescope experience required. In the case of the Inspire 100az, as a Refractor it utilizes lenses. The lens size can be seen in the name for the telescope “100” referring to 100mm Aperture (or 3.94″). Focal Length 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. It's worth noting that because of its rather unusual hood design the Celestron Inspire 100AZ can't take solar filters, so should never be used to observe the Sun. Should you buy the Celestron Inspire 100AZ telescope? 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.

Turn on “Save Images & Logs” from the Menu as described above. After you use StarSense Explorer at night, there will be images and log files stored on your phone. Accessing them requires connecting your smartphone to a computer. To retrieve the files: This telescope also features fully coated glass optics which decreases potential anomalies in the viewing and increases image quality. Not all telescopes have coated optics, in fact, you would be surprised how many do not. These coatings are a great addition to an already solid telescope and really make the views pop. Ok, so my lovely 9 year old son wrote his xmas list and at the top was...a decent beginner level telescope.

We enjoyed early evening views of Venus, where the planet’s phase was easily observed and Mars was very clearly a non-stellar red disc.Lunar observations were particularly enjoyable, with plenty of detail visible in the craters and not too much false colour on the limb. The Celestron Inspire 100az combines premium components, quality material and great fully multi-coated optics for a reasonable price. It comes with 100mm Aperture (3.94″), a 660mm Focal Length and a f/6.5 Focal Ratio. This is great specification for a beginner or even an intermediate who is looking for a portable and easy to use telescope. When focused, the 100az will deliver high quality images of the Moon, the Planets of the Solar system and some DSO’s (Deep sky Objects) including the Andromeda Galaxy.

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The Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P provides a significant boost in light gathering and resolving power over the Inspire 100AZ at the same focal length, free of chromatic aberration and with a sturdy, easy-to-use tabletop Dobsonian mount.

The Inspire 100AZ comes with a 10mm Kellner eyepiece providing 66x, but it can handle a fair bit more magnification than that—up to about 200x. As such, we might recommend a 6mm “gold-line” for 110x, which is probably all you really need for the Moon, planets, and double stars. A little more power (165x) can be achieved with a 4mm Aspheric or 4mm planetary eyepiece. You could also use a 2x Barlow with the 10mm for 132x or with the 6mm for 220x, which is usable, albeit a bit above what one should really be using with this telescope due to its aperture and optical quality. Personally, however, I do find it a little expensive for what it is. If you haven't yet bought it, there are perhaps better alternatives. As D4N says, phone adapters are readily available. For example https://www.firstlightoptics.com/celestron-astromaster-series/astromaster-90az-telescope.html would leave some money left over to upgrade eyepieces etc., or a little dearer, https://www.firstlightoptics.com/startravel/skywatcher-startravel-120-az3.html has more aperture and probably better optics. The question is...whilst I know we should get some pretty lovely views of the moon...does anyone have any idea if there's anything else we may spot?Being a refractor, it can also get great views of the moon, Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, and other objects within the solar system. Award-winning and patented StarSense sky recognition technology uses your smartphone to analyze star patterns overhead and calculate its position in real time. This will help you/ your children learn about the night sky, celestial objects, and how to plan your next observing session. Smartphone Adapter

So those are the basics, but which of our chosen contenders for the best intermediate telescope you can buy will best suit your own particular requirements? Read on to find out… Celestron Inspire 100AZ vs Meade Polaris 114mm reflector telescope: design and features The 1.25″ star diagonal that comes with the Inspire 100AZ is also mostly made of plastic. It has an Amici erecting prism design, which makes sure that the images are correct both left to right and up to 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. 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. Speaking of which, the telescope can be assembled in minutes without tools. Everything unfolds and hooks together without having to deal with small screws or specific tools. Some telescopes require tightening and configuration with specialized tools or small screwdrivers which can be a bear to deal with when all you want to do is look at the sky. There is none of that frustration present here.BBC Sky at Night magazine awarded the 100AZ 4.5 stars in their review, they said " The ease with which this scope can be set up is a real bonus for beginners wanting to start observing asap" When the bullseye does not change from color red, the smartphone camera is not successfully “sensing” the sky and is not able to determine its pointing position. There are several possible reasons for this: With a large 100mm (4”) objective lens, this telescope has enough light gathering ability to bring out impressive detail in celestial objects. You can expect sharp, bright views of Jupiter’s four Galilean moons, its cloud bands and Great Red Spot, the rings of Saturn, the trapezium in the Orion Nebula, and beautiful Ple ia des Open Star Cluster. Celestron’s XLT optical coatings improve light transmission, enhancing the views even more. The telescope also includes a 90-degree erect image diagonal, so you can use it during the day to view birds, wildlife, landscapes, and more. It has enough light gathering ability and focal ratio to see distant objects such as nebula, galaxies, and star clusters. It far outperforms smaller refractors which are geared more towards seeing the moon and the nearby planets.