Pleasently Surprised Celestron 114eq

[Kai]

What with all the discussion of manufacturers and their scopes i feel abit inadequate in a brief first light on what is considered a beginners scope.I have had this out on loan for the last couple of years and just retrieved it for my little boy to use.

Celestron Firstscope 114eq

Okay what do you expect in a 4 inch newt ????

Well i have just seen banding on Jupiter and 3 moons and its not even sunset (6.15 pm)!!! , the Moon isn't far behind so I'm off out to have a look at Luna

Fine the mount is wobbly as a Jelly but given a few seconds it calms down.Not sure about the collimation but it seems fairly good.

Back in a bit to update

[Rob]

I had a Helios 114 as my first scope.. I have say these 4.5 inch scopes are great!..

[Rob]

Real fun is how I'd put it..

[Kai]

Real fun is how I'd put it..

Gotta agree Rob , in fact im leaving "my" scopes in the garage tonight

The Moon looks great in a 15mm Plossl , nice edges to the craters and it fills the eyepiece.I really should take time to learn the Moons surface

[Whippy]

I'm right with you here. I've put my TAL1 OTA onto a dob mount that came with my old Mak Newt and I'm having loads of fun with it while the imaging stuff does it's thing . Not exactly a light bucket, more like a light thimble but it's putting a grin on my face!

Tony..

[Kai]

Well i was awake early (as usual) and as Orion was nice and visible i turned my light thimble onto one of my favorites , the Orion Nebula.

Despite the brightening sky i could easily make out the nebula with three stars of the trapezium easily resolved in a 15mm eyepiece.

Overall the night was really fun as i wasn't distracted by technology

[russ]

I enjoyed my 114 Tasco (yes i know but i loved it). Saw lots with that scope and had a lot of fun. I think the 114 these days is overshadowed by the 130 and the very little difference in price. That said, i'm still waiting for one of my kids to show an interest so i have an excuse to buy an Orion Starblast 4.5

[SteelRat]

Nice to see other folk enjoying small newts.

[thing]

You can get arrested for that.

Any scope you are looking through at the time is the best scope. Doesn't matter what it is, hope your boy gets many hours of pleasure out of it.

[themos]

I've had lots of fun with it. My avatar Saturn pic was captured through a 4.5" f/8. I haven't done any webcam work for a while now but I still use the Newt to carry the 450D+135mm now that I have an RA motor for it. The best upgrade is a decent finder, I use the one from the 12" Dob.