Question 1

i am looking to get a telescope for someone for christmas they are a beginner can i ask would they be able to see planets with this telescope?

Accepted Answer

You'll see Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn (if they're in the sky at the time - download Stellarium for your PC to see what planets are in the sky and when)Mercury can be seen when it's angled far enough away from the sun though it's very small and you can only see it rarely and then just before and just after sunset, so forget Mercury!With a 60mm lens though you're limited to about 100x magnification at best, don't expect any of them to be big or very detailed. You'll see a disc though, indicating it's a planet not a star.You should see Venus' phases like the moon has, crescents etc.Mars will just be a tiny reddish blob, no detail, boring, as it is through most small telescopes.Jupiter should show two cloud belts and the four large moons as they dance around it.Saturn will show its' rings though will be small, it'll look a bit like a fly with the rings as the fly's wings.The scope's focal length is 700mm, to calculate the magnification with a particular eyepiece you divide the scope's focal length by the eyepiece's. If you use a 3x Barlow then that makes the image 3x bigger but also loses a LOT of light - I'd never use one on a scope like this.The more the magnification the smaller the field of view, i.e. the less area of the sky you can see at any one time and the quicker an object will move out of the field of view due to the Earth's rotation.I'd strongly recommend getting a 10mm Plossl eyepiece to use with this scope as that will give you 70x magnification which is about the maximum I'd use for a 60mm objective lens.The 4mm eyepiece is too tiny, it's like a pin prick, and the scope doesn't gather enough light to deliver 175x magnification which that lens would give.Likewise never use the Barlow lens as that just uses up valuable light and pushes the magnification beyond the light gathering of this scope.The worst thing about this scope is the tripod, it hasn't got slow motion controls for fine adjustment or counterbalancing weights to keep it steady.That said it's very cheap and optically it's ok, if you just want to get a scope to try out the hobby then it's fine and a low-risk purchase.

Question 2

Is this suitable for a 6 year old

Accepted Answer

Should be great. Parental supervision probably needed at first. We purchased for 8 year old who loves it.we also bought children's 2016 sky guide to help.

Question 3

Why do you need a moon filter

Accepted Answer

We got a moon filter and it just makes the moon green so we don’t use it, much better without

Question 4

Can i use this for like watching sea birds?

Accepted Answer

you can. but binoculars would take up a lot less room

Package Dimensions L x W x H	85 x 27.8 x 18.4 centimetres
Package Weight	3.94 Kilograms
Product Dimensions L x W x H	81.3 x 81.3 x 132.1 centimetres
Item Weight	1.91 kg
Brand	Celestron
Colour	Multi-Coloured
Country of Origin	China
Included components	Barlow Lens, Finderscope, Erect image star diagonal, Two eyepieces (20mm and 4mm), erect image star diagonal, finderscope, and a Barlow Lens.
Min Focal Length	700 Millimetres
Model year	2012
Objective Lens Diameter	60 Millimetres
Part number	21041
Telescope Mount Description	Altazimuth Mount
Focus type	Manual Focus
Style	PowerSeeker 60AZ Refractor
Guaranteed software updates until	unknown

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Celestron 21041 PowerSeeker 60AZ Telescope

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