Features:

  • Made of highest quality material
  • Manufacturer: Celestron
  • Celestron powerseeker 114Eq telescope
  • Affordable telescope for beginning astronomer; portable yet powerful
  • All-glass optical components with high transmission coatings for enhanced image brighness and clarity
  • Newtonian optical design with a 114mm aperture and 900mm focal length
  • Equatorial mount for tracking the sky
  • Includes 3x Barlow Lens (1.25"), 20mm eyepiece, 4mm eyepiece, aluminum tripod with accessory tray
i think i got it pretty good. So far ive done a single viewing ...

This is some piece of work. First of all, i did a blitz research on telescopes in the lower range (under 200$) but tried to go for biggest bang for buck, i think i got it pretty good. So far ive done a single viewing in a remote area (900m elevation) and was able to see Jupiter (and its moons!) and Saturn (with its rings!). However, without the motor the viewing is nearly impossible. While i did get the motor, i didnt set it up for the viewing and that is something i suggest you do. Also, get more lenses, the 4mm is very hard to look through, and the 20mm doesnt offer enough zoom. Id say its a 4.5/5, because there are not enough lenses, but, i guess you cannot do better at that price range, and for the price of 115$ (i paid double because of customs and shipping) its a very good purchase. Ill update as i go along. Update 1: I got the astromaster lens kit (15mm kellner and 6mm plossl) and it somwhat helped, see my review here: Celestron AstroMaster Telescope Accessory Kit. The 15mm is a great addition to the telescope, the 6mm is a little small. I find it necessary to get a larger eyepiece, something in 25-32 range for deep space objects. Also got the celestron motor, but still had trouble properly aligning the scope and compensating for earth's rotation. More to come.

Superb Optics out of the Box ! Nice Solid Equatorial Mount.

This is a review specifically for the Celestron PS 114mm EQ. I got this as a gift from my daughter. After using it a few nights, I did check the mirror collimation with the $28 Celestron 1.25" collimation eyepiece (which I already had). The mirror alignment was very very close, so it needed only minimal adjustment which had no observable effects. On the third night I was able to see the moon (again) and the Orion nebula at various magnification (20mm eyepiece with and without Barlow). I was also able to see - with a Celestron Ploessel 9mm eyepiece - Jupiter and it four moons, the two main cloud stripes on Jupiter itself, and maybe some weaker ones. And the shadow of one moon on Jupiter itself, a tiny black dot near one of the poles. I do like the lightweight aluminum mount as well, it is solid if the legs are not completely extended, and it is light enough to carry around without getting a hernia. The finder scope works well for me, just in case I re-align it every time I take the telescope out. This telescope is very sharp, and a very good value right out of the box. And easy to focus. Five stars!! EDIT: Recently (February) I did buy and install the Celestron motor drive ($33 on Amazon) and it works perfectly. Once the motor drive speed is adjusted properly with the small knob (which is fairly easy to do), it keeps say Jupiter centered for close to an hour with a 7mm eyepiece. Note that the drive speed only needs to be set once, for a given latitude. Note that the Celestron 127EQ and 114EQ are quite similar in design and price, nevertheless this one has a much longer tube and does not have a correcting eyepiece in the focus tube, which seems to make it significantly sharper, or at least much easier to collimate. Recently (April) I got an inexpensive laser collimator (lk1 from seben dot com, identical to the orion lasermate) and tried it on this scope, even though it did not seem to need it. The whole job is very easy, takes less than 5-10 mins if you know what to do (there is no focuser lens in the focusing tube, this is NOT a Bird-Jones design!). The adjustments were minimal and there was no noticeable change in sharpness, as I said above mine was flawless out of the box. Look in the picture section to see my recent picture of Jupiter. Best additions to this telescope are imo the $30 Celestron motor drive (I love it!), a better quality achromatic $40 Celestron 2x Omni Barlow, and a 9mm Celestron Omni eyepiece($20 ; the telescope seems capable of a lot more than what the rather basic included eyepieces suggest). You will then be in telescope heaven, for very little money. I have also found that this scope is quite well suited to astrophotography of the planets, in my case in combination with the very reliable Celestron clock drive (have not changed a battery yet on that on in three months of use) and an inexpensive webcam (a logitech C310 in my case). PS. Added pictures of Jupiter and the Moon (April 2014). Added more pictures of Jupiter and Mars, on the latter I can clearly see one of the polar ice caps (April 2014). Took a nice picture of the Cassini division on Saturn (May 2014). Added another excellent picture I got of Jupiter on a very clear day (March 2015), you can clearly see multiple rings as well as details of the main ring clouds.

I love my Celestron 114EQ

I received my order a few days ago and I am definitely impressed with the overall quality of this item. So far I have used it to observe the moon and I have to say the images are just beautiful. This telescope offers a great combination of price, quality and portability. Some reviewers have taken issue with the finderscope. Granted, it is plastic and not expensively made, but it is only used to point the telescope at whatever you want to look at. In my opinion it performs this function quite well. For the price this item sells for, you have to expect some cost cutting where possible. It does take a little time to become familiar with the equatorial mount. Patience is the keyword here and the internet has tons of good information to help the novice. I would recommend this telescope. 2 weeks later: finally got a clear night and decided to see if I could find Jupiter. I first did a rough polar alignment, then swung around to the south and located Jupiter. I had to loosen the tube mounts and rotate the tube around some so the eyepiece would be in a comfortable position. After a little maneuvering I had no trouble picking up Jupiter with the 20mm eyepiece. It was easy to see the two major cloudbands on the planet and the 4 largest moons. It was also easy to track the target with the slow motion controls even though my polar alignment was less than perfect. I then tried the 3X Barlow lens with mixed results. The image was larger but did not seem to be quite as clear. Be that as it may, I am satisfied with this equipment so far. Next time out I hope to observe a deep space object or two and will report the results.

AWESOME

My husband is very happy with this telescope! He has a couple of them and one is way larger and he said that this telescope is his absolute favorite!!! Thank you for such a great quality telescope at a fantastic price!!!

Just awesome

If you are new to telescopes, you will need to spend a while on YouTube learning how to use the mount. it's not intuitive. it's not simple. it requires some research. Like you need to know your latitude and set it in before it will work. But once you spend an afternoon on YouTube and learn it, it's easy to use. As scopes go, this is awesome. I've seen the moon clearer than I thought I could ever do from my own back yard.

Great entry level telescope

I decided to get this telescope as it has an equitorial (EQ) mount. I am a beginner astronomer and looking to get my kids involved. I bought this telescope for its price to capability ratio. The capabilities of this telescope are, in some cases, similar to some that much more expensive. The equitorial mount is big plus as it helps to locate celestial objects and track them for a while with slow motion cables. With an azimuth mount the adjustment only goes up and down in slow motion, but stars move in arc fashion, not straight up and down. The EQ mount has a right ascension slow motion adjustment that allows the object to stay in the finder for a long time. So far, I have been pleased with this telescope. The finder is a bit cheap. It has 3 adjustment screws that help lock in your target in the crosshairs located within the finder. It's easy to knock out of alignment. This is really frustrating, especially at night. I am replacing the original finder scope with a Telrad finder scope. The optics are great! Close looks at the moon using the 4mm eye piece are amazing. Even the 20mm eye piece are very good. I intend on upgrading these eye pieces in the near future, but they are great for being out of the box. The stand is pretty good. The adjustments are easy to work with and lock into place. I may end up replacing some of the clutch engagements with something I can use with a little more torque. The current clutch engagements for RA and DEC use basic twist knobs that are difficult to get a good torque with just fingers. This results in a little more slippage than I would like. With the legs fully extended the tripod is shaky, but can by easily fixed with a 10 pound weight or so hanging from the accessory tray. The balancing of this scope if pretty easy to do. The instructions say nothing about how to balance the scope, but searching online is easy to do. The instructions have you place the counter weight in the middle of the bar. It's best to have it all the way at the bottom for full balance. The telescope body should be about a 60/40 split with 60% toward the front and 40% toward the rear of the rings. All in all I like this telescope and will keep it for quite a while. There are options to add a motor to keep an object in the finder automatically and other eye pieces to increase the resolution coming from the telescope. The OTA has a great focal length and diameter to see planets, the moon, and some deep space objects. If you're wanting a telescope that is versatile, fits a reasonable budget, and is fairly easy to use, then this is a great beginner scope.

Very nice but hard to use.

Telescope is very hard to use can't adjust the focus to come in clear. can't see anything, called amazon get some help, and they sent me emails and tutorials, but still not working my kids are very disappointed. Don't recommend this as your 1st telescope.

Powerful telescope delivering crystal clear images

My kids like to see the night skies and constellations, so I've bought this telescope for its price and reach. Assembly was straightforward, although the instructions were sometimes not complete, i.e. leaving some room for guessing, especially for a novice astronomy enthusiast. Anyway, a few months passed since we got this, we have not got a chance to take it out due to the cold weather. Until last weekend. We were able to see the moon up and close for the first time. It was so clear and it almost felt like watching a movie, and if a little guy is walking on the moon we should be able to see him. The only complaint I have is the difficulty in finding the target. Perhaps this is my skills, but I found that the finder scope is not always useful: even if the object is at the crosshair, I still need to adjust the telescope quite a bit to center the object to see it. Overall a nice telescope and we expect much fun with it down the road.

GREAT STARTER SCOPE!!!!!

Guys, I spent over 3 weeks studying and deciding on the PERFECT scope. Stressed, worried about best scope for the money, and just general knowledge about the popular brands. I bought this for my son for his eleventh birthday. When he opened his eyes for the surprise, he cried tears of shock and joy. Just by appearance it is big, very "professional" looking and will absolutely THRILL any kid wanting a telescope. Performance wise, Here comes true honesty from a very skeptical father when it comes to getting the biggest bang for my buck. Under the circumstance that the up and down traverse screw was stripped towards the higher end and it literally only gave us ten minutes before it was being reboxed to be returned, devasted my son to have his biggest birthday present sent back, Anyone would give this scope a 1 star rating under that circumstance right? In that ten minutes, Jupiter and its moons? BEAUTIFUL, that is with the 20mm, no barlow. Can see the moons, the stripes, absolutely stunning. The moon? I think I could see the tattered ends of an American flag placed there many years ago hahahaha The screw issue is in my opinion a TOTAL FLUKE. Otherwise this would be a 1 star rating simply because no scope this awesome should be so easily ruined by a stupid bolt that's not even for "precision" movement. No doubt in my mind I made the right decision even considering the disappointment a simple mistake caused. DO NOT LET THAT SCARE YOU FROM THIS REALLY GREAT SCOPE!!!!!! I HAVE TO SAY THANK YOU AMAZON FOR BEING THERE WITH A GREAT RETURN AND REPLACE POLICY, GREAT SCOPE, GREAT SELLER!!!!

great value

This little telescope is really nice for the price. Smooth and works well. I did have one problem with the adjustment cables and a quick email to the company and they sent me two sets (4) replacement cables! This thing is great if you take the time to set it up correctly. The moon looks amazing and even with the eyepieces that come with it, you can see Saturn and rings in a clear night. Worth it to get some other intermediary eye pieces. Update: I contacted Celestron about the cables, and within a week or so they sent me 2 more sets of adjustment cables for free. The telescope is back in action and last night, I caught a very clear view of Saturn, rings and all. It was incredible!

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