Celestron 130 EQ

[George B]

Having just bought my first telescope (Celestron 130 EQ) I was just wondering if there are any images available that I could potentially get with said telescope. I am also having trouble finding objects with the finder scope that comes with the telescope and wondering if there was a better one that I could purchase relatively cheaply.  Any help with this would be much appreciated.

[rowan46]

welcome to sgl. I am fairly sure that this is the same scope as the skywatcher 130p in which case you  are going to have problems focussing a dslr at prime focus quite a few people have problems with its finder. Its possible you havent set it up right but many people replace it anyway. This one is a pretty good match to the 130 http://www.firstlightoptics.com/finders/rigel-quikfinder-compact-reflex-sight.html

[Charic]

George B............Hi. Only going on what you mention, you need to focus on something  a long way away, maybe miles away, on the ground, in daylight.  Now your looking through the telescopes eyepiece to do this action. Once you have found a target, and centred it in your eyepiece, lock the telescope to maintain position. Then go to the finder scope. your task now is to move the finder-scope by using the adjusters, to effectively line up the scope with the target you have already located in the distance. Once both the telescope and the finder-scope are sighted `centrally` on target, your then set-up, ready  for proper observation. Now when you align the finder scope on the Moon or Polaris North Pole star, the image should also be central in the eyepiece. So align the telescope in daylight, match the finder-scope to same target. now good to go. Hope this helps. maybe you wont need a newer scope just yet 

[dag123]

Hi,

I have had this scope for a couple of years now.

I agree that the red-dot-finder is not much use, and so I just don't use it.

I have a 32mm eyepiece, from the Celestron EP kit, and with that I just line the whole scope up in the general direction of what I am looking at.

The field of view is so large that it is very easy to get your target somewhere in view, then centre it with the controls and then increase the magnification.

This method is far quicker than when I was mucking about with the finder and ended up getting cold before I'd even found my first target.

Regarding images, I have done rather well (IMHO) with a cheap webcam, jupiter, mars and the moon.

For the moon I have also done reasonably well holiding up a camera phone to the EP.

The quality is not as high as some of the amazing photos you will see posted here, but for a beginners scope certainly good enough for you to decide if you have the astrophotograhy bug.

Hope this helps.

dag123

[NGC 1502]

welcome to sgl. I am fairly sure that this is the same scope as the skywatcher 130p in which case you  are going to have problems focussing a dslr at prime focus quite a few people have problems with its finder. Its possible you havent set it up right but many people replace it anyway. This one is a pretty good match to the 130 http://www.firstlightoptics.com/finders/rigel-quikfinder-compact-reflex-sight.html

Hi and welcome to SGL.    I agree with rowan46, the finder in his link works really well, more money I know, but you could drop hints for Christmas 

It's essential to line up any finder with the scope.  If you don't do that, you will struggle big time.  Best done during the day.  Pick as distant an object for this as poss.  Use your lowest power eyepiece (the one with the largest number on it).  Point the telescope at the distant target, then adjust the finder to accurately line it up.  Switch to a higher power eyepiece (smaller number on it) and with that, you can very accurately set the finder.

When using the scope at night, always start with your lowest power eyepiece, because that will show the largest amount of sky and give you the best chance of finding your object. Once you've found it, you can switch to a higher power if necessary.  Don't overdo the high magnification, you will actually see more with a smaller but sharper view than a larger but fuzzy one.

Taking pics ?  Don't want to discourage you at all, that's not what SGL is about, but I do think it's best to get a grounding in visual astronomy first, think about imaging down the line.

Regards, Ed.

[Siriusmeg]

I have this scope too, my first scope.  I replaced the finder with a red dot finder, only cost about £15 and it made a massive difference - I could find things!

Sorry, I haven't tried photography with it.  Nice little scope, I saw some fantastic sights through it, & now use it when we go on hoiday as it's so portable too 

[George B]

Thank you all for your comments that I fully take on board and will act upon. However, just for a bit of clarification I confusingly mentioned images. I did not mean that I wanted to start taking pictures, certainly need to walk before I run lol. What I actually meant was are there any images posted on here or elsewhere that have been taken using the Celestron 130 EQ just to give me an idea of the potential of the scope. Sorry about the confusion.

[Mrlangston]

The best thing I have done so far with my scope is replace the finder. I found it was useless and it stopped working after a few sessions. I got a rigel as it is smaller than a telrad and it transformed my use immediately. I can now point the scope at anything and it is almost always in the eyepiece!

I have yet to upgrade from the stock eyepieces so cannot compare quality but I have not had any issues with the views I have had so far.

I think there is a section on the Celestron website with images taken from various scopes. I spent ages looking before I bought mine but remember what you see in the eyepiece is nothing like a processed image!

[dag123]

Hi George,

I trawed back through some of my posts from a couple of years ago, my first attempts at imaging Jupiter with my Celestron 130EQ and a cheap webcam..

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/76963-embarrassing-jupiters-webcam-clinic/page-18#entry1238404

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/76963-embarrassing-jupiters-webcam-clinic/page-17#entry1234420

This whole thread is a very interesting read and you will clearly see what you might get with many different scope.

Plus loads of tips for the whole process of setting up the scope to the image processing of the results.

Hope this helps
dag123