Celestron Eye Piece & Filter Kit and Celestron 130EQ Astromaster

[Naemeth]

Okay, first off, I'm sorry if this has been asked before but..

I was thinking of buying a Celestron 130EQ Astromaster, yet having read the sticky about Eyepieces, I was wondering whether a eyepiece set I found would actually give me good viewing.

Telescope stats: Optical Design Newtonian Reflector Motor Drive None Aperture 130 mm (5.12 in) Weight (lbs) 28 lbs (13 kg) Angular Field of View (deg) 1.5 ° Linear Field of View (@1000 yds) 79 ft (24 m) Optical Coatings Aluminum Focal Length (mm) 650 mm (26 in) Focal Ratio 5 Eyepiece 1 (20mm) Magnification 33 x Eyepiece 2 (10mm) Magnification 65 x Mount CG-3 Equatorial Highest Useful Magnification 307 x Lowest Useful Magnification 19 x Limiting Stellar Magnitude 73 Resolution (Rayleigh) 1.07 arc seconds Resolution (Dawes) 0.89 arc seconds Light Gathering Power 345 x Optical Tube Length 610 mm

The eyepiece kit is:

• Five Superior Grade 1.25” Plössl Eyepieces (6mm, 8mm, 13mm, 17mm and 32mm) - 4-element design with a 52° AFOV — Superb color resolution, edge sharpness and clarity. All eyepieces are fully multi-coated for maximum contrast and resolution.

• A 2x 1.25” Barlow Lens - Complements the included Plössl eyepieces to give you a total of ten power combinations. High grade glass optics with fully multicoated lenses are used so there is no degradation of image.

• Six Coloured 1.25” Eyepiece (Lunar and Planetary) Filters - Included are Kodak Wratten #12, #21, #25, #56, #58A, and #80A. Since you have all the eyepieces necessary to study the planets and moon in detail, these filters will greatly enhance your enjoyment of our solar system.

• 1.25” Moon Filter - A neutral density filter which allows you maximum enjoyment of the moon especially during the brighter phases.

Are they compatible?

EDIT: Sorry for the formatting

[rwilkey]

Hi, the Celestron set will compliment the telescope very well, have a look also at the Revelation Photo/Visual set as well, highly regarded on this forum, however, I have the Celestron set and can recommend it as a good starter kit.

[Dazza121]

Hi I bought the 130eq for my son for Christmas and the celestron eyepiece set and found it to be very good (and led to me buying a 200p and goto mount lol)

The eyepieces aren't bad but I don't think the kit is worth the money unless you are getting it very discounted - the 32mm is pretty good and I still use this - I found the 4mm to be a bit unusable with the scope. I've since purchased an 8mm and 18mm bst explorer and an x-cel lx 25mm and a tal Barlow which cost me around the same as the kit but get used a whole lot more. I'd suggest you get just the scope first and see how you get on with the supplied eyepieces and then add sizes you think you need as you go along

Good luck

[Dazza121]

Just noticed the newer kit doesn't have the 4mm in it - they obviously agree its a waste of space lol

[Naemeth]

Hi I bought the 130eq for my son for Christmas and the celestron eyepiece set and found it to be very good (and led to me buying a 200p and goto mount lol)

The eyepieces aren't bad but I don't think the kit is worth the money unless you are getting it very discounted - the 32mm is pretty good and I still use this - I found the 4mm to be a bit unusable with the scope. I've since purchased an 8mm and 18mm bst explorer and an x-cel lx 25mm and a tal Barlow which cost me around the same as the kit but get used a whole lot more. I'd suggest you get just the scope first and see how you get on with the supplied eyepieces and then add sizes you think you need as you go along

Good luck

Would the 6mm be useful in your opinion?

[Dazza121]

The 6mm did ok on a clear night so i would say yes but I much prefer the 8mm bst as its much easier to look through. If I had to start again from scratch I wouldn't have bought the eyepiece set unless it was really cheap as 3 months on the only thing in the set that still gets used is the 32mm and that's only because no one has stock of the 32mm panaview.

But as a starter set its ok - the case is nice but doesn't really have space to add much more in - the good thing is I don't mind my son handling and swapping them out if he wants to use them now lol

[JamesM]

I'm not convinced as to whether these eyepiece kits are really as great a bargain as they first appear by the time you have subtracted the value of the items you are unlikely to use. You might want to read this review of the above Celestron set which highlights the good, the bad and the ugly. Personally, I would join an astronomy club or observing group and go out observing with some seasoned observers to see if you can try out out some of their eyepieces to see what makes a difference in your scope. I know there are some exotic eyepieces out there that require a lie down after you've seen the price but equally there are some good quality eyepieces that will last you a long time that are very reasonably priced. If later you decide that astronomy is not for you, good individually bought eyepieces will hold a better resale value that will enable you to recoup some of your investment, or alternatively to fund a later upgrade should you want to stay in astronomy.

James

[rwilkey]

Hi JBM1165, I agree with you, since buying my kit (cheaply on eBay), I have gone down the route of individual eyepieces and much prefer them, the trouble is that when you are a newbie, you don't know what to buy and trying a kit seems the best option. It was not until I got more experience that I realised the benefits of buying ep's to suit my individual viewing preferences, but it was only with experience and the benefit of hindsight that I could do this.

[Hitesh]

I owned that telescope for a week and gave it back, just really didn't like it. I got a skywatcher skymax 90mm instead, and it is massively better. It isn't too much more either, most sites have it on sale for about 150 quid

[Tribal-Wolf]

If you have not bought the scope yet then I would say you be better off buying a better scope and say two EPs for the same money. There have been a lot of people with bad reports on this scope and if you have that much extra to spend on a kit it is better spent on a better scope IMO.

[Naemeth]

What scope would you all recommend, besides the Skywatcher Skymax?

[Tribal-Wolf]

Most people will recommend a Dobsonian and with good reason but if you don't want one then it depends on your budget. The biggest aperture you can get is usually the rule of thumb but if you plan on any astrophotography you may want to concentrate more on the mount. Under £300 Skywatcher scopes are a better bet.

1. What do you want from your scope?

2. How much have you to spend?

[Naemeth]

Most people will recommend a Dobsonian and with good reason but if you don't want one then it depends on your budget. The biggest aperture you can get is usually the rule of thumb but if you plan on any astrophotography you may want to concentrate more on the mount. Under £300 Skywatcher scopes are a better bet.

1. What do you want from your scope?

2. How much have you to spend?

1. To be able to see Venus --> Saturn with reasonable detail (Can NEVER be at the right height to see Mercury, trees keep blocking me, not sure how plausible Uranus and Neptune are to see in any detail)

2. Preferably less that £150. But, I might save up for something around £200 if the results will improve a lot.

Does that help?

EDIT: Forgot to add, I won't be using it for astrophotography.

[Dazza121]

where were you going to get a 130eq and the celestron eyepiece kit for £150 ?

the eyepiece kit is that price on its own - i used my boys 130eq 4 times before a bargain 200p came up so now i use that (was £160 delivered with dew shield) - a lot of people seem to think the skywatcher 150p is a good scope for viewing and starter astrophotography but with a decent mount your still looking at a lot more than £150.

Never used a dob so cant comment on those.

If you have that limited budget I wouldnt let people put you off a 130eq or 130p as for viewing the moon, jupiter and saturn youll still get some good viewing. add a half decent webcam and decent barlow and youll be able to take some pics with it.

[dag123]

I found the Celestron EP kit, the newer one, a very useful learning experience with my Astromaster. The 32mm-6mm range along with the 2xBarlow allowed me to work out what EP were best for different viewing targets. The 32mm is still my most used for finding targets and the barlow is used for webcam imaging. The moon filter is also well-used.

You will certainly be able to see Venus, although it is too bright to make out much detail other than the different phases.

The rings of Saturn will be clearly visible, as is Titan. I've tried to convince myself that other moons have been visible but due to my light pollution I cannot be sure.

dag123

[Naemeth]

where were you going to get a 130eq and the celestron eyepiece kit for £150 ?

the eyepiece kit is that price on its own - i used my boys 130eq 4 times before a bargain 200p came up so now i use that (was £160 delivered with dew shield) - a lot of people seem to think the skywatcher 150p is a good scope for viewing and starter astrophotography but with a decent mount your still looking at a lot more than £150.

Never used a dob so cant comment on those.

If you have that limited budget I wouldnt let people put you off a 130eq or 130p as for viewing the moon, jupiter and saturn youll still get some good viewing. add a half decent webcam and decent barlow and youll be able to take some pics with it.

Wasn't including the kit in that, sorry. Telescope budget at roughly £150

[Tribal-Wolf]

Well budgeting wise I would say you £300 then as personally I would rather spend £200 on the scope at least then you could buy 3 Vixen NPL Eps for £90, or 2 EPs and a TAL barlow. With that budget you could get a Skyliner 150P dob and altogether would give you a far better set up than the astromaster. Or a 200P and a barlow and save for the rest. If you still want to limit your scope budget I would extend it slightly and get the Skywatcher 130P, it is by many accounts a better scope than the astromaster, better optics and better built.

[dag123]

Agreed about adding the the barlow and webcam with the Astromaster.

My 2xbarlow was from the EP kit but I think a basic £30ish barlow would be equivalent, add a SPC800/900 webcam (if you can still get them for about £30), and you have a pretty decent setup for less than £200. All the capture/stacking/processing software were free-downloads.

This is an example of I have been able to get out of my Astromaster, with others later on in the thread.

http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-tips-tricks-techniques/115493-embarrassing-jupiters-webcam-clinic-14.html

Please have a quick look at the other pictures in this Jupiter thread, it will give you a good idea of what you might expect from what scope/webcam/barlow combinations.

dag123

[dag123]

Ooops, I should have added the motor-drive to that last post. I got mine as an afterthought, you don't really need the motor for general viewing. I should also say that it does get in the way at a couple of scope orientations. However for webcam'ing it is worth it!

Still just about under the £200 mark if you get a good deal.

dag123

[Naemeth]

For views sake, which would be better for a Skywatcher 130, EQ2 or Newtonian Reflector?

[Dazza121]

if you scrap the eyepiece kit and put the money towards the scope id go for something like this :

First Light Optics - Skywatcher Explorer 150P EQ3-2 / EQ3 PRO GOTO

or this

First Light Optics - Skywatcher Skyliner 150P Dobsonian

[Naemeth]

if you scrap the eyepiece kit and put the money towards the scope id go for something like this :

First Light Optics - Skywatcher Explorer 150P EQ3-2 / EQ3 PRO GOTO

or this

First Light Optics - Skywatcher Skyliner 150P Dobsonian

Damn, that first one is a nice scope. Just out of interest, what is the difference between the EQ3-2 and the EQ3 PRO GOTO apart from the obvious price difference?

[Dazza121]

the goto is the computerised version once alligned you just tell it what you want to look at and it moves the scope to where you need to be to see it (makes finding galaxy's and nebulae a lot easier. also as it tracks what your looking at to keep it in the eyepice view so you dont have to adjust the mount continually (which also helps when you want to take images)

[Naemeth]

I don't think I'd need that. It would be useful if I had the money, but I'd probably prefer to find things myself for the moment .

[Dazza121]

On that mount it's probably a waste of money anyway - much better to save the money or use it to get a better mount like an eq5 or heq5 which will be much sturdier and can be upgraded with motors if or when you think you need to