Product Guide

If you are trying to find a dual-purpose telescope appropriate for both terrestrial and celestial viewing, then the AstroMaster Series is right for you. Each AstroMaster model is capable of giving correct perspectives of property and sky. It's easy to observe the moons of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn with all of those fine instruments. For opinions of the brighter deep space objects like galaxies and nebulae, we urge the bigger aperture and light collecting capacity of the Newtonian reflectors. Even the AstroMaster 114 is just a modified design. Employing a brief focal length primary mirror and built-in corrector lens, the AstroMaster 114 has an effective focal length of 40 inches (1000mm) in a tube only 18 inches long. Both eyepieces provide images that are pleasingly sharp. The 20mm eyepiece (50x magnification) nicely frames the Moon, and daylight pictures are sharp with lots of contrast. Even the 10mm eyepiece (100x magnification) does a nice job zooming in on lunar craters or over the planets. With the 10mm eyepiece or together with my own 6mm eyepiece (166x) I could certainly focus in on Saturn's rings and pick up details just such as the shadow cast by the rings on the planet.

The package contains a fresh version of Celestron's CG-2 equatorial mount with a stainless steel tripod. 2 eyepieces are contained, the 20mm eyepiece is a erect-image design with 50x magnification and the 10mm eyepiece produces 100x magnification. Even the AstroMaster 114 EQ also offers a builtin red dot finder, fully illustrated instructions, and also easy no-tool installation. The package also has a student version of"The Sky" astronomy computer software to assist you find planets and stars.

Cons: Experts:

compact yet powerful optics

Easy no-tool setup

Fully illustrated directions

Three times brighter than 60mm scopes

Star pointer Not easy to use In addition, I enjoy the good design of Celestron's new CG-2 equatorial mount. With the assistance of Celestron's fully exemplified quick setup guide it required only some minutes to construct the equatorial bracket and then clamp the optical tube set up. The entire telescope is streamlined enough to carry outside in one trip. Then I can track the motion of planets and stars simply by turning one slow motion knob. Even the AstroMaster 114 EQ looks quite stable on its own CG-2 bracket, a little wobble while focusing damps out quickly after I give up the focus knob.

With good optics, a good mount, two eyepieces, and fully illustrated instructions, the AstroMaster 114 EQ reflector telescope can be a very good introductory telescope. The one feature that is not too easy to use is the built in star dictionary, that will be best suited only for finding bright objects like the Moon and planets. I can overcome the narrow field of opinion somewhat by employing a optional 32mm plossl eyepiece while looking for deep space objects because of its wider field of view makes stars and planets easier to locate. See all Item description