This is a review of the Meade DS2114 ATS-TC telescope.
11/11/2008 (updated (7/13/2009)
John R. Carter, Sr.
http://www.jrcarter.com

I bought the Meade DS2114 ATS-TC 4.5" Newtonian telescope with Autostar #494 and a color USB camera at Sam's Club for $164.81.

It's a great beginner's telescope.

At power on, this telescope performs a self diagnostic setup. It requires 8 AA batteries (not provided) and one CR2032 (provided). The CR2032 maintains current date and time once it is updated. Once I discovered how to really set up the handbox, I no longer have to re-enter my location (by Zip code) and telescope model each time I turn it on. But even if I did, it takes only a few seconds. There is no provision to plug in an external power source. The battery pack has a 9-volt snap clip that will accept an external power source if you want to cut an opening in the battery compartment cover to accept leads going into the battery compartment.

The DS2114 ATS-TC is also an excellent telescope to be taking to public star parties and introducing people to Astronomy with. It is very light and can be packed into a small duffle bag - carefully.

I find that the tripod is very sturdy and easy to adjust and lock into place. It is much better than the flimsy, open-frame type normally seen on telescopes.

This telescope does have some minor drawbacks along with its major features.

The drives are somewhat noisy. It's like they didn't bother to grease the gears or make them fit very well together. There is also enough "chatter" in the drive movement to make using the USB camera almost a bother. You can still process a video taken with the camera (using Registax, Iris, or an equivalent program) to get a decent photograph.

It doesn't track perfectly, but the drift isn't so bad that you will lose the object in a 25mm eyepiece even after 20 minutes or more.

The focal length of 1000 with an f/8 ratio means that you won't see the entire Coat Hanger using a 25mm eyepiece without a focal reducer. You would do well to purchase a 35mm or 40mm eyepiece, especially because it will aid you in finding many objects that are impossible to find with binoculars.

To get the 1000mm focal length in such a short tube, they installed a barlow lens in the focuser. This also reduces the amount of light at the eyepiece. When compared with a 4" Celestron, I couldn't tell difference.

The telescope was slightly out of collimation when I tested it with my laser collimator. The adjustment screws require a spline wrench, which I don't have. The big problem with using a laser collimator is that the built in barlow lens in the focuser causes the laser beam to blow up - you no longer have a dot to work with. But since I couldn't make any adjustments, I can't say for sure what it will finally look like. If you think you need to collimate the telescope, use the "eyeball" procedure as described in the manual.

The red dot pointer is an excellent choice for a finder, but the dot is fairly large and not at all round. I have discovered that not all red dot pointers on other identical telescopes are mounted well enough to actually center the dot on a target that is centered in the eyepiece. Still, it gets you where you need to be quickly and with no fuss. It has a two position slide switch for adjusting the brightness. This pointer is not very secure in its mount and can easily be knocked out of alignment. It also completely disappears when the Moon is in the sight even at the highest intensity. Grin and bear it.

The 1.25" focuser offers a near press fit to my 1.25" eyepieces - very hard to get them in - so for some eyepieces you don't even need to use the set screws. Still, the eyepieces that come with the telescope slip right in.

I haven't bothered to use the 9mm and 25mm eyepieces that came with the telescope because they don't offer a very wide aperture at the eye. It would be worth replacing those eyepieces at the earliest opportunity, and that increases the cost of the telescope to at least another $150.00 (but honestly, you will probably do that with any telescope you buy anyway). If you do want to purchase replacement eyepieces, I recommend getting eyepieces with at least a 68 degree field of view. Whatever you purchase, keep them even if you sell the telescope - because you'll use them on your next toy.

The focuser really needs a 10:1 dual speed control. To focus on any object requires an extremely touchy adjustment. This is bad news for taking photos with a camera. I don't think there's any hope of getting a dual speed focuser for this scope due to the fact that it has to have that barlow lens built in. At one time, it was possible to get an electronic focuser for this telescope, but alas, no more - not even available used. I can only guess that Meade stopped making the EF because of 1) insufficient sales, or 2) it was a really poor design - or both. JMI will custom build an EF for you - at a high price!

The Autostar Suite software that comes with the DS2114 is not the full program. You have to pay extra for that. Don't bother unless you really want to use a Meade DSI camera (not the LPI camera that comes with the telescope). The feature that is missing with the included Autostar Suite is the interface to Envisage. There is a separate program for viewing the camera image (it's the PCCAM program), but it doesn't interface with Autostar Suite. For that matter, I am unable to interface the LPI camera with the latest Autostar Suite anyway. I'm also quite a bit down on Autostar Suite because navigating through the skies is not intuitive (can't click and drag the mouse to reposition the view). There are more cons and very few pros concerning Autostar Suite that I don't even recommend using it at all. Try Stellarium (free) or Starry Night Digital Download 6 (core application for $24.95).

You also have to purchase the computer serial interface cable separately if you want to control this telescope from a laptop, which you can do quite easily with the Autostar Suite.

The USB camera comes with a shutter release button for taking still photos with. The instructions read: "Hold the shutter release cable until the image is steady on you PC screen, then press the shutter button." Due to the jitter of the image, this may take several tries before you get a decent photo. I would think you really need to upgrade to the full version of Autostar Suite to take advantage of Envisage, the software that automatically accumulates many images into one for really great images (see the Moon image below).

That being said, I do have the full version Autostar Suite with Envisage, and Envisage would not detect the USB camera even after installing the driver for it.

I didn't bother using the Autostar Suite program that came with the telescope simply because I have Starry Night Pro and prefer to use that planetarium program (or Stellarium, whichever I'm in the mood for). I'm also not used to the controls in the Autostar Suite.

The setup and alignment is the same as with any Meade Autostar hand control. After the simplest setup (align the tube North and level), the scope would train close enough to an object to make me smile. After a two star (or Easy) alignment, objects still would not center exactly, but close enough to re-center and re-sync the control. Once centered, the drift, although noticeable, was minimal.

When I first targeted Andromeda, the scope first trained on Mirach, asked me to center on that star, and then slewed to exactly center on Andromeda. What a pleasant experience that was! The next time I targeted Andromeda, it went straight to the object. Okay, close enough to be within the field of view of a 25mm eyepiece.

The Andromeda galaxy is easily identified as a large, but not too bright glob. You can only make out the central bulge. That's really not much different than what you can see with a 6" Newtonian.

Overall, I would say that Autostar #494 on the DS2114 performs very well. And for $164.81, it's a bargain!

What most people will object to is the light gathering capability. Hey! It's a 114mm aperture (4.5")! What do you expect?

I was able to use my own Meade DSI-II color camera on the DS2114. The result was somewhat disappointing for direct viewing because of the jitter caused by the drives. Nevertheless, decent photos can still be taken.

Here's an untouched, stacked image (15 images, 1 sec each, all handled by Envisage) that I took of the Moon on November 6 with the DSI-II camera and a .5x focal reducer. (The focal reducer was necessary to get this much Moon in the image. Otherwise, it would be zoomed in twice as deep for even more detail!)

At last! My original quest to be able to do astrophotography has finally been realized!

Let's face it. Once you get bit by the astronomy bug, when you're through buying all the eyepieces and other accessories for any telescope, you will add up to $3,000.00 to the cost. But this telescope will get you started at the lowest possible cost and all the eyepieces and accessories you buy for this telescope will work with any other.

I do not recommend buying this scope anywhere except at Sam's Club for two very good reasons: 1) the price of $164.81 (that I paid) is the lowest you will find it anywhere, even online, and 2) you may not get one out of the box that works, so taking it back for an exchange is never a problem at Sam's Club. Unfortunately, as of June, 2009, Sam's Club is out of stock on the telescope. Keep your eye out around Christmas-time for another blockbuster sale on Meade telescopes at either Costco or Sam's Club.

Costco also had a Meade telescope for $199 (DS2090AT), but it is a 90mm refractor, and instead of a USB camera it has a 5 piece eyepiece set. Other than that, the Autostar, tripod, and mount are identical. See a review of it here. The primary difference between these two telescopes, according to refractor enthusiasts, is that a refractor provides a much crisper image (but only if the optics are apochromatic). The downside is that you need to hunker down behind the telescope to look in the eyepiece, and if the object is straight up, that may be very uncomfortable with this mount; one time you're standing straight up and looking down (for objects near the horizon), and the next time you're stooping low or sitting down (for objects near the zenith). Or you could be swapping the right angle prism in and out for the different view angles.

But, if you have $39,999.00 to spare, I recommend the Meade 20" LX400-ACF.