Celestron Poweseeker 114 EQ

[221B Observer]

I have recently chatted to a very good friend of mine who has recommended the Celestron 114 EQ for observing the planets and Moon with. So I am now saving up for that. Does anyone have any experience of that and can also advise what is the difference between that and the Celestron Astromaster 114?

[ronin]

I think the Astromaster has a focal length of 1000mm but the tube looks too short, therefore it may have a barlow built into the focuser to achieve this - Bird-Jones design. The components used are not good and so it performs badly.

The Powerseeker also has a focal length of 1000mm but that has a long tube of what appears to be the correct length for 1000mm.

I would check what the mirrors on both are. I think they may be spherical not parabolic, although at one time Celestron said all their reflectors were parabolic, however that may have been before Synta took over.

[Schorhr]

I agree completely, the newtonian telescope with aditional lens elements just decrease contrast and are hard to collimate/adjust.

For a 114mm mirror a spherical mirror will be sufficient at 900mm focal length or more, the Strehl ratio will be over 0.8.

Even the TAL 150 had a spherical mirror @ 1200mm focal length IIRC.

For a 8" spherical mirror it would need to be so long though that it's not applicable ;-)

Anyway, for about the same money you can consider getting a 5 or (used) 6 inch telescope, with a simpler Dobsonian mount.

No tracking, no equatorial movement (needed for photography, but this would require a TABLE mount), but easY to point&see if you use a map or have a (cheap) android phone or iPhone with astro tools or skyeye-app for example.

Sounds complicated, but planets are easily found without any map. And no mater regarding planets, galaxies, nebulae or star clusters, more aperture will show you more details.

While some objects are either invisible or just blurry dots in the sky with 4", I. 6" they will start to show structure, shape and more details. You'll be able to magnify higher when viewing planets (if the athmospheric conditions alow it).

In my 4" moons and planets look stunning, but in 5" they are noticably nicer when magnifying higher. Spend another 30€ for a wide angle eyepiece, and it will blow you away ;-)

[Russe]

What I bought initially was a 127mm Maksutov-Cassegrain type of scope. Still have it and love it. The long focal length ensures great magnification and that's what you want initially, when looking at planets and the moon.

For globular clusters it works a treat as well (might want to think about a light pollution filter too).

For nebula - the only thing that matters in your price range is where you go to observe - if it's truly dark, the larger the aperture, the more you'll see. Me in the city... naw... forget it... on rare dark winter nights I've seen (I think) M81...

Therefore, I quickly got into astrophotography. This type of scope is lovely to shoot videos with a webcam of planets. As well you don't have to collimate it - easy to learn - but easier not to have to do it initially...

The bigger problem you have is the mount. Not the scope. Because starting out, you don't know really how long and how far will you take things.

What I would do now, had I known before, I'd buy a 2nd hand motorised mount with above mentioned scope and see how far that gets me.

In the end you'll want a German Equatorial mount which is VERY sturdy in order to do long exposure photography with a modded webcam or a DSLR camera (CANON).