Celestron PowerSeeker Telescope Eyepiece Kit

I purchased this for the Celestron Powerseeker 80EQ and it has made a wonderful addition to my scope. All three eyepieces are made with good to great quality. The red and blue filters are medium quality, although the moon filter is plastic it does it’s job well. My favorite eyepiece is the 15mm and with the blue filter attached i can see the cloud bands of jupiter as well as the big red storm. The 6mm is made better as it is a standard plossl and it is capable of showing planets and brighter galaxies (Andromeda, M81) very well. Also the 2x barlow is great because is contains the threads that can be used for attaching a dslr camera. For you to do this you will need the correct t-ring for your camera. If you only have a standard digital camera you can find the Celestron or Orion universal camera adaptor here on Amazon. I have seen more detail in the moon with my scope and these eyepieces than i could ever draw in my life. If your about to buy a telescope and are looking for more power and better veiws than this is the kit for you. Although i would not use the 6mm eyepiece with any scope under 60mm; due to light loss from to much power. With the celestron powerseeker 80eq the power of these eyepieces are as follows 15mm-60x, 6mm-150x. You can then double the magnification of both eyepieces with the included 2x barlow. Also the barlow can be used with any other eyepieces you may have that are 1.25″. To see how much power these eyepieces will give you for your current telescope or one different than mine you use this formula, focal length divided by the size of the eyepiece. Example, my scope has a focal length of 900 so i take 900 and divide it by 15. If i had to do it over i would still purchase this product. I would recomened this for anyone over the age of 8 for a great way of upgrading your telescope.

There are few reviews of this product in the net so I’ll try to be detailed as possible.

The kit came in with a box and inside the hard shell that stores the items. The plastic hard case seems durable enough and the items insides are protected by a die-cut foam.

The items:

– 2x Power Lens with T-threads
– 80A Blue Planetary Filter
– 25 Red Planetary Filter
– Moon Filter
– 15 mm Kellner Eyepiece
– 6 mm Plössl Eyepiece
– micro fiber cloth

1. 2x Power Lens with T-threads (Cost about 40 USD)

This is probably the same with this product Celestron Universal T-Adapter 1.25in 93640

Good enough for viewing bright objects like the moon and jupiter. I tried all my lens (25 mm and 10 sirius plossl, 15 mm Kellner and 6 mm celestron plossl to viewing the moon and jupiter, the image stays sharp and minimal light loss since the moon was bright.

The Barlow lens itself can be removed and attached to you’re individual eyepieces giving you a 1.5x magnification – which is a good feature.

The barlow has a t-threat so you can attached a t-ring for you dslr – another good feature.

For viewing stars and dim object you’ll immediately notice that light loss with this 2x barlow. The image starts to get dim and seems like out of focused. 10/22/2012 Although I tried it recently with a 10 mm plossl and I still saw the orion nebula. A gray patch/smoke in the sky. No color but still magnificent =)

2. 80A Blue Planetary Filter and 25 Red Planetary Filter (This propably cost 20 USD)

Good quality filters, this filter is probably the color mostly used. The housing is metal and threaded on both side so it can be attached to another filter to change the color. (adding the red and blue will just yield a darker red =)) I tried the blue with jupiter and it made the white bands blue (it’s better for me to just view it without a filter)

3. Moon Filter (Cost 10 USD)
Celestron Telescope Moon Filter – 1-1/4″ 94119-A

Housing is plastic and it fits my other eyepieces but has a problem fitting the 15 mm kellner that came with the kit (don’t force it to fit the thread will be ruined) You will view a greenish moon with this filter. I’ll post a moon video sample soon. I does indeed help in toning down the brightness and increasing the contrast of the moon.

4. 15 mm Kellner Eyepiece
Celestron 15mm 1.25″ Telescope Eyepiece w/ Eyeguard

Good midrange eyepiece. I view jupiter with this with a 3x barlow and I saw the bands and 4 moons. If you want a affordable eyepiece go for a kellner. Don’t be afraid of kellners they are not bad =)

5. 6 mm Plössl Eyepiece
Celestron 6mm 1.25″ Plossl Telescope Eyepiece

One of the reason I bought this kit is this lens. Good quality eyepiece for high power viewing. It’s a plossl. When you buy this alone it will cost about 25 USD half of price of the kit alone. I used this with a 3x barlow to view the moon. The FOV is small but the magnification was great. It pushed my 130mm scope to 325X.

6. micro fiber cloth

A plus for cleaning your eyepiece

Overall the kit for me is a great value. If you are starting in astronomy and on a budget this kit is for you. If you buy the items by piece it will cost more than 100 USD.

I’ve read some comments from astronomy forum that they should not bother to buy this because it’s cheap. Well if you’re on a budget what’s included in this kit is very useful. And as always Amazon is great!

I’ll update this review again if I have other eyepieces, barlow and filters to compare it with.

My telescope is the Orion spaceprobe 130st

No soy experto en el tema pero estos filtros y lentes me funcionan muy bien! Quienes los disfrutan mas son mis hijos.
Aún así requiero algunos otros ademas de mas accesorios!
Me parecen de buena calidad.

I am a 34 year old beginner in astronomy and just bought my first telescope 6 months ago. I got a celestron astromaster 114 (Newtonian 4.5″) but up until now I was limited to the 10mm eyepiece and the 20mm erect image eyepiece that come with it. I wanted to get a few more eyepieces and some planetary filters without spending much, so I decided to get this kit. So far I have used my scope around 20 times since I bought it… so, I don’t have much experience in the field, but here are my comments:

Ok! so, the optical quality of the eyepieces… I know these are from the economic line but they are still very good, I specially liked the 15mm one and I use it a lot to observe the moon and the stars. The 6mm is also good but the images do get a bit blurry at least on my scope. Even so, I use it to observe details on the surface of the moon and Jupiter when I want to increase the magnification power.

I tested the x2 barlow lens with all the eyepieces I have and it works fine, although the image quality is not as good as with a single eyepiece (i.e. it’s better to use a 10mm eyepiece than a 20mm plus x2 barlow). However, I really like using it with the 20mm erect image eyepiece that came with my scope (for terrestrial observation).

The blue filter is great!, I tested it observing Jupiter and it reduces the glare significantly making the planet’s bands easier to observe. You will see the planet a bit blueish, of course… While observing Jupiter, I like swapping between the 6mm eyepiece with the blue filter attached and the 10mm eyepiece with no filter.

The red filter didn’t work so well with Jupiter (all I could see was a uniform-red disc), I read somewhere that it is more used to observe Mars but haven’t had the chance to test it yet. The moon filter is made of plastic (the others are made of aluminum) and it works ok removing the glare during the brightest phases, although the image becomes a bit greenish. If you like to observe the moon you will probably want to get a better filter for it (I got this one… http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0069VY9CO/ref=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_0). All filters can be screwed to the bottom of the eyepiece nice and smoothly.

Overall I’m very happy with this kit, I really recommend it if you are a beginner in astronomy because you can learn a lot using it without spending much, later you’ll find out what works best for you and then you can put a little more money into it… Until then, you can get a lot more from your telescope with this kit. if you do the math, you’re paying around $7 USD for each accessory, so the cost-benefit ratio is really good.