Getting started with a non motorized scope.

[Canoosey]

Hello we are getting my daughter a celestron 130eq manual scope for her birthday. I don't have a clue with this stuff.

How do I get her started?  is there a good app that will help us to set up the scope and see basic stuff? Or how so you start seeing objects?

[John]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Here is a link to a straightforward guide to setting up the Celestron Astromaster 130EQ:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/celestron-site-support-files/support_files/1213475482_am76114130eqset.pdf

One step that the above misses out comes between 9 and 10 in the instructions and this is to set the latitude angle of the mount to match your latitude using the latitude adjustment screw and then lock it in that position. You only need to do this once.

There is also a further important step after the last one shown which is to align the finder red dot with the view in the eyepiece of the scope. You can do this in daylight using a distant (several hundred metres away) object such as a chimney or telegraph pole top. Again, once done, this should hold for some time but it is very important to ensure that what the finder is pointed at, is actually in the view of the scope !

To find things to observe, this book is an excellent starting point:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/books/turn-left-at-orion-book.html

There is freeware planetarium software package called Stellarium which is very useful and popular. This can be downloaded from here:

https://stellarium.org/

There is also an Android version for mobile phones for which there is a small charge I think:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.noctuasoftware.stellarium_free&hl=en_GB&gl=US

Hope that helps !

 

Edited August 28, 2021 by John

[Canoosey]

Hello we are getting my daughter a celestron 130eq manual scope for her birthday. I don't have a clue with this stuff.

How do I get her started?  is there a good app that will help us to set up the scope and see basic stuff? Or how so you start seeing objects?

[Canoosey]

excellent that's a great start, I'll give it a try.

[Davey-T]

Did you seek any advice before choosing it, it's not the easiest scope for a beginner.

Dave

[Canoosey]

I didn't no......🤔

[johninderby]

A manual alt-az mount is far easier to use than an EQ mount. This is an ideal beginners scope.and being alt-az the eyepiece will allways be in a conienient position unlike with an EQ where it can get into some very awkward positions.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-az5-deluxe/sky-watcher-explorer-130ps-az5-deluxe.html

Edited August 28, 2021 by johninderby