Product Description

The PowerSeekers come in a choice of refractor or reflector, equatorial or altazimuth mount design. The PowerSeekers come with all coated glass optical components with for enhanced image brightness and clarity. The Newtonian reflectors offer larger aperture and greater light gathering power needed to resolve the faint detail of hundreds of deep-sky and other celestial objects.All PowerSeekers come on either sturdy equatorial mounts for tracking the sky, or collapsible altazimuth mounts suitable for terrestrial viewing as well as astronomical use.The PowerSeekers come with a full range of eyepieces plus a 3x Barlow lens, allowing an increase in viewing power hundreds of times greater than that of an unaided eye!The PowerSeekers PS 114 EQ is a great choice for children and families.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #548 in Camera & Photo
• Brand: Celestron
• Model: 21045
• Dimensions: 10.00" h x 16.00" w x 37.00" l, 30.00 pounds

Features

• Affordable telescope for beginning astronomer; portable yet powerful
• All-glass optical components with high transmission coatings for enhanced image brighness and clarity
• Newtonian optical design with a 114mm aperture and 900mm focal length
• Equatorial mount for tracking the sky
• Includes 3x Barlow Lens (1.25"), 20mm eyepiece, 4mm eyepiece, aluminum tripod with accessory tray

Amazon.com Review
I love bargains, so I was eager to try out Celestron's new Powerseeker 114 Newtonian reflector telescope. With its 4.5-inch mirror, Celestron's Powerseeker 114 gathers three times more starlight than popular 60mm refractors. The Powerseeker package includes two eyepieces (K20 and SR4), a plastic 3x barlow, and a lightweight equatorial mount.

Optically, the Powerseeker 114 holds its own when compared with my Celestron Firstscope 114EQ. Using the K20 eyepiece included as standard equipment, about 45x magnification, it's easy to see the Andromeda Galaxy and its smaller satellite galaxy M32. When compared to 60mm refractors, the Powerseeker 114 brings out much more detail in the Orion Nebula, reveals many more stars in Perseus' Double Cluster and even brings out a few individual stars in globular clusters like M13. Saturn looks quite small at 45x with the K20 eyepiece, but using my own 7.5mm eyepiece (120x) I can easily detect the shadow cast by the planet on the rings, and even glimpse the ring's Cassini Division. When the mirrors are properly lined up or "collimated," the images are reasonably sharp up to magnifications of 225x. I find a collimation tool helps get this fine tuning just right.

As good as the optics are, however, the effect of cost-cutting shows up in the mechanical components. The focuser is plastic, the finder scope is plastic, the rings that attach the telescope to the tripod are plastic. Even when the tripod legs are clamped at their shortest setting, the telescope wobbles when I try to focus at higher magnifications. Celestron's instruction manual correctly recommends that most viewing be done in the range of 40x to 130x. So what about that 675x magnification proclaimed on the box? I'd say it's not worth the trouble.

Overall, the Celestron Powerseeker 114 is a budget priced telescope with good optical performance, especially when using the low power K20 eyepiece. If you're willing to spend a little more money, either Orion's SkyQuest XT4.5 or Celestron's Firstscope 114EQ will give you a sturdier mount, an improved finder scope, and better eyepieces. Also, for about the price of the Powerseeker 114, I like the dependable refractor design of Celestron's Firstscope 70EQ. --Jeff Phillips

Pros:

• Low cost
• Good optics
• Serviceable K20 eyepiece

• Wobbly mount
• Difficult to collimate
• Plastic finder and focuser

From the Manufacturer
Celestron PowerSeeker telescopes are a great way to open up the wonders of the Universe to the aspiring astronomer. The PowerSeeker series is designed to give the first-time telescope user the perfect combination of quality, value, features and power.

Amateur astronomy is a great family hobby that can be enjoyed year round, and Celestron’s PowerSeekers are the ideal choice for families looking for an affordable and high quality telescope that will provide many hours of enjoyment for children and adults alike.

PowerSeekers are quick and easy to set up – even for the novice. No tools are required for assembly!

Their sturdy equatorial mounts are perfect for tracking objects in the night sky, and the collapsible alt-azimuth mounts are perfectly suited for terrestrial (land) viewing as well as astronomical use.

All of Celestron’s PowerSeekers include a full range of eyepieces plus a 3x Barlow lens that provides an increase in viewing power hundreds of times greater than that of the unaided eye!

PowerSeekers are designed and manufactured using all fully coated glass optical components with high transmission coatings for enhanced image brightness and clarity.

Erect Image Optics are ideal for terretrial (land) and astronomical (sky) use.

Customer Reviews

A Nice Astronomical Telescope!
I am an astronomer on a budget and as I was doing my search, I was advised to buy as much aperture as I can. I decided to get this Powerseeker 114 as it looked like a great value. Because of it's attractive price, I was a bit skeptical. However, when I received the scope, I really liked how much telescope I got, for what I paid. It had everything I needed in a telescope, decent sized aperture, equatorial mount to track celestial movements, 2 eyepieces for low and high magnification and a decent tripod. I certainly got more than I expected. With the 4.5" aperture, I was able to see nice details on the lunar surface, Jupiter and it's moons, Saturn and Mars as well as the Orion nebula. If you are a budding astronomer and you want to get started, you will be happy with this model.

A lot of scope for the price
I had a chance to use this telescope at a friends house and I was impressed at everything that came with the telescope especially after he told me what he paid for it. First of all, it came with a 4.5" reflector and as a rule, aperture rules. A 4.5" telescope can deliver good planetary images and faint deep sky objects. When I first looked it over, it was a little shaky but I discovered that he did not tighten properly. After going through and tightening the screws and bolts, it was ready for use. The included eyepiece 20mm was great at 45x and with the use of the 3x barlow produced 225x. 225x I feel is too much. 225x is too much for most scopes and sky conditions.

With the 20mm 45x eyepiece, I can clearly see Jupiter with its moons and Mars with its ice cap. I highly recommend getting the accessory kits so that you can get various magnifications and get more visual detail.

The equatorial mount was a bonus as it made tracking the celestial and planetary objects easier. Once you have used a telescope, you will clearly see that having an equatorial mount is so useful.

This is a good starter scope for someone who wants more of an astronomical telescope. You get a lot of scope, brighter images than smaller 60mm scopes for not a lot of money.

Too many negatives
While the optics of this scope are good, there are quite a few bad things about this telescope. The tripod is shaky, unstable and cheaply produced. The finder scope is flimsy and almost unusable.

The users manual that comes with this scope is not written for beginners. Important topics such as balancing the telescope, polar alignment and collimation (aligning the mirrors) are glossed over and totally unsuitable for a beginner.

I would recommend spending the extra money to buy an Orion Spaceprobe 3 or SPaceprobe 130.