Celestron 114eq what extras will I need ?

[Raymanjazz]

Hi, I have ordered a Celestron 114eq and was wondering what extras I may be needing ie; filters or software etc ,im totally new to this so all advice will be gratefully accepted,thanx,Ray.

[wakey1512]

Does this come with SKYX?  I have the 130eq which came with sky x software.

I would say it's worth ordering some good eyepieces too - the 130 comes with lackluster EP's so can't imagine the 114 would be any better - good scope none the less

[ronin]

This is going to be odd:

What if you continue do you half expect your next scope to be?

For present I would suggest 2 or 3 reasonable plossls and stop there. Nothing more at all.

Cannot see a moon filter being essential and no other filter of any use at all.

For plossl eyepieces try the GSO/Revelation brand.

Something like 10mm, 30mm and a 15mm.

Not sure an 8mm would be useful. Sort of questionable.

Problem is the nature of the scope, it is a Bird-Jones design and has a barlow built into the focuser.

The focal length is 1000mm, the tube length is 457mm.

The design itself is reasonable but the items used are not up to it (cost cutting).

[LittleSkink]

as a relative novice also (my eldest is 9 and she got a Heritage 100P for Christmas) we have found Cartes de Ciel software great (Stellarium wont run on our nearly new Toshiba laptop) and Turn Left at Orion is a cracking book. A trip to the local library found lots of book choice and saved us a fortune we might have wasted on Amazon

We looked at other bits of kit but have found exploring isn't hindered by the scope / capability we have, mostly by our lack of good weather or astronomy experience. If you have a wide (25mm ish) and medium (10mm ish) eyepiece and a x2 Barlow the rest can wait - really. One good but is a warm hat, watch cushion for garden chair and a red torch (or red torch adapter). One top tip is leave the telescope out to cool down but keep your eyepieces in your pocket so they don't mist up

One thing we did do was get a "long eye relief" 9mm Eyepiece because we all wear glasses in our house and shorter eyepieces don't work so well in that circumstance

[wakey1512]

This is going to be odd:

What if you continue do you half expect your next scope to be?

For present I would suggest 2 or 3 reasonable plossls and stop there. Nothing more at all.

Cannot see a moon filter being essential and no other filter of any use at all.

For plossl eyepieces try the GSO/Revelation brand.

Something like 10mm, 30mm and a 15mm.

Not sure an 8mm would be useful. Sort of questionable.

Problem is the nature of the scope, it is a Bird-Jones design and has a barlow built into the focuser.

The focal length is 1000mm, the tube length is 457mm.

The design itself is reasonable but the items used are not up to it (cost cutting).

For sure? Do the other celestron EQ scopes have this feature?

[xs2man]

This is going to be odd:

What if you continue do you half expect your next scope to be?

For present I would suggest 2 or 3 reasonable plossls and stop there. Nothing more at all.

Cannot see a moon filter being essential and no other filter of any use at all.

For plossl eyepieces try the GSO/Revelation brand.

Something like 10mm, 30mm and a 15mm.

Not sure an 8mm would be useful. Sort of questionable.

Problem is the nature of the scope, it is a Bird-Jones design and has a barlow built into the focuser.

The focal length is 1000mm, the tube length is 457mm.

The design itself is reasonable but the items used are not up to it (cost cutting).

Did not know it had a Barlow in the focuser.  Good to know that.

As I mentioned in your other thread, I have the same telescope.  I find the included 20mm EP to be okay, but the 10mm isn't much cope.  I find the mount a little unsteady for such magnification anyway.

I bought the Revelation Photo Visual kit (http://www.telescopehouse.com/acatalog/Revelation_Photo_Visual_Eyepiece_Kit-1.html), as I do fully plan on imaging.  It costs more than the scope though, but it does give a range of EP's, a Barlow, a T-Piece for a camera (you would need one specific for your camera though as it is not included, and a projection camera adaptor if you want to image with the EP's) and some filters.  I do plan on keeping this kit when I upgrade my 'scope though, so I am not overly worried about the cost of this at the moment.  However, if you don't want to spend so much, I would probably get the 9mm Plossl, the 15mm Plossl and a Barlow X2.  That would give you 9, 10, 15 & 20mm Plossl, and with the Barlow, 4.5mm, 5mm, 7.5mm, 9mm, 10mm, 15mm & 20mm to view with.

I also got a new finderscope as I didn't really like the one on the scope.  But that would be up to you.

[Raymanjazz]

Thanx good people,much appreciated,no doubt ill talk to you all again,cheers,Ray.

[Daveb3650]

well done everyone.

[beka]

Did not know it had a Barlow in the focuser. Good to know that.

As I mentioned in your other thread, I have the same telescope. I find the included 20mm EP to be okay, but the 10mm isn't much cope. I find the mount a little unsteady for such magnification anyway.

I bought the Revelation Photo Visual kit (http://www.telescopehouse.com/acatalog/Revelation_Photo_Visual_Eyepiece_Kit-1.html), as I do fully plan on imaging. It costs more than the scope though, but it does give a range of EP's, a Barlow, a T-Piece for a camera (you would need one specific for your camera though as it is not included, and a projection camera adaptor if you want to image with the EP's) and some filters. I do plan on keeping this kit when I upgrade my 'scope though, so I am not overly worried about the cost of this at the moment. However, if you don't want to spend so much, I would probably get the 9mm Plossl, the 15mm Plossl and a Barlow X2. That would give you 9, 10, 15 & 20mm Plossl, and with the Barlow, 4.5mm, 5mm, 7.5mm, 9mm, 10mm, 15mm & 20mm to view with.

I also got a new finderscope as I didn't really like the one on the scope. But that would be up to you.

[beka]

If your scope is the PowerSeeker 114 then it does not have a barlow. When using the FirstScope 114 that Celestron used to sell, I found 6mm and even 4mm eyepieces (from the eyepiece and filter kit) useful on planets. The hard part was the shaky mount on focusing and the low eye relief of the eyepieces.

[Daveb3650]

Good info

[Erla]

I have Celestron AstroMaster 114eq. I wonder if it has barlow inbuilt and if it does, can I use another one (just bought Baader 2.25 barlow) in combination? I'm kind of new to that..

[xs2man]

I think it has a barlow built in, so I have heard (I guess that would be how they get the 1000mm focal length), but you can use another no problem.  I have.

[Scott p]

I had a power seeker 114eq sent it back as I'm very impatient but I did get some great views of the moon and also saw Jupiter with it getting use to the mount was my issue really but as I say I'm impatient hope you have great time with yours