The joy of the brand new moon mission has doubtlessly helped create a brand new technology of stargazers, similar to the Apollo program did 60 years in the past. These new observers shall be searching for a newbie’s telescope that’s simple to make use of and which might present them the craters on the moon particularly. The Celestron Moon Mission 100mm Tabletop Dobsonian might be the proper entry level for them. It has an excellent price-point for its aperture, and is able to bringing not solely the moon, however double stars, the brighter galaxies and nebulas and the moons of Jupiter to your yard.
The Celestron Moon Mission 100mm Tabletop Dobsonian comes geared up with 8mm and 20mm eyepieces, one among which is meant particularly for the moon, in addition to a red-dot finderscope, a moon filter, a moon-map poster and free entry to obtain the Starry Night time planetarium software program and Celestron’s SkyPortal app, which is powered by SkySafari.
All in all, it is going to make a superb bundle for somebody to get began having fun with the night time sky. Although the optics and equipment usually are not good, for the value their drawbacks will be ignored, and as an entry-level telescope it paves the way in which for the consumer to graduate to more and more extra refined telescopes at a later date.
Celestron Moon Mission 100mm Tabletop Dobsonian overview
Celestron Moon Mission 100mm Tabletop Dobsonian: Design
- Fast and easy set-up
- Transportable
The Celestron Moon Mission 100mm Tabletop Dobsonian comes out of its field full, aside from its eyepieces and red-dot finderscope in plastic baggage. Set-up takes actually minutes — take away the plastic cap over the aperture and the cap on the focuser, insert your eyepiece of selection, screw on the finderscope and you’re able to go. No instruments corresponding to screwdrivers or Allen keys are wanted— it’s only a matter of unscrewing thumbscrews.
We discovered the finderscope went on simply — extra about that later. Nevertheless, the tiny thumbscrews that lock within the eyepiece have been extremely tight. Pliers didn’t assist a lot and risked damaging the screw. Ultimately, we discovered elbow grease was nearly sufficient to unscrew them, but when our overview mannequin is typical, then kids will certainly want the assistance of an grownup to unscrew these. As soon as they’re unscrewed, they are often tightened to extra forgiving tolerances.
Specs
Optical design: Newtonian reflector
Aperture: 3.9 in (100 mm)
Focal size: 15.75 in (400 mm)
Focal ratio: f/4
Eyepiece focal lengths & magnification: 20mm (20x) and 8mm (50x)
Weight: 2.4 lbs (1.08 kg)
Mount sort: Dobsonian
General we are able to suggest the construct high quality of the Celestron Moon Mission 100mm Tabletop Dobsonian. The whole lot is sturdily made, from the Dobsonian base, the optical tube, the simply adjustable tilt and focuser knobs. The mount has a single arm and rotates on a ‘lazy Susan’ turntable.
Celestron Moon Mission 100mm Tabletop Dobsonian: Efficiency
That is the place we thought that the Celestron Moon Mission 100mm Tabletop Dobsonian excelled. For such a small telescope, it was decently versatile.
For instance, on the night time of April 5, our first goal was Jupiter, which was vivid in Gemini, and unmistakable because it lay not removed from the constellation’s twin stars Castor and Pollux. Jupiter appeared as a vivid disk, with maybe the merest trace of its banding — or was that our creativeness? What definitely have been actual have been the 4 Galilean moons: Io and Europa on one aspect, Ganymede and Callisto on the opposite. It was a sight certain to impress learners and informal observers.
We moved the Celestron Moon Mission’s view in direction of the a number of star Castor, and the telescope capably cut up the principle binary pair as two shut, white stars utilizing the 20mm eyepiece. One other in style a number of star is Mizar and Alcor in Ursa Main. In fact, Mizar and Alcor will be cut up with the bare eye, however the third seen star within the system is for telescopes solely, and once more the Celestron Moon Mission confirmed the three stars clearly.
Slewing east, Arcturus — the second brightest star seen from the U.Ok., and fourth brightest in all the sky — appeared a wonderful purple, evoking its nature as a purple big.
Whereas ready for the moon to rise (and earlier than taking a while out to look at the Artemis II protection), we determined to trace down some faint fuzzies. The field that the Celestron Moon Mission is available in highlights the Orion Nebula and the Andromeda Galaxy as two deep sky objects that the telescope can see. On the time of testing, the Orion Nebula was too low within the west, whereas the Andromeda Galaxy was not seen. As a substitute, we hunted down two different close by galaxies, M81 and M82, in Ursa Main.
Trying to find these two galaxies, that are positioned subsequent to one another in the identical discipline of view, is the place the actual problem of utilizing the finderscope, as we described within the Performance part, actually reared its head. Ultimately, we determined to star hop to the galaxies and struck out in roughly the best course. Quickly the telescope alighted on the 2 galaxies, seen as two fuzzy patches of sunshine. Taking a look at them straight on, we discovered it troublesome to discern their form, however through the use of averted imaginative and prescient as we appeared by means of the 20mm eyepiece of the Celestron Moon Mission, we may make out the broad disk-shape of the spiral M81, and the elongated cigar form of M82, and even caught hints of mottling with brighter spots within the edge-on M82 which are higher seen in photos.
After we watched the dwell NASA feed of Artemis II going across the far aspect of the moon, the moon lastly rose from our location after midnight. Its section was a waning gibbous three days after full. As such, the moon appeared vivid and reddish, being low to the horizon. Via the 20mm we may see the entire disk, although the section meant that for a lot of the lunar floor there was no distinction, making it more durable to tell apart craters aside from on the terminator.
Including the 1.25-inch moon filter — extra correctly often called a impartial density filter that dims the incoming gentle — helped to restrict the distinction and make the small print stand out extra. Switching to the 8mm eyepiece, with a magnification of 50x, the view jumped nearer to the moon and the lunar floor stuffed the sector of view, with vivid crater rays seen on darkish lunar mares.
Celestron Moon Mission 100mm Tabletop Dobsonian: Performance
- Finderscope is awkward to make use of when pointed on the zenith
- Focusing is satisfactory
- Easy to make use of
The tabletop nature of the telescope poses some challenges for adults utilizing it. As its identify suggests, the telescope is designed to go on the highest of a desk. Normally once we consider Dobsonian telescopes, we consider very giant devices with very giant apertures, and eyepieces near standing peak. This Dobsonian, then again, could be very small, and with no very tall desk we discovered that we spent plenty of our time bent double wanting by means of the eyepiece. In fact, this additionally means it’s the good peak for a kid.
We discovered it did pose an issue when utilizing the finderscope. For objects at low elevations, corresponding to Jupiter in Gemini throughout spring 2026, we discovered it wasn’t too unhealthy. Nevertheless, once we wished to direct the telescope in direction of Ursa Main on the zenith, the one means we may look by means of the finderscope was by actually getting on the ground to look by means of it. It is a drawback with all tabletop telescopes, not simply the Celestron Moon Mission, and it will be unfair to counsel in any other case — however it’s a drawback nonetheless.
As soon as we addressed the tightness of the focuser thumbscrews, we may swap the eyepieces out and in with ease. We discovered the focuser to be perfunctory. It gives solely coarse focusing, with no cautious fine-tuning, and typically it was tough to seek out the candy spot. Moreover, Newtonian reflectors like this one require collimating for good pin-sharp photos. Collimating refers to adjusting the secondary mirror (the first mirror is mounted on the base of the optical tube) in order that it aligns and focuses gentle mirrored from the first simply so. It’s additionally a proven fact that astronomers hate collimating, as it’s a finicky process.
Out of the field, the collimation wasn’t unhealthy, and we felt it was additionally unreasonable to anticipate learners and kids, whom this telescope is undoubtedly aimed toward, to collimate the instrument with no steering or instruments included. Due to this fact, we reviewed the telescope because it got here out of the field, to duplicate the expertise that learners and kids would obtain. Had we collimated the telescope, then it most likely would have improved the picture a tad.
We discovered that truly utilizing the telescope, when it comes to positioning and pointing, was quite simple. It’s value remembering that Newtonian reflectors reverse their picture (up turns into down), and after utilizing sensible telescopes, GoTo telescopes and Celestron’s StarSense telescopes with instructions supplied by a smartphone for therefore lengthy, that took a bit of getting used to once more! It might confuse learners and kids, however earlier than the times of sensible telescopes and GoTo, everyone needed to get used to navigating throughout the sky utilizing a reversed picture, so it’s no unhealthy factor.
Do you have to purchase the Celestron Moon Mission 100mm Tabletop Dobsonian
Purchase it if:
✅ You’re a newbie
✅ You’re a dad or mum eager to introduce your little one to the night time sky
✅ You might be searching for ease of use
✅ You might be engaged on a funds
✅ You want portability
Do not buy it if:
❌ You’re a critical observer and wish bigger apertures
❌ You might be an astrophotographer and wish a pushed mount
❌ You need a high-tech instrument with sensible capabilities
❌ You don’t need to should star-hop and would like a GoTo
If you wish to introduce your kids to astronomy, then the Celestron Moon Mission 100mm Tabletop Dobsonian is the proper instrument. It’s protected to make use of, with no danger of knocking one thing heavy over, because it weighs about the identical as a bag of sugar, which is superb actually. It’s easy to make use of, within the sense that it’s only a matter of pushing and turning, though kids may want help in pinpointing the situation of targets. It’s additionally a good all-rounder, as all Dobsonians are – it excels at exhibiting the moon, shows the planets very effectively, and reveals deep-sky objects as greatest it may for a 100mm-aperture telescope
If you wish to see fainter galaxies and nebulae, then you will want a telescope with a bigger aperture. If you wish to do imaging, then you will want a telescope with a motorized equatorial drive to allow you to trace the objects whereas imaging.
And if you would like help to find celestial objects with out having to star-hop, then a GoTo or sensible telescope is perhaps greatest for you.
If the Celestron Moon Mission 100mm Tabletop Dobsonian is not for you
Should you’re seeking to spend much less, Celestron presents a smaller Dobsonian, the Celestron Firstscope 76. For a extra versatile telescope, check out the Celestron Encourage 100Z. Or if neither suits the invoice, we have rounded up the perfect telescopes and greatest newbie’s telescopes.
How we examined the Celestron Moon Mission 100mm Tabletop Dobsonian
We used the Celestron Moon Mission 100mm Tabletop Dobsonian throughout the occasional clear nights within the first two weeks of April 2026 from our south-facing backyard in the UK. The temperature was clement, about 50 levels Fahrenheit (10 levels Celsius), with some modest gentle air pollution to the north and darkish skies to the south wanting in direction of a extra rural space.
We started observing after 10 pm, with the skies fully darkish. The moon was close to full on the time of testing — in actual fact, fairly fittingly, one of many nights was the identical night time that the Artemis II mission went across the moon. Nevertheless, the moon remained low all the night time, that means it may solely be considered close to moonrise after midnight, near the horizon, earlier than it grew to become hidden behind a close-by financial institution of bushes for the remainder of the night time.
