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I fell in love with telescopes in Barbados, when our hotel offered star-gazing on the beach as an attraction for its guests. So, when my sister gave me one for my birthday, I was thrilled. The telescope I got is Celestron AstroMaster 114 EQ Reflector, what sounds very science fiction, but is actually the name of a pretty basic telescope, suitable for beginners like me.
My Celestron comes with its own already assembled tripod made of 1.25 inch steel tubes, very stable and light, so I can take it with me anywhere. The telescope itself is very easy to mount and dismount, without the need for any tools.
My primary use for this telescope is to look at the moon, galaxies and star constellations, so I was thrilled to find that it comes with a Star Pointer finder scope, actually a small low-magnification telescope, which is used to help direct the main telescope to the particular area of the sky I wish to observe. It also has a German Equatorial Mount with Setting Circles, which enables me to locate and track different objects on the sky. The picture is exceptionally clear and bright, thanks to the coated optics, which enhance the brightness.
Since the rest of my family is more interested in using the telescope for watching more terrestrial objects, they are happy that the image on this telescope comes right side up (reflector telescopes often show images upside down.)
The telescope is manually handled, fancy automatic star-tracker is available separately. It is not connected to the computer, but it does come with a fun planetarium software, called "The Sky" Level 1, which is actually a 10,000-object database of enhanced images.
My sister was able to purchase this fun and simple telescope for only $149.98. Normal List Price at the telescope.com is $370.95.
I am from the UK and have just purchased the astromaster 114EQ. I was having trouble with the star finder. Its simply to far away from the eye to achieve continuous accuracy. you have to be looking at it from the same angle everytime and all you end up with is flustration, stiff neck and no objects in your scope eye piece.
This is what I did to overcome the problem. I went to the local hardware shop and purchased a plastic piece of waste pipe about 4cm bore and purchase a meter of it. you also need some felt sticky pads.
put your scope level (horizontal). place your pipe up against the star finder and at the rear of the scope apply pads (mine are 13cm long) until the rear of the pipe is level with the star finder. Then make sure your pipe is centralized with the star finder and apply smaller pads either side of the pipe so you know its central position. These pads are placed on top of the first pads you used for leveling. cut your pipe to your required length making sure your cuts are straight.
Take your scope outside during the day. forget the red LED dot. Aim your scope at something. Look down your pipe and get the the object in the circles and then look down your scope eyepiece to see if the object is there. practice and practice at this. when you can hit the object everytime you are ready for the stars and your LED. when you have perfection you can work out a way to hold the pipe permantly in postion on your scope.
You can probaly come up with a better idea from this but hopefully its a starting point for some people.
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