Customer Reviews

Celestron Firstscope 114EQ 114mm Reflector Telescope

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

 

 

Quality is first rate, and the German Equitorial Mount (GEM) and tripod are beefy enough to avoid irritating vibration. This scope is still small enough to fit in the corner of the room, ready to be taken outside for quick viewing, but large enough to see the rings of Saturn (and make out the Cassini Division on clear nights) and get resolution of the bands on Jupiter and track the path of its moons as their shadows march across Jupiter's orb. Saturn is a tiny jewel in the eyepiece, about 3/8" across, with the 10mm eyepiece. Jupiter is larger, about the size of a pencil eraser. But you see an amazing amount of detail on them. Lunar viewing is outstanding, with the 20mm presenting the globe of the moon filling all but the edges of the eyepiece. The 10mm gives you close up views of the craters and mara.

Everything you need is included, although like most people, you will probably buy some accessories later. The included eyepieces are good, not fantastic like [...] Naglers, but for starting out they are fine (in fact, I still use mine regularly).

Using the 10mm or 20mm eyepieces (included) for observing nebula, you can make out the gas clouds of the Orion Nebula, and split double stars, with good clarity. The 6mm eyepiece is about the most powerful you will want to use with this scope and mostly for planets, as the width of field narrows considerably. The 6mm might be included in this package; check the description. I bought it separately, as well as a 2X Barlow, but the Barlow seems to degrade the quality of the image so much that I don't recommend buying it ... investing in extra eyepieces or a different brand of Barlow might be a better idea if you want to spend the money. I also bought a motor which fits nicely on the GEM, but when the scope is properly aligned, turning one dial to keep the planet or star in the middle of the eyepiece is no trouble at all. I hardly ever use the Barlow or the motor.

For serious astro-photography, deep sky and "close up" planetary viewing, a more expensive scope is probably required, one in the 8" to 10" range. But you'll expect to pay prices starting at about [...] for that type of setup. And to set up those larger scopes, count on 20 - 45 minutes with "cool down time" and the like. And they are heavy. So if you already know you want to go larger, take a look at the Celestron G8N, an 8" reflector that runs about [...] on sale. But if you're stepping up from a department store scope with a two or three inch apeture, the Firstscope 114 EQ is a great step up. And for the beginner, it is a serious beginning scope that will let you see well into the night sky at an affordable price, without the frustrations of buying those cheap department store telescopes.

Couple it with the books "The Backyard Astronomer" and/or "Turn Left at Orion" and you'll be set to start discovering the world above.

I originally bought this scope to give me something to watch the sky with while building my 14 inch scope hehe. I think it's a fantastic scope for the price if you know what your expectations are. It's a great scope for a beginner, because it's light , easy to transport and set-up which means that you'll use it often. What's the point of getting a monster scope if it'll end up sitting in the closet because it's just too painfull to have to lug it outside and set it up. With that scope you'll see all the planets and all the messier objects and it'll keep you busy for years. Don't expect to see Hubble type pictures though. All you 'll see is faint fuzzy glows. But that's the case with all small scopes.
Optics: the optics are good. Star images are clean with no major defects. Collimation is easy and the primary stays well collimated through all the abuse you can think of. You'll have to adjust the secondary often though due to the single-stalk spider. The focuser is nice and stable and the knobs are big enough to give you good control. The supplied eyepieces are ok. Not spectacular. I recommend you get the accessory kit at the same time, becuase it's discounted when you get it with the scope. It contains 5 eyepieces plus a barlow and all the planetary filters, which is a real bargain
Mount: the mount is good and very stable. The fine controls barely induce any vibration even at high magnification. The mechanism for the declination control is a little flimsy, since it consist of a screw pushing against a metal block. The setting circles are useful to get the scope pointed approximatively in the right direction, but you still have to exactly align the scope by eye with your target. Don't expect to be able to dial in the coordinates of an object and voila. The only part where you get a lot of vibrations is if you touch the focuser. That can make focusing at high magnifications a little tricky, but even the worst vibrations die down after a few seconds. The only thing I have issue with is the azimuth adjustemnt of the polar axis. The lock screw will move the axis just slightly when you tighten it, so that to get good polar alignment you have to overshoot a little to compensate for the shift caused by tightening the lock screw. Let me point out that this is a minor annoyance only and that overall this is a great mount for that price
Performance: So how good is this scope? I put it to the test in my back-yard in light polluted Los Angeles. Here's a sample: during this year's opposition (2003) I was able to easily make out the polar caps of mars and glimpse some surface feature (300x). I've split close double stars (2 arcseconds separation), and the ring nebula (M57) is definitively a ring. Stars have colors. Based on performance, this scope will keep you happy.
who is this scope for?: this scope is ideal for a beginner who isn't sure about astronomy and wants to get a scope to check out whether or not he/she would like the hobby without breaking the bank. The main problem used to be that beginners would want to get cheap scopes so as to not have a very expensive coat rack but would end up getting such low quality that their dissapointing experiences would turn them away from the hobby. This scope is definitively an exception since it has superb quality for the price.

Ordered this scope on a Monday from Amazon and it arrived four days later from Adorama in perfect condition. Celestron does an excellent packing job. The user manual was easy to follow. Assembly took about 90 minutes. I was viewing that evening from my suburban townhouse patio. The views of the Moon, Mars and Saturn were very clear. Not bad for the first night!

In my opinion this is a far superior piece of equipment for half the price of an ETX 90 by Meade. I purchased one of these about two years ago. This proved to be a mistake. The Celestron is far more user friendly.

Okay, I am new to the world of stargazing. I purchased this telescope based on recommendations here at Amazon.com. I have been completely satisfied. I am especially impressed with the clear, crisp viewing of the moon. I can see a few planets, but they are of course very small through the eyepiece.

I do have a suggestion to anyone who may purchase this telescope. Take your time putting it together. Read all the directions first. Pay special attention to the details concerning the Collimator. If you don't know what that is, you need to. I almsot made some major mistakes, screwing and unscrewing parts that needed to be left alone.

If you pay attention to all of the details on the instructions, you will have the telescope together in a couple of hours and be well on your way to enjoying yourself, especially on a clear night.

The package containing my telescope arrived in four days and was completely intact. I couldn't be happier with my purchase. I am sure a more avid sky-watcher might want a little something more, but for the once-in-a-while gazer, this is the telescope.

See ya next review.

I've had this scope for about 4 months now and I have been very pleased with it. Firstly, I received it in only three days from Amazon. Secondly, I was genuinely pleased that all components are made of an alloy or other metal, unlike a particular Meade unit, which I used that had lots of plastic screws and other parts. Even the tightening screws for the lens mounts and red-dot sight are metal on this Celestron. The aluminum tripod is quite sturdy and adjustable; good for the little guys and girls that star-gaze too. The housing tube is black aluminum and sturdy as well. The red-dot sighter works well, especially when looking at stars/planets with a high-power lens, with less eye relief. The magnification and clarity of the views are really good. I've seen the rings of Saturn and Jupiter quite clearly with this scope. I also purchased the Celestron eyepiece kit that offers additional plossy lens (varying power) and a pretty good set of filters (including a moon filter). The only down side I can think of would be that the lubricant used by the company for the rotating axis' is quite sticky if you get it on ya. For the money, you're not going to regret the buy and you'll probably be glad you went with this quality model over lesser ones, that might even cost more. Celestron has a good product with this one. Hope this helps some.

I recently purchased this scope from amazon. I read many reviews and suggestions and decided to go with the Firstscope 114 because it seemed to be the most scope I could get for the least price. I considered some cheaper models with the same features, but I'm glad I chose this one because the differences in quality would have ruined my experience. It took about 2 weeks to receive my scope from Amazon, but you can't beat free shipping! The scope was well packaged, the only casualty during shipping was a wingnut on the tripod with a broken wing. I contacted Celestron, and they immediately sent me another wingnut. Great customer service!

Setup was easy, just follow the instructions. I had the scope together and was looking at Jupiter the next night (there were clouds the first night). I live in the city and the lights combined with the humidity make it hard to see any stars with the naked eye in the summer, however the images were crisp and clear through the 10 and 20mm eyepieces and I could see 4 of Jupiter's moons and distinguish the bands crossing its surface.

At first I was a little disappointed with the German Equatorial mount. It seemed very shaky and I had a hard time following objects in the sky. However, I quickly realized that I had not done a good job of balancing the scope on the mount. With it properly balanced, the scope's movements were smooth and it was very stable even at high magnification. I purchased a 5mm Celestron Ultima lens as well and I have been pleased with the images I have seen so far.

I would definitely recommend this scope to anyone looking to get into astronomy. I forsee many more hours and years of enjoyment with my Firstscope.

My son (he is 21) recently announced that he wanted a telescope for Christmas, so I got on-line to educate myself. Didn't take too long before my head began spinning! So, to make a long story short, this is the scope I ended up buying. My husband immediately set it up and has been having a blast with it! Don't know if my son will really get it now! I definately recommend that you buy the accessory kit with it also. I really enjoyed coming home from work today and looking at all the craters on the moon.

Excellent scope for beginners especially since they can be found used fairly cheap. Will need to collimate, and the supplied lenses are not very good. However, once collimated and mated with a decent Plossl ( I bought 3 Meade 4000 super plossls, 6.5, 12.5, and 32 mm, can be found on ebay for about 20 a piece or as a set for about 50) there was a drastic improvement. Can easily see jupiter's bands even on a somewhat hazy night. Have not had an opportunity to use on a totally clear night with the new lenses, but based on my experience viewing jupiter last night i expect only good things.

The telescope has pretty good optics which provide a nice clean, crisp, clear picture. Unfortunately, the controls and movements for it could use some improvement. Too many plastic parts and metal parts with too loose a tolerances which makes adjusting, moving, or repositioning the scope a pain.

This telescope is mostly about the mirror. It has a 4.5" primary mirror which picks up a good amount of light. Where this telescope is lacking, is with the included eyepieces. The 20mm is good enough for wide-field scanning. The 10mm eyepiece however is pretty much impossible to get a razor-sharp high-power image of anything. I would definitely recommend this telescope to a beginning astronomer,(which is what I am). But if you really want to utilize the large mirror for higher magnifications you should pick up a high quality eyepiece at about 15mm or smaller.(The smaller the mm, the greater the magnification.)