* Astronomy

Tasco 114mm reflector

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Out of the box this is frankly a rubbish telescope.
The one redeeming feature is that these can be picked up second-hand for about £45. However, a few tweaks and upgrades will transform the views.
The focuser has an internal 'baffle' that restricts the aperture and field of view, this can be easily removed to use the full mirror aperture.
A decent wide-angle eyepiece can now give decent views.
The obstructive secondary mirror mount can be disassembled and the mirror glued directly to the centre mount (the outer sleeve can be discarded) to increase the reflective area and minimise the central obstruction.
But these tweaks will not solve the fact that the telescope has a fast spherical mirror (a solution is to add a removable aperture mask to the front of the tube which will reduce the coma).

The EQ-1 mount is reasonable and the wooden tripod a bonus, but the telescope mounting is fixed so the focuser cannot be rotated to a more convenient position (This also means the telescope cannot be balanced without adding a counterweight to the mirror) .