Celestron - 114LCM Computerized Newtonian Telescope - Telescopes for Beginners - 2 Eyepieces - Full-Height Tripod - Motorized Altazimuth Mount - Large 114mm Newtonian Reflector

Excellent little telescope! The best thing about it is the automated sky tracking. The telescope will track with most objects for quite a while before getting off. This telescope is also fairly compact which is great when going through a doorway. While I had some difficulty getting it to "skyalign" I was able to align to Jupiter no problem. I'm still fairly new at using it, so I haven't figured everything out yet, but it seems pretty straight forward. This telescope does have a Bird-Jones lens, which isn't very clear in the product description. That is how you are able to get such a long focal length with such a small scope. The Bird-Jones lens is like having a permanent Barlow lens built into the focusing tube. Don't forget it is there when cleaning your lenses. If you add a Barlow lens it will most likely over reach the telescope's capability. Make sure you make your calculations before adding non stock lenses. I was able to collimate using a laser collimator without taking out the Bird-Jones lens. Instead of a tiny dot you have a red circle you have to center in the rings. If the circle is fuzzy, then you don't have the beam hitting the focuser tube properly. Once I collimated, I was able to get a clearer image using the more powerful lenses. The laser spotting scope is really nice and can be set accurately, but it is knocked off very easily. The on/off dial is too similar with the alignment adjusters and I've accidentally grabbed the wrong dial in the dark and threw off the alignment. But it is easy to reset. It can be very accurate if you fine tune it with a more powerful optic lens. The photos I took of the planets and moon were with my iPhone. The view was actually much clearer with just my eye. You can see the band around Saturn and the Moons of Jupiter. I'd like to know what other people are using to get the much nicer images using this scope. Now that I have it, I wish I would have went the distance and spent the big bucks on a Celestron Advanced VX 6" f/8 Refractor Telescope.

Really drains AA batteries, get yourself a rechargeable lithium pack. some drift in the tracking mechanism, but can keep saturn somewhat in center view inside the eyepice, really good at finding stuff from built in memory catalog if you live in a dirty and illuminated sky city,. You wouldn't find it otherwise.. practical magnification limit,.. around 200x It would be awesome if focusing element was a fine adjust knob, as it is coarse it is not easy to focus on the high magnification settings if viewing something other than the moon and everything oscillates if you just touch the knob. Consider spending a lot of extra cash on eyepieces, accesories, adapters, filters,.. probably around 2000usd total cost. Wish for drop in components from the brand would be (1-electron HV photomultiplier image intensifier for low light, 2-autostacking long exposure photo camera, 3-spectrum analysis diffraction grating for determining star chemical compositions) Regarding this not coming straight from supplier with already a decent blister foam padded rolling case vs a cardboard box, that costs 1 star down in review

Have collimated and set up focus finder without much hassle. This is my first telescope as an adult, difficulty level to do these is minimal, just do your research. YouTube has great examples on how to set up the various aspects of the telescope; wouldn’t recommend a child do it though. Will update with moon pictures soon. So far very impressed with this telescope. Motor is smooth, the tripod is not great but functions. Adding weight could help with wobbles. UPDATE: First night out and had some clouds but got great pictures of the moon. Shot with iPhone. Telescope performed great. Second night out I was able to see various planets, most stunning was Jupiter and it’s four moons. Alignment was easy, I used a single planet alignment which took less than two minutes and it tracked well. Note: I used a Celestron 24mm-8mm adjustable lense, a 2x Barlow, and a phone mount.

Well built scope that meets the needs of a novice astronomer. The supplied equipment lacks a moon filter which is a necessity for viewing. This should be purchased at the same time. The computerized locator is easy to use and easily set up. We have used the telescope half a dozen times since purchase and the entire assemblage is easily transported in and out of the house. Set up takes less than 5 minutes, however acclimation of the mirrors to the temperature requires a longer period (this is the same for any scope). I have purchased various eye-pieces and am working through the right combination. The stand is sturdy and well built. It can be adjusted to support multiple height requirements and uneven ground. Tracking of sky targets is smooth and the wired remote enables quick automatic movement to multiple targets enabling viewers to see several objects in a single sitting without long find and adjust times.

We were excited to buy this "easy to use" telescope. This thing does NOT send out the necessary wifi signal so you can connect it to the required network for it to be aligned. Fine. No easy set up using SkyAlign app. So ... We figured it was not ideal, but that's just our luck. You can still manually align it. Supposedly. This feature also DOES NOT WORK. We watched every video, followed all the instructions. Nothing but "Failed to Align" error messages over and over. After two weeks of nothing but frustration we even hired a professional to come over and set it up for us thinking maybe we were just doing it wrong. Nope. Even an expert could not get it to send the wifi network signal for the app to connect the scope. He tried to manually align it for us. Same errors. OVER AND OVER. Fine, it's faulty. We got a lemon. I contacted Amazon -- they walked me through all the "how to" we had spent weeks trying to no avail. I explained this several times... finally we were told to just notify the manufacturer. Three days. I've been calling for 3 DAYS. The least amount of time I was on hold before giving up and pressing 1 for a call back was 1 hour and 47 minutes. One day I just left my phone on speaker and waited ... 4 hours later ... still no one picked up. So, customer service and tech support is as non-existent as the wifi network and Sky Align capabilities. Looks like we are the proud owners of a $400 piece of crap. Yay. One disappointed kid. Two frustrated parents. I sure hope the return process is easy. It's going back in the box and being returned.

I am blown away. I have an extremely large telescope that was built in the 70s and weighs probably 400lbs. So I purchased this due to its portability and for the computerized tracking. What I thought was going to happen was, this wouldn't have as clean of a viewing experience but id like the weight. But no, this telescope was even better! The old telescope can definitely view deeper into space as it can collect alot more light. But this is still very impressive! I will suggest buying aftermarket eyepiecs. I see some other people posting their photos and I don't know if its the stock eyepieces or low quality camera or phone, but I was not impressed, and honestly thought the image quality would be the same for me. But I was wrong, its amazing. If you are thinking about buying it but hesitating because of those photos, just buy it. I assure you that it will knock your sock right off your feet! We happen to be having alot of smoke so I did capture some red moon photos so you can see what its capable of. I can zoom down deep into a single crater of the moon if I want and the tracking will hold it there for me to get some good videos/pix!! I am so impressed. Buy some eyepieces and you will see what I mean!

First, I would like to say Amazon did me a solid. I received this one on 6/6 but due to some health issues and these extremely HOT temperatures it sat unopened for about 5 weeks. Past the return window. After I explained my issues, they let me return it for a full refund and even a UPS pickup. Now to the scope. It was pretty easy to set up. The finder scope is not the best anyway but for a person with a very bad back it was pretty much impossible to use. I am tall and trying to bend over and get my head turned sideways wasn't going to happen. To make it even worse there is no way to effectively upgrade it without drilling holes in the tube which I was not going to do. Next after getting I did some research I should have done earlier. Keeping the Newtonian design collimated looks like a lot of work. What I could see was blurry, couldn't get it into focus and the magnification wasn't great. I know some of the people on the FB groups are elitist snobs or 12-year-old kids trolling but I wish I had taken their thouths on it more to heart. They did get me to doing reviews from websites and a good review was rare. Spend as a few extra bucks. This might keep kids entertained for a while, but I suspect not for long.

I may readjust the review later. Got this as birthday gift for my 11 year old space enthusiast. It is a well built telescope with really good quality. As beginners who have no clue on how to use telescopes, we are still learning a lot. You will have to watch a lot of youtube videos before using it. Celestron have their own videos also on youtube. The first time we used it, I was almsot sure I will return it. Could not see anything other than the dark sky. Learned about the finder scope and how to adjust it after going through a lot of videos. Adjusting it is not easy and requires patience. Which is true for space enthusiasts anyways. We still can't make the automated function work for us mainly because adjusting the finder scope is not an easy task. I would love for this to come with video instructions on how to use. So far we are able to see the moon and mars with its moon. The quality is very good. Will be investing in getting a good quality phone mount to make the viewing easy. I wish the software can also live cast the viewing. But for sure per my experience it is beginner approved though please be patient and watch a lot of videos.