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Customer Review
Reviewed in Canada on December 27, 2018
I bought this telescope as a gift for my girlfriend who has no prior knowledge of any sort of telescope. After doing some research on pricing, brands, quality, etc, I decided to go with the PowerSeeker 127EQ by Celestron.
When the package arrived, I could tell that the telescope would be quality - the box weighed over 30 pounds. Almost everything is made of metal - the telescope body, clamps, mount, tripod, eyepieces and adjusters. There are few plastic pieces here and there, like the flexible adjuster extensions and some parts of the tripod, but otherwise, everything feels sturdy and well-made.
The main point of contention with an equatorial-mount telescope is the setup. If you follow the quick setup guide closely, you should have no problem getting everything put together - just take your time. The trickiest part of the setup is lining up the small finder scope with the main telescope. Here's a tip: during the daytime, find a distant object somewhere on the horizon. Try to line the object up the best you can with the main telescope. Next, locate the object in the finder scope and centre the cross-hairs on it. It may take a some fine tuning, but once you got both scopes lined up, it's much easier to point the telescope at something in the sky.
Once the scopes were lined up, I was able to point the telescope at the moon for some amazing views. I recommend looking at a partial moon so that you can see variations in the shadows; the 127EQ is very capable of spotting craters and fine details with its default eyepiece - my girlfriend and I were very impressed! We have yet to try the included 3x Barlow eyepiece, but it should offer up some incredibly-detailed views.
We haven't learned how to properly set up the EQ mount in order to track stars and constellations yet, but it doesn't seem to be too difficult if you're willing to learn something new. There are lots of videos on the internet about how to properly align the telescope with the stars, but I could see that being a turn-off for someone who wants something instantaneous or automatic.
Overall this is a great telescope, but it might be a bit intimidating to use for some. Put the effort into though and it's well worth it.
When the package arrived, I could tell that the telescope would be quality - the box weighed over 30 pounds. Almost everything is made of metal - the telescope body, clamps, mount, tripod, eyepieces and adjusters. There are few plastic pieces here and there, like the flexible adjuster extensions and some parts of the tripod, but otherwise, everything feels sturdy and well-made.
The main point of contention with an equatorial-mount telescope is the setup. If you follow the quick setup guide closely, you should have no problem getting everything put together - just take your time. The trickiest part of the setup is lining up the small finder scope with the main telescope. Here's a tip: during the daytime, find a distant object somewhere on the horizon. Try to line the object up the best you can with the main telescope. Next, locate the object in the finder scope and centre the cross-hairs on it. It may take a some fine tuning, but once you got both scopes lined up, it's much easier to point the telescope at something in the sky.
Once the scopes were lined up, I was able to point the telescope at the moon for some amazing views. I recommend looking at a partial moon so that you can see variations in the shadows; the 127EQ is very capable of spotting craters and fine details with its default eyepiece - my girlfriend and I were very impressed! We have yet to try the included 3x Barlow eyepiece, but it should offer up some incredibly-detailed views.
We haven't learned how to properly set up the EQ mount in order to track stars and constellations yet, but it doesn't seem to be too difficult if you're willing to learn something new. There are lots of videos on the internet about how to properly align the telescope with the stars, but I could see that being a turn-off for someone who wants something instantaneous or automatic.
Overall this is a great telescope, but it might be a bit intimidating to use for some. Put the effort into though and it's well worth it.
