Skywatcher 130P

[Wardd2]

hi all, a friend of mine is thinking of buying a Skywatcher 130P. Is this scope any good and what can he realistically see with the eye pieces that are supplied. i believe that he will get it from FLO. Any advice i can pass on would be appreciated

[Ad Astra]

I've seen nice reviews of this scope here, and SkyWatcher is generally well thought of.

A 130mm scope has plenty of aperture to show you an excellent view of Saturn, its rings and large moon Titan. The views of Luna will be absolutely spectacular, and you should have plenty of aperture to split many beautiful double stars, and even bag many dozens of the brighter Deep Sky Objects like bright nebulae and star clusters. Don't expect much for the really faint stuff, most galaxies will be just a faint fuzzy smudge - but don't fret about that. You'll never run out of things to see.

A free program called Stellarium is the best - it will show you where to look and what's up each night from your location.

Cheers,

Dan

[Astro Imp]

Completely agree with Dan but would add that the view you get of DSO will be very dependent on the amount of light polution at your site.

[GazA]

agreed, i have this scope, its a cracking "small" scope and isnt hard to use, a nice start up for a small price, easy to pack in a car a set up quickly, also as above download stellarium.