Celestron – AstroMaster 130EQ–MD Newtonian Reflector Telescope for Beginners – Aluminized Mirror – Motor Drive to Track Stars – Adjustable Tripod – Includes Eyepieces Plus Astronomy Software Package

So there's been a lot of discussion in the reviews about if this is a beginner telescope or not.As a person who never touched a telescope (except maybe in high school a thousand years ago) until I decided it was something I wanted to try out this year, I emphatically say YES! This is a great beginner scope.Here's the problem with most people's definition of a "beginner" anything. They want it to be rock-bottom priced, and ultra-easy to use. The problem with this mentality, is that often you go so cheap that you wind up getting a product that does not really expose you to the prospective hobby, and while trying to find something ultra-easy to use, it winds up being extremely difficult because it lacks the more expensive tools that were specifically designed to enhance the human ability when performing certain tasks.... NET RESULT: You wind up putting the hobby down out of frustration without ever really trying it out.I think the reality with getting into telescoping (is that a word?) is that you have to first decide that it is something you truly want to try, so that you don't go by a $74 telescope at W*****t (like I did) and expect to actually be introduced to this hobby.So after trying the $74 failure I got this scope due to the (mostly) good reviews, and because of the brand name. Never being in the hobby myself, I still had heard of Celestron.Many reviews showed broken parts. This wasn't the case for me. Everything was intact and assembly was relatively easy for a novice.A few reviews said this was not a beginner telescope because you had to adjust the mirrors, which apparently was a very difficult task to do. I researched this requirement ahead of time, found that for just over $20 you can buy a laser collimator that allows you to do this adjustment in just a few minutes, and decided that wasn't too much to ask to have an opportunity to enjoy this hobby. P.S. when I got the telescope, I used the laser collimator just to find out that the mirrors were perfectly aligned and I didn't need to do any adjusting. But apparently mirror adjusting is inevitable with Newtonian telescopes, so I'll just keep the laser collimator in my kit bag.Now about the beginner using this scope:1. The red dot starfinder is a life saver! At first I thought you could just look through the starfinder, see what you wanted to look at, then see it in the telescope. NOPE! You really need that red dot to put the object into the site picture of the scope (especially on a low MM eyepiece). My only complaint might be that I couldn't perfectly adjust the red dot. When I first got the scope I focused in on a house way down the street, then tried to calibrate the red dot so that it was pefectly centered on the center of what I saw in the eyepiece... It was close, but wasn't perfect. HOWEVER. It is more than sufficient for my beginning level telescoping. With my $74 flunkee scope, I would use the cross hairs to try to align the scope to an object, yet even on a large MM eyepiece I could never find anything smaller than the moon! With this red dot starfinder, I have (easily) been able to align the telescope to both Jupiter and Saturn.2. I may have started of with the starfinder, but the equitorial mount is probably the show winner with this thing. Not to keep referring to my $74 fail, but it is good to have a frame of reference when explaining why sometimes you have to make an investment even for entry-level equipment into a hobby. The $74 fail used a super cheap camera tripod. Problem with these tripods is they don't adjust at a fine enough level to make the small changes to put an object into the site picture. And, despite the fact that the cheap scope didn't weigh anything, it still would drift on the tripod... basically making it impossible to do anything except look at the moon. The Celestron is big and heavy, yet the EQ mount holds it masterfully in position, but the real winner is the fine tuning knobs. I didn't realize just how fast objects move in space (I mean.. I get it. The earth is spinning at 1000 mph, I just never put that together to mean objects move out of a telescope site picture QUICKLY). But with one hand on the fine tuning knob, I can follow the object for a reasonable amount of time to enjoy viewing it. NOTE: I recently bought a motor that I am suppposed to be able to connect to the knob, so that it can automatically hold the picture for me (again... spending more to get the right tools to enjoy the new hobby). Only complaint I have is that one knob seems to be able to adjust indefinitely while the other can only change maybe 20 degrees (10 in each direction) before it hits a stop. After additional study, I think this is because space objects only move in one direction, so if you properly polar align the scope, you should only need one knob to get the object where you want (left and right) and then not touch that again, then solely use the (up and down) knob to follow the object as it moves in the sky... but hey.. I'm new.. I'll learn to use this better too :-)Other than that, the only thing left is the scope. Like I said, I've looked at Jupiter, Saturn, Moon. I can't really speak to the provided eyepieces. Understanding from my research about focal length, and deciding that as a beginner it would help if I had an adjustable eyepiece (so that I can start zoomed out, find the object easier, then zoom in), so I bypassed the provided eyepiece and went straight to a x2 barrow with an 8-24mm adjustable eyepiece. So far it's been great! Saturn is still a little small, so I'm going to see if I can go even smaller on MM and higher on barrow zoom to see if I can really clearly make out the rings.....but do you see what Celestron did? They created a (relatively) affordable telescope that grabbed my interest in the hobby and now I am full on exploring new ways (EQ mount motors, higher zoom barrow, lower MM eyepieces) that I can explore the universe above!

The Celestron 31042 AstroMaster 114EQ is everything I hoped for and more! 😍 As someone totally new to telescopes, I was nervous about the setup—but Celestron made it incredibly easy. The instructions were clear, and I had it up and running in under 30 minutes, no tools needed!This telescope is perfect for beginners who are curious and ready to experience something new. The image clarity blew my mind—moon craters, Saturn’s rings, even some deep-sky objects became real from my own backyard. It feels like having a personal window into space. 🌌🔭Not only does it perform beautifully, but it looks sleek and professional too. It instantly made me feel like a legit stargazer. If you’re even slightly interested in astronomy or just want to see the universe in a whole new way, this is your sign to go for it. 💫Huge thanks to Amazon for the fast shipping and seamless experience as always. If you’re scrolling through reviews trying to decide—this is the one. 👏

You need to know right away the screws that hold the mirror mount (plastic circle screwed in to the tube that holds the mirror to it) will push against the mirror and compress the adjustment springs. This means the inch of adjustment you have to work with while collimating turns into 1/8th of an inch at most. Carefully remove this piece and either replace the screws with smaller ones of the same thread, cutt them shorter if you dare, or do what i did and get locking washers for each screw to eat the extra length. Only after you get these screws out of the way will the world of collimating not give you a migraine and make you feel like some of the other reviews here stated, hopeless. I feel this defect tells you everything you need to know about the manufacturer celestron. They simply need smaller screws but dont care enough so they sell it as is. It would actually save them money in the long run to get shorter screws sadly, anywho.Another quick defect I haven't addressed yet is the focuser isnt perfectly straight as it moves up and down, resulting in bad optics at times. If you put a laser collimater in it (this is not a bird jones aka no lens under the focuser so you can easily do this) and line everything up with the focuser all the way in, then back the focuser all the way out you can test this by if the laser on the collimater becomes un aligned by this. Soo you have to colimate it to the point you want the focuser to work, which as a hint will never be all the way in. Also avoid the rooky mistake i made of buying a laser colimater that itself cant be colimated. If you spin the laser colimater on the focuser and the laser itself doesnt stay in the same place on the primary mirror then your really just guessing.When you get it set up correctly its amazing. Dont expect to get good pictures with your phone of anything but the moon, you will need to buy an actual telescope camera for this. The planets are just too small for your phone to be able to get fine detail out of, and most phone shutter speeds cant be adjusted so getting pictures of the smudges that are galaxies and nebula is also out of the question for most.With that being said, on a great viewing conditions night on max zoom with the 6mm lens and 2x barlow you can easily see 8 to 9 bands of clouds on jupiter, easily make out the red spot, saturn and its rings are amazing at this zoom level and you can see its largest moon titan. If you just use the 10mm that came with this scope and dont get the accessory kit then do not expect this much detail. You will still see jupiter and saturn, but 65x zoom is no where near the 260x zoom this scope can produce if conditions are correct and everything aligned. It is easy to follow the planets because of the mount, you just turn one knob gently to recenter everything. It is amazing when properly working, as is almost every telescope. One last note though...The motor that comes with this tripod locks into the adjustment knob for tracking. This means you have to have the spotting scope set perfectly because once you lock it into place with the motor attached, you will only be able to adjust inclination (up and down so to speak). If you are good with your hands and have a decent brain you can figure out how to make this work though, so for the price of everything this is a great deal. Now I have to get a bigger one lol, because this one will be used soon for deep space photography when i get a camera lense for such a use. Hope this helps save some a headache, and I would buy this scope again easily.