Just bought my first telescope - Skywatcher 130P EQ2

[Mic2020]

Hi new to star gazing and bought a second hand Skywatcher 130P it came with a 10mm and 25mm eyepieces. Just wondered what the more experienced star gazers think of this telescope is it any good for a beginner. 

Any recommendations on what eyepieces to get. I have ordered an Orion Shorty 2 x Barlow but thinking of getting a 6mm Celestron Omni Series 4 Element Plossl Eyepiece 1.25” would this be a good buy?

Would welcome any advice you can give a newbie. Thinking of buying another eyepiece possibly a 9mm. First impressions are mixed but think this is down to my inexperience. Any help is appreciated. 
 

Thank you in advance 

[Sunshine]

Hello!

 It cannot be stressed enough how important it is that you seek out your local astronomy club and, join it. You will, as we all have at one time, benefit greatly from mingling with others who will be more than pleased to help you both grow with your scope and, understand the night sky. Another recommendation I know will REALLY help you (as it has for us all also) is seek out a book called "left turn at Orion" or, another great one "Nightwatch" by Terrence Dickinson. Those books are beginners bibles, they're not science books meant for astronomers but, books tailored for the beginner.

Having said that, Welcome to SGL!, congratulations on your first scope, it is a great beginners scope, you'll enjoy it for years to come. Utilize YouTube for videos like "using an equatorial mount" "night sky for beginners" and so on, YouTube is a treasure trove of info for all of us amateurs. Work with the eyepieces you have for now, you will know soon enough what you want, get to know your scope and how it works under the night sky. Make sure to read the manual and, most importantly, never get discouraged if you run into a roadblock, we all do. When you get out under the sky, first thing you'll want to do is put in an eyepiece, find any terrestrial light or lamp post in the distance, focus on it, then adjust your pointer so it is pointing at the same object your scope is looking at. Once this is done, they will be in sync with each other and you can then use the pointer as a target finder for the scope.

Have fun and, visit often!

Edited February 20, 2020 by Sunshine

[Littleguy80]

This was my first telescope. I had many happy hours with it. Learning to find targets is tricky with the EQ2 mount. I replaced the red dot finder with a Telrad. A Rigel Quickfinder may be a better sized option. I highly recommend the BST Starguiders. The 8mm was the first one I purchased for mine. For a Barlow look for the Baader Q Barlow 2.25x. These often come up second hand for a good price. Same with the BST Starguiders. 

Don’t be disheartened if you struggle to find things to start with. I found it difficult to align on the Moon when I first got it but with practise I was soon star hopping my way around. Lots of experienced and helpful people on here so feel free to ask all the questions you want  

I should add that it’s worth spending time using it with the stock eyepieces while you get used to it. Better to be comfortable with using the scope before spending lots on upgrades. 

Edited February 21, 2020 by Littleguy80

[Aramcheck]

We started out with a SW 130M, a close relative, about 16 months ago. It's a decent scope for a beginner and I found the best upgrades to be replacing the red dot finder with a telrad & adding a 9x50 right angled finderscope.

A neutral density filter proved useful for viewing the moon & a light pollution filter too... also a star atlas book - eg the pocket one produced by Sky & Telescope.

We've subsequently upgraded to a much more expensive GoTo but I regret selling the 130M...

PS: At higher magnifications (whether via a barlow or shorter focus eyepiece) you'll find that it's harder to get good focus & targets will drift out of the field of view much quicker...

Cheers
Ivor

Edited February 21, 2020 by Aramcheck
Tired brain...

[joe aguiar]

Yep that a good starting scope and a decent quality one.

In time u may need to upgrade the eps but red dot finderscope should be ok

I agree too night watch book is really good it has 20 pages of charts to shows best stuff to look at.

I like planisphere but most now use app on the phone 

Joejaguar 

[Timebandit]

 

Hi welcome to SGL , a nice starter scope. 

My best two points of advice to you

1 Get yourself  the book " Turn left at Orion " great book for a newbie

2 Get yourself to a true "Dark site" the DSO will just pop to the eyes , in light pollution areas you will have difficulties or maybe not see many fainter DSO. A Dark site is really Worth the effort 👍

 

Hope the above helps

 

 

 

[Carbon Brush]

Hi and welcome to SGL.

You have a good choice of scope there.

Good advice about contacting your local astronomy club. Where are you?

For your first spend, why not a copy of 'Turn Left At Orion'.
An excellent book with realistic viewing targets and how to find them.
EDIT - timebandit got in there first!😁

In terms of scope upgrades. Finder first.
Some Skywatcher finders aren't that good. I have seen them with tinted plastic that blots out anything dimmer than Jupiter. also the LED too bright and can't be dimmed enough.

Whether you go for a red dot finder, or a true finderscope is very much a personal choice.

My preference on a Newtonian is a right angle finder with 50mm objective. BUT it is a peronal choice.

Don't forget, any finder (or eyepiece) you buy is transferrable to your next scope.

Enjoy the journey.

David.

 

Edited February 21, 2020 by Carbon Brush

[RobH2020]

Hi Mic,

I'm a recent beginner too.

One thing that's useful to know is how bad the light pollution is where you are. You can find out by moving to your location on this website http://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.html#4/39.00/-98.00 The closer to red/white you are, the worse it is. The closer to blue/black you are, the better.

This feeds into the eyepieces too - if you're in a very light polluted area, you might want to start your focus on eyepieces for planets or the moon, which you might magnify quite a bit. If you're in a dark sky area, you can see much more, things like nebulae and galaxies, in which case, eyepieces with less magnification might be useful (the longer the eyepiece, the less magnification it has).

The first thing I found useful were smartphone apps. You can hold these up to the sky and it'll tell you which stars you're pointing at, or how to find specific stars. It'll also tell you the best things to look for. A couple of suggestions are Stellarium and SkySafari. Just get the free versions for now. I've not tried the books recommended above myself, but I will have to.

In terms of specific eyepieces, I'm just awaiting my first new one now. After much research I went for ones called BST StarGuiders. These are about £40-50, fit your 1.25" barrel, and have a wider field of view than the plossls you're looking at buying. This means you can fit more of the sky in the scope at one time, so can be more enjoyable. Plossls are famous for you having to put your eye quite close to the lens to see the full picture, especially shorter ones like the 6mm you mention. The StarGuiders aren't so bad on that front. As I say I've not tried it out yet, but they're very favourably reviewed for the price by people on here. You can of course spend much more to get better ones, but that seems a good entry price to me. The first one I'm getting is 18mm, I figured that's a good "inbetween" the 10mm and 25mm the scope came with, plus with a Barlow I get a bit more magnification than the 10mm.

Another thing you might like to consider is to begin with is a moon filter. The moon can be very bright to look at, can be a bit painful. These are relatively cheap I think.

As others have said, another "finder" scope to replace the red dot sight you've got attached to the barrel might be useful. If that's a sight that doesn't provide any magnification, it can be a bit harder to find fainter or smaller objects. But have a play with it first to see what you think.

Hope that's useful from a fellow newbie!

Cheers,
Rob

Edited February 21, 2020 by RobH2020

[Kriss Craik]

Hi Mic2020, nice scope. I started with a similar one the Celestron 130. I found the Omni plossl’s worked well. One thing to point out is that you might benefit from a wider field of view and a lower power eyepiece might really complement what you have already. Something like the omni 32mm would work really well in observing the larger DSO’s as well as help you find the smaller targets before switching to a lower eyepiece like the 9mm.

 

hope this helps

Edited February 21, 2020 by Kriss Craik

[Mic2020]

Thank you to everyone who has replied and provided some useful information. Advice which I will be taken. 
 

Where I live in Newcastle it is not a dark sky area and I think I need to get out and do some star gazing from a dark sky area. Checked the local areas out for a dark sky are using the link posted above. 
 

i also need to learn how to use the telescope at the moment, my expectations are that I will look through the scope and see stars close up and I need to start initially looking at planets 🪐 first and buy a moon filter.
 

Definitely going to buy the book “Turn Left at Orion”. 
 

Lots to learn, but thanks for all the advice, I no doubt will be posting further on this forum. 
 

[soldave]

Reading this thread eagerly as today I got hold of a used Sky-Watcher 130M and am a complete noob to telescopes, equatorial mounts and all this stuff. Will be grabbing "Turn Left at Orion" and probably a laser collimator too to make sure the mirrors are set up right.

[Littleguy80]

12 minutes ago, soldave said:

Reading this thread eagerly as today I got hold of a used Sky-Watcher 130M and am a complete noob to telescopes, equatorial mounts and all this stuff. Will be grabbing "Turn Left at Orion" and probably a laser collimator too to make sure the mirrors are set up right.

With my 130M I only ever used a collimation cap. Cost about £5 and was plenty good enough to keep it collimated. I did put a centre spot on the mirror to help with this. 

[RT65CB-SWL]

Hi @Mic2020 and welcome to SGL. 

Congratulations on the 'scope purchase and I agree with all the above comments.

130mm is not to shabby. I started this with wonderful hobby with a 40mm refractor and was in awe when looking at the Moon, Jupiter & Jovian moons, could just about view the rings of Saturn when it was favourable and starstruck when I first looked at Mizar & Alcor, (a known double/double in Ursa Major/the Plough*).

First really useful accessory is to get would be a red LED torch, (I have even used a rear cycle lights from the £1 shops), so you can read your star charts or when writing notes and preserves your night vision/dark adapted eyes.

You will have noticed that the end cap has a smaller cap. This is will step down the aperture even further, but here's another use/tip for it... many observers purchase a sheet/or roll of Baader Safety film, (link below**), and stick it on the inside with adhesive tape and safely observe the Sun for sunspots or they make a full aperture solar filter. DO NOT VIEW or IMAGE THE SUN WITHOUT IT!

Wishing you clear skies on the Tyne from the Thames Valley.

 

* the Plough is the asterism within Ursa Major.

** https://www.firstlightoptics.com/solar-filters/baader-astrosolar-safety-film-nd-50.html

[barkis]

The 130p is an Ideal instrument to cut your Astronomy teeth on,. Versatile and easy to handle. Many objects will be accessible through your eyepieces, good steady skies prevailing.

I concur with the posts warning of the sun's danger. You need to be equipped with suitable protection to enable you to observe it. Always seek advice on the best filters. If the scope has a finder fitted, you must cover it's lens to safeguard anyone curious enough to chance a look without realising even a finder is dangerous if not filtered properly. 

Enjoy the scope, and post your viewing experiences with us.   

Ron.

 

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

I started out with a 130p variant. It's a nice telescope which will give you hours of pleasure once you get to grips with it.

As mentioned above, BST Starguiders are quality eyepieces for £40ish new. I bought an 8mm and 15mm which still get used every session.

Buy one or two books for instance; Turn Left at Orion and/or Patrick Moore's Astronomy: An Introduction: Teach Yourself series. Consider a planisphere (basically a map of the night sky).

Install a free mobile app. There's several, but Sky Safari and Stellarium seem to be the most popular.

Give it a year! At first you may find it takes weeks or months to find objects, but when you do it's a satisfying experience and it gets easier.

Edited February 22, 2020 by ScouseSpaceCadet

[wookie1965]

If you live in light polluted area dont think you are going to see galaxies galore in technicolor you wont, you will only be able to see the brighter ones M81,M82, Andromeda when that comes back(M31) look for clusters both globular and open as well as double stars.

The galaxies will be grey but clusters have different coloured stars and so do the double and multiple stars leave the galaxy hunting for dark sky areas this will make you enjoy the hobby and not put you off when you cannot see anything.  

[RobH2020]

11 hours ago, Philip R said:

You will have noticed that the end cap has a smaller cap.

Oh is that what that's for?? I wondered why it has that! Why do you want to reduce the aperture, just for looking at the sun?

[wookie1965]

17 minutes ago, RobH2020 said:

Oh is that what that's for?? I wondered why it has that! Why do you want to reduce the aperture, just for looking at the sun?

NEVER  ever look at the sun unless you have appropriate film over the opening, you reduce the aperture mainly to let less light in E.G when you have a full moon

[RT65CB-SWL]

22 minutes ago, RobH2020 said:

Oh is that what that's for?? I wondered why it has that! Why do you want to reduce the aperture, just for looking at the sun?

Better contrast when viewing the Moon and planets ...I think! - It is also offset so the 'spider' vanes do not get in the way and no diffraction spikes.

Edited February 22, 2020 by Philip R

[RobH2020]

3 minutes ago, wookie1965 said:

NEVER  ever look at the sun unless you have appropriate film over the opening, you reduce the aperture mainly to let less light in E.G when you have a full moon

Sorry yes i meant in conjunction with that baader film that was also linked!

[RobH2020]

22 minutes ago, Philip R said:

Better contrast when viewing the Moon and planets ...I think! - It is also offset so the 'spider' vanes do not get in the way and no diffraction spikes.

Hmm so maybe i don't need a moon filter after all if i can just do this!

If we're reducing the aperture by using that little cap, that massively increases the f ratio of the scope right? What are the implications of that?

Edited February 22, 2020 by RobH2020

[RT65CB-SWL]

Depends on how sensitive your eyes are to bright light. I use this type...

  

...of variable polarising filter when viewing a near or full Moon. 

[wookie1965]

36 minutes ago, RobH2020 said:

Hmm so maybe i don't need a moon filter after all if i can just do this!

If we're reducing the aperture by using that little cap, that massively increases the f ratio of the scope right? What are the implications of that?

As far as I know makes no difference looking at the moon you would just be able to see the craters and mares rather than a blinding light.

[des anderson]

Your going to have a few up`s and down`s, it happens to all  of us. Just enjoy your journey and the rewards will speak for them selves. Des