Amazon.com: Celestron Firstscope 114 Short Telescope: Camera & Photo

Technical Details

Manual slow-motion controls
Newtonian reflector optics
1,000mm focal length
Comes with adjustable aluminum tripod
18-inch tube is compact and portable

Product Description

Amazon.com Review
Celestron's compact Firstscope 114 Short Telescope offers three times the light gathering power of 60mm refractors in a system that's light, portable, and affordable. The package includes the CG-2 equatorial mount, an adjustable aluminum tripod, two eyepieces (20mm and 10mm), a red dot finder scope, and an introductory version of "The Sky" astronomy software.

With this telescope its easy to see Saturn's rings and Jupiter's cloud belts. When the night air is still and clear I've been able to see the Cassini division in Saturn's rings and even spot the shadow of Jupiter's moons crossing the planets cloud tops! Deep space objects like star clusters and galaxies also show up nicely. The Ring Nebula M57, for instance, shows up as a pale smoke ring, and globular clusters like M13 and M15 begin to reveal their individual stars.

The compact 18-inch long optical design of the Firstscope 114 Short is very similar to the computerized Nexstar 114-GT. Like the Nexstar 114, this telescope uses a short focal length mirror combined with a corrector lens to simulate a traditional long tube reflector. This works best at moderate powers; at low power the stars seem out of focus near the edges. Planet views are OK if you keep the planet near the sweet spot in the center, but again sharpness declines toward the edges. If you're willing to spend a little more, Celestron's long tube Firstscope 114EQ is capable of sharper images.

To get the best views from a Newtonian reflector, the optics may need to be tuned up or "collimated" occasionally. I find a Collimation Tool helps get this fine tuning just right. The other essential accessory is a guide book like NightWatch or a subscription to Night Sky magazine; once you own a telescope you'll want to know where to look for cool sights like planets and galaxies! Jeff Phillips

Pros:

Compact and affordable
Includes all the basics
Good (but not great) optics

Cons:

Views are soft around the edges
Optics may need fine tuning
Terrestrial images are upside down

Product Description
Newtonian reflector telescopes offer a number of excellent features including Freedom from most optical aberrations and delivery of very bright images. Reasonably compact and portable to focal lengths of 1000mm Excellent performance observing faint deep-sky objects such as nebulae, remote galaxies and star clusters. Lowest cost per square inch of aperture due to use of mirrors rather than le nses. The 114mm (4.5") Newtonian equatorial telescope is the most popular size telescope for the more serious beginning or intermediate level astronomy enthusiast, and for good reason. The large light gathering power of this 4-�" telescope makes it ideal for deep-sky observation of galaxies, star clusters and nebulae, as well as lunar and planetary observing. This makes for a very useful and versatile instrument that can take an observer from the very first time looking through a telescope's eyepiece, through years of observing interesting subjects near and far in the night sky. <b> Firstscope 114 Short</b> This version of the 4�" Newtonian telescope offers more portability than the standard longer tube Newtonian without sacrificing power or performance. The short tube of this model is only 18" long and has a built-in correction lens, giving it all the focal length of the standard model, while reducing aberrations. The equatorial mount is quite stable, with setting circles and slow motion controls on both axes for easy, smoot

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