Includes Celestron Nexstar 114SLT telescope Star Pointer finderscope 1.25 inch 25mm eyepiece 1.25 inch 10mm eyepiece The Sky Level 1 CD Adjustable aluminum tripod Control software Nexstar hand control with object database.

Celestron's computerized NexStar 114 SLT adds affordable GoTo technology to a compact Newtonian reflector telescope. The complete package has everything you need to get started except the batteries. The box contains high and low power eyepieces (9mm and 25mm), the computer controller, an adjustable tripod, a red dot finder, and even a planetarium program for your personal computer.

The NexStar 114 SLT's compact Newtonian optics produce images that are three times brighter than 60mm beginner scopes. With this telescope it's easy to see Saturn's rings and Jupiter's cloud belts. When the night air is still and clear I've been able to see the Cassini division in Saturn's rings and even spot the shadow of Jupiter's moons crossing the planets cloud tops! Deep space objects like star clusters and galaxies also show up nicely. The Ring Nebula M57, for instance, shows up as a pale smoke ring, and globular cluster M13 begins to reveal its individual stars.

Celestron's computerized SkyAlign system is remarkably quick and easy to use. If you can see the moon, you can align this telescope! When you turn on the telescope, select "Solar System Align" on the hand control, enter the date and time, point the telescope at the moon, and press the "Align" button. That's all it takes; the computerized tracking system takes over and begins tracking, quietly, and accurately. Experienced users will love the "Auto Two-Star Align" and "SkyAlign" modes because they allow the telescope to point accurately at over 4,000 objects in the NexStar database. The accurate tracking allowed me to use a Celestron NexImage to take some nice close-up pictures of the moon and planets.

The biggest drawback to a computerized telescope is its battery consumption. The standard AA batteries only last a few hours, but the NexStar 114 SLT works very well with an external 12-volt battery such as Celestron's Power Tank. The other drawback comes from the NexStar 114 SLT's compact optical design. This telescope uses a short-focal-length mirror combined with a corrector lens to simulate a traditional long tube reflector. This works pretty well at moderate magnification levels, but the mirrors may need to be fine-tuned, or "collimated," to get the best high power images. I find Celestron's Collimation Eyepiece helps me get this fine tuning just right, but the reward is sharp images, even when I use the high power 9mm eyepiece with a barlow lens for a magnification over 200x. --Jeff Phillips

Pros:

• Easy computerized GoTo system
• Good (but not great) optics
• Includes everything but the batteries

• Short battery life
• Optics may need occasional fine tuning