Meade DS2114ATS Telescope

by Meade

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 36.5 x 18 x 10.5 inches ; 16 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 26 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005QWYM
• Batteries: 8 AA batteries required.
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,481 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
  • #76 in Camera & Photo > Binoculars, Telescopes & Optics > Telescopes > Reflectors
• Date first available at Amazon.com: November 14, 2002

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Skillfully observing the many visible stars and planets can be very daunting for the beginner and trying for even the intermediate amateur astronomer, but the Meade DS-2114ATS telescope makes it easy thanks to the Autostar computer controller system. You can locate any astronomical object by entering it into the keypad; electric motors then align the telescope to display the object. The Autostar's catalog includes 74 galaxies, 135 star clusters, 26 asteroids, and the 8 major planets, for a total of 1,586 viewable objects.

You can store up to 200 objects in the memory for an immediate go-to function. Digital readouts display the telescope’s position in both radians and decimal form. Oversize bearings and locks on both of the telescope’s axes eliminate imprecisions of movement that are common to lesser telescopes.

Since it is a Newtonian reflector, the DS-2114ATS's aluminized primary mirror and elliptical secondary mirror provide sharp and bright images at a relatively low price. This optical system has a 114mm aperture and a focal length of 1000mm. The 6x30mm viewfinder and eyepiece, with a diameter of 1.25 inches, makes viewing comfortable and free of any eye strain. Also included are an aluminum tripod with a fold-up accessory shelf and astronomy software on CD-ROM.

Product Description

Product Details and FeaturesProduct MPNMPNDS2114ATSKey FeaturesOptical Design  NewtoniansOptical Diameter114 mmFinderscope  OpticalFocal Length1000 mmMax Useful Magnificationx 325Mount Type  AltazimuthMiscellaneousUPC709942203608Product ID37549120 

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

120 of 126 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good first scope, December 27, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Meade DS2114ATS Telescope (Electronics)

A caveat: I'm a complete novice, and this is my first telescope. Those more advanced may want to take this with a grain of salt, but I hope I can help other novices.

On the advice of many here, I bought Terence Dickinson's "Nightwatch". It was well worth it; buy this book before buying a scope.

I wanted to spend in the $500 range for a scope to prove to myself that I would use it and get a little experience. Others here suggested starting with a 6-8 inch Dobsonian, but I found that after everything tallied up I was closer to $1000. I'd rather start a little lower and then buy a really nice ($2k+) scope later. At the same time, though, I wanted to avoid a "trash scope".

I decided on this scope over the lower end ETX Meade scopes because for the same price you get a larger aperture (114mm vs 70) and hence more light. Also, with a 1 meter focal length, you get larger magnification with less powerful eyepieces, giving you a better field of view.

On my first pass, I discovered that the mirrors had come loose in the tube and shattered against each other. I returned it, and was told that several others had had the same problem. This disturbed me, but they had a replacement in stock, and all was well with that one.

First off, the instruction manual is poor, and there's no packing list. It's not that tough to figure out what piece is what, but all the pictures in the manual are for the refractor in the same DS line, so they're not very useful to the beginner. Nevertheless, I was able to assemble it in less than an hour. Aligning the finderscope (6x30, which Dickinson calls "barely acceptable" but worked well for me) took another 30-45 minutes - I found the placement of the thumbscrews rather unintuitive, but perhaps they are all like that.

The scope comes with a tripod which seems plenty stable, and a 25mm and a 9mm eyepiece. When I bought it, the electronic eyepiece was thrown in for free. All seemed to work well, though I did prefer the 9.7mm Plossl (sold separately) to the 9mm that came with the box.

The scope was easy to use manually and gave me good views of the moon, sharp and clear. I'm in the middle of Dallas, and just used my back yard, and got surprisingly good (at least to me) seeing conditions. I was able to get to 100x power with no loss of clarity. Anything over that, though (a 2x Barlow and the 9.7 mm, or a standalone 6mm Plossl) was pretty much useless.

My three gripes with the scope are the focuser, motor drive and the autostar controller.

Perhaps this is normal, but the focuser isn't geared - there is no separate knob for fine adjustments. I found that when I changed eyepieces, I had to make slight adjustments to focus, and this was difficult with just the big focusing knob. There's a separate attachment which motorizes this, and that might help. Also, the scope quivers noticeably when you focus. This is more of a problem when you are moving the scope manually, and you have the locks off. I never lost the moon out of my field of view altogether, but I had to recenter almost every time after refocusing.

The drive tracks smoothly left-right, but seems to stick at the beginning when going up-down. The result is that fine adjustments were difficult: you get nothing, then a jerk past where you wanted, and then smooth tracking. I haven't yet set up autostar to compensate for sidereal motion, so I don't know how big a problem this is going to turn out to be.

My problem with the autostar is legibility. The text scrolls by reasonably quickly, and there seems to be some ghosting in the display, which combine to make the scrolling text pretty difficult to read. Luckily, aside from some text at the beginning (cautioning you not to look at the sun), this doesn't seem to be much of an issue.

Despite this, I quickly learned how to compensate and was able to get around the problems, and once I had it was well worth it. On the whole, I feel like I got my money's worth, and like I avoided a trash scope.

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Meade DS2114 Scope, March 9, 2003

By 

Bonnie L. Constantine (Redlands, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Meade DS2114ATS Telescope (Electronics)

Optically, the 2114 is a good beginner scope. I found it necessary to supplement the included 9 and 25mm eyepieces with a 4 and 40mm, allowing both high mag and wide field of view. Most of my viewing was done under urban conditions with a fair amount of light pollution. Under these conditions I am able to see cloud bands on Jupiter and the four moons, Saturn and the Cassini division (under perfect viewing conditions), Andromeda galaxy (small smudge) and numerous star clusters and a few nebula. I have encountered problems with the tracking motors skipping or failing altogether and have replaced 3 mounts under warranty. Autostar works well if tripod is perfectly leveled and the user has a basic knowledge of some sky based reference points. Those expecting to hit all the highlights right out of the box will be frustrated, some time with the scope is necessary for getting the alignment process down (learning curve). I chose this scope over the Meade EXT70AT for ease of focusing and the larger aperture (more light makes all the difference). This scope (like others of its kind?) is battery hungry. Expect 4 to 5 hours of use from top of the line batteries. Rechargeable batteries are a good investment. The scope is small and light enough for easy portability but unfortunately, Meade doesn't make a carrying case for this scope. I would recommend this scope with some reservations. As of 3/03 Meade has some deals on the EXT90EC that include autostar and tripod and may be a better bet. Have owned scope since 10/02.

47 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I did it..!!!, January 26, 2003

By 

Ricardo Remis (West Palm Beach, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Meade DS2114ATS Telescope (Electronics)

In just few words..if you are a novice like me and never used a telescope before, and you think this is the time that you have to have one...let me tell you: I bought this telescope after reading so many reviews of every telescope on earth. With not so much money, you will have a reflector telescope with clear aperture of 114 mm and after reading the manual and going over the included software in the box, (if you are as lucky as I was) you will find a brilliant Jupiter (with its four moons) and a very well defined Saturn (with its ring) in your first night of observation using the included 9mm eyepiece . The hardest part...to align the telescope using Autostar...the clue...align very well your view finder and don't be afraid to investigate by your own. I recommend this telescope for you, if you are a beginner like me and want to enjoy the pleasure of using a good telescope and learn about planet, stars and constellations without paying to much. When you buy this telescope, you will find the answer about if you need to buy a more expensive telescope in the future and if astronomy is the hobby for you.