Skillfully observing the many visible stars and planets can be very daunting for the beginner and trying for even the intermediate amateur astronomer, but the Meade DS-2114ATS telescope makes it easy thanks to the Autostar computer controller system. You can locate any astronomical object by entering it into the keypad; electric motors then align the telescope to display the object. The Autostar's catalog includes 74 galaxies, 135 star clusters, 26 asteroids, and the 8 major planets, for a total of 1,586 viewable objects. You can store up to 200 objects in the memory for an immediate go-to function. Digital readouts display the telescope’s position in both radians and decimal form. Oversize bearings and locks on both of the telescope’s axes eliminate imprecisions of movement that are common to lesser telescopes. Since it is a Newtonian reflector, the DS-2114ATS's aluminized primary mirror and elliptical secondary mirror provide sharp and bright images at a relatively low price. This optical system has a 114mm aperture and a focal length of 1000mm. The 6x30mm viewfinder and eyepiece, with a diameter of 1.25 inches, makes viewing comfortable and free of any eye strain. Also included are an aluminum tripod with a fold-up accessory shelf and astronomy software on CD-ROM. |
Average Customer Review:
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 Very Poor QualityFeb 26, 2010
Telescopes are supposed to be precision instruments, but this scope is not. I found that the gears slipped inside the mount, which makes it impossible slew accurately. Save your money!
14 of 14 found the following review helpful:
 Good telescope for the beginnerJul 01, 2004
This is an acceptable scope if you get it for $250 or less. If you intend to spend more than that, get yourself an 8" or 10" dobsonian.
After using it for a few months, I now realise that its not the electronics and motors that matter in a good telescope, but the optics for a beginner. The 4.5" primary mirror is good enough for planetary / lunar observation. The eyepieces that come with this scope are just acceptable, and I can afford to have kids smear jam and butter on them. For my own use, I use a set of Series 4000 plossls I purchased separately.
I do want to add that Meade customer service is excellent. If I were to purchase a higher end scope, I would go to Meade. Primarily because of their superb customer service.
Hope that helps.
Clear skies :-)
20 of 23 found the following review helpful:
Poor quality, not worth the moneyMar 05, 2004
I bought this telescope 2 months ago from a local telescope shop. I wanted a simple "GO TO" telescope and I did not want to spend top dollars for my first scope. while unpacking the scope I made an observation that the primary tube was not packed very well (only one layer of bubble wrap), in any case assembling the scope took about an hour and the first time I started using it I realized the scope motor was failing to engage the lever responsible for the vertical motion (up and down) I packed the scope back in the box and asked the store for a replacement. This is when it gets really interesting; I opened the box, unwrapped the tube and heard something jiggling inside the tube. The secondary mirror has come lose and was hitting the primary mirror and damaged it, so I decided to try to swallow my frustration and attempt to fix it which I did ,I glued it back, looked though he provided 25 mm eye piece and could not notice any scratches, so I continued with the assembling the rest. I took the mount with the motor from it's box and it was broken in half, at that point I realized that this "THING" is not worth my time, I went back to the store returned it and got a Celestron GT114. All I can say about my experience with the Celestron is it's cheaper, far better quality, arrived very well Collimated.
took me 10 minutes to assemble. If you are looking for a good quality beginner telescope that would be satisfactory for a long time go with the Celestron GT114, or GT130.
12 of 13 found the following review helpful:
Damaged during shipmentFeb 05, 2004
I ordered the Meade DS2114ATS Telescope through Amazon.com, but it was actually shipped by J&R Music and Computer World (JR.com). It only took a couple of days for the telescope to arrive, but unfortunately it had been damaged during shipping. The smaller, secondary mirror had becomed detached from its mount and was bouncing around inside the tube. As a result the secondary mirror was chipped around the edges, and the primary mirror had numerous scratches. The telescope seemed to be packed well for shipping and there was no apparent damage to the outside of the box. The main tube of the telescope was packed in three levels of boxes. My impression is that Meade's process of gluing the secondary mirror to its mount just isn't strong enough to withstand the rigors of shipping. I decided the quality of the telescope was not quite what I had expected. I returned it to J&R and requested a full refund which I received about 3 weeks later. After doing some more howework, I have decided to try ordering my next scope from Orion.
9 of 10 found the following review helpful:
 Was well worth the price (free!), some issuesJan 13, 2004
I ordered this 'scope because I'd always had a slight interest in stargazing, yet not enough to spend enough for a decent view. Where I live is pretty dark, no street lights, so when I had the opportunity to get this thing by using points on my credit card, I took it. Got the box, found that some thingy inside the big tube came loose (some lens) and was bouncing around. It did have minor scratches on the big mirror, but I polished them out. I saw where the glue came loose and reglued the lens, and it worked. The spotting scope is a real piece of work, took forever to get it to point where the big scope pointed. The "free" $89 software that it came with was crap. It wouldn't install on Windows XP, and was copyright 2000. Got it this afternoon. The help files and "manual" had links to www.starrynight.com, but the links were broken. Went to www.starrynight.com and found that the "bundle" had no upgrade path, and the new software was $149. Cheapest I found was here on Amazon at $130. I'll probably play around with the scope for a few weeks before deciding to get the software. Sure, $130 overall cost for this telescope is good, but $130 for a freebie, well, I have to sit on that for a bit :).
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based on 9 reviews
