Review on 🌌 Celestron 114LCM Computerized Newtonian Telescope: Ideal Telescopes for Beginners, 2 Eyepieces, Motorized Altazimuth Mount & Full-Height Tripod, Large 114mm Newtonian Reflector by Charles Notti

Great little telescope! The best part is the automatic tracking of the sky. The telescope will track most objects for some time before turning off. This telescope is also quite compact, which is ideal for getting through a door. Although I had some trouble "pointing" it to the sky, I was able to point it to Jupiter with no problems. I'm still new to using it so I haven't figured everything out yet, but everything seems pretty easy. This telescope has a Bird Jones lens, which is not very clear in the product description. This is how you get such a large focal length with such a small scope. The Bird Jones lens is similar to a permanent Barlow lens built into a focusing tube. Don't forget it's there when you clean your lenses. If you add a Barlow lens, it will most likely exceed the scope of the telescope. Be sure to do your calculations before adding custom lenses. I was able to collimate with a laser collimator without removing the Bird Jones lens. Instead of a tiny dot you have a red circle that you need to center in the rings. If the circle is blurry, the beam is not hitting the focusing tube properly. After collimation, I was able to get a sharper image with more powerful lenses. The laser spotting scope is really good and accurate, but it's very easy to knock it off. The on/off dial looks too much like orientation control and I accidentally grabbed the wrong dial in the dark and reset the orientation. But resetting is easy. It can be very accurate if you fine-tune it with a more powerful optical lens. The photos of the planets and the moon that I took were taken with my iPhone. The view was actually much clearer with just my eye. You can see a band around the moons of Saturn and Jupiter. I would like to know what other people are using to get much better pictures with this range. Now that I have it, I would happily go ahead and spend big bucks on a Celestron Advanced VX 6" f/8 refractor telescope.