Celestron AstroMaster 114EQ (100 x 114mm) Telescope

Pros: Cheap, lightweight, short, good quality, versatile.
Cons: Will probably not support high magnifications.

A small f9 Newtonian with a modifying lens in the eyepiece train to shorten the tube. It has two eyepieces (x50 & x100), two tube rings and a red dot finder. I don't like the finder - too bright. A right-angled telescope finder would be nice but more ...

Pros:

It's a nice scope for a beginner.

Cons: The finderscope is terribly inaccurate.

I'm a beginner stargazer and I got the telescope through Air Miles based on reviews that I had read. I've always been interested in learning about astronomy and figured this was a good way to start seeing as the Astromaster 114EQ is a beginner's telescope.

The finderscope is terribly inaccurate. No matter how many times I line up the finderscope I'm nowhere near the object when I look through the eyepiece. I've taken the finderscope apart and tried realigning it with little success.

The LED light in the finderscope is really bright as well. It lights up the whole finder at night and makes sighting in the target even harder.

Other than the finderscope, the 114EQ is a nice scope for a beginner, but I recommend buying a beginner astronomy book with the telescope as the manual doesn't help very much.