Reviews & Ratings for Celestron PowerSeeker 114 EQ Astronomical Telescope 21045 — 4 reviews — Page 1

A Celestron PowerSeeker such as the 114EQ gives you a lot of telescope for the money, but is not as easy to use as most other options. It's recommended for technically-minded adults on a budget; other options are more suitable for young people and those who value ease of use highly. Minimum age is a particularly conscientious 16-year old. I personally would probably have needed to be 18 to 20 or have a coach.

Basic take:
I am a technically-minded adult on a budget. I'm very glad I choose this instrument. Given my individual abilities and constraints, I don't know how I could have done better.

Capability:
The 114EQ is highly suitable for solar system and star gazing - everything down to all eight planets and several of their moons on well-chosen nights - because it has substantial aperture for the price and (when aligned) decent optics and an equatorial mount. It can also do deep-sky observation, but here suffers from relatively low maximum field of view and fiddly object-finding.

Ease of Use:
The 114EQ is among the more difficult of introductory astronomical instruments to use, basically because it attempts to do so much and ask your pocketbook for so little. What's an easier scope? A decent pair of binoculars (7x50 is standard). A telescope with just an Alt-Azimuth mount, or a Dobsonian mount - anything other than equatorial. A Refractor instead of a Reflector (because refractors are enclosed and don't need collimation often). One with auto-tracking software. And so f...
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Got tired of my 30 year old refractor and for the price took a chance. Easy build...used a communications tower to adjust view finder (View Finder is junk compared to the quality of the tube) in-which I had to put plastic around the V/F to be-able to tighten it down and adjust right. Adjust your V/F using this method or if you bump it, at night, use the moon/distant street light to readjust. Lens set is also low quality but you can still make out Saturn's rings (as one large) and Titan...for about the cost of the scope buy the lens set (with filters). Bought the collimation tool (a must have) and found main mirror out just a bit after using a CCD camera...made great view outstanding! The mount is the same that my 30+ scope came with...you can only use one axis without modifying to use a motor drive set for astro-imaging. Also the mount/tri-pod is rickety...just make sure to retighten everything after moving. Overall, if you will be just using this scope for basic use/starter...I don't just highly recommend, I recommend buying two, for this price, and giving one to any youngster that only knows video games.
Pros: Mirrors/power/price!!!/quick-easy build
Cons: Lens set/viewfinder/mount