Celestron 130EQ Info

[Tribal-Wolf]

I thought I would post this as it will probably be of some interest to people who have or are considering buying a Celestron Astromaster 130EQ.

I was looking into them recently and found a website that was selling them and list the scope as having a parabolic mirror. On Celestrons own website they state that the scope has a spherical mirror so I thought I would email the other company telling them this and that they may be misleading people.

The reply from them was this:

'Hello Mr C*****t,

Thanks a lot for your e-mail and your remarks!

To the best of our knowledge, including tests we have performed on the telescopes in question, all those instruments where we state that the optics are parabolic indeed have parabolic optics. This includes Astromaster 130. However it is correct that the smaller telescopes than the Astromaster 130 have no parabolic mirror.

Best regards,

Patrick Woitala

Telescope-Service'.

After getting this reply I thought lets ask them directly and see what they say so I then emailed Celestron and got a couple of emails, the first said:

'Dear Mr. C*****t,

Thank you for your message. I have submitted your inquiry regarding 'if the AstroMaster 130 uses a parabolic or spherical primary mirror' to our Product Development Manager. As soon as I hear back from him, I will let you know the answer.

Sincerely,

Kevin K.

Celestron Marketing Team'.

.....and then today.....

'Dear Mr. C*****t,

According to our Product Manager, the AstroMaster 130EQ does indeed use a parabolic (not spherical) primary mirror in its optical tube. I personally could not find where it stated (on Celestron's website for the AstroMaster 130EQ) that the mirror is spherical. If you could direct me to the page which states the primary mirror is spherical, I will inform the Marketing Manager to make any neccessary changes.

If you have any questions, please let me know. Thank you for your feedback and hope you will enjoy using the telescope.

Sincerely,

Kevin K.

Celestron Marketing Team'.

So as you can see the Celestron 130EQ does in fact have a parabolic primary mirror which means for the price is an extremely good value telescope.

I hope this helps in any buying decisions for anyone considering this scope. It may not make a huge difference but the more info you have the better.

Now I'm off to show them page with the error lol.

Thanks for reading,

Chris.

Edited January 25, 2012 by Tribal-Wolf

[DazC]

Thanks for that info Mr C. For a moment when i started reading i thought you were going to tell me i'd dropped a right clanger.

I own one and in my opinion they perform very well for the price i paid (£135).

D.C

[Tribal-Wolf]

Reply email I have just received:

'Hi Chris,

Thank you again for pointing out the error and for your patience and understanding. I have notified management regarding the inaccurate information in the knowledgebase article, so a change can be made.

I hope you will now be able to purchase an AstroMaster 130EQ with confidence knowing your telescope will have a fine parabolic mirror.

Warm Regards,

Kevin K.

Celestron Marketing Team'

All good stuff then lol.

[zainraza]

Do parabolic mirrors help better with viewing?

I've not had any major problems with the scope itself, the mount is a different matter though

[Pigz]

very usefull info there all the research ive done like you came back that it had a normal serphical (sorry i cant spell!!) primary although its very bad publicity that they havent advatised this as im sure people have gone along the skywatcher route just because of the parabolic mirror. and supposdly the parabolic mirror gives a better veiwing ive had a skywatcher 130 (sperichal) and im getting a 130 parabolic so ill be able to compare the differance!!! but as its not adding any magnifaction or size etc i doubt the differance will be that noticable to be honest ill keep you updated when my new scope arrives

[Simon Stewart]

Hi everyone,

This is my first post. I noticed that the Celestron Knowledge base has not been updated some 10 years later:
https://www.celestron.com/blogs/knowledgebase/does-my-astromaster-130-have-a-spherical-or-parabolic-mirror-what-is-the-difference

It seems incredible that they would not just make it absolutely clear what type of mirror it is.

It would be great if an owner of the scope was able to confirm. LIke so many before, I'm trying to decide between this and the Skywatched Explorer 130p. I'm thinking about paying the extra just to be assured of the parabolic mirror.

[Pixies]

@Simon Stewart Judging from the telescopicwatch website, you have a chance of getting either parabolic or spherical!

https://telescopicwatch.com/celestron-astromaster-130eq-telescope-review/

having used both (albeit, briefly and not my own), the Celestron mount is slightly more stable than the Skywatcher.

 

Are you fixed on getting  an EQ mount? If not, for a similar price, you can get the highly recommended Skywatcher heritage 150p flextube.

Edited December 26, 2022 by Pixies

[Simon Stewart]

I'm quickly narrowing down my choices, and also got the skywatcher heritage 150p and the classic 150p, both on Dobsonian mounts. Any thoughts would be more than welcome. 

[AstroMuni]

On 25/01/2012 at 19:08, zainraza said:

Do parabolic mirrors help better with viewing?

Only when you are using high magnifications will the differences be more apparent.

[AstroMuni]

On 26/12/2022 at 16:06, Simon Stewart said:

It would be great if an owner of the scope was able to confirm. LIke so many before, I'm trying to decide between this and the Skywatched Explorer 130p. I'm thinking about paying the extra just to be assured of the parabolic mirror.

I have the Astromaster 130 in question and a SW 130PDS. Its not easy to check if the mirror is parabolic or spherical. The Astromaster is a great scope for the price (see my signature link for images taken with it). It does have its drawbacks - poor focuser & wobbly mount. So not really suited for AP, but works well for viewing.

Edited December 29, 2022 by AstroMuni

[wulfrun]

On 26/12/2022 at 20:46, Simon Stewart said:

I'm quickly narrowing down my choices, and also got the skywatcher heritage 150p and the classic 150p, both on Dobsonian mounts. Any thoughts would be more than welcome. 

Rough comparison of those two:

Same aperture so same light-gathering ability. No advantage to either in that regard.

The Heritage collapses down to about 1/3 the size of the Classic, so easier for storage & transport. However, the Heritage needs a sturdy table to use it on and the Classic doesn't.

The Classic is f/8 which means it's more suited to higher magnifications and you won't need eyepieces that are as well-corrected (i.e they're cheaper) compared to the Heritage, which is f/5. The downside to the Classic's f/8 mirror is that the maximum field of view is narrower than the Heritage can achieve.

One thing the Heritage does need is a light-shroud (keeps dew off the secondary as well), easy & cheap to make one though. The Heritage also has a cheapo helical focuser...it works but some folk just don't get on with it.