Celestron 31042 AstroMaster 114 EQ Reflector Telescope

The telescope tripod and equatorial mount with motor Drive are all good qualities for the money. It was easy to assemble. I had to align the Optics but I think the value is very good for the price. Some reviews say that the tripod is not sturdy enough but I think it is if you don’t extend the legs and there’s no need to extend the legs really.

Plus gros et plus puissant que je ne le pensait. Ce télescope comble mes attentes. Il me reste à me perfectionner au sujet de l’astronomie. Mais la vision en direct est pour le moment extraordinaire !

Well I’m new to this stargazing but what a great way to start. I bought a Barlow lense to increase the magnification and wow I can see Saturn and her rings and Jupiter is stunning and I can see 3 moons orbiting her. Looking at our moon is spectacular and that alone makes this telescope worth every penny.
The quality of the whole thing is great for the cost and once you polar align the telescope, you really appreciate the equatorial mount. There was an issue with my star finder initially as it ran out of adjustment and was miles off but I loosened the screws holding it to the telescope and pressed it and it clicked into place and works perfectly. So if you get the same issue don’t give up on it, just do what I did as it’s easy for it not to be fitted quite right and easily rectified. Added a photo I snapped with my phone in my hand through the lens

Review of Celestron AstroMaster 114EQ Reflector Telescope:

Update (July 2018):
I’ve spent a lot of time with this telescope now, perhaps 100 hours, and have an even better opinion of it than before. As a cheap small telescope it is ideal for beginners like me and I couldn’t ask for a better experience for the right-above £100 price I paid. It is one of the most cost effective pastimes I’ve enjoyed.

With the telescope, I’ve observed:

The Moon
Venus
Mars and its ice cap
Jupiter, its cloud lines, and its big red spot
Saturn and its rings
Satellites
Many open clusters
Many globular clusters
A few nebulas (The orion nebula is amazing!)
The Andromeda Galaxy

Over the past months I have gathered some tips for getting the most out of this telescope:

* The 114EQ has a corrector lens built into the eyepiece tube that also acts like a 2x barlow lens, essentially “zooming in” by 2x power by default. This works well for planetary viewing, but for objects like open star clusters and the andromeda galaxy it can be too much magnification to get a wide enough view with a 20-24mm eyepiece. Also, for faint objects like nebulas it can reduce the exit pupil of the telescope to a very small size, which limits the ability of your eye to gather light. A solution I found is to use a 0.5x barlow lens to reduce the overall power to 1x. I recommend the Solomark 0.5x Focal Reducer available on Amazon, which screws into the bottom of your eyepiece.

* I tried a number of different eyepieces, including moderately expensive ones. My favorite experience was the Seben 7.5-22.5mm Zoom Eyepiece. While being one of the least expensive eye pieces I used with the telescope also offered the most adaptable experience. I rarely use the other eyepieces now because the seben zoom allows me to spend more time viewing and less time fiddling. When paired with a 0.5x barlow, it gives the telescope a wide range of configurations that allow it to be a nice platform for viewing all objects below absolute magnitude 10.

* The mount has a cheap bearing for the equatorial axis which has a bolt that both acts as the axle and as the tightener. This is where most of the vibration in the mount comes from. In order to make it work well, it is critical that the washers go in the correct order and that the bolt is torqued such that it is tight but not binding. The correct order is the metal washer first and the rubber washer second on the bolt. If they are reversed, the bolt will back its way out when turning the equatorial axis and lead to a lot of wobbling.

* I removed the locking screws for the collimation knobs on the primary mirror. The telescope keeps its collimation well without the screws, and the knobs are much easier to adjust in the field without having to take the screws out first. Speaking of which, accurate collimation is critical for all reflector telescopes, so if you are not comfortable learning how to do this time consuming process, you should buy a refractor telescope instead, which does not require collimation. After learning the process, it is painless to do. Reflectors like the 114EQ are cheaper for better image quality than refractors, but collimation is the price you pay.

* I switched to using Stellarium for my session planning instead of the included Starry Night. I find Stellarium easier to use, and it also allows me to plan which eyepiece configurations are appropriate for a particular object. The mobile version of stellarium is way better than the mobile version of starry night — more stars included, and easier interface.

Really love this telescope! While viewing feint objects like nebulas begs for a larger telescope, I have found my time with this scope highly rewarding at a fraction of the price. I highly recommend this telescope for budding astronomers.

Original Review (March 2018):
I spent some of my teenage summers with a cousin who loved astrology and introduced me to many of the concepts. Many years later I decided to invest in my own small scope, nothing like the big one my cousin had. After reading reviews and studying specs I picked the Astromaster 114eq for it’s nice blend of small size, price, and performance. On our first night viewing, my girlfriend and I caught views of the Orion nebula and beehive cluster right out our apartment window. Wow! It made me realize what I had been missing out on!

I am far from an astrological expert, but I can see that the EQ114 can go far, especially with the right adjustment. Collimation is difficult with the stock screws, but after spending several hours over multiple sessions I got it pretty darn good and the picture is nice to my uneducated eyes.

The included software helped a lot to find things to view and to track them down in the sky.

I don’t want a big telescope due to storage, but I’d like to see how far my eq114 will go. To that end I bought a better eye piece than the cheap ones it comes with to see how far the little guy can stretch. The eye piece cost almost as much as the telescope, but I hear they make a huge difference so I am looking forward to trying it out. It’s the kind of thing that will last for 50 years so I’m not worried about the investment. You shouldn’t be either! Don’t hesitate if you’re on the fence, this is a good little scope I can fully recommend.

 This review is based on the cost of this telescope after using it for about a year now. The review is for 130EQ-MD.

First, to put things into perspective:
* A good eyepiece costs more than half of the price of this telescope
* A good mount starts at 4 times the cost of this telescope and exceeds 20 times the price

The telescope is an excellent starter telescope. Based on forum review, it is probably not the best, but quote close to that. It has all the bits and pieces that you need to learn about while taking the first steps into amateur astronomy:
* Equatorial mount: you’ll learn about the types of mounts, how to do polar alignment, what is RA/DE and Hour Angle
* It’s Newtonian: you’ll learn about reflector telescopes and collimation. You don’t have to bend to look at the stars, which is important when spending an hour or so
* Large focal length (you *do not* need more than that): allows you to toy with eyepieces and discover the limits of the telescope. You will realise the effects of the atmosphere and the limits they impose and you will also realise that in high magnifications the stars move too fast and go out of view in seconds.
* Decent aperture: You won’t be limited by the ability of the telescope to collect light. You will learn what dark adaptation is and how important it is.
* Two eyepieces (20mm erect, 10mm): You’ll learn what an erect eyepiece is. You’ll get used to seeing things upside down. You’ll learn to divide the focal lengths to get the magnification. You’ll also inevitably learn about apparent field-of-view, eye relief, multicoating, what plossl is and that there is a variety of eyepieces but that you don’t need many of them.
* A motor: you’ll learn the importance of it at higher magnifications.

Eventually you’ll also try to take pictures, either with a phone or with a camera, in which case you’ll start attaching things to it. It’s more trouble than you think but the good thing is that the telescope is very sturdy and can take it.

Its pieces:
* The telescope itself is of good quality
* The mount is a *very* good mount for the price. It’s sturdy, accurate to adjust and reasonably stable. I can’t stress enough the importance of the mount. It’s *the* most important part of a telescope. If you’re not convinced, take a look at amateur astronomy forums for advice given to others.
* The sky pointer is easy to use and very accurate once adjusted (the first time)
* The eyepieces are good for the first days. At some point you will probably replace them with something better and possibly add a barlow lens. Look at forums about recommendations. I had very good results with a celestron omni 15mm. I have a celestron omni 5mm which is not useful 99% of the time and can’t recommend because of the high magnification and the bad eye relief. An onni celestron barlow works well too. I also recommend getting a 30-40mm plossl eyepiece with good eye relief.
* The motor (for the MD model) is painfully basic. Unfortunately it doesn’t allow manual micro-corrections when it’s attached, even if it’s off. It also limits the rotation of the telescope which creates some blind spots (boooo). I had to remove it in some occasions.

Overall , it’s lots of fun for the price. IMO, you should not try something more expensive as a first telescope because you won’t know what to look for. You’ll realize that if you’re going to invest then it’s better to invest on a mount than a telescope.

Expect to be able to see Saturn’s rings and Jupiter’s moons when they are close to Earth. See attached

The bads:
* The motor is basic and limits the movement of the telescope when attached. Fortunately, it’s easy to remove and reattach.
* The included eyepiece are very basic, although a good starting point and expected for the price of the telescope

I have bought this for my kids who were excited to look at the stars and galaxies. The delivery was very quick and the assembly was very easy and kids were about assembly in 5-10 min, the sky objects which kids were able to see are 7 planets and bright stars, they are also looking at the deep sky objects when light pollution is less. Kids were able to gain very good knowledge about the celestial object , they started there own channel . The un boxing and assembly of the telescope at the you tube channel which were created by kids . The channel name is “Primus Orion” it had un boxing and assembly and some of the observation of celestial object and Blood moon eclipse was also captured. Its worth every penny invested in the telescope.