My granddaughter was visiting from out of town, and the forecast was clear skies. I thought this might be the perfect opportunity to share the night sky with Gracie. It also occurred to me that this would be a good time to see how easy it would be for an eleven year old to use two very popular beginner telescopes. A 76mm Celestron firstScope and a 100mm Orion SkyScanner.
The 76mm Celestron FirstScope (model 21024) has a 300mm focal length for an f/4.0 focal ratio. It comes with two eyepieces for magnifications of 15x and 75x.
The 100mm Orion SkyScanner has a 400 mm focal length for an f/4.0 focal ratio also. The Orion scope has a parabolic mirror, and the FirstScope has a spherical mirror. A parabolic mirror (especially at f/4) should have better performance than a spherically ground mirror. The SkyScanner eyepieces are quite a bit better in quality than the ones which come with the 76 mm FirstScope.
The 76mm Celestron sells for about $50 from a variety of vendors, and the 100mm Orion SkyScanner…at current sells for $119.00 from Orion Telescope and Binocular.
Both scopes performed well, with the biggest difference being brighter views in the 100mm versus the 76mm, as expected due to the larger aperture.
It should be noted that the Celestron FirstScope does not come with a finder. The 100mm Orion SkyScanner comes standard with a very good quality red-dot finder that works really well. I have a couple of Rigel Quik Finders, so I use one with my FirstScope. The mounts are well constructed, and both scopes can be moved very smoothly and with precision.
Note: To effectively use the 76mm FirstScope, a finder is essential. You can purchase an optional “optical” finder kit, with a DVD for (about $20) but it’s a bit too small and dim, so I can’t recommend this finder.
The Orion SkyScanner 100 comes standard with a an excellent red dot finder, better quality eyepieces, and a parabolic mirror. The SkyScanner has almost twice the light gathering capacity, and is just as portable.
Both telescopes offer excellent value for the money, however, if you can spring for the extra money, the Orion SkyScanner offers quite a bit more in performance and capability.
Back to observing:
My granddaughter Gracie and I were able to observe quite a few deep-sky objects. We stayed out well over an hour with the temperature in the low 30’s. She learned how to use the red dot finders, pointing the scopes, and focusing without any difficulty at all.
Gracie could see the red star (known as the Espin Star) located in the central region of M41 in the 100mm SkyScanner, and galaxies M81-82 were very easy in both telescopes. She described the two galaxies very well, “one is mostly round and the other is oval” and this was without any coaching. She became very interested in learning about red stars and even pointed out a couple without a telescope.
On Sunday morning before church, she filled out three note cards with her thoughts and descriptions from the previous night. She mentioned the Espin star in M41, her perception of open cluster M45, the moon, Jupiter, M42 and the Trapezium. Gracie said she understood the purpose and importance of using a red light when observing. She had leaned about this in a book she had read. I was very impressed!
Her last sentence in her notes:
“Then I looked at M81 & M82, it was a pretty cool night.” Gracie
Both scopes presented a nice and crisp separation of the four trapezium stars in the Orion nebula.
You can purchase larger and better telescopes, but at $50 and $110 respectively, one cannot go wrong with either of these telescopes. If you find that amateur astronomy is not your cup of tea…well, you haven’t lost a great amount of money. However, if it is, there are plenty of telescopes to move up to, and I’ve always believed that everyone should keep their first telescope.
Final: Not only are these scopes of very good quality and perform well, they also look great sitting on a bookshelf or desk.
Roger Ivester
rogerivester.com 
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