Skywatcher Explorer 130P newbie review

[MartianSunset]

So I recently decided it was time to buy myself a telescope. After years of staring at the sky with just my eyes, and occasionally a pair of cheap binoculars, I wanted something more powerful, and with more upgrade potential. I did tons of research, read hundreds of reviews and eventually settled on the Skywatcher Explorer 130P. I'm going to try to write a short review, from the point of view of an absolute beginner.

I ordered the scope from First Light Optics. Shipping to Ireland was a little more expensive, but FLO have a brilliant reputation for customer service so I decided it was worth it. I ordered the scope on a Friday night, and received an email on the following Monday explaining that my scope was out of stock, but that they hoped to be getting it back in within a month, and that I was free to cancel my order at any time, should I want to. Four days later, I got another email saying that my scope was due in the next Monday and would be shipped to me immediately. When it shipped, I was sent a FedEx tracker number, and was able to track my scope and get an idea when it would arrive. FedEx sent it to France for a few hours, for a little holiday I guess, but it arrived in perfect condition last Friday! So major thumbs up to FLO for excellent service and keeping me up to date with what was happening!

First Impression

Once I got the many boxes, bubble wrap and tissue open, the scope itself was surprisingly easy to put together. Screw the tray to the tripod, secure the mount, attach the tube rings to the mount, and then (gently) plonk the OTA into the rings and secure. And that's pretty much it.

It was, of course, cloudy the day my scope arrived - new scope curse and all that, but I practiced getting the scope set up for the next clear night. I aligned the red dot finder, balanced it and practiced with the RA and DEC controls. The red dot finder works well and is very simple to align with the scope - aim it at a distant spire or lampost, check the eyepiece, make a few minor adjustments and and you're done. You can dim the red dot for night-time use too.

First Light!

On Tuesday, the sky finally cleared! I dragged the scope outside around 9pm (it lives in my conservatory for now, so it's already close to cool enough) and set it up. I didn't polar align it that night, as Polaris was behind a cloud when I started, so that'll have to be a project for the next night. So I ended up lifting the tripod around and aiming in the general direction of what I wanted to see, using the red dot finder to center it in the eyepiece. The RDF worked like a charm, just point and go.

First things first, the tripod and mount. The EQ2 could be a bit sturdier, as the scope suffers from the shakes when it's touched, whether from focusing the eyepiece or just bumping off it. It settles down reasonably quickly though, and there's a few things you can do to dampen the wobbling. Adding weights to the tripod helps, along with anti-vibration pads. I've heard of people putting sand in the tripod legs to stabilise it too, but I haven't tried that yet. It was pretty windy that night so the scope was a bit on the shaky side, and that combined with the wind making my eyes water was giving me slightly blurry vision. So it was a less than ideal night for stargazing, but I was too excited to wait!

I aimed at Jupiter first, and wow, what a view! Jupiter is past it's best for viewing right now, being pretty low in the sky but it was the object I was most excited about so I had to give it a try. And honestly, I was blown away. I could clearly see Jupiter as a disc, surrounded by the four Galilean moons. And when my eyes stopped watering (it was the wind, not run-away emotions, I swear!) and the wind died down, I could see faint banding. This view alone was worth the price of the scope.

Jupiter is still pretty small, about the size of a pea held at arms length, but it was absolutely amazing. I used the 25mm ep first, and then the 10mm for a closer view. I've read that the supplied 10mm is not great, but to my (extremely unexperienced) eyes, it was amazing. I kept the scope on Jupiter until it went behind a cloud just above the horizon.

Next I moved onto my second target, M42, the Orion Nebula. Again, the RDF performed well, despite the nebula appearing fairly dim from my light polluted garden. It was another serious wow moment. The dust clouds were incredibly beautiful and I could make out 3 or 4 stars in the trapezium. Mind-blowingly beautiful. Again, I stayed with M42 until it got too low in the sky.

Then I just wandered around the sky for a bit, it's amazing how many stars you can see through the scope. I aimed it at a patch of sky that appeared dark and empty, and when I looked through the eyepiece, it was filled with stars. Next, I headed for M45, the Pleiades, my favourite star cluster. From my garden, with the naked eye, you can just about make out 5 stars in the cluster. With the 25mm ep, the field of view was filled with hundreds of stars. Gorgeous.

Finally, I swung the scope upwards and aimed at Venus. A lot of people say that Venus is slightly underwhelming through a telescope, but it was beautiful. I could see a very bright, perfect crescent shape. Lovely.

So all in all I spent about 2 hours outside. I stayed out until my hands were frozen and the sky had pretty much clouded over. It was a wonderful 2 hours. The telescope easily surpassed my expectations, and performed brilliantly, despite the somewhat less than optimum conditions. I still haven't quite figured out the equatorial mount, but that'll come with practice I guess. I absolutely cannot wait for the next clear night!

250 euro is not a bad price for the universe.

____________________________________

That was longer than I intended... Review complete with pics is on my blog, and the link is in my signature! I'm off out for a second go with the scope!

Clear skies,

[wrinkly]

Glad you enjoyed it and felt the need to tell others of your awe. Whenever you let newcomers have a peek through a 'scope, that is the normal reaction.

Well written. Must remember to kiss the Blarney Stone on the next visit to Erin and then I'll be able to express myself as well as you.

ENJOY!

[Luwigy]

Hi, I was looking at getting this scope spotted your review and thought "Ace" "A newbie" (ive never seen a scope in real life LOL ..... don't know anything at all).

I was glad to hear the scope was so good

BUT your not a newbie so have thrown me a bit into not getting a scope

"""RA & Dec controls""" """Plonk the OTA into the rings""" """The EQ2 could be a bit sturdier""" """my second target, M42""" """the RDF performed well""" """"I headed for M45""""

I fink u fibbed you sound like a veteran.

should I get a book b4 a scope ?

Yours so so so out of my depth LOL

Luwigy

[stem1989]

glad you have enjoyed your scope and thanks for taking the time to write this review Well written, informative and a good in sight, i have the slightly bigger brother 150p and they are great collection of scopes.

[pel]

Hi, I was looking at getting this scope spotted your review and thought "Ace" "A newbie" (ive never seen a scope in real life LOL ..... don't know anything at all).

I was glad to hear the scope was so good

BUT your not a newbie so have thrown me a bit into not getting a scope

"""RA & Dec controls""" """Plonk the OTA into the rings""" """The EQ2 could be a bit sturdier""" """my second target, M42""" """the RDF performed well""" """"I headed for M45""""

I fink u fibbed you sound like a veteran.

should I get a book b4 a scope ?

Yours so so so out of my depth LOL

Luwigy

Yes it would have been handy if the the jargon was bracketed with an explanantion, but it was a good review and you can't always explain every term.-

"""RA & Dec controls - The 2 directions that an equatorial mount moves in (Right assension and Declination)

"""Plonk the OTA into the rings - Optical tube assembly , the telescope itself, the other bit being the mount

"""The EQ2 could be a bit sturdier - The type of equatorial mount (tripod and mount), an EQ2 being a lightweight/starter one.

"""my second target, M42 - Messier Object 42 - The Orion nebula (Charles Messier was a French Astronomer and comet hunter that listed a lot of objects that weren't comets to cross them off as it were)

"""the RDF performed well - Red Dot Finder , a viewer you look through that has a Red dot in the centre, you use this to locate the general location of the object you want to see in the OTA

""""I headed for M45 - The Pliades or Seven sisters star cluster .

Expect to have to google a lot and ask lots of questions, its a steep learning curve. Buy a few books and a starter scope.

[Neil_F]

A great review Jess, well written and highly informative too. Clearly a girl who knows what she's on about.

[Mattscar]

Thanks to this review and several others Iv just bought the same scope but with a different mount, the SupaTrak one. When it arrives in a week or so I'll do a review of my own and we can compare differences

[Stargazer 2013]

I know this topic is quite old but I have been looking on Google to try to find the Pleiades but am struggling,I know it's near Taurus the bull but can someone tell me where the Pleiades or seven sisters are in the sky? North/south.east/west? Would love to look at these

[rory]

Have you downloaded stellarium ? It's a great tool for FREE. But regarding the pleadies ( messier 45). It's actually a very easy naked eye object .

Simply look out toward Taurus and you'll see a group of stars tightly packed together ( to me looks like a kite with small tail or a small version of the plough ) that is the pleadies .

It's a large open cluster and most find best viewed with low powers or binoculars. Rises from the east and goes through south to west , so look south .

[Special K]

Great write up and only just seen this. Wish I could write so well, but think I have as much fun observing! The 130P is a good setup and plenty to handle to begin with. I'm still very happy with mine mainly because its a snap to move around and literally takes me 1 minute to have it deployed, polar aligned, and ready for action!

[LouisJB]

Excellent! Great to see people enjoying astronomy. I've still got my 130P tube although pretty much everything else has been upgraded. That happens, it seems...

My first sight was the Dumbbell nebula, it was absolutely fantastic, as was the Ring nebula. It's probably a bit late in the year to see those now, but do have a look at M31 and M33 and not to mention the Moon, you'll be in for a real treat. i've only seen Jupiter and M42 recently myself, since they were not visible until recently, amazing aren't they.

The EQ2 is pretty wobbly, but you get used to it. For visual observing it's ok and if you get it well balanced it doesn't do a bad job, considering the price. Probably the best ~£170 ever spent, sounds like you'd agree. For anyone else thinking to get started, just do it

Enjoy!

[Special K]

I know this topic is quite old but I have been looking on Google to try to find the Pleiades but am struggling,I know it's near Taurus the bull but can someone tell me where the Pleiades or seven sisters are in the sky? North/south.east/west? Would love to look at these

Pull off the Moore Winter Marathon PDF from google, in addition to Rory's sound advice.

[rory]

I know this topic is quite old but I have been looking on Google to try to find the Pleiades but am struggling,I know it's near Taurus the bull but can someone tell me where the Pleiades or seven sisters are in the sky? North/south.east/west? Would love to look at these

 ive sent a p.m stargazer 2013. as I don't want to hijack the thread.

[Stargazer 2013]

Thanks..I now know its NW of Jupiter

[Stargazer 2013]

Thanks..I now know its NW of Jupiter

NE sorry

[Special K]

NE sorry

I might be wrong, so await an expert to confirm or deny, but I think your first statement that Pleiades is NW of Taurus is correct in astronomical terms as it is lies in the direction of your Western horizon in relation to Taurus.  This is understood in relation to the directions you know standing on the Earth rather than looking at the sky as a large map and thinking that the upper right hand corner is NE.

[tomo1515]

The Universe is truly fascinating. I can't wait to order mine.