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Additional accessories for Skywatcher explorer


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Hello

I have recently bought this telescope for my husband

Skywatcher Explorer 130 EQ2 Telescope

He has a long-standing interest in astronomy, but is an absolute beginner in using telescopes and is struggling a little bit to work out how to use it.  He will be joining a local club soon, which I think will help.  In the meantime, his birthday is coming up and I was wondering whether one of these motors might help him, as the telescope is a non-motorised one:

http://www.scopesnskies.com/prod/skywatcher/mountsandtripods/RAmotordriveeq2.html

http://www.scopesnskies.com/prod/skywatcher/mountsandtripods/eq2dcmotordrives.html

I really don't want to buy anything that won't make using his telescope easier / better.  Does anyone know whether either of these motors would be a good addition and, if not, could anyone suggest what might be?

Thanks in advance.

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I would suggest a reflex sight to replace the red dot finder. A Rigel Quickfinder or a Telrad are both excellent and will be a huge improvement on the stock finder that comes with the scope.

The motor won't necessarily make it any easier to use the scope I'm afraid. The purpose of the motor is to keep objects centred in the eyepiece without having to adjust the controls, however this assumes that you have properly power aligned the scope (most commonly tricky for beginners) and that you have found the object you want to track in the first place (also usually tricky for beginners).

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Just another quick question - would you recommend either one of those over the other for a beginner?  The reviews suggest they each have different strengths, so I'm struggling to make a choice between the Rigel and the Telrad.  Thanks again, and to anyone else who has any thoughts about this!

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The Rigel is smaller and is the one I use because I have a small refractor. I also have a SW130P that I have used the Rigel on and have found it works really well with it.

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Another thing, although it may be off-topic, see if he wants to make an account on here, when I started I had a lot of questions (still do) that a lot of people on here answered. Without the people on here I wouldn't know anything about telescopes or about astronomy.

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For your husbands B-day,,,,,,,,,,,,

A few small items will go a LONG way.

1/ A Rigel Quickfinder or a Telrad (dont use either myself but the majority of people use one or the other)

2/ A red&white LED head torch (great things as they free up hands)

3/ A copy of Turn Left At Orion 

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All good suggestions above which I totally support. I also like your idea of a motor - just the RA motor will be a godsend for his observing. Once he has the mount polar aligned, then whenever he views an object, the RA motor will track it for him so the scope doesn't have to be moved manually. The only manual tweaking he'll need will be very small alterations in the Dec axis. It really makes the whole process easier and more relaxing.

Another idea is a simple adjustable ironing stool. Sitting down whilst observing makes the whole task so much more relaxing - and you can get them off ebay for thirty quid'ish. Hth :)

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Whilst all the above make observing easier. The way to improve the view at the eyepiece is to update the eyepieces that came with the scope. Have a look at the BST Starguiders (explorers) and the Celestron excel's. There are a couple on the classifieds and on Astro buy & sell.

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+1 for the BSTs, they are really good and comfortable to use, contact Alan as he might have some customer returns in perfect condition that you could get cheaper as well.

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Thank you all so much - I can't tell you how helpful this is.  I definitely will recommend this forum too.  He loves a good forum so this will be right up his street!  I've ordered several things that you've mentioned and will also look at the other things that have been suggested in the later posts.  Thanks again.

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