Skywatcher Explorer 130P with SupaTrak Mount

[Mattscar]

Hey guys.

I know there is already a review of the scope on here, but thought I would add my 2 cents aswell as I firmly believe every little helps and when people are looking to buy scopes any reviews are useful.

After only two days of waiting (I was expecting a week), today my Skywatcher arrived! Coincidentally I was working from home for the afternoon due to being under the weather, but seeing the fed ex guy at the door with a box with my name on it soon perked me up.

Upon opening the box I was greeted with lots of little boxes and two big ones, it was like a mini christmas and I wanted to open them all at once.

After a flick through the manual (quite well illustrated and more or less explains everything you need to know) we started to assemble everything.

The tripod stands quite well once the tray has been screwed into place and once the weight of the mount is screwed on there is little to no wobble at all. To level it off we used a clinometer app on my iPhone which sits nice and flat in the tray.

Attaching the mount could not have been simpler, the whole thing comes in one easy piece that sits in a cup on top of the tripod and screws into place very securely.

Once this was in place we were ready to take a look at the actual scope for the first time.

I have to be honest here and say I was expecting and hoping for a blue scope as seen in the pictures, as blue is my favourite colour, but what I found under the layers of bubble wrap and paper was at first appearance a plain black tube. Once I'd got it out and had a look at it however I saw it looks black from some angles, but from others it sparkles and turns quite a good maroon colour (I never thought I would use 'Maroon' and 'Good' in the same sentence). Now I am used to it I love the colour of it and couldnt care less that its not blue.

Attaching the scope to the mounting was as easy as everything else had been. It simply slots into the mount and tightens with one screw. We tried our best to get the balance right on it but neither my dad nor myself have any experience so we were hampered by that a little (but thats definitely user error).

Next up was to attach the spotter scope.

All previous reviews I have read of this say that the RDF you get in the box is not the best finder in the world and you can only see very bright objects through the screen that the red dot is displayed on. Well it seems Skywatcher have been listening to what people have said as I was not greeted with a RDF but rather an actual spotting scope, with no red dot or batteries, instead being a simple scope with cross hair's across the view. After I had attached the mount to the main scope, which is again very simple just sliding it into place, I looked through the spotter and was greeted with an extremely clear view, no electrics or darkened areas, just optics which made it very nice to use.

I could not have picked a worse day in terms of drizzle and fog to set all this up, but with a wide view lens inserted I was able to align the spotting scope with the main one using a telegraph pole in a field opposite my house.

Next came the discovery that to power the mount we would need either batteries or a power supply. I did think a power supply was included with the kit but alas I was wrong, so a speedy trip to sainsburys was next. Once I had 8 AA batteries in hand I set about powering it up and setting the latitude to my location. This is needed to help the tracking function of the mount. It took me two attempts to set it as I did not realize that mechanical backlash was something I needed to take into account.

With this set (although due to the weather and the fact I could not track anything this was not really needed at this point) I spent quite abit of time just pointing it at different things on the horizon; poles, chimneys etc. This helped me get used to the slew rates that the scope uses which vary from what I would call 'moderately quick' to 'are you sure thats moving?'

This is where my review has to end for now. Once I can see some stars I'll be able to write up how the tracking works and the auto track function (which if you leave running without realizing can take you by surprise coming back to it after a minute or two) and what celestial objects actually look like through it. To give a brief idea as far as I can about the actual optics, I was able to read a cows ID number on its ear tag from a good 3/4 of a mile away through a window. Id say thats pretty impressive.

All in all Im over the moon (sorry) with my purchase and can't wait to test it out on the skies. The fact I now have it but can't use it just makes me want it even more.

Thanks for taking the time and reading this.

Matt

[Csharmy]

Got exactly the same thing today aswell! Echo what has been said here!

blumming clouds though