Celestron 21045 114mm Equatorial PowerSeeker Telescope
by Celestron
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List Price: Our Price: $104.36 You Save: $85.59 (45%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Digital Camera See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Celestron 21045 114mm Equatorial PowerSeeker Telescope
Customer Review: Well worth it
Summary: 5 Stars
Hey guys. I recently brought this telescope as a gift for my father and he has completely fallen n love with it. It works great and has allowed him to see the moon and planets n a whole new light. Great price and well worth the buy.Customer Review: see the stars
Summary: 5 Stars
just what I wanted I like the easy to put together and wow the stars. it was shipped on time and was well packed too.Customer Review: good telescope with some adjustments/get rid of finderscope
Summary: 4 Stars
A neighbor couple got this telescope, used it a couple of times, had trouble operating it, and it sat for 2 years collecting dust. They are novices with telescopes and recently asked me to look it over. I found some errors in assembly and fixed them, and also used Celestron's inexpensive collimator tool to find that it was out of collimation. The manual had a crude collimation method of using the reflection from your eye, and then mentioned that you can buy the tool if needed (it is needed). The optics produce excellent images with the 20mm eyepiece - no problem there, except for a poor finderscope mounted on a wobbly / hard-to adjust plastic mount. Some others report a wobbly equatorial mount, and I noticed the same thing. The shaft that goes in through the center of the RA setting circle has way too much play. To fix most of that, you will notice two nuts that connect the RA Slow motion control worm threads up against the gear behind the RA setting circle. Loosen the two nuts some with a small wrench, and use a woodworking clamp (with masking tape over the clamping surfaces to avoid marring the mount finish) to tighten the worm gear up against the main gear and re-tighten the nuts. Don't tighten so much that it is hard to move the slow motion control. Teflon lubricant or light worm-gear grease helps a lot with smoother operation. This will take virtually all of the wobble out except that caused by the tripod. Also, because of the play in the main RA bearing, you will still notice some circular racking up and down when you change the direction of the slow motion control. This play could be reworked by a machinist, but that's likely too expensive to have done. The finderscope and its mount should be discarded for a better optical finder/mount with illuminated reticle or an electronic finder like Celestron's or Telrad's. If you have a hard time locating objects, you are probably going to keep the telescope in the closet. Odd that the manual doesn't explain polar alignment or how to use the setting circles - not helpful for a novice. You at least need a good finderscope to do either, or just to locate objects visually. Various websites cover those subjects pretty well. I have not tried the setting circles yet for accuracy.Customer Review: It's money's worth
Summary: 4 Stars
I was a complete beginner when I bought this scope and a relative newbie now. I bought the scope because I was fascinated with developing astronomy as a hobby, but reluctant to spend a fortune in case I lost interest. I also knew that you needed a scope with a reasonable appeture to stand any chance of seeing anything. The 114 seemed to fit the bill then.
First time out we aimed it at the moon and were blown away at the detail of the craters even with the lowest magnifications. Next time we tried to find Saturn and mars and spent a couple of hours to no avail. However, I persevered and have now been able to see saturn (with it's rings clearly visible) and, last night Jupiter and it's dour moons (just being able to make out the colour of the northern equatorial belt). Still haven't been able to find any nebulae or galaxies despite being pretty confident of their location, but will keep trying.
My biggest piece of advice for those struggling would be download some software like stellarium (free and awesome) to help you with location.
In summary, people are right... It is pretty flimsy and not the best scope, but you get your moneys worth. For me it has been an excellent choice because it's made me want to see more, in more detail and now I know I won't be wasting my money when I can eventually afford a decent computer aided scope with a bigger appeture... For the patient beginner on a budget you can't go wrong... Just don't expect to see images like the Hubble produces on a £100 scope.
Customer Review: A lot of scope for the price
Summary: 4 Stars
I had a chance to use this telescope at a friends house and I was impressed at everything that came with the telescope especially after he told me what he paid for it. First of all, it came with a 4.5" reflector and as a rule, aperture rules. A 4.5" telescope can deliver good planetary images and faint deep sky objects. When I first looked it over, it was a little shaky but I discovered that he did not tighten properly. After going through and tightening the screws and bolts, it was ready for use. The included eyepiece 20mm was great at 45x and with the use of the 3x barlow produced 225x. 225x I feel is too much. 225x is too much for most scopes and sky conditions.
With the 20mm 45x eyepiece, I can clearly see Jupiter with its moons and Mars with its ice cap. I highly recommend getting the accessory kits so that you can get various magnifications and get more visual detail.
The equatorial mount was a bonus as it made tracking the celestial and planetary objects easier. Once you have used a telescope, you will clearly see that having an equatorial mount is so useful.
This is a good starter scope for someone who wants more of an astronomical telescope. You get a lot of scope, brighter images than smaller 60mm scopes for not a lot of money.