Celestron Inspire 100AZ — image 1
Celestron

Celestron Inspire 100AZ

A thoughtfully-designed 100mm beginner refractor, built-in phone adapter, red LED light and a smart accessory tray make a first night genuinely easy and shareable.

75/ 100
Polaris Score
#3 of 6 beginner refractors
See the breakdown ↓
Aperture
100mm
Focal Length
660mm
Focal Ratio
f/6.6
Mount Type
Alt-Az
Optical Design
Refractor
Weight
5.6 kg
From$379.95

Lowest in 90 daysLowest ever tracked

Price tracked by PolarisObserved 48 timesTracking since Mar 2026

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What it's built forOpen these in the simulator →

This telescope was built for sweeping wide.

A short, fast refractor with a generous true field — the whole sword of Orion in one view, star fields that spill past the field stop. It rewards low power and dark skies far more than chasing magnification.

Widest true fieldsTack-sharp to the edge
The view people remember

The Pleiades, blue and blazing.

A knot of hot young stars wrapped in the faintest haze of reflected light — best at the lowest power, where the whole cluster drops into a single glittering field.

See The Pleiades through this telescope →
01What it's good at

What it's best at — and the trade-offs.

100mm of aperture shows the Moon, planets and brighter clusters with real clarity.
Best at
✓100mm of aperture shows the Moon, planets and brighter clusters with real clarity.
✓A built-in smartphone adapter lets you snap the Moon on your first night.
✓The mount includes a red flashlight, a phone dock and a tool tray, beginner-friendly touches that matter.
✓A refractor is maintenance-free: no collimation, quick cooldown.
Trade-offs
!An achromat leaves faint colour fringing on bright objects.
!No tracking, objects drift at high power.
!The included eyepieces are entry-level.
!The dew shield doubles as the lens cap, which some find fiddly.
02In plain English

What These Numbers Mean

100mm · f/6.6 · 660mm FL · Alt-Az
Aperture
100 mm
Four inches of aperture, enough for detailed lunar work, Jupiter's belts and moons, Saturn's rings and the brighter clusters and nebulae. Faint galaxies remain out of reach, which is normal at this size and price.
Focal length
660 mm
Short and wide, so low-power views cover a generous patch of sky and finding objects by hand is easier. High magnification comes from short eyepieces rather than the telescope itself.
Focal ratio
f/6.6
Fast for an achromat, which makes wide, low-power views easy but shows violet fringing around the Moon and bright planets. It is a visible compromise rather than a defect at this price point.
Optical design
Achromatic refractor
A sealed two-element lens means no collimation, no mirror to cool and essentially no maintenance, so it works within minutes of being carried outside. The trade-off is the colour fringing that ED glass exists to remove.
Weight
5.5 kg complete
About 12 lb for the whole telescope including mount and tripod. That is light enough to carry outside fully assembled with one hand, which is the single strongest predictor of how often a first telescope gets used.
Mount
Manual alt-azimuth with smartphone dock
Intuitive up-down, left-right movement with a panning handle, plus a built-in phone holder for casual lunar photos and a red flashlight in the accessory tray. There is no tracking, so objects drift and need nudging at high power.
03The Polaris Score

How it scores, and why.

75/100 · #3 of 6 beginner refractors
75/ 100
Celestron Inspire 100AZ
#3 of 6 beginner refractors
Performance
70
Ease of use
89
Portability
78
Upgrade potential
60

Polaris weighs optical capability, how easy the scope is to live with, how portable it is, and how far it takes you before you outgrow it — not list price or brand.

04Who it's for

An honest fit check.

Beginners and families who want an easy, shareable first scope.
Buy it if you
✓Beginners and families who want an easy, shareable first scope.
✓People who like the idea of snapping the Moon with their phone.
✓Casual observers who value convenience over aperture.
Look elsewhere if you
!Deep-sky observers who want maximum light grasp.
!Astrophotographers beyond casual Moon snaps.
!Anyone wanting GoTo target-finding.
05Build your rig

What to buy next — and where it leads.

7 pieces of gear, ordered by what changes the view most
Recommended upgrades
See wider, brighter deep-sky views★ Top pickGSO SuperView 30mm 2-inch

Wide, bright low-power views.

Double your magnificationGSO 2x ED Barlow 1.25-inch

Doubles magnification for the planets.

Tame lunar glareGSO Moon Filter 13pct 1.25-inch

Tames glare on the bright Moon.

Grow your kit
Sharper planets & lunar detailCelestron X-Cel LX 7mm

Commonly paired with this telescope

A sharper everyday viewCelestron X-Cel LX 18mm

Commonly paired with this telescope

Make nebulae popSVBony UHC 1.25-inch

Commonly paired with this telescope

Double your magnificationTele Vue 2x Barlow 1.25-inch

Doubles magnification for closer planetary detail with this telescope

Lunar & planetary
Good
Deep-sky visual
Brighter objects
Astrophotography
Short exposures, no tracking
06The numbers

Full specifications.

6 measured and stated values
Optics
Optical DesignRefractor
Aperture100mm
Focal Length660mm
Focal Ratiof/6.6
Mount & drive
Mount TypeAlt-Az
Physical
Weight5.6 kg
07Alternatives

For a different goal, start here.

2 alternatives, each mapped to the goal it wins at
similar

Celestron AstroMaster 102AZ Refractor

A near-identical 4-inch refractor without the phone-adapter extras.

→
app-guided

Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ

Adds phone-guided target finding and more aperture.

→
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