Celestron 114LCM Computerized Reflector Telescope for Beginners

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.

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.

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.

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!

This scope was very easy to setup, the laser view finder scope was a little tricky to find the sweet spot to view through it. The Sky Align feature is way cool, once set the telescope can track and go-to any object in the system's database. When observing stars and planets, the LCM will keep the object dead on in the field of view. SO much easier than the older manual systems. The only issues I had with this scope was the High power optic was not very good and the eyepiece focus mechanism was too sloppy to get a consistently clean focus. Will be returning and likely to order another later.

neat

Terrible telescope. It will not align for us. It keeps failing and we are in western Oklahoma with some of the darkest sky’s in the U.S. Not sturdy in the breeze, narrow viewing.

I am a novice "astronomer" and this is my first telescope. I laughed at reviews that said get binoculars first. Well...I should have listened. Even though the moon is in the sky and I can see it with my eye, I had a super hard time trying to find it in the telescope and focusing it. It definitely took some practice. But once I got it working, the view is fantastic. I could see the craters on the moon. I thought I could see something cool by just pointing it randomly at the sky, but sadly it doesn't work like that. It really needs precision. All in all, this is a fantastic telescope. If you are starting out, definitively go with a nice pair of powerful binoculars and then get a telescope. Remember to turn the star finder off when not in use because the battery dies FAST. Also, get the Ac adapter with it.

Sehr gut

Para ser un telescopio de bajo presupuesto está muy bien. Tiene un seguimiento bueno (si está correctamente nivelado y alineado) a los cuerpos celestes, sea del sistema solar o del espacio profundo. No es necesario alinear con la estrella polar, a diferencia de otros telescopios GoTo. El único pero es que el tripié no le da la altura necesaria para que un adulto lo pueda usar cómodamente. Está ideado para iniciar a los niños a la astronomía observacional un poco más seriamente.

I received the Telescope in 72 hours from order. It was extremely easy to assemble, taking less than 30 minutes. Once I began to set it up for viewing, I discovered that the battery power viewfinder was not working. I immediately contacted Celestron directly via email. I was called directly by Celestron Customer Services within 24 hours. The Service Rep was very polite and helpful, offering to send me a new viewfinder without any need to return the faulty one. The replacement arrived within a few days and I was up and running. Amazing product with equally amazing customer support. Highly recommend this for a beginner.

L’heure est au format américain

The product on first opening the box is well packed and looks good. The optics in the actual telescope are about right for the price range. However, the mount is unsteady and wobbles in the wind making astro photography a very hit and miss process. The finder is extremely flimsy and more or less unusable. The product is made in USA and their guarantee is purely USA based. As I live in Spain I am outside their guarantee area for a replacement of the finder. The unit is supplied by Amazon UK and I can find no way to contact them for a replacement finder so I have to either return the whole unit or put up with an unusable finder. Seems crazy