Astromaster 114 EQ

Review of Celestron AstroMaster 114EQ Reflector Telescope: Update (July 2018): I've spent a lot of time with this telescope now, perhaps 100 hours, and have an even better opinion of it than before. As a cheap small telescope it is ideal for beginners like me and I couldn't ask for a better experience for the right-above £100 price I paid. It is one of the most cost effective pastimes I've enjoyed. With the telescope, I've observed: The Moon Venus Mars and its ice cap Jupiter, its cloud lines, and its big red spot Saturn and its rings Satellites Many open clusters Many globular clusters A few nebulas (The orion nebula is amazing!) The Andromeda Galaxy Over the past months I have gathered some tips for getting the most out of this telescope: * The 114EQ has a corrector lens built into the eyepiece tube that also acts like a 2x barlow lens, essentially "zooming in" by 2x power by default. This works well for planetary viewing, but for objects like open star clusters and the andromeda galaxy it can be too much magnification to get a wide enough view with a 20-24mm eyepiece. Also, for faint objects like nebulas it can reduce the exit pupil of the telescope to a very small size, which limits the ability of your eye to gather light. A solution I found is to use a 0.5x barlow lens to reduce the overall power to 1x. I recommend the Solomark 0.5x Focal Reducer available on Amazon, which screws into the bottom of your eyepiece. * I tried a number of different eyepieces, including moderately expensive ones. My favorite experience was the Seben 7.5-22.5mm Zoom Eyepiece. While being one of the least expensive eye pieces I used with the telescope also offered the most adaptable experience. I rarely use the other eyepieces now because the seben zoom allows me to spend more time viewing and less time fiddling. When paired with a 0.5x barlow, it gives the telescope a wide range of configurations that allow it to be a nice platform for viewing all objects below absolute magnitude 10. * The mount has a cheap bearing for the equatorial axis which has a bolt that both acts as the axle and as the tightener. This is where most of the vibration in the mount comes from. In order to make it work well, it is critical that the washers go in the correct order and that the bolt is torqued such that it is tight but not binding. The correct order is the metal washer first and the rubber washer second on the bolt. If they are reversed, the bolt will back its way out when turning the equatorial axis and lead to a lot of wobbling. * I removed the locking screws for the collimation knobs on the primary mirror. The telescope keeps its collimation well without the screws, and the knobs are much easier to adjust in the field without having to take the screws out first. Speaking of which, accurate collimation is critical for all reflector telescopes, so if you are not comfortable learning how to do this time consuming process, you should buy a refractor telescope instead, which does not require collimation. After learning the process, it is painless to do. Reflectors like the 114EQ are cheaper for better image quality than refractors, but collimation is the price you pay. * I switched to using Stellarium for my session planning instead of the included Starry Night. I find Stellarium easier to use, and it also allows me to plan which eyepiece configurations are appropriate for a particular object. The mobile version of stellarium is way better than the mobile version of starry night -- more stars included, and easier interface. Really love this telescope! While viewing feint objects like nebulas begs for a larger telescope, I have found my time with this scope highly rewarding at a fraction of the price. I highly recommend this telescope for budding astronomers. Original Review (March 2018): I spent some of my teenage summers with a cousin who loved astrology and introduced me to many of the concepts. Many years later I decided to invest in my own small scope, nothing like the big one my cousin had. After reading reviews and studying specs I picked the Astromaster 114eq for it's nice blend of small size, price, and performance. On our first night viewing, my girlfriend and I caught views of the Orion nebula and beehive cluster right out our apartment window. Wow! It made me realize what I had been missing out on! I am far from an astrological expert, but I can see that the EQ114 can go far, especially with the right adjustment. Collimation is difficult with the stock screws, but after spending several hours over multiple sessions I got it pretty darn good and the picture is nice to my uneducated eyes. The included software helped a lot to find things to view and to track them down in the sky. I don't want a big telescope due to storage, but I'd like to see how far my eq114 will go. To that end I bought a better eye piece than the cheap ones it comes with to see how far the little guy can stretch. The eye piece cost almost as much as the telescope, but I hear they make a huge difference so I am looking forward to trying it out. It's the kind of thing that will last for 50 years so I'm not worried about the investment. You shouldn't be either! Don't hesitate if you're on the fence, this is a good little scope I can fully recommend.

You're probably reading this having never bought a telescope before, wanting to know exactly what you're going to get and SEE for your money. As far as the telescope is concerned it's more of an investment than a purchase. It's a real quality piece of kit which I've surprised many people by telling them it only cost ~£100. Once set up it looks quite impressive and I'm sure with proper care it will continue to give you gazing pleasure for many years to come. One of the advantages of a reflector scope such as this is that the optical tube is open allowing you to maintain the mirror surfaces and also collimate the optics for optimised performance. Allow a good hour for proper initial set up (which for me was part of the fun!). It's got a fair weight to it but not to the extent it makes it impractical to move, the tripod can be easily dismounted and collapsed to be put in the boot of a car, for example. The first week I had the scope I was desperate for a clear night until eventually I got my wish and managed to view Saturn from the comfort of my back garden. Despite moderate light pollution and a slight haze in the sky, the scope still produced a crisp, colour image, complete with rings. Admittedly it was small in the viewfinder but you always have the option to purchase additional barlow lenses for increased magnification. It's also amazing just to aim at a seemingly clear patch of sky to reveal a dense patchwork of stars not visible to the naked eye. For optimal viewing its mainly about the conditions, the scope claims to be capable of imaging "deep sky objects" which I believe is possible but you need to be in a seriously dark area, which I shall soon be experimenting with during a drive to the countryside! I'm currently waiting in great anticipation for the next lunar transit to use my newly acquired moon filter. If you're thinking of getting into astronomy and debating whether to push the boat out I would say it's DEFINITELY worth going the extra buck. As a complete astro-virgin, I was able to set the scope up and view a planet over 700 million miles away in the space of a few days. One thing I will say is you need a great deal of patience, aligning the viewfinder is extremely sensitive and takes practice (which again is part of the satisfaction). The scope comes with a software CD allowing you to view when and where objects will be on any given night. The 114 also performs exceptionally well during daytime, using the terrestrial scope I've counted the feathers on many a pigeon from hundreds of meters away, so any budding Ornithologists will also find this function useful. All in all, a great value scope which will delight many an amateur stargazer.

The telescope is fantastic with great potential. Pulls in an abundant amount of light. Moon looks stunning and I saw jupiter... sort of. I was able to focus it in and even sorta make out the gaseous nature of the planet, and I saw one of the moons. Blurry though at high magnification. All in all, is it worth the price? Definitely! But you'll do yourself a favor making the extra investment Buying an eye piece kit. If you want to see planets, Plossl eye pieces would be the way to go along with light filters. It's difficult but doable to make out the gasses on Jupiter but to really pull in it's detail, you'll need filters. High quality eye pieces like Plossl will be my next purchase so I can push this scope to it's limits which seem far beyond what the included eyepieces can offer. Oh yes, the star finder thingy. It's like using a red dot scope on a riffle. It's a bit of a pain to use but sight it in on a terrestrial object (land) far away first, converge the two dots and it'll put you right on that object. I used it to find Jupiter and it worked well. It took less than a minute to align the scope on it so it did it's job. The tripod. It works nice and all but very shaky. Basically, you have to center it in and don't so much as breath on it and look through the scope. Kinda a pain when you have to touch it to keep it tracked in as the object moves away as the earth spins. Anyways, good beginner set up. Get a high quality eyepiece set to take it to the next level. I gave it Five stars because the Scope for the Money you pay is just Fantastic and this could be an Excellent set up with the high quality eyepieces, filters, and maybe a sturdier tripod if that's an issue for you.

Could see bands of Jupiter. Couldnt spot saturn yet. Will buy some accessories for attaching an SLR and some filters.

Das Teleskop ist schön und gut. Die Eq Montierung ist nach ein Monat kaputt gegangen Mann kann es auch nicht mehr Reparieren. Kauft nicht das Teleskop zu mindestens mit dieser Montierungen.

Hasta ahora me a encantado llevo un tiempo usándolo y por el momento me ha podido ofrecer un buen desempeño en fotos y observación visual eso sí la montura no es tan estable pero si da un buen desempeño a la hora de su uso y ya con unos accesorios extras como oculares o una montura más robusta estaría excelente. Hablando de observación los planetas por ejemplo marte, mercurio, neptuno, y urano son casi indistingibles y suelen verse como unos puntos brillantes sin forma aparente de ahí en fuera Venus, Júpiter y Saturno son muy distingibles y dejan ver más detalles de los mismos mostrando como serían los anillos de Saturno las fases de Venus y las lunas y franjas de júpiter. Además para los objetos del espacio profundo si puede ser bastante útil se notan como manchas grises y blancas algunas y con una cámara y un motor para la montura pueden distinguirse más detalles colores etc un muy buen telescopio para iniciar y practicar el manejo de las monturas ecuatoriales tiene sus detalles pero con unas mejoras es un excelente telescopio Y mencionar que el buscador puede ser complicado de usar pero con una aplicación como stellarium se facilita bastante el proceso de encontrar los objetivos en el cielo

Ease of set up with logical progression of steps.