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skywatcher vs celestron


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hi every1 im looking for some advice on buying a good 1st telescope and due to my budget im thinking either the celestron astromaster 130EQMD or a skywatcher 130p im not sure if a MD is vital or not and is there any difference optically between them, ive heard the celestron is more plasticy than the skywatcher but i dont realy mind that if the viewing is the same as it is a bit cheaper any help would be welcomed :)

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so would you say that going for the celestron will give just as good quality of view as the skywatcher would? as i said dont mind a bit of plastic its the quality of view i want and think that spending more on the skywatcher would be a waste if they are the same or am i wrong?

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Optically they are probably exactly the same as both brands are owned by the same manufacturer. The main complaint I see about the Celestron Astromaster's is that their red dot type finders are poorly designed and difficult to use so you may well need to budget for a replacement (around £30).

I notice that the support vanes holding the secondary mirror on the Celestron are thicker than the Skywatchers which could cause more prominent diffraction spikes on bright objects.

Other than than those things, not much between them.

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I have a SkyWatcher 150P and my son was given a Celestron 114 Astromaster. Optical quality is about the same (obviously you can see more with the 150, but the 114 is not bad at all). The red dot finder on the Astromaster is really terrible and the mount is pretty wobbly. It's the Celestron version of the EQ1 tall tripod. Having said that, it does work and it does get used occasionally (by an 8 year old).

The focuser is better on the SW as well. In fact, thinking about it, everything is better on the SkyWatcher. But I am not comparing directly comparable scopes; the respective 130's might be much more closely matched. I would still chose the SkyWatcher simply because I don't like orange anodising.

Sorry, I'm not helping much am I.

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If it's a short f ratio like f/5 or something then yes, the parabolic mirrors are better. A motor drive is pretty essential for imaging, but you can only really do webcam stuff with the 130's. Visually, having motors on an EQ mount make it easier to keep objects in the eyepiece, especially at higher powers, but they are not really necessary.

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as far as I know it is a parabolised mirror on the celestron as well. scratch that I read on celestrons blurb that all their mirrors are parabolised but have just read on a celestron supprt page that the astromasters are not

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Hi cwesley1,

My only advice on a 130p is that its rather large so I guess the Celstron will be the same, having owned a Skywatcher 130p 3 or 4 years ago when I started getting into stargazing I found it a bit of an military operation to move the scope around my garden and travelling out of town to get darker sky’s, in the end I got rid of it as it was just collecting dust and started to just use a pair of binoculars which I found a lot easier.

But it is a very nice bit of kit for the money.

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Hi cwesley1,

My only advice on a 130p is that its rather large...QUOTE]

:D... the 130P is a baby :) Guess it is all relative.

Admitedly, some of the scopes can be pretty big so if space and manual handling are going to be an issue then it would be sensible to go and have a look at some of them in flesh (well steel mostly but you know what I mean)

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do you guys rekon i should go for a 114p instead or will i not see as much objects with the smaller scope since i live in wales light polution isnt a real issue so i get good skys. id rather a less bulky scope so i could put it in the car and take it up the moutains round here (go plenty round here)

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If you have dark skies, the bigger scope you have the better. With a 130P you will get wonderful views of loads of interesting objects. If you are worried about portability, have you considered the Heritage 130P Dob instead? This is a great little scope but you will probably need a table or something to stand it on. Optically the same as the 130P only in a folding format and with a much smaller base.

First Light Optics - Skywatcher Heritage 130p Flextube

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yes i have looked at these but as you say id prob need a table to put it on which would be fine for the back yard but i like the idea of taking it places iv got plenty of room in the boot of my car so size shouldnt be to much of an issue. would i be able to see planets like jupiter+moons and saturn+rings with a 114p? or would a 130p be alot better?

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sorry for all the questions i feel like a pest! ha. i was thinking, with the dob mount is it easy to track objects in the sky with as aposed to an EQ mount? what the advantages and disadvantges of the two different mounts?

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