Well priced telescopes at currys.

[Madhatter]

Edit* Do not goto currys for telescopes.

Sorry.

[inksmithy]

I'm kind of tempted by that purely for the mount - steel legs look better than the normal aluminium legs on an eq1.

Alan

[ronin]

"innumerable deep-sky objects such as galaxies, nebulae and star clusters."

Guessing it will allow you to look at the milky way and the number of stars in that probably allows them to legally say it. Their defence in a court would be for you to accurately state the number of stars? If you cannot they win.

[virtualpilot45]

Check the limiting magnitude and the number of stars above that, visible from Earth

[Madhatter]

Yes that part is quite misleading! its no wonder that people get dissapointed by hugely exaggerated claims!.

I still think thats an absolute bargin though:)

[nightvision]

The 130 is very good value!

[Madhatter]

Yep, a motor driven 130mm on an EQ mount for £10 more than the skywatcher heritage!!

Is there some kind of catch? does anyone know if the mirror is parabolic?

[CGolder]

I would say the EQ mount is not bad, better than a EQ1 but the scope looks poor and the finder is a joke, you cant rotate the tube as it doesnt have rings so could be tough to get a good viewing position

[CGolder]

i would take the 130 heritage anyday over one of these scopes. the 130 is a quality actual scope with a good solid mount and a good rdf. these celestrons are plastic and cheap, seriously the finder is a joke!

[Telrad]

This looks like a really good deal, although I would prehaps prefer the heritage..

[Madhatter]

The heritage should give the better views, considrably better for the price considering its mount is a dobsonian.

I thought the whole point of a dobsonian mount was so the least amount of money can be spent on the mount-and more money put into the mirror/optics. So considering its only £10 less than a scope of equal appeture that comes with an EQ mount and motor driven..the views should be much better in the heritage, and so they should be!. The skywatcher red dot sight IS nice, but can be had from astroboot in A1 condition for £9 quite regularly.

As it happens i too would probably go for the heritage because of its portability. I guess it depends what you want but the heratige is a tabletop scope, and if you dont intend to move it its main selling point is probably wasted.

Id be really interested to see a side by side shoot out of the two scopes and see just how much the diffirance is:)

i didnt go into the 130EQMD too much because i wasnt sure how much of a bargin that was..for an extra £35 you can get the skywatcher 130p MD..the 76EQ however, i think for the price would be hard to beat. My girlfriend has just ordered one so i will ask her if she would write a first light review

[John]

i would take the 130 heritage anyday over one of these scopes. the 130 is a quality actual scope with a good solid mount and a good rdf. these celestrons are plastic and cheap, seriously the finder is a joke!

I agree - these Celestrons are designed to "catch" people by looking flashy. I've seen so many posts on here about the woeful RDF

You will notice that First Light Optics don't carry the Astromasters - that says a lot to me.

For under £100 I really think that decent binoculars are a better bet.

[Telrad]

I agree - these Celestrons are designed to "catch" people by looking flashy. I've seen so many posts on here about the woeful RDF

You will notice that First Light Optics don't carry the Astromasters - that says a lot to me.

For under £100 I really think that decent binoculars are a better bet.

John, that's a good point. I completely agree. FLO do the 130 Heritage

First Light Optics - Skywatcher Heritage 130p Flextube

[Madhatter]

The problem with binoculars is anything that gives a decent stable view of the moon or show satarns rings needs to be tripod mounted and thats more money-but dont get me wrong-i love my binoculars, and they are a great way too learn the skys.They would also stay in a collection where as the 76 EQ will eventulaly be sold, but i dont think you would take a big loss.

69.99 is pocket money level, that will let you see the moon and saturns rings in much better detail (rings not ears on saturn and many more craters on the moon due to higher mag), and probably for less money? when you factor in a semi decent tripod.

But hey i started astronomy a few months ago where as you guys have been at it for years and know vastly more than me, i dont mean to insult anyones intelligence-go with the experts not the novice:).

[Lux1]

I agree - these Celestrons are designed to "catch" people by looking flashy. I've seen so many posts on here about the woeful RDF

You will notice that First Light Optics don't carry the Astromasters - that says a lot to me.

For under £100 I really think that decent binoculars are a better bet.

Too true, just look at the size of the secondary mirror and spider vanes! And the mount is questionable also.

I sometimes fit my heritage to my GOTO mount, the combination in my opinion is superb, it locates and tracks objects very well. When I go camping, or an holiday I put the heritage back on it's dobson base.

However, my only nag with the heritage is the truss-pole system can allow light (pollution) to affect the secondary mirror, washing all the contrast away from your images. A good diy shroud ought to cure this.

And a final point, from personal experience Jupiter's Great Red Spot, Saturn's moons and the polar ice cap on Mars are all visible from this scope (albeit small). I would recommend it tenfold to newcomers.

[Darren B]

My brother brought the previous generation of these scopes, the Powerseeker 114. It was a very poor scope. What shocked me more was the mount. It looked like the EQ2, but it wasn't. While the EQ1 & 2 supplied by Skywatcher were made out of casted metal, the Celestron Powerseeker's was made out of pressed metal. About the same thickness of a baked bean tin. It was wobblier than a Weeble. I do hope these are better.

[ollypenrice]

The catch is that Currys know jackshot about astronomy, care even less and will not be there when you need them. You are not buying a fridge.

Olly

[Asur84]

I actually own one of these scopes at the min, I have not been observing for very long and only chose to buy this one to do some lunar and solar observing (the latter with the correct gear of course otherwise no more observing!) and maybe to catch a couple of DSO's I know to be easy targets with the type of scope.

I have bought a couple of ep's for it but I went into my local astro store in Manchester and spent the best part of 3 hrs (on and off of course) crunching the numbers of the fnumber and the focal length to find the right ep's for each of the purposes I wanted (and of course budget). All in all I would personally recommend this as a good begginer scope as it has thus far lived up to its purpose, but I would also agree that over expectation is a major enthusiasm killer.

Jonathon.

[Madhatter]

Thats a fair point, To be honest i thought for the price you cant go wrong here..i mean in telescope terms £70 is peanuts..i think anything that will show you saturns rings and decent views of the moon for that price is a bargin-but then i did start with a jessops scope and that was enough to spark my interest, considering that i thought this celestron has got to be better than that! lol.

Sorry all i need to learn to keep my mouth shut sometimes.

[CGolder]

do you think this scope will be better than the table top 76mm dobs, the firstscopes. i brought one from argos for £20 as my first scope and when i changed the stock eyepeices could see the rings of saturn... it was sturdy and decent for moon viewing, i would say better than a starter pair of binos

[Madhatter]

Do the tabletop firstscopes have a parabolic mirror? apparently the EQ does, but i dont know how much differance it makes. Also i guess the quality of the supplied EPs would be a big factor.

For the extra £20 the EQ seems like more for your money-and the tabletops only good if you have a picknick bench outside.

At a guess id think first scopes for younger observers and the EQ for older that are not sure if astronomy is for them and dont have £150 to find out.

but to be fair a pair of bins will always remain in a collection where as these scopes probably wont.

[chemtom24]

wheres the link?

having not actually seen it it feels slightly cheeky to say it but its a genereal feeling i have anyway - i agree with what madhatter said, that its pocket money level, something someone can buy relatively easily and get a 'good' enough view of the moon or saturn and its rings and either be hooked, in which case they shall look into buying more expensive gear, or decide it was fun but its not somehting they want to invest in seriuosly.

people love racing go karts. then they go and drive home in a fiesta, not a sports car.

fun can be had on the cheap, and whilst the optics may be laughable to some of you - to others they can bring some joy.

[Madhatter]

Heres the link chemtom-i wanted to remove it from the original post just incase some didnt read the whole thread lol:)

CELESTRON AstroMaster 76EQ Reflector Telescope buy online | Currys

[chemtom24]

thanks madhat - i had a feeling it was that range from reading some of the other comments. i had the 130 version as a first scope. gave me more than good enough views of saturn, and the moon was crisper than anything i had ever seen outside of a telescope, so it certianly impressed me ( and my mother and sisters and mates, and even some bloke who walked past our drive and asked what we were doing! haha, he enjoyed saturn tho very much so

obviously 76mm is almost hlaf as big but still, for that money itl give some amazing views of the moon and that alone can and will get some people hooked, so that can only be a good thing, tho a few other halfs, bosses, and your bank balance may disagree

*edit* yes rdf is awful - improvisation is needed to find anything (simple maths/physics shoudl help solve this ) focuser is very good tho. having upgraded to a skywatcher, I have only just realisded how good the focuser is/was on my 130. the skywatcher focuser is appalling. i had assumed they would be alot better, since i knew the 130 was a beginner scope and assuemd bigger better scopes would be just that!

[Madhatter]

Thats great to hear tom:) i just told my GF too order one of these and she has, was starting to worry abit! lol.

Do you remeber what kind of adapter the RDF is on your old 130? quick release?/2 pin? i will try and pick her up a skywatcher red dot from astroboot as a replacement.

The moon is stunning even through a cheap scope, looking at it through my old jessops T80-800 was what got me hooked , acctualy i wish i kept that so i could compare that too the 76EQ -but considering the 76 has a parabolic mirror and a better brand name im hoping it will out perform the jessops:)

Do you think the focuser on the skywatcher 250px is just as bad? im ordering one on monday