Can anyone identify this Celestron?

Hello. I am a total beginner and am thinking of buying my first telescope. I came across a used Celestron but I can't figure out what model it is. The seller knows nothing about telescopes and is estimating that it's a 5". From the pictures, I can tell that it's a reflector and looks like it comes with an alt-az mount. Can anyone identify this please? If so, could you please tell me how good a quality this might be? I don't want to end up with a Celestron made by Tasco while they owned this company.

Many thanks in advance.

4.5" F8. The scope should be a good beginner but the mount is so flimsy that it will definitely frustrate you to the point that it might turn you off of astronomy. IF you had a good mount it would be worth while but for the price of a mount alone - you might be better off looking at other options such as these below...

I would highly suggest checking out this link which shows some of your options for entry level scopes that may be of interest to you...

http://www.buytelescopes.com/search.asp?go=1&list=1&adv=&q=orion+reflector&s=2&d=1&manufacturer_id=&max_price_nr=&min_price_nr=

If you are on a very tight budget I would recommend this
http://www.buytelescopes.com/product.asp?t=&pid=6107&m=
with the addition of a Telrad and the book, Turn Left At Orion - great beginning package.

If you have a little more to spend this would keep you busy for quite some time - it's a great package at a great price.
http://www.buytelescopes.com/product.asp?t=&pid=12155&m=

Hope this helps...

Moe:

It looks to me like a Celestron First Scope 114. This is a standard Newtonian with a 114mm F/8 spherical mirror. The spherical mirror quite typical for the 114mm F/8s. The optics should be decent.

The mount is an EQ-2 mount with the Wooden Legs, this is not DOB solid but not so bad if one is careful. The wooden legs are better than the extruded aluminum legs and indicate an older scope, (not a bad thing) I don't know when they switched but it was a few years ago. Note that this is an Equatorial mount but as you see, it can be configured to operate as an ALT-AZ mount, a nice feature.

In my view these are reasonable scopes, they do have a 1.25 inch focuser, a definite advantage over the scopes with the 0.965 inch focusers as it allows you to buy good quality eyepieces and use them with future scopes.

The stock eyepiece is normally a 25mm SMA widefield, in this scope it would be a decent eyepiece.

About the only downside to this rig is that the finder is not good, it's a 5x24 and while a good 5x24 can be a surprisingly good finder, I have only ever seen two good ones (Meade Towa 312/314), every other one was like this one, plastic and normally stopped down because of the poor optics.

In my view, the Celestron 114mm First Scope is actually quite a capable scopes if one has the right mindset. Certainly several steps above the standard 60mm department store scope as first scope.

The question is how much is the seller asking and what are you expecting??? As a first scope, a 6 inch Dobsonian is definitely a more capable telescope. That would be an upper bound on the price. I figure a good used 6 inch DOB is about $150.

I would say this: For $50, it's a solid deal, for $100, it's might be an OK deal but around here, I would look else where.

Jon Isaacs

Thank you everyone for getting back to me. I have my eye set on a Orion XT8 or XT10 but I often get excited about something new and then a few months later, loose interest. That's why before I spend several hundred on a telescope, I thought I would give this "new hobby" a try with a $50-$100 telescope. If I continue to find myself interested in astronomy, I will definitely buy a dobsonian reflector. I offered the seller $50 - keeping my fingers crossed

Thanks, again.

Welcome to the hobby Moe.
I wanted to offer some information that might make you feel better.
There remains quite a bit of concern about the previous ownership of Celestron by Tasco.
Let me say that the ownership was both brief and unremarkable. To my knowledge, absolutely nothing changed. They didn't wave a magic wand and somehow reduce the quality of the product that Celestron was selling. It's the same thing...same people, same equipment, same assembly from the same place using the same equipment...nothing changed, better or worse. The Tasco debacle didn't affect quality in any way.
Having said that, you do realize that your scope in question was almost certainly made in China. Celestron did, and still does, sell products that are from China. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Chinese quality is consistently getting better and most modern products are superior to the ones they replace.
The scope you're looking at is a fair starter scope. It should have a good quality mirror and if you use good eyepieces, it will get you started. I used to own the exact same scope. Remember that the eyepiece is half of the optical system. It looks like your scope uses 1.25 inch eyepieces so you're in good shape. Some of the early examples used .965 size and they were awful.
One last thought...a 4.5 inch mirror will only show you so much. You will quickly hunger for a larger aperture scope. Consider buying a better scope now and you'll save both money and the trouble of reselling this one. Dobsonian scopes are so cheap and so superior that the difference is staggering. I think $50 is a bit too much for what you're buying. Add $100 and you will be astonished at the difference in both optical quality and ease of use...not to mention what the extra aperture will show you. Good luck.