Celestron AstroMaster 130EQ MD

[Alex_o0]

Hi friends, 

I’ve been thinking of getting the following scope.

https://www.ozscopes.com.au/reflector-telescope-celestron-astromaster-130eq-motor-drive.html

What appeals to me is that it is motorised and therefore it will make locating a lot easier(I hope). I wanted to get into stargazing a few years ago when I initially joined forum a few years ago, but unfortunately to due to some personal circumstances I was not able to. But things have changed now.

Will this scope allow me to see any plants with the right eyepiece ?

 

looking forward to reading your thoughts and I am happy for alternative suggestions for around the same price 

 

 

 

[Nik271]

Dear Alex,

I have this scope. The motor tracks the object in view with the movement of the stars but it won't help you to find it initially. For this you need a 'go-to' mount (which are much more expensive).  Its not a bad beginner scope, there are some well documented issues with it (wobbly mounting, spherical instead of parabolic mirror) but for the money it gives you 130mm aperture which is a lot to see many dim objects. I saw the Dumbbell nebula, Orion nebula and Andromeda galaxy with it.

As for planets you will definitely be able to see the moons of Jupiter and its red spot and the main equatorial belts, the rings of Saturn, the phases of Venus with the 10mm eyepiece. At this magnification 65x the images will be small though. The optics are not of sufficient quality for much higher magnification.

I hope this helps,

 

Nikolay

 

 

[Alex_o0]

38 minutes ago, Nik271 said:

Dear Alex,

I have this scope. The motor tracks the object in view with the movement of the stars but it won't help you to find it initially. For this you need a 'go-to' mount (which are much more expensive).  Its not a bad beginner scope, there are some well documented issues with it (wobbly mounting, spherical instead of parabolic mirror) but for the money it gives you 130mm aperture which is a lot to see many dim objects. I saw the Dumbbell nebula, Orion nebula and Andromeda galaxy with it.

As for planets you will definitely be able to see the moons of Jupiter and its red spot and the main equatorial belts, the rings of Saturn, the phases of Venus with the 10mm eyepiece. At this magnification 65x the images will be small though. The optics are not of sufficient quality for much higher magnification.

I hope this helps,

 

Nikolay

 

 

Thank you Nikolay and thanks for taking the time that does help !!

if you were to recommend any other scope please let me know

[Andy38416]

I also have had this scope a long time ago and fully agree with Nikolay’s comments. It’s a good little telescope but will not ‘goto’ for you, you would need to find them yourself but with the motors will track.

is goto a ‘nice to have’ or a ‘must have’ for you? Gotos will cost more money. Obviously what you will see will depend on many circumstances, light pollution, atmosphere conditions or often called seeing conditions, but should be able to see the things you mention above.

Edited August 22, 2020 by Andy38416
Bad spelling

[Alex_o0]

2 hours ago, Andy38416 said:

I also have had this scope a long time ago and fully agree with Nikolay’s comments. It’s a good little telescope but will not ‘goto’ for you, you would need to find them yourself but with the motors will track.

is goto a ‘nice to have’ or a ‘must have’ for you? Gotos will cost more money. Obviously what you will see will depend on many circumstances, light pollution, atmosphere conditions or often called seeing conditions, but should be able to see the things you mention above.

Thank you for you response , I’ve read that locating something like Saturn is quite difficult and it moves out of sight very quickly. This is based on something I read and not experienced , therefore I thought the GOTO will help in this case. If that is not the case I will definitely be happier saving and skipping on the motor.

[Padraic M]

I started with this scope and was very happy with it for the price - it is excellent value for money. If you're not sure whether you want to invest in astronomy, or don't have the (very significantly more) money to go for a robust goto/tracking mount, this is a very good starting place. You will be able to see many space wonders, but photography will be very basic.

The mount has two slow-motion controls for Dec and Right Ascension. You get into the approximate area of sky with the RA and Dec clutches, and then fine-tune using the slo-mo controls. The Dec slo-mo can be used to track the object manually. The red-dot finder that comes with it is very helpful to find objects initially. Don't forget to switch it off once you're done, or the battery will run down quickly. I wouldn't agree that it is difficult to find objects like Saturn and Jupiter - at least you can see them with the naked eye as bright stars, so once you get used to it it's really quite straightforward to get the scope pointed directly at them.

As mentioned above, the motor drive will not help you find an object. It may help with tracking an object once you find it - I never managed to get the motor drive to work for me, so I don't recommend it. Others have used it successfully.  My issue was that it takes over the Dec slo-mo control point, so you can't manually fine-tune the mount any more, You need to constantly adjust the motor speed up and down to 'catch up' with the object, and to reverse once you 'pass it out'. Personally, I would suggest that you save €50 and not buy the MD version.

On the plus side, objects such as Saturn or Jupiter don't move particularly quickly with wide-angle eyepieces. As you increase the magnification, they will move across the field of view faster. There's no problem following them with the slo-mo Dec control. It really only causes stress if you're showing objects to other people; you will have to adjust the Dec control every ~20 seconds or so at highest magnification, and because you can't see while they're watching, you need to get them out of the way quickly!

I would certainly recommend this scope at that price - you can get a very usable mount and scope with an acceptable level of quality for €300 (aud499). You will definitely be able to see the planets and the brighter nebulae e.g. Orion. I was amazed at what I saw through mine. Just bear in mind that if you want better optical quality, a stable mount and goto/tracking capabilities you will need to spend 5 times this amount. If you want to take pictures that impress your friends, you will need to spend 5-10 times this amount.

[Andy38416]

52 minutes ago, Alex_o0 said:

Thank you for you response , I’ve read that locating something like Saturn is quite difficult and it moves out of sight very quickly. This is based on something I read and not experienced.

Personally I dont think any of the main planets are hard to find in the night sky. I recommend an app called SkyView, you basically hold your phone up to the night sky and it tells you where things are, you can even select a object, like Saturn, and it will tell you to move your phone around till you find it. It also plots a projected path and estimated time where it will be in the sky - so you can see what path of the sky it will be in at roughly what time. I’ve included a screenshot below.

Edited August 22, 2020 by Andy38416

[John]

Anything viewed through a scope moves across the field of view at pretty much the same speed, planets, stars, deep sky objects. View at higher powers (as you often do with planets) and that rate of movement is magnified so becomes much more apparent.

That said, many members of this forum observe at high powers with un-driven mounts and often alt azimuth mounts as well and seem to enjoy their observing

 

 

 

 

 

[Alex_o0]

6 hours ago, Padraic M said:

I started with this scope and was very happy with it for the price - it is excellent value for money. If you're not sure whether you want to invest in astronomy, or don't have the (very significantly more) money to go for a robust goto/tracking mount, this is a very good starting place. You will be able to see many space wonders, but photography will be very basic.

The mount has two slow-motion controls for Dec and Right Ascension. You get into the approximate area of sky with the RA and Dec clutches, and then fine-tune using the slo-mo controls. The Dec slo-mo can be used to track the object manually. The red-dot finder that comes with it is very helpful to find objects initially. Don't forget to switch it off once you're done, or the battery will run down quickly. I wouldn't agree that it is difficult to find objects like Saturn and Jupiter - at least you can see them with the naked eye as bright stars, so once you get used to it it's really quite straightforward to get the scope pointed directly at them.

As mentioned above, the motor drive will not help you find an object. It may help with tracking an object once you find it - I never managed to get the motor drive to work for me, so I don't recommend it. Others have used it successfully.  My issue was that it takes over the Dec slo-mo control point, so you can't manually fine-tune the mount any more, You need to constantly adjust the motor speed up and down to 'catch up' with the object, and to reverse once you 'pass it out'. Personally, I would suggest that you save €50 and not buy the MD version.

On the plus side, objects such as Saturn or Jupiter don't move particularly quickly with wide-angle eyepieces. As you increase the magnification, they will move across the field of view faster. There's no problem following them with the slo-mo Dec control. It really only causes stress if you're showing objects to other people; you will have to adjust the Dec control every ~20 seconds or so at highest magnification, and because you can't see while they're watching, you need to get them out of the way quickly!

I would certainly recommend this scope at that price - you can get a very usable mount and scope with an acceptable level of quality for €300 (aud499). You will definitely be able to see the planets and the brighter nebulae e.g. Orion. I was amazed at what I saw through mine. Just bear in mind that if you want better optical quality, a stable mount and goto/tracking capabilities you will need to spend 5 times this amount. If you want to take pictures that impress your friends, you will need to spend 5-10 times this amount.

Thank you for such a detailed answer 

[Alex_o0]

6 hours ago, Andy38416 said:

Personally I dont think any of the main planets are hard to find in the night sky. I recommend an app called SkyView, you basically hold your phone up to the night sky and it tells you where things are, you can even select a object, like Saturn, and it will tell you to move your phone around till you find it. It also plots a projected path and estimated time where it will be in the sky - so you can see what path of the sky it will be in at roughly what time. I’ve included a screenshot below.

Thank you will definitely get the app  

[BrianHes]

Hi Alex

i currently have this scope. I was a newcomer to astronomy and didn’t want to spend too much money but wanted a usable scope which would let me dip my toe and see what I could see. I bought it with the motor. I thought, like you, that it would help find my targets. I found out when I read the instructions that it wasn’t what it was for. As has been mentioned, it is used to track an object automatically once you have found it. However that does need you to polar align properly and accurately, which isn’t something I have mastered yet. So far it hasnt been much of a problem and I have been able to keep track quite easily manually. 
Many people don’t like the red dot finder. I haven’t used anything else, so have nothing to compare it to, but I find it easy enough to use. If I can se an object, stars or planets, I can find it. I use Sky Portal (free) and Sky Safari (paid for) to find things. Once I know where I am looking, I use the pointer to locate, and the slow controls to centralise. I have been able to view Saturn and Jupiter, and will check out Mars when it clears my house. I have split some double stars etc. Stuff like that is really satisfying. 
the supplied eyepieces (20mm and 10mm) are serviceable but not much more. I have upgraded and the quality is much better, so the views are much clearer, even when conditions are not the best. 
as some have said, the mount does suffer from wobble, which can make it quite tough to get smaller objects properly focussed, which can be quite frustrating. I have tried lots of things to improve it, but with limited success. Some have said that the scope is quite large for the mount, which makes sense. If you get the focus right though, the first time you see Saturn’s rings, you are hooked and want more. 
to sum up. I think it is a good scope and a good way to enter the hobby. You will be able to see some impressive sights - although don’t expect them to look like the images you see in the media. It will be much smaller and less detailed. It does however have limitations, some of which are quite irritating. Before deciding to jump, look at other scopes within your budget. Read reviews and get opinions. If you do want the facility to be taken to the object, you need some sort of GoTo mount and a bigger budget. That is the route I am about to take

hope that helps

[AstroNebulee]

16 hours ago, Alex_o0 said:

Thank you for you response , I’ve read that locating something like Saturn is quite difficult and it moves out of sight very quickly. This is based on something I read and not experienced , therefore I thought the GOTO will help in this case. If that is not the case I will definitely be happier saving and skipping on the motor.

Saturn is quite easy to spot, it's just to the left of Jupiter south to sw here in the UK and though not as bright as Jupiter, pretty much unmissable on clear nights, you can use Sterllarium software on pc or app to predict where to view it to 

Edited August 23, 2020 by LeeHore7

[Alex_o0]

Thank you all for your help 😊

[Nyctimene]

Wobbly mount - spherical primary mirror - I'd avoid such a scope at any rate. A Dobsonian telescope will give you a sturdy mount, and, with a parabolic primary, crisp images. I'd suggest the Skywatcher Heritage 150 P Flextube, or an 8". Handling is intuitively, as will be tracking after a short time.

Only my 8" is tracked (EQ platform), all the other scopes are tracked manually, and I'm observing with the 18 " with magnifications from 150 up up to 400+ (Luna) quite regularly and enjoy it.

Stephan

 

Edited August 24, 2020 by Nyctimene

[Alex_o0]

9 hours ago, Nyctimene said:

Wobbly mount - spherical primary mirror - I'd avoid such a scope at any rate. A Dobsonian telescope will give you a sturdy mount, and, with a parabolic primary, crisp images. I'd suggest the Skywatcher Heritage 150 P Flextube, or an 8". Handling is intuitively, as will be tracking after a short time.

Only my 8" is tracked (EQ platform), all the other scopes are tracked manually, and I'm observing with the 18 " with magnifications from 150 up up to 400+ (Luna) quite regularly and enjoy it.

Stephan

 

Thank you Stephan , I couldn't find the "Heritage 150 P Flextube" in Australia. Is this it under another name?

https://www.ozscopes.com.au/skywatcher-6-collapsible-dobsonian-telescope.html

[johninderby]

Looks the same.

Don’t know why they give it that name when the 5” version is called the Heritage.

https://www.ozscopes.com.au/skywatcher-heritage-5-dobsonian-telescope.html

Edited August 24, 2020 by johninderby

[Nyctimene]

Hello, Alex_o0,

I cannot open the links, but I guess, johninderby above will be right. Scope with two single struts to extend, 3-vane plastic spider, helical focuser, single-arm Dobsonian mount.

Someone in this forum posted a positive review; cannot find it atm (I'm in a hurry).

Stephan

 

Edited August 24, 2020 by Nyctimene