| The Celestron AstroMaster 114 AZ altazimuth reflector is a great gift for the young budding astronomer, one that won’t break Grandma or Grandpa’s birthday or holiday budget. It’s also the right size scope for the grownups to plop down on the patio for quick glimpses of the sky between dunks in the pool on a hot summer night. In addition to being a good way to begin your journey into the night sky, this sensibly-priced medium aperture reflector will let you explore nature during the day. It provides you with detailed high-contrast views of the Moon and planets in the heavens, as well as sharp erect image views of birds and animals across a lake or across the way. The optical quality of this Celestron is surprisingly good, considering its very modest price. It has all-glass optical components, with high reflectivity aluminized mirrors that are overcoated with durable quartz for long life. The mount has a convenient pan handle, like the control handle on a camera tripod, for guiding the scope around the skies or the landscape. A built-in clutch makes operating the well-balanced scope with the pan handle smooth and easy. The scope assembles in only a minute or two, with no tools required. For the astronomical observer whose interests are the brighter solar system and deep space objects, the AstroMaster 114 has a lot to offer. Its 4.5" aperture has a light grasp 265 times that of the sharpest eye for nighttime and twilight use, making it surprisingly good for much deep space observing. Galaxies, nebulas, binary stars, and star clusters are all within the grasp of this economical scope. The AstroMaster 114 can also resolve details sixteen times smaller than you can see clearly with your unaided eye. Combine that sharpness with its two eyepieces (an erect image 20mm for 50x magnification and a 10mm for 100x), and you have the ability to see many, many celestial details that are simply invisible to the unaided eye. Its views of subtle lunar and planetary details are sharp and clear, bringing the planets to vivid life in the eyepiece. Once you have scanned your way through the solar system and the Milky Way, you can use the AstroMaster 114 to look at things closer to home. Unlike most reflectors that produce upside-down images, the 20mm eyepiece of the AstroMaster 114 provides erect images. You see people and animals standing on their feet, not on their heads. The altazimuth mount will let you easily track objects on the ground and allow you to get a sharply-detailed closer look at nature and your surroundings. The AstroMaster 114 is an economy-priced scope that can open new worlds for you, both on the ground and in the sky.
This Telescope’s Optical System . . . - Reflector optical tube: 114mm (4.5") aperture 1000mm focal length f/9 focal ratio Newtonian reflector. All-glass mirrors, coated with highly reflective aluminum and overcoated with quartz for long life. There are no plastic optical components. The 20" long aluminum tube has protective tube end rings. The reflector design of the scope is totally free of the purple haze of spurious color visible around the Moon and planets in refractor scopes. Images are sharp and clear. You can even collimate (align) both the primary and diagonal mirrors for the sharpest images. This will have to be done only rarely, thanks to the special push/pull design of the cell holding the lightweight primary mirror.
- Rack and pinion focuser: The 1.25" focuser has dual focusing knobs for precise image control with either hand. The large focus knobs are easy to operate, even while wearing gloves or mittens in cold weather.
- Two eyepieces: You get a medium high power 1.25" 10mm (100x) eyepiece and a lower power 1.25" 20mm (50x) erect image eyepiece with a 1.4° field of view (almost three times the diameter of the full Moon). The 50x erect image eyepiece lets you use the 114 AZ terrestrially, as its images are not upside-down as they are with most reflectors. Both eyepieces are of a higher quality optical design than you'll find in most other telescopes in this price range. They have antireflection coatings on their lens surfaces for sharp images and very good contrast. Instead of providing low quality eyepieces that give unrealistically high (and generally unusable) 200-300x magnifications as most economy scope manufacturers do, Celestron has chosen to provide higher quality eyepieces with sensible powers you can use and enjoy every time you take your AstroMaster 114 out to observe.
- Finderscope: A non-magnifying red dot finder is permanently attached to the side of the optical tube. The battery-operated red dot finder seems to project a dot of red light on the sky or on the daytime landscape exactly where the telescope is pointed. The red dot will help you center distant objects in the telescope so you don’t have to search for them using the narrow eyepiece field of view. Collimating knobs on the finder let you line up its red dot precisely with the main telescope optics to make centering distant objects easy and painless.
This Telescope’s Mount . . . - Altazimuth mount: The camera tripod-style pan handle of the altazimuth mount provides smooth right/left and up/down motions. This is suitable for casual astronomical observing, and will let you easily track objects on the ground to allow you to get a closer look at nature and your surroundings. An adjustable tension clutch knob at the base of the mount allows you to lock the tube in place or to adjust the drag on the scope during right/left motions. This lets you control how smoothly the mount moves as you track the tube left or right to follow objects moving across the sky or on the land. A simple twist on the pan handle itself locks the scope in place up and down, as well as letting you adjust the drag on the scope to set the travel smoothness when adjusting its position vertically. The optical tube is well balanced, but keeping your hand on the pan handle at all times when the clutches are unlocked would be a sensible safety precaution.
- Tripod: The lightweight pre-assembled tripod has 1.25" diameter stainless steel legs to provide a rigid and stable observing platform. It easily adjusts in height with no tools needed for standing or seated observations through the telescope. Spreader bars lock the legs firmly open when the tripod is set up. The tripod includes a convenient accessory tray that attaches to the spreader bars to hold your eyepieces and accessories close at hand and up out of the dew-soaked grass. The no-tool lock knobs that adjust the leg height of the tripod are on the inside of the legs so they won’t snag on clothing in the dark, a thoughtful touch that’s sure to be appreciated.
- Software: Comes with TheSky Level 1 sky-charting CD-ROM that has a database of 10,000 stars and objects it can plot and display on your Windows-based computer screen. That’s enough solar system and deep space detail to keep you busy observing for years, yet not so much that you’re overwhelmed by charts showing much more detail than your scope can usefully reveal. Custom sky chart printing lets you print out eyepiece finder charts to use with your telescope to help you locate and identify the planets and many famous and faint deep space nebulas, galaxies, and star clusters by star-hopping from object to object using your scope’s pan handle control. There are 75 full color images of well-known celestial objects to help you identify them through your scope.
- Two year warranty: As an expression of Celestron’s confidence in the quality of their products, the AstroMaster is protected by Celestron’s two-year limited warranty against flaws in materials and workmanship.
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