If you have just unboxed a refractor on a tripod, a Celestron AstroMaster 70AZ or 90AZ, or one of the many telescopes that look just like it, then there is a fair chance it arrived as a gift. This is the classic first telescope, the one that appears under the tree on Christmas morning, and it comes with a small warning I want to get out of the way early: these scopes are wonderful when you know two or three simple things, and quietly infuriating when you do not. This guide gives you those two or three things.
A refractor is the shape most people picture when they hear the word telescope. It is a long tube with a lens at the front and the eyepiece at the back, a bit like a ship captain’s spyglass grown up and put on a tripod. They make a great first telescope because there is very little to go wrong and almost nothing to maintain. No mirrors to align, no cool-down drama. Get the setup right and it will show you the Moon, the brighter planets, and plenty besides, for years.
Read this through once, then set up alongside it. The goal is simple: box to a crisp view of the Moon in one evening, feeling like you knew what you were doing all along.
What is in the box, and what everything is called
Lay everything out on a table in good light. Here is what you are looking at.
The optical tube is the long thin body of the telescope, with the big lens (the “objective”) at the front end. This is the part that gathers the light.
The tripod is usually aluminum with extendable legs, and on an AstroMaster-class scope the mount is built onto the top of it. This is an alt-azimuth mount, which is the simple kind: it moves in two natural directions, up and down (altitude) and left and right (azimuth), just like a camera tripod or your own head. There will be one or two slow-motion cables, flexible rods that let you make small, smooth aiming movements without shoving the tube around.
You will find an accessory tray, a flat shelf that clips or screws between the tripod legs. It is not just for holding eyepieces. It braces the legs and adds a lot of steadiness, so it is not optional.
The star diagonal is a right-angled piece that goes into the back of the tube. It bends the light through ninety degrees so you look down into the eyepiece comfortably rather than crouching on the ground behind the scope. Then there are your eyepieces, usually a 20mm and a 10mm, where the bigger number gives the lower, wider, easier view. You may also find a small Barlow lens, which multiplies magnification, and my honest advice is to leave it in the box for now. On top of the tube sits the finder, either a red-dot finder (the AstroMaster’s StarPointer is one) or a small finderscope, which is how you aim.
Setting it up, in order
Spread the tripod fully and make it solid. Open the legs all the way and stand it on firm, level ground. Push the legs down until they lock and give the whole thing a gentle wobble test. A shaky tripod is the single biggest reason a view looks like it is trembling, and on lightweight beginner tripods it is a real issue, so it pays to get it as stable as you can from the start.
Fit the accessory tray. Clip or screw the tray between the legs and tighten it. This braces the legs apart and stiffens everything up noticeably. Skipping it is a common mistake that leaves the whole setup feeling wobbly for no reason.
Attach the tube to the mount. The tube usually clamps on with a dovetail bar or sits in a cradle. Slide it into place and tighten the clamp firmly, but do not force it. You want it held with no slop, not cranked as hard as it will go. Point the tube roughly level to start.
Fit the diagonal, then your lowest-power eyepiece. Slot the star diagonal into the back of the tube and nip up its thumbscrew. Then drop your lowest-power eyepiece, the 20mm, into the diagonal and secure it. Starting low is the golden rule: a wide view makes finding things far, far easier, and you can zoom in later once you have your target.
Screw in the slow-motion cables. These attach to the mount and give you fine control. Once you are aimed roughly at something with the finder, these cables are how you nudge it into the center and then follow it as it drifts.
Aligning the finder (do this in daylight)
This is the step that separates a great first night from a miserable one, and you do it in daylight, in comfort. Your finder must point at exactly the same spot as the main telescope, or you will hunt around the sky and land on nothing.
Pick a distant fixed object, a chimney or a pylon a few hundred meters off, and center it in the main telescope with your low-power eyepiece. Then adjust the finder until it, too, sits on that object. Five minutes now saves an hour of frustration later. One hard rule: never point the telescope or finder anywhere near the Sun, as it will blind you instantly and permanently. I have written the full walkthrough in how to align a finderscope. Do it before dark.
Your first night: a guaranteed win in 15 minutes
The plan is built so you cannot fail, and your target is the Moon. It is bright, unmistakable, and stunning through even a modest refractor.
Carry the whole setup outside and give it 15 to 20 minutes to settle to the outdoor air. A small refractor cools quickly, so you will not be waiting long. Use the time to let your own eyes adjust to the dark.
Check whether the Moon is up, the Tonight’s Sky tool will tell you at a glance, and if it is, aim the finder at it so the Moon sits in the little sight. Now look into the eyepiece. Thanks to that daylight finder alignment, the Moon should already be in view. Turn the focus knob slowly, in tiny increments, until the edge sharpens to a clean line and the craters come alive. Use the slow-motion cables to keep it centered as it gently drifts, that drift is just the Earth turning.
Explore the terminator, the line dividing the sunlit and dark parts of the Moon. That is where shadows are longest and the craters and mountains look most three-dimensional. A half or crescent Moon is far more rewarding than a full one, which is flat and dazzlingly bright.
No Moon tonight? Do not pack up. Find the brightest “star” that is not twinkling, and you have very likely found a planet. Jupiter shows a small disc flanked by up to four pinpoint moons, and Saturn’s rings through a refractor are a genuine gasp-out-loud moment. If the planets are hiding too, swing to the Pleiades, that little misty knot of stars, and watch it resolve into a scatter of blue diamonds. Any one of these is a first-night success.
The five mistakes that stop people seeing anything
Nearly every “it doesn’t work” moment with a beginner refractor is one of these five.
- Too much magnification. This is the big one. The box may boast “300x,” but on a small refractor a high-power eyepiece or the Barlow gives you a dim, blurry, jittery view that is nearly impossible to aim or focus. Stick with the low-power eyepiece. More magnification is not more detail, it is usually less.
- A wobbly tripod. If the view trembles for seconds after every touch, your tripod is not braced. Fit the accessory tray, spread the legs fully, and do not extend the thin lower leg sections more than you need to.
- The finder is not aligned. A finder pointing even slightly off from the main tube means you will never land on your target. Align it in daylight and re-check it if the scope gets knocked in transit.
- You forgot the diagonal, or cannot reach focus. If you cannot get a sharp image at all, check the diagonal is fitted and the eyepiece is seated. Racking the focuser slowly through its full travel will find the sweet spot.
- Expecting photographs. A refractor will not show you the colorful swirling galaxies you see in pictures, because those are long-exposure camera images. What it will show, the Moon, planets, star clusters, double stars, is real and, in its own way, better. Keep your expectations honest and you will never be disappointed.
What to look at next
Once the Moon is in the bag, you will want to know what else is worth pointing at. That is precisely what the Tonight’s Sky tool is for. Tell it your location and that you have a small refractor, and it hands you a personalized list of what is visible from your spot right now, in a sensible order, with a finder chart for each. It is free, and it means you always have a target ready.
To find your way around more confidently, have a read of how to read a star chart, and when you start wondering about sharper planet views, what eyepieces do I need for my telescope will steer you right.
Two accessories genuinely help without cluttering your kit. A red flashlight protects the night vision that white light destroys in a second, so you can read a chart and still see faint things afterwards. And a decent low-power wide-field eyepiece makes finding and framing targets even easier than the supplied one. That is all you need to get years of pleasure out of this scope.
If your refractor happens to be sitting on an equatorial mount, the kind with counterweights and tilted axes rather than the simple up-down tripod described here, then the tube setup is the same but the mount has a couple of extra steps. My equatorial reflector setup guide covers exactly how those mounts work.
Welcome aboard. Set up once and the whole thing takes a couple of minutes from then on.
Related setup guides
- How to set up a tabletop Dobsonian
- How to set up a reflector on an equatorial mount
- How to set up a GoTo telescope
