Rating: 
Summary: Excellent deal for power star observation
Review: A while ago I purchased the Nexstar 114GT. I was impressed at the amount of features that came with the telescope. Celestial objects catalogs, alignment options, tracking, ability to connect with a PC, tour, etc...The tripod is of fair quality. It is stable and light. The 'deluxe' tray would be better if it had holes for eyepieces. The finder is basic as well. Easy to tune and operate. I am considering upgrading to something better at some point. By contrast, the tube is made of higher quality, and the optics are good. The 2 eyepieces that comes with the telescope are of entry level, but will provide a very good and clear picture. I was very satisfied with what I was able to see, as well as the quality. Mounting the tube on the arm, and the arm on the tripod is a snap. The hand control is ok. Once you understand your way around the menus there's a lot you can do. The auto-align works well, and tracking too. I recommend going on the web, there's a site dedicated to the 114GT packed with very useful tips to get the most of this telescope. Perusing the manual, no so user friendly, a few times will also help in operating the telescope and get some good results. Now, about customer service; and this is going to contrast from a previous reviewer's review. After some time, the azimuth drive started to show signs of weakness: it wasn't as fast as usual. It thought the telescope did not get mounted properly and I opened the holding arm to see if I could do something. I was able to tighten some of the clutches as they were loose. But a while after that the motor ended up dying. Opened the arm again, tested the drive and came to the conclusion that I had to change it. Having opened the arm several times and messed around with the inner mechanics I thought that Celestron would just cancel the warranty and have me pay for the reparation. Anywasy, I called Celestron's customer service and explained my problem. They gave me a Return Authorization number, and I sent them the arm along with the hand control. About a week later, the arm came back with a brand new motor and power connector. In addition they had adjusted the clutches and tested everything. And this cost me a grand total of $0. Thumbs up!
Rating: 
Summary: This should read zero stars for their poor customer service
Review: First, let me say that the telescope is OK, it's actually pretty nice for a basic beginners scope. You can see the rings of Saturn fairly well. The drive system is a little shaky, so if you go over a 166X magnification (optional 6mm eyepiece) you need to shut off the tracking to get a good view. But for the money I could live with that. That said, let me tell you about their disappointing customer service. I bought a bunch of Celestron accessories, hard carrying case, a tripod case, a case of eyepieces and filters, and a solar filter to look at the Sun, I spent a little extra money, All Celestron stuff. The second time I used the telescope I hit it on a doorknob and put a little dent in it. Stupid me, it was all my fault. It still works fine, but my poor brand new telescope has a dent in it about the size of a quarter and that sucks. I wanted to fix it, it all disassembles to the bare sheet metal tube in about 10 minutes or so, I tried to work the dent out, but it's still there. I put it all back together, it still works fine. I thought I would order a new tube no problem. WRONG!!!!!.
I contacted the Celestron website and told them that I dented it and wanted to purchase a replacement tube. Their response was that they would not just sell me the part, I had to send the telescope back to them and they would replace it for me. Now, I didn't pay quite as much as it is listed on this site, but to send it back and get it fixed would have cost me with shipping 63% of the cost of a brand new unit complete in the box with the tripod and control panel, servo drive and everything. 63%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You do the math! In the real world this thin painted steel tube is maybe worth $20.00, it does have 20 prepunched holes in it and is painted flat black on the inside. I would have even probably paid $50.00 for it because then I wouldn't have had to look at this little dent every time I used my telescope forever.
Since their email response was a little frustrating, I thought I should call Celestron and talk to someone with some common sense and they'll realize that it's not reasonable to make me pay 63% of the price of a new complete package for this piece of sheet metal. I talked to the customer service manager and explained the situation and asked that they sell me a new tube and I'll assemble it myself, I would gladly purchase a collimation tool also so I could make sure the mirrors were alligned properly. That didn't seem like an outrageous request.
I was very nice to the gentleman (I wish I could remember his name, I'd post it here). He said they couldn't sell me the part "because it was fragile and they couldn't guarantee that it wouldn't get damaged in shipment". As God is my witness, that was the Customer Service Manager's excuse. Evidently it's OK for me to ship the telescope both ways, but they can't package the bare tube and ship it to me without damage. At that point I asked him specifically if he was refusing to sell me the tube unless they installed it, and he said "Yes". I told him I will never do business with them again, and I won't. I can guarantee you my next telescope will not be a Celestron. I own a small business myself, and deal with the retail public every day. If one of my employees provided this poor of service to one of my customers I would fire them. Their customer service is absolutely unacceptable in my opinion, and if you agree I ask you not to buy any of their equipment. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions at todd_d_glenn@yahoo.com . Feel free to contact Celestron if you feel that their policy is unreasonable at support@celestron.com . If you read this whole thing and finally got to this sentence, thanks for your time.
Rating: 
Summary: Good and affordable motorized telescope!
Review: I bought the Nestar 114GT as my first telescope and I'm really having a great time!
Affordable for a motorized telescope and pretty powerful.
Easy to set up, light, easy to transport.
You can easily spot all the planets, even Pluto!!(.. if the sky is clear and your eyes are good), for the rings... well, that's different...you'll need a more powerful scope.
The cons:
- the manual: even if the scope is easy to set up and it's kind of "self-explanatory", I noticed that the manual is poor and not very helpful... you learn day by day.
- the motorized arm: when sleughin to stars or planets, sometimes it "skips" a gear or two so that the alignment is not perfect. I don't know if this happens with every scope or just with mine.
Some advice: don't expect the scope to do everything for you. You still need to know which star you're looking at and where to find it. The computerized alignment is not always perfect and you might ended up looking at Arcturus while thinking of Polaris.
Buy accessories! The scope comes with two eye-pieces: a 10mm and a 15mm. They are good, but if you want to check some detail you need more powerful eye-pieces. I bought the set that contains planet filters (great for Moon-viewing!) and eye-pieces (with a good 2x Barlow lens). This set is sold at Amazon as well.
If you like to see the Sun and its sun-spot, then you can buy a solar filter and you'll be stocked!!!
And don't forget the AC adapter!!!
Rating:
Summary: Great scope to start a hobby!
Review: I have had the Nexstar 114 GT for only a couple of weeks, but it's great! Easy to set-up, easy to align. Has great optics, good definition of objects. This is the first scope I have owned, and it has only made me more interested in astronomy. Like everyone, the first object I viewed was the moon...fantastic! Then on to Jupiter and it's four moons...awesome. Bottom line, great scope at a decent price.
Rating:
Summary: One Of The Best Telescope
Review: I own This Telescope, all I do if I want to see a planet, star, moon, etc Just push and select an object you want to see and it will go there automaticly.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Telescope for the money
Review: I recently purchased the Celestron NexStar 114GT in preparation for a college astronomy course and I am sure glad I did! I am still learning how to use it, but so far it is exceeding my expectations. The fact that I can control the scope with the handheld control or my laptop computer is a real plus. If you plan to use your laptop computer with this scope, you will need to purchase an inexpensive serial cable compatible with the NexStar. With this cable you can hook up to the telescope hand control using your serial port or USB port (using a converter, that's what I do) I also found an Internet site for people who own any Celestron NexStar telescope. This site is wonderful! It is full of so much information (www.nexstarsite.com) On this site are things like tips for viewing, controller the scope with your PC, updated NexStar Observer List software, and information regarding accessories (including the serial cable above)...plus so much more! Bottom line...the Celestron NexStar 114GT is an excellent value for the beginner or intermediate observer. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Easy to use telescope - very well worth its cost
Review: I'm a beginner in astronomy. I bought this telescope after reading reviews about it. First night out, I saw the Moon and later Saturn. The views are spectacular ! I would recommend this telescope to any beginner. I would also recommend a better power source (AC/power-tank) and a slightly higher power eyepiece.
Rating:
Summary: Easy to use telescope - very well worth its cost
Review: I'm a beginner in astronomy. I bought this telescope after reading reviews about it. First night out, I saw the Moon and later Saturn. The views are spectacular ! I would recommend this telescope to any beginner. I would also recommend a better power source (AC/power-tank) and a slightly higher power eyepiece.
Rating:
Summary: Celestron Nexstar 114 GT Telescope
Review: The Celestron Nexstar 114GT Telescope is wonderfully easy to assemble. From the box to fully assembled takes a matter of minutes. I myself am not a great reader of directions and the assembly process does not require a degree in engineering. The alignment process does require a compass for accuracy. A small level would also be useful. Perhaps this could be considered in an updated version with a small compass and level built into the telescope's framework. The price is competitive and accessories are available for computer aided star alignment. I like it.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful first telescope
Review: The Nexstar 114 GT was very easy to put together and use. I was viewing the moon and Saturn the first night out. Having the built in motor and star database makes this telescope a breeze to use when trying to locate nearly any object. My one complaint is that the plug for the battery pack occasionally slips out of the telescope. Once that happens, you have to go through the alignment process all over again (which takes about 3-5 minutes).
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