Celestron NexStar 114GT

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Celestron NexStar 114GT
I own an g8 schmidt cassagrain by celestron and am very pleased with It's performance. But it tends to be a bit bulky to handle on a nightly basis. So I was looking for somthing easy to use, for I have learned through the years no matter how nice the scope If it's to bulky, you won't use it. So anyway I was looking at the new celestron 114 gt nexstar. And I bought one. Much to my suprise it is an excellent light weight go to scope. I'm not suprised about the optics, as much as I was about the nextstar system. How can celestron put this package together for under $600.00 I'm impressed. When I got my scope I opened the box and had it put together and up and running in about 10 minutes. never have I experienced that from any scope I have ever purchased in 25 years of astronomy. I was saying earlier that I was not supprised about the optics, what I mean is, like all my celestron scopes the optics, as usual our superb. For a scope so small 4.5 mirror and 18" tube and still has 1000 mm focal length the images so far our excellent across the whole field of view. The scope was perfectly collminated rite from the factory.the unit even comes equipt with an laser starpointer. and 2 lenses 10 and 25 mm, a fully assembled tripod and best of all the nexstar go to computer control system. Which at first I had doubts about, because I had heard so many negative things about it from other astronomers. But I will step up to the plate and say it works perfectly. I did have to call celestron for a custom code on my unit to calibrate the encoders but after entering this code the scope slewed rite to saturn and started tracking without a glitch! And has remained rite on the mark since. I must truly admit I am impressed with my celestron 114 gt nexstar. It is lightwieght and works like a charm. If you miss out on this one, It's your fault. but as this unit gets out more on the market,(I bought mine thru astonomics .com)This won't be the last time you here it being praised by me or any other, mark my words. by now. gotta go check out the heavens. Questions e mail me @ defcon7y2@hotmail .com thanks for your time. MIKE.

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Celestron NexStar 114GT
In addition to my earlier remarks, I was rambling on about my scope somuch I forgot to rate it sorry! but I must rate this scope A solid 10 for eqiptment and value. thanks, Mike. defcon7y2@hotmail.com

Overall Rating: 10
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Celestron NexStar 114GT
Turned in my Nexstar 60 GT for the 114. What a difference! Easy set-up, clear, bright, well defined images. I have only had the scope for a week, so my viewing has been fairly limited, but so far I am impressed. I tried the auto align, and it worked great. Tracking works well, as long as you align properly. The mount is stable, and the scope settles down quickly if it gets jostled.
I'm new to the hobby, so maybe it doesn't take much to impress me, but with this scope, I believe I will stay with the hobby!

Overall Rating: 10
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Celestron NexStar 114GT
I am new to Astronomy and received a Meade 114 Newtonian Reflector with the Star Finder on it for Christmas. I had nothing but trouble with that scope ($244 at Sam's Club). So took it back and got the 114 GT at my local Natural Wonders for $499. (I figured if I'm going to do it, do it right). Later found it on the internet (www.camerlandny.com) for $429 and Natural Wonders matched the price. I had some problems with the optics on that scope and exchanged for a new one that I am nothing but happy with! As I said, I am new to the hobby, but I think this scope is great! The images are bright, and I have found some extremely faint objects with little problem due to the GoTo that works like a champ. The only times it hasn't worked well was due to a bad alignment, when I realigned it worked great. I have taken to aligning with a 100x eyepiece which makes the alignment all that more accurate. Punching up something out of the database, 9 times out of 10 it is in the eyepiece even at 100x. If it's not, it's close enough that I can tell where it is just by the brightness. I love this thing.. use it every night I can. I know I will want a bigger aperature some day, but for now, for the money, this is a great start.

Overall Rating: 10
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Celestron NexStar 114GT
These scopes are made in China and have poor Q-C. While the design and optics are OK the manufacturing and quality control is poor at best. These scopes do not have all of the features that Celestron claims such as a monthly tour of objects or two star alignment or a functional Pc interface. Celestron is owned by Tasco which says allot.
You can buy the NexStar 114 GT OTA on an EQ mount at Radio Shack under the Tasco name for $199 so were paying $300 for the robot arm and less than $200 for the optics here.
This is a 500mm reflector that uses a built in barlow to bump the focal length up to 1000mm. This unit has a seamed tin can tube and a plastic focuser. The 80 GT refractor gives a brighter sharper image (with a big blue halo!)
The go-to feature is poor and the tracking is poor. Objects move out of FOV at 100x in 15 to 20 seconds.
Don't buy this unit for the optics.
At $369 the Orion 6" Dobsonian will eat the NexStar 114 for breakfast and spit it out befor lunch.
First I got an NexStar 80 GT in Dec 2000 and it was extreamly erattic. I spent more time re-aligning it than I did looking a objects. I returned it for a second unit. That one got pretty beat up in shipping due to the bad design of the factory packaging. I sent it to celestron service in CA a couple of times and they could not/would not fix it. I exchanged that one for a NexStar114 hoping that I can tinker with the mount and electronics and make it functional enough for a 102mm refractor. I geuss i am a fool!!!! I should have exchanged it for the Short Tube 90mm refractor on the EQ mount and not spent the extra $100 but I was determined to go-to....
These are not stable or precision pointing devices!!!! The battery AA pack is useless as the little scopes really suck up the juice. Get a 5 or 6 Ah lead acid battery If you want to use the scope for more than a couple of hours.
If you have dreams of the scope smoothly gliding from objoct to object with computer precision, forget it! You will spend most of your time aligning and re-alinging and powering up and down as the unit locks up or goes in to a spinning nose dive.
There is some good advice on getting the most out of the NexStars on the WWW. Just search NexStar +114GT and you will find a lot of info Celestron should have put in the Lame Manual they sell you with the scope. YaHoo also has a NexStar group Im told
Unless you like to futz with electro-mechanical do-dads you will get allot more for your money with a good EQ mount and a Star Chart.

Overall Rating: 1
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Celestron NexStar 114GT
Not a bad scope although the battery pack supplied isn't suitable for more than a few hours whereupon the scope does it's own thing. With the cost of batteries, a couple of months observing could pay for an additional eyepiece or filter. I purchased a small lead acid battery and with a cheap crimper and a few lugs the lead acid provides more than enough current.

Setting up takes less than 15 Minutes and calibrating for an evenings viewing takes about 2 minutes. There is a need to recalibrate every thirty minutes or so but this isn't a real problem as the recalibration takes about thirty seconds.

The scope came with a 40x and 100x eyepiece and pretty much everything needed to get started although the purchase of a 25x (40mm) eyepiece and a few filters has been beneficial.

Hope you enjoy it.

Overall Rating: 8
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Celestron NexStar 114GT
I Bought this scope about 3 months ago, and it's been a mixed bag. The scope is pretty easy to set up on it's mount, but it's kind of bulky and awkward to lug around in the case that celestron sells for it. Unlike some others I know of, the optics in this one are pretty good, almost great. The GOTO function is quite frustrating, and the motors on mine won't track an object for longer than 20 minutes. I had always prefered celestron to meade, but this scope changed a lot of that. I guess since tasco took them over, they are trading more on their good reputation in astonomical circles , and less on good products. After a lot of back and forth with celestron, they say they have put me on the list for an updated hand controller, which at first was supposed to be this month, but I hear is due now in August. I went out the other day and bought a meade etx, and have been shocked by it's good optics, and truly usable hand controller. The tracking of the etx far supassed the nexstar, and has had me wondering all weekend why I ever bothered with the nexstar in the first place. My advice is to wait for celestron to fix the bugs in the hand controller, or to go with another brand of scope, as I could see this scope doing a lot of time in someone's closet instead of out under the stars.

Overall Rating: 3
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Celestron NexStar 114GT
I Purchased the Nexstar 114HC about 4 months ago, this was of course after a local shop (I live in Oklahoma, BIG hint) that does very big business on the web tried to screw me severly on the purchase of Nexstar 80HC by passing off an OPENED, PARTIALLY BOXED, PARTS MISSING AND DAMAGED scope as a brand new one (my first choice), anyway, I purchased the 114 at Astro Stuff in Arkansas (good company)thinking that the extra apature would be a good thing...
First off let me say that this isn't the first or only scope I own, I also have A Celestron 80mm which I considered to be of passable quality as far as my novice experiance could tell, and, the Nexstar appears to be of the same quality of construction.
The optics on the Nexstar on the other hand gave me some pause for reconsideration, thats not to say that they're really bad, just that they don't appear to be as crisp as the optics on my 80mm refractor, and yes, I know that refractor optics ARE considered to be first rate and reflectors are a whole different story, but one would think that a scope that, in this case, has my refractor beat apature wise by at least 1.5mm would serve up views surpassing my 80 substantially, but then again, Sky and Telescope DID say in the review of this scope and 4 others of equal quality that the views were "soft", so..., I guess they were right.
And be warned....the GUIDESTAR SOFTWEAR that comes with the HC version of this scope IS a "boiled down" version of the computerization afforded with the GT telescope, even when hooked to a laptop (how I use mine)it dosen't appear to have a third of the features of the "full blown" GT version as far as I can tell, picking the stars for a two star alignment dosen't happen here, the HC picks its own but will let you select a different alignment star (again the softwear's choice, not yours)if your not happy with the first one.
Tracking appears to be good on the scope and so does the accuracy of the Guidestar softwear, usually hitting "close" with a 25mm eyepiece, but not really accurate enough if anything of smaller eyepiece apature is used (Sky and Telescope mentioned this too!!)..
Mount stability appears to be good also, I've found it to be as stable as the wood tripod on my 80mm and easier to get through a doorway (it folds in unlike my wooden one)..
All and all a good little scope for the "cheap" price I payed for it ($209.00 + shipping) but would I do it again?????, maybe.., I really think the Meade ETX 90EC although more exspensive, would have been the scope I really would have bought had my wife not put me on a tight budget, but...thats another story...
I rate this scope a 6+....

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Celestron NexStar 114GT
Celestron must have updated the Nexstar-GT controller because my scope ($350 at Focus Camera) came with an updated instruction manual, and it does have the monthly tour. (It still tries to find objects below the horizon if I insist on choosing one with a negative ascension number – so simply check the coordinates before pressing enter). The trick to this scope is leveling the mount. Use a level before attaching the fork arm to the tripod. Then when you align, it has very good accuracy. The optics are good quality, especially for this price range. The only bad thing is the poor quality control from the factory in China. So, I spent about 3 hours one Saturday morning and disassembled and re-assembled the tube. I put a collimating mark on the primary, squared the secondary, re-aligned the focuser, and collimated it.(I took my lawnmower apart too) Now I have an inexpensive scope with a great computer, and very good optics. At a recent star party people were surprised how well it operated and viewed. They were all skeptical because of what they had heard, but all walked away impressed. Three other people with Meade ETX-60 scopes were having trouble aligning and finding objects. I went from object to object, and they were still attempting to find the moon!(honest) The Nexstar slewed all evening finding dozens of objects. I think the small Nexstar scopes initially received bad press, and they probably deserved it. But the unit I purchased (August 2001) seems to be free of many of the problems people first complained about. Out of the box, this is a good little scope. With a little time spent re-aligning the optics (common for Newtonians) this scope is even better. {for a good review of the Meade and Celestron “goto” scopes, see the resources section of www.skypub.com/ }

Overall Rating: 8
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Celestron NexStar 114GT
The last few years I've been playing around with moderately sized (8") dobs. Though my Nexstar doesn't have the same light collecting power, it is a blast to use. Setup takes minutes, optics are quite good, mount is stable and well damped, and the price is not bad (~$300 from Astronomics). I can jump to 6 Messier objects in the same time it takes me to snag 2 with a dob (having the goto capability keeping the scope on the target while changing eyepieces makes life very easy). The goto feature works fine except when any of the target stars is directly overhead. I've had problems with the power cord from the battery pack or the power supply pulling out as the scope slews around. I've remedied it by gluing a velcro strip to the base of the scope by the power connection and using a matching velcro tab on the power cable by the plug. Tracking seems to be good in the proximity of the 2 targets as time progress, but is less accurate over time the further away you are from the targets.

Overall Rating: 9
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Celestron NexStar 114GT
I'm pleased with the optics of this telescope (I must have gotten a good model)
It's nice to see color on the planets. It's a good sign that the optics are well
colliminated. Just for fun, I decided to compare the view of this
telescope with that of my tak-sky 90. Results are pretty much what you would
expect with comparing an APO to a newt (with a relatively large obstruction due
to the small aperture). At low powers, however, the 114GT did remarkably well,
shoing at least 2 bands on jupiter, with possibly a 3rd or 4th one in view. Much better than what I remember my nexstar being able to do. Saturn showed banding as well and I was able to detect the Cassini division (but was never able to distinguish it).
I was able to see at least 3 stars of the Trapezium in the Orion nebula, and possibly a fourth, but was not too sure. The atmosphere or the telescope had not completely cooled since I was not able to get much above 100x magnification during this night. The tak sky 90 showed more banding of course (especially during moments of good seeing), and I was able to see the cassini division. Still, the 114GT only costs a few hundred dollars compared to the 2-3 grand of the tak sky 90. Definately a good value.
The thing that I did not like about this package was the noisy motors (2 to 3 times noisier than I remember my celestron nexstar 5 bing). Also the part that connects the bottom of the tripod eyepiece holder to the tripod looks awfully cheap (still better than the Meade units I remember seeing in the store, which reminded me of the wires of an umbrella). I haven't tested the goto function unfortunately (can't see polaris from my area so don't know where north is exactly). Though from hearing what other people have said, tracking is good as long as you align it initially well (and don't get a bad model). Celestron is now replacing the old Celestron nexstar handcontrols for older models. Hopefully tracking will improve with the new computer hand controller.

Overall Rating: 9
Optics:8 Mount:7 Ease of Use:8 Value:10
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Celestron NexStar 114GT
I've had this several months. VERY disappointed in the optics, coma extremely bad except in the very center of the field. I spent many hours fiddling with collimation, and this helped quite a bit -- but still no where near what I'd like to see. Celestron upgraded the software in the hand controller at no charge, when I asked. This has been a tremendous improvement, with few or no software crashes now, and much more reliable go-to. I'm tempted to try a different OTA on this mount.

Overall Rating: 5
Optics:2 Mount:6 Ease of Use:7 Value:6
Weight: 3 (Unreliable Vote)
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Celestron NexStar 114GT
I've had my Celestron Nexstar 114GT up at the star parties with the big guys with the 11"GPS's, and they were impressed by the ease of setup, alignment, and quality of views in the scope with the standard eyepieces. One guy gave me a 2x Barlow, and another person gave me a 40mm Celestron eyepiece, and I'm enjoying this unit fully. I've sent off the hand controller for the new updated one, and I must say I'm very satisfied with what I spent my money on and with Celestron in general. I have no complaints other than the little battery pack. Get an alternative power source. I got a JumpIt for $70 and it runs for days!
Great telescope. I love it.

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:8 Mount:8 Ease of Use:8 Value:10
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Celestron NexStar 114GT
I'm very disappointed with the optics, even with a deep and hard collimation process I can't get rid of the coma except in the very center of the eyepiece.
The motor is very noisy, faulty and has a lot of internal backlash.
I had problems with the azimuth motor twice, in both cases the motor was totally loose.
Sometimes it stops to tracking and the electronics are not reliable.
I think the big problem is this telescope is not made by Celestron, it is made in China and just imported by Celestron as a complete telescope.
I don't recomend this model even for a novice.

Overall Rating: 4
Optics:5 Mount:6 Ease of Use:7 Value:2
Weight: 6 (Veritable Vote)
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Celestron NexStar 114GT
Total krap with a capitol K.
Don't waste your money.
Get the cardboard tube from a roll of toilet paper and look through that instead,
You will see more and it will cost allot less.

Overall Rating: 1
Optics:1 Ease of Use:0 Value:0
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Can we have informed detailed posts stating specifically whuy one likes or dislikes a particular product?



>Total krap with a capitol K.
>Don't waste your money.
>Get the cardboard tube from a roll of toilet paper and look through that instead,
>You will see more and it will cost allot less.
Celestron NexStar 114GT
I hate this telescope, it came assembled upside down and the software is maddening. I'm returning the damn thing tomorrow.

Overall Rating: 1
Optics:0 Mount:0 Ease of Use:0 Value:1
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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>I hate this telescope, it came assembled upside down and the software is maddening.  I'm returning the damn thing tomorrow.

Do you mean the image is upside down? If so welcome to the world of Newtonian telescopes, all of them do it, even the high dollar models! If you had done any research before your purchase you'd know that (or simply read the owners manual). You need a special eyepiece adapter to right the image and these are generally not supplied with a scope meant for astronomy because it can add another layer of optical imperfection and it will raise the price.
Celestron NexStar 114GT
Overall a great deal on a beginners to intermediate level telescope. You can find them new on ebay or costco for a Substantially lower price than at retail stores. It comes with the digital nexstar system and 2 eyepieces (10mm and 25mm), also includes a nice sturdy tripod with an accessory tray. The celestron model seems to be of higher quality than the equivalent meade ds2114 model. Another nice feature is that it is compatible with the Nexstar GPS module (for accurate tracking without allignment). I did have a few problems with the nexstar system, but that is mainly due to the somewhat poor manual that could of explained the alignment procedures better. You can clearly see saturns rings and detailed shots of the moon with the included eyepieces, however, for Mars you will need different eyepieces such as a 4mm-6 mm or a barlow. Filters can help too.

Overall Rating: 8
Optics:8 Mount:8 Ease of Use:8 Value:8
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Celestron NexStar 114GT
An excellent vallue in a goto telescope! I suspect that some NexStar 114's may arrive out of colimnation and provide disapointing results. Last Wednesday, I attended a party looking at Mars from the Florida Keys. We had a Meade LX90 8" scope, a Meade ETX-90 and the C-114GT. Mars looked great in the LX90, but there were many favorable comments about the C114 using a 9.7mm Scopetronix eyepiece. The ETX-90 did not fare as well.

If money is not an issue, get the most expensive telescope available. The NexStar 114, properly colimnated, is an excellent starter scope.

Overall Rating: 8
Optics:7 Mount:7 Ease of Use:8 Value:9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Celestron NexStar 114GT
I got mine on deep discount at Costco. Yes, the optical system is a bash-up of a spherical primary and a built-in barlow lens making it about F8 with some residual spherical aberration and some edge field coma. The three thick spider bars and large secondary lead to marginal optical performance. Not the best, but the GOTO and tracking are pretty fair if you are careful in setup and alignments.
The views of Mars on closest approach in 2003 were remarkable. I saw good detail at more than 350X. I used some better eyepieces than were supplied. I was happy with the performance considering the price I paid. I would not pay more, however, considering some of the faults in design and construction.

Overall Rating: 5
Optics:5 Mount:6 Ease of Use:5 Value:6
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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