Meade DS-2114ATS

At first glance, the DS2114ATS appears to be a decent telescope for the begginer to intermediate astronomer. The optics are indeed relatively decent for it's comparative price range and if this is the first time you have used or looked through a telescope you would no doubt be impressed by the view. With that said, the love affair stops here. I had -many- issues with the DS2114ATS and for the price I payed of $350(US) the scope simply was not worth it. First and foremost one of the legs of the "field tripod" had began to bend by the third use...something which Meade did finally offer to replace (after I had told them I already replaced it at my own cost). The finder scope is a real jewel...I never was able to get it to stay acuratly aligned and it frequently needed to be "fiddled" with. The AutoStar tracking seemed to have a mind of it's own. Sometimes it would actually track well, but more often that not, even with a proper two star alignment, it would not find or track the object of my desire and in a couple of instances it would simply skew off to something else entirely.

Most importantly though was the issue of collimation. Now if your new to telescopes in general, collimation is (in a nut shell) the process of properly aligning the mirrors so that you can obtain a clear image through the eyepiece. Virtually all newtonian-style reflectors require this service periodically and it can be an art unto itself to learn and master. With that said, the DS2114ATS I had obtained had -serious- issues. By the second use, the collimation had already slipped a tad and by the 5th or 6th time I had used it, the image was nothing but a blur. At first I thought the problem was simply my own lack of experience, but after having 2 different "seasoned pro's" set it up and not having the mirrors stay aligned for more then an hour, I found the problem to be the mirror cell itself...the cheap plastic housing that it used is simply not rigid enough to maintain proper mirror alignment. To further complicate issues, I found Meade's techincal support to be less the helpful -when- I could actually get ahold of them. After 6 months of headaches, complaints, issues, and a virtually useless piece of equipment I was finally able to obtain a refund. To cut this down to a nut shell, I've seen it stated by many people now that Meade makes fine optics, but really skimps on the nuts and bolts and this seems to have been the case with my purchase as well. I will rate this scope as a 3 out of 10 because when I could keep the optics aligned properly, I did recieve a wonderful view, but honestly and from my experience it was simply not worth the effort.