Customer Reviews

Celestron 31042 AstroMaster 114 EQ Reflector Telescope

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this as my first telescope to explore the sky and I am VERY pleased. It's a high quality scope, and the mount and tripod are the kind you get with higher end models. Mine came with an incorrect piece, I contacted the Celestron, and I had a new piece in 3 days. Very nice service. I to had problems finding stars at first, so I went to an astronomy forum and found out the correct way to do it. From there, I haven't had a problem finding anything.

The 2 main things are 1) calibrate your finder first and 2) use the right eye piece when looking for something (this scope comes with a 10mm and a 20mm, so you would want to use the 20 to find and 10 to magnify once you found what it is your looking for). I have found Astronomy is not a hobby where you can easily learn stuff through trial and error, and most frustration comes when you try just that.

The only thing it's lacking is an eyepiece that goes to it's full magnification. I'm buying a 5mm for this, but if they included that, they would have to up the price. So all in all, this in my opinion is the best bang for the buck telescope out there for beginners on a budget!

I bought this as a Christmas gift for myself and my 7 year old son (OK, mostly for me). It's put together very well. As a Newtonian, its hollow, which makes it feel somewhat odd, but certainly doesn't have that "plasticy" feel. Feels nice and sturdy. The stand is great and makes for an overall good setup. It's been cloudy throughout all of January, so we haven't had much chance to actually use it. We did manage to get out and find Mars during a rare (albeit cold) clear night. The finder scope is nearly impossible to use, though. We spent about an hour just trying to point it at Mars, and by the time we got the planet aligned with the scope I couldn't seem to be able to adjust the finder scope to actually be useful. I'll play with the finder scope more on a warmer night - perhaps I'm just doing it wrong? Overall, though, I'm quite satisfied. A definite upgrade from the "toy" telescope I bought from a department store years ago. Also, it just looks like a scientific instrument - so much so that my wife doesn't mind it standing quietly on display in the corner of our living room. (Of course, we're both aerospace engineers, so our tastes for decor might be a bit different than the norm.)

This telescope is great but daunting. This is my first telescope. It was very easy to assemble, and the instructions are very simple to follow. it is also very light weight and pretty compact making it easy to travel with. I live in Mesa, AZ and there are a few mountains around here that I can hike up, and taking this with me is no trouble at all.

Red Dot Scope:
The Red Dot Scope has proven itself pretty much useless. I cannot tell where i'm supposed to put my head in order to have it lined up with the view of the scope itself. it is slightly adjustable, but I have not been able to line it up with what I see in the scope. Because of this i usually find myself just pointing the red dot at an object and then moving the scope in mini circles while looking through the eye piece. *(Tip: if you are looking for a bright object you can pull the eyepiece all the way out of focus. This will make the object look like a big bright disc with a cross in it. When you see this disc you can start focusing while adjusting the angle of the scope. It makes the hunt sooo much easier. Do not use this method with the moon. It's just too big.)*

Balancing:
You cannot perfectly balance this scope. Because of the aesthetics on the scope i cannot center the scope in the rings where it will be perfectly balanced, however i have not tried mounting the scope just off center of it's bracket to change the position of its axis of rotation. At the same time i feel that i shouldn't have to. Since i cannot perfectly balance the scope i find at certain extreme angles the scope will rotate on its own, however because of the method i use to find objects with this scope that balance issue does not really affect me since i'll be holding the scope the entire time until i lock it in.*(Tip: While locking the scope into position, the scope will move. So be sure to look through the eyepiece while locking the axes(axes is plural for axis)so you know which direction the object went. Right and left are flipped with the 25mm eyepiece, and up/down are flipped with the 10mm eyepiece.)

Fine Tuning Knobs:
The fine tune knobs look cheap, but they are flexible for a reason.

The Mount:
Using an equatorial mount for a novice is very daunting at first. However it is important to learn how to use this mount if you plan to get into Astrophotography. Also the movement of the scope does not take long to get use to, and all of the aggravation accumulated while getting your object into view is immediately dissipated when you finally get the object in sight.

What You Will See:

The Moon: They moon will take up the entire scope of view with the 20mm eyepiece. It is Awesome. Very Awesome. And if you find it too bright the center of the scope cover pops out so you can limit the amount of light coming into the scope. Very awesome.

Jupiter: You will see Jupiter. You will even be able to see a few of Jupiter's bands. You will also see some of Jupiter's moons.

Venus: It is super bright. every time i see it through the scope i also see a lens flare, but you still will be able to make out its shape.

Saturn: You will see Saturn. You will also be able to see its rings,(it will look like 1 ring) as well as 1 color band. The reason i bought this scope was to see Saturn and it does not disappoint. *(With the 10mm eyepiece Saturn will take up about 1/100th of your viewing area. Still awesome.

Mars: You will see mars, but because of its color, it will seem feint. I have found the view of Saturn, Jupiter, and Orion's Nebula to be much more satisfying.

M42/M43(Orion's nebula): You will not really be able to see the nebula since it is very feint, but you will see the star clusters with ease which is still very breath taking.

To be honest i have found these sights to be so satisfying i haven't even begun to look for other object. I have seen all of these with ease in my apartment complex, which is filled with light pollution. All of these have been seen as described using only the eyepieces that came with the scope. There are also many filters and many eyepieces that can be used to enhance your view of the heavens.

Maximum Magnification:
This scope has a maximum useful magnification of 269x. This means that the smallest useful eyepiece is 3.71mm. This magnification can also be obtained with a 7.40mm eyepiece and a 2x Barlow lens. *(Tip: The smaller the number on your eyepiece the higher its magnification. So, if you cannot find these exact eyepieces go for a larger number so that you do not exceed the Max. Mag. This does not apply to the Barlow Lens)*

Summation:
All in all this is a very good beginner telescope; especially for its price. Not only will you get decent views of bright astral bodies, but the scope itself is challenging enough to develop real astronomical skills that will prove useful if you decide to delve deeper into the world of amateur astronomy.

The only thing keeping this scope from attaining 5 stars is the red dot sight. (this took me too long to write for proofreading so sorry for any typos or grammatical errors.)

The telescope was definitely easy to setup with the quick setup guide, was ready to go in 15 minutes. We looked at the moon first with the 20mm supplied lens, saw lots of detail, craters etc. The user manual could be simplified a bit related to more of the technical setup/balancing methods.

The second night out we viewed Jupiter and at least 3 of the 4 moons with the supplied 10mm eyepiece after initially getting it into the field of view with the 20mm eye piece. The Jupiter images looked white, will probably have to add filters and a different eye piece to the set in order to bring out more of the color and gas cloud bands of Jupiter.

This is our first family telescope and the kids really enjoy it.

I bought this telescope and tried to take it out the first night, and couldn't get anything is view besides blurry lights. I turns out that the mirrors were not lined up properly but after serching on google I found a tip to take a 35mm film container and poke a small hole in the middle of the bottom and insert it in the eyepiece to line up the mirrors and I then lined them up in about a minute. After that images were good and clear. The sighing scope is not very good it doesn't seem to stay sighted in with the scope. Bought mine with a lense and filter kit and a soft case, all high quality moon filter is a must unless you want blinded by a full moon. All and all a good scope and I am very happy with it.

This item was a good buy for our 10-year old, especially at the reduced price I paid. Set up was somewhat difficult for a beginner, and the weights provided were not enough to fully balance the telescope. However, good enough if you keep in mind that's not fully balanced. When the said up was complete it looked great and worked well.

The major problem we have is locating the stars...even when we seem to have the telescope pointing straight at a star, haven't been able to locate them. The powerseeker is of limited help. I presume this will come with experience.

Overall a good buy.

I bought this telescope for my 12 yr old son who already has two smaller telescopes. The set-up is a little confusing, but once we figured it out, it was worth buying. It is big and a little heavy but the view of the moon and stars are amazing!! Well worth it!!

This scope may be fine for low power terrestrial viewing, but the mount is way too spindly for any high power celestial work. The star finder is pretty much a joke as well, I guess that's why the better telescopes use an actual finder scope. When I first got it the optics were so far out of alignment I had to buy a collimation tool and set it up before I could even use it. The interior of the tube was also full of plastic flash and other debris and had to be cleaned out. If I wanted a telescope kit, I would have bought one.

The bottom line is, you get what you pay for. So do yourself a favor, spend more and get more. For ease of use, get the largest Dobsonian scope you can afford and just enjoy it.

I bought this telescope so my daughter and I could look at the moon and a few planets while camping and it works OK. This is my first time with any kind of telescope so I didn't know what to expect. It's a little tedious to get the site and keep it there, it seems to want to creep. The included lenses, guess that's what they're called, are fair, they're clear but not as sharp as I hoped. The good news is we were able to find the moon within 10 min and the sight was pretty incredible. My daughter's only seven so she lost interest quick but she was happy with it and kept coming back for a few hours. I'm going to try a new couple lenses and hope that helps. All in all, I'm satisfied with the purchase.

Before I go into this review, I never own a telescope before. I tell you, I was looking for a telescope to watch the moon only. For that purpose this telescope I think is perfect. Now I purchased this telescope for under $130.0 so for that much money it is a good telescope. Comes with two eyepieces one 20mm and one 10mm I purchased a 2X-3X Meade Barlow lens, to make these eyepieces stronger. If you just use the 20mm eyepiece to find your object (because the red dot star aiming device on it is pretty much a joke. I spent a lots of time with it, and it was spotted right on the moon, but it wasn't there in your eyepiece.), and than change it to the 10mm it is fine. With the 10mm eyepiece the moon is nice clear and sharp. Now when I installed the Barlow lens in with the 10mm eyepiece, even with 2X magnification I had hard time to make the picture sharp and clear. May be I'm not a pro. yet, but I think if you go below 8mm this telescope will not handle it well. Below 8mm you still will get the picture, big and close, but not as sharp and clear than with the 10mm eyepiece alone. Like I said I'm a beginner so I might made some errors here and there. I still will get a 7mm eyepiece just to give an other try. So to get the things short, If you looking for a telescope to watch the moon, than this one is a perfect one for that purpose. But I don't think this telescope will give you some cool view of the Saturn, or other closer planets. If you want something what will give you enjoyable time to find farther planets with a nice view, than save your money to buy something in the 4 digit price category and not the 3 digit.