Fantastic complete astronomy starter kit - now only £107.99 inc UK mainland delivery featuring the Skyhawk 114 high power Newtonian (114mm diameter mirror x 500mm focal length) reflecting telescope and a host of accessories and top quility guidence to get anyone, young or old, off to a flying start in the fascinating hobby of astronomy!

Generations of amateur astronomers have started and advanced their hobby with a classical Newtonian reflector like the Skyhawk 114 - the -114 is a classic scope with a modern makeover - the updated shorter tube, makes it easier to handle and transport - and offers great wide angle views of the sky when needed.

Large aperture primary mirror

The primary mirror is the engine of the Newtonian telescope and the Skyhawk 114 has a superb 114mm large aperture primary mirror.

German equatorial mount

The Skyhawk 114 is equipped with a well-engineered German Equatorial Mounting (or GEM) with fully geared manual slow-motion hand controls and a rigid aluminium full height field tripod (just the tripod and mount is amazing enough and looks like it would cost £100 to £150 on its own!). High magnification observing is virtually impossible without an equatorial mounting because the challenge of counteracting the rotation of the Earth. The GEM supplied with the 114 provides easy manual target tracking allowing the highest magnifications to be used with ease.

We can't praise the Skyhawk 114 equatorial mount enough. Equatorial mounting is the best way to mount this type of telescope, for high powered viewing a electric clock drive (not included) can be added and this compensates for the rotation of the Earth and is indispensable for detailed views. We've been selling good quality starter telescopes like this for years and the Skyhawk 114 and is one of the best we've seen and used!

Supplied with the unique Skyhawk 114 kit are two excellent eyepieces - 10mm, and 25mm and a 2x image amplification Barlow lens (see photo no 3 and below for full specification) giving a useful range of magnifications from medium to high power. (x40,x80,x100,x200)

FREE Philips astronomy guide book set (see banner advert above)

Over the years we´ve found the best accessories you can get with any telescope is help and information!

Even the instruction manual (in well-written English!) is fully illustrated and easy to follow.

Also includes a useful 2x Barlow lens (item 2 in photo) to allow you to triple the magnification of any eyepiece used. Simply pop the eyepiece into the Barlow lens and put the combined unit into the scope as you would the eyepiece and the Barlow will increase the magnification of that eyepiece by a factor of three - it's like getting six eyepieces with the scope instead of three!

This outfit is a great astronomy starter kit - in fact, all you will need to supply is a clear night!

Telescope specifications

Primary Mirror: Glass, aluminised with silicone overcoat 114mm

Focal length: 1000mm

Aperture: 114mm (f8.77)

Magnification with supplied eyepieces:

40x,80x,100x and 200x

Mounting: German equatorial with dec-axis manual slow motions.

So what's so great about the Skyhawk 114 telescope kit?

Well, overlooking the fact that it has much more than you need compared to most other starter scopes (apart from a clear night that is!) - the Skyhawk is essentially a standard "classic" long focus Newtonian telescope (Named after Sir Issac Newton it's inventor in the 17th century). It has a large-sized aperture, 114mm (four and a half inches in old money!) primary mirror with spherical figure to achieve high quality and bright images, and has a useful long focal length to achieve high power magnifications without making the telescope too difficult to use.

At two or three times the price, the Skyhawk is a well-made scope - at our package price it's extraordinary value for money. The telescope is well equipped with an ultra modern red-dot finder scope (to make pointing and target finding easy) and the simple two-screw collimation system shows a nice attention to detail and user convenience.

Over and above the top specification the thing that impresses us most is the nice 'touches' that display the attitude of the manufacturer. Virtually everything is made of metal - plastic has been kept to the absolute minimum - this is a solid instrument built to give years of service. The manufacturer really has spent time and money making sure this serious scope will delight all who use it.

Upgradable performance Too many starter scopes today have eyepiece and mount designs that are built for a price and offer no useful upgrade path. The Skyhawk uses 1.25" eyepiece fitting (the industry standard for serious telescopes) and there are literally 1000´s of accessories to choose from. In fact, Scopes'n'Skies main forte is supplying astronomy telescope accessories and the Skyhawk can be upgraded and added to in many different ways. These accessories include camera adaptors (to try your hand at astro-photography), Barlow and amplification lenses (like the one included, to increase the magnification without using short, difficult to use, eyepieces), as well as wide-angle and higher-powered specialist eyepieces and filters and accessories to make the telescope easier to use on terrestrial targets. Even a safe Solar observation filter is also available for this telescope.

What can you see with the Skyhawk 114 telescope?

One of the great advantages of a 114mm mirror is its sheer light-gathering power - it will deliver stunning views of even very remote and dim galaxies and nebulae.

At low to medium power the ancient landscape of the Moon becomes a fabulously intricate panorama of craters, rays and rills. At higher powers individual crater systems can be explored in fantastic detail. The planet Mars will show many details on its surface and the polar cap can be seen during ideal observing conditions. At good observing times, when observed at just 50x or higher magnification, the planet Jupiter will appear as a banded disc, and at just 50x magnification, larger in size than you normally see the full Moon with the unaided eye! The cloud belts of Jupiter will show ever changing detail that will show drift across the planet's face in just a few minutes. The four main moons of Jupiter will be seen orbiting the giant planet, sometimes casting shadows onto Jupiter's dense cloudy atmosphere. The planet Saturn will show its magnificent ring system and its bright famous moon Titan. These are just a few of the things that can be seen in our own solar system with the Skyhawk-114 telescope. Outside of the solar system hundreds of gas nebulae and galaxies come within the reach of this powerful instrument.