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Rating: 
Summary: good scope...
Review: i took delivery of this scope about a week ago, and though i haven't used it much for astronomical observing, i have had a whale of a time with terrestrial stuff. for the price i paid, it's an excellent VFM product, and i'm looking forward for the skies to clear so that i can really freak out with this telescope, with astrophotography being at the top of my list.now to specifics... the equatorial mount is not 100% rock-solid - it's a little shaky sometimes, specially when i set it up in a hurry - but any trembles settle within about 5 to 6 seconds. the 4.5" aperture is fairly decent, and i have found that contrast provided by the included eyepieces is pretty decent. i'm not sure what kind of eyepieces are included, as i'm yet to hear from celestron on this query. the 10mm ep doesn't have as good eye-relief as does the 20mm, but that's to be expected (and is not specific to this scope), i guess. the scope was delivered by adorama.com, and was fairly well packed. collimation was near perfect, and i haven't meddled with this one yet. i'll need to transport this one back home to india - more than 8000 miles away by air, and still need to find out what will happen to alignment on that journey - according to all accounts, i'll need to collimate it when it lands back home. celestron doesn't include much by way of enlightenment on collimation - they only say to visually eyeball alignment - this is sketchy at best, and i'll need to read up on this one and not trust the manual totally. while on the manual... looks like this was written by some sweatshop employee without much grasp of the language, the component break-up image is missing some part number indicators, etc., etc... don't go by the manual much - just look at it as something that celestron needs to include with the scope, and they have done it - absolutely no quality there. parts... the scope is of pretty good quality - mostly metal parts; a little plastic, though bearable. the ota looks like it will take a lot of abuse and seems to be sturdily built. parts of the mount may need to be shimmed to get close tolerances - to ensure less shaking than current. an optional t-ring has to be bought to plug an slr camera to the unit, so that feature is available on demand, too. my personal conclusion: it's an excellent scope for my money, and i'm very happy with the purchase. am looking forward to carry out some decent astrophotography with it, and shall try to update this review, if at all possible.
Rating: 
Summary: I like it better and better each time I use it.
Review: I've had my Firstscope 114 Short for almost two years now. I really think I couldn't have chosen a more appropriate one. I live in a house with a backyard and I have a car. Since the telescope doesn't take up much space, I just keep it set up in a corner of my room for the entire winter when I'm not using it. (I live at 64°N so stargazing in the summer is off.)
It's easy to get it in and out of the car when I want to escape the light pollution. I just take the eyepieces from the tray, unfasten two screws to lift the tube off and then I can put the whole thing in the back seat in two pieces (plus the eyepieces). Taking it out to the backyard is just a matter of carrying it there by one hand and then working the screws to raise the tripod with the other hand. The eyepieces just ride along in their tray. Since it is so easy to handle, I use it a lot when I have the time and the sky is clear.
I could easily use it right away when I got it thanks to the StarPointer, which is much easier to use than a real finderscope.
The optics seem to be of good quality. I learned to collimate the mirrors so I probably get views pretty much as good as anyone does with a scope this size. I think it will turn out to be big enough to keep me entertained with deep sky viewing until I save up for a telescope five times its price. Since it has an equatorial mount, I can also look at the planets and the moon with high magnification.
This telescope isn't really designed with astrophotography in mind, but it does have a piggy back mount and with a T-adapter and T-ring an SLR body can be attached to it. Don't expect it to be any good for long exposures though.
The things that I would complain about, if any, are the setting circles, which are useless due to bad design, the screws that fasten the slow motion dials (and which I should just replace) and that a plastic part on the tripod broke, luckily without detracting from the functionality of the tripod.
If you are looking for a telescope that is easy to use, can be used for observing the planets and also easily be transported in a small car to a dark sky site for deep sky observation (but not necessarily taking pictures) and if it is the right price for you, I recommend the FirstScope 114 Short. I'm very happy with mine.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty good scope
Review: This a very portable scope. Its aperture is big enough to show pleasing views of fairly bright deep sky objects. The planets are good,but not as good as a refractor of similar aperture. Its mount is not that shaky. I recommend this scope for anyone starting in astronomy.
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