Newtonian telescopes (also known as catoptrics) usually use a concave parabolic primary mirror (longer focal ratios may use spherical primaries) to collect and focus incoming light onto a flat secondary (diagonal) mirror. This secondary mirror reflects the image out of an opening at the side of the main tube and into the eyepiece.

Newtonian reflector telescopes offer a number of excellent features including:

• Freedom from most optical aberrations and delivery of very bright images.
• Reasonably compact and portable to focal lengths of 1000mm.
• Excellent performance observing faint deep-sky objects such as nebulae, remote galaxies and star clusters.
• Lowest cost per square inch of aperture due to use of mirrors rather than lenses.
• Generally fast focal ratios: f/4 to f/9.

The 76mm (3") aperture of the Firstscope 76 models offer much of the performance of the Newtonian reflector design in a compact, highly portable instrument.

The 114mm (4.5") Newtonian equatorial telescope is the most popular size telescope for the more serious beginning or intermediate level astronomy enthusiast, and for good reason. The large light gathering power of this 4-½" telescope makes it ideal for deep-sky observation of galaxies, star clusters and nebulae, as well as lunar and planetary observing. This makes for a very useful and versatile instrument that can take an observer from the very first time looking through a telescope's eyepiece, through years of observing interesting subjects near and far in the night sky.

Celestron offers five different 114mm Newtonian equatorial telescopes, making it a sure bet that one of them will have just the combination of features and performance you're looking for.