Meade StarNavigator 114mm Reflector Telescope with AudioStar

Comments about Meade StarNavigator 114mm Reflector Telescope with AudioStar:

This Telescope is, so well made! And it dose it all. IT is real easy, to put it up and down. The view finder is vary nice! To get the most out of fine well made product, you should get the 5 more lenses that they have
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Comments about Meade StarNavigator 114mm Reflector Telescope with AudioStar:

It is what I expected

Comments about Meade StarNavigator 114mm Reflector Telescope with AudioStar:

Expectations: No ground based, commercially available telescope will show you images like the Hubble space telescope. Most galaxies and star clusters look like puffs of smoke in space or glitter sprinkled on black construction paper at best. The planets and the moon will look good. You'll see the most detail on the moon, Jupiter comes in second, Saturn is a distant third, Mars and Venus if you can catch them come in fourth, and Neptune, Uranus, and Pluto will look like stars that are out of place.

Executive Summary:
The bottom line is that this is a great telescope for a beginner. It's a good telescope for a more advanced observer who wants something smaller and more portable. It's important to note that the AutoStar controller uses the same AutoStar software that the higher-end, more advanced Meade telescopes use. As such, you'll to expect to take a little time to learn how to use it. There are a number of videos on YouTube as well as Meade's website that will show you how.

Details:
I have owned the "previous generation" DS-2114 and DS-2130. The initial build quality of these original scopes was generally poor, the tripods were flimsy, and the mount was vaguely accurate at best. Fortunately, the new Meade StarNavigator fixes the quality, stability, and accuracy problems of its predecessors. The AudioStar controller is a really nice touch. You'll probably get tired of the narration after a week or so and turn it off, but the controller has plenty of other features that make it desireable...particularly the ability to upload your own tours as well as the ability to upload your own objects (like the Internation Space Station). It's a 497EP handset for those that know what that means.

The tripod still isn't great, but it's much better than the ones that came with my older DS telescopes.

The eyepieces are the lower quality MA series eyepieces, but they will be more than sufficient for beginning and casual observers. Ironically, the previous DS telescopes that were generally regarded as junk came with very nice Series 4000 Super Plossl lenses. In addition to the eyepieces that come with the telescope, I would recommend picking up an eyepiece in the range of about 16 mm so you have some "in-between" magnification. It comes with a 26 mm and a 9 mm eyepiece.

The mount is where the major improvement is, in my opinion. The motors don't sound like they're struggling to move the telescope and the tracking is accurate for longer periods of time. The tracking part is extremely important if you intend to do any kind of astrophotography. You're limited to lunar and planetary imaging and some short exposure (around 25 seconds or less) deep space imaging with something like the Meade DSI II or a web cam imager. The results won't be spectacular and they won't win you any rewards, but they will be good enough to share with friends and family. You can also get a universal digiscoping adapter and mount your point-and-shoot digital camera up to the eyepiece for some afocal astrophotography.

Even the telescope itself (the tube) is improved. The focuser is still plastic, but feels very solid and smooth in contrast to the older versions of this telescope. The primary mirror (the bottom mirror) is spherical rather than parabolic, so the focuser tube contains a special lens to correct distortions. For the beginner and casual observer, this is irrelevant. While the images aren't as clear as they would be with a parabolic mirror, only a seasoned observer will have an eye trained enough to discern the difference. Avid amateur astronomers tend to make more of an issue out of this than it really is. The difference in image quality isn't that significant, but it's there. Unless there is a telescope with a parabolic mirror to compare side by side, most people probably won't notice.

But the sphereical mirror does present collimation (mirror alignment) issues. Fortunately, the telescope was in collimation (the mirrors were aligned) out of the box. That speaks volumes for the packaging and quality control, in my opinion. But if you do need to collimate it, you won't be able to use a laser collimator because of the lens in the focuser tube. You might be able to get away with the barlowed laser method, but I think the best option will be to use a Cheshire collimating eyepiece. Or, you can make your own collimating eyepiece by taking a 2 liter bottle cap and drilling a tiny hole in the center.

I'm pleasantly surprised at the improvements Meade has made to this telescope. I'm very happy with it and I would recommend it as a first telescope or to someone who's looking for something smaller and more portable.

Comments about Meade StarNavigator 114mm Reflector Telescope with AudioStar:

This is a GREAT telescope! The tripod is very stable, much more stable than my first telescope, the Celestron 127 EQ. The finderscope is also great, because you can adjust the latitude and longitude with little screws, that dont need any tools. The optics are great, especially the eyepieces. For those that are buying their first telescope, you can see the fallowing things. The Moon looks like you are there, you can see Saturn's rings, and its biggest moon, Triton. You can also see the stripes on Jupiter, and maybe one of its moons. The computer is very easy to use, and since this is my first telescope with a computer, I was very impressed with how many objects it has in the database, and all the facts it houses. The telescope is also very compact. I could take it from Chicago to Budapest in my handbag, but oviously I had to take the tripod in my other suitcase.

Definetly five stars for this telescope!!! *****