Celestron 31042 AstroMaster 114EQ Newtonian Reflector Telescope, Dark Blue

Product Information

Setting up the telescope is a breeze. Even on your first time out, you can assemble the telescope and its accessories in just a few minutes. The total telescope kit weighs in at just 6.7 pounds—perfect for impromptu observing sessions or transporting wherever life’s adventures take you. The 114mm Newtonian Reflector is intuitive to use. Explore the sky with the two slow-motion control knobs that allow for fine pointing adjustments in both Right Ascension (RA) and Declinations (DEC) axes. The included tripod has an adjustable height of up to 1.3 meters and an accessory tray. The included eyepieces are full coated and provide up to a 100x magnification, perfect for detailed observations of the Moon's craters and seas, the moons of Jupiter and the expansive Milky Way. If you’re going to build up your own accessory kit, I recommend getting a 25mm and/or 32mm Plossl for wide-field views (good for finding objects and for taking in large clusters and nebulae), and a 6mm Goldline for planetary and lunar views. Should I buy a used Astromaster 114EQ?

Also, the tripod has an accessory tray that provides handy storage for your eyepieces and other accessories. To conclude… You won't believe how easy it is to see the moons of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn with your AstroMaster 114EQ. When used for astronomical viewing, AstroMasters yield breathtaking views of the Moon, Saturn's ring structure, Jupiter's cloud bands and moons, favorite deep sky objects like the Orion Nebula, star clusters, and more.

This telescope is the smallest Newtonian telescope that Celestron makes. It is still considered to be an entry-level device, but dues to its design, it can offer a lot more power than the previously mentioned devices. The key features of a product help it perform well and gain popularity to the users. Go through the following section to know the key features of this telescope. 1. Slow Motion Controls The AstroMaster line of telescopes is very popular among beginner stargazers due to their good quality and reasonable pricing.

The AstroMaster accessory kit, which includes a 2x Barlow (not a very good one, but much better than the 50 cent one that comes with many of the PowerSeekers and AstroMasters), a 9mm eyepiece (again redundant with the 10mm), and a 6mm eyepiece, which is actually a good idea for planetary viewing, although it will be uncomfortable to use if you wear glasses due to its small eye lens. It also includes the same filters as the PowerSeeker’s kit. The 6mm eyepiece, when doubled with the Barlow produces a magnification of 333x, which is way too much for this telescope. But the 6mm alone produces a reasonable 167x, which is good for planetary detail that might otherwise be elusive. You can also see some brighter nebulae and galaxies in deep space especially if you use a low-power, wide-field eyepiece. The Bird-Jones design is outdated and no longer needed. The cheap Kellner eyepieces supplied with many entry-level telescopes today would’ve amazed a 1950s amateur with their quality and work well enough with even a relatively fast focal ratio telescope. Furthermore, Celestron didn’t even bother to execute the design correctly. Celestron’s Bird-Jones design places the corrector lens inside the focuser. This causes two problems. The AstroMaster mount comes with two slow motion control knobs that allow you to make fine pointing adjustments to the telescope in both Right Ascension and Declination axes, also referred to as RA and DEC. They have larger mirrors, meaning they let in more light resulting in a brighter image. They also don’t suffer from chromatic aberrations, an issue that results in colored fringes around objects.Also, an equatorial mount is a terrible idea for a beginner telescope. Most beginners have a relatively poor understanding of the motions of the night sky (something that can be improved by constantly observing the sky!). And you must have an understanding of such motions to correctly use the mount. Using it correctly also requires several minutes of setup and alignment. The AstroMaster 114EQ uses a manual equatorial mount, not one of those fancy motorized ones. But it still provided more versatility than an Alt-Az mount. The 114EQ uses a Bird-Jones optical arrangement. It pretends to be a Newtonian telescope, except that the focal length is much longer than the tube itself. How does this work? A corrector lens is placed in the optical path both to correct for the spherical aberration of the primary mirror and to compress the light path to fit into a shorter tube. In theory, such an arrangement could be a good, cheap alternative to a parabolic Newtonian, especially when it was invented–in the days before correctly figured parabolic mirrors were common in mass-market telescopes. In practice, though, pretty much every Bird-Jones is implemented incorrectly, with the corrector lens in the focuser. It also takes time to get used to scouting objects with the laser scope, though you can skip using it if you prefer using just the eyepiece.