scope on ebay, help pls

[SirPaulyUK]

Skywatcher 130-M reflector telescope on eBay, also, Telescopes, Binoculars Telescopes, Photography (end time 27-Apr-09 19:45:00 BST)

thar she blows!

will this be ok as a 1st scope? it will be used for planetary observation with the odd dso thown in for good measure...

im currently using revelation 15 x 70's, they're great but looking at saturn etc all i see is an elongated "thing"... orion nebula is a faint glow around a few stars..

i just want to see a bit of planetary detail etc.. maybe add a webcam to it later and upgrade the motor drive.

any advice will be very welcome.

much love x

[Doc]

Welcome to SGL.

Quite a few of us started off with a Skywatcher 130P. They are pretty good for the money, they will show you planets well but will struggle on all but the brighter DSO's.

[acey]

Take it somewhere dark enough for you to see the Milky Way with the naked eye and this scope would easily show you all the Messiers. But as Doc says, from the light-polluted sites most of us have to put up with, it will struggle with DSOs. The gap in Saturn's rings (Cassini Division) and Jupiter's main cloud belts should be easily seen from any site, if the scope is in decent nick - and if you know what to look for.

When I was a kid I had a 40mm refractor with a fixed magnification of 30, and Jupiter was a featureless white blob through it. I dug it out a few years ago, looked through the living room window at Jupiter, and could see one of the cloud belts easily. Give it time and effort and a 5" scope like this will prove very rewarding. Just don't expect too much from it all at once.

Andrew

[cjh2007]

Hi pauly, i recently purchased the same scope as the one your looking at. as a total beginner im very impressed!! The only planet ive really had a good look at is saturn, WOW! can also see 3 of is moons! light pollution around here is pretty bad so im sure it would look even better in a dark area!! The mount seems pretty sturdy too!! Id say go for it!!

[SirPaulyUK]

thx 8)

lets hope i can get it for under 100 with p&p

[acey]

If you only want to look at planets then don't worry about light pollution - it makes no difference.

Good luck with the auction!

[SirPaulyUK]

thx 8)

my next Q is the mount. how stable are they? not too much wobble i hope

i'll check in later, gotta go to work to make some skin paintings

[Doc]

As Andrew has pointed out light pollution does not affect planets nor does it affect clusters to a point. The main victim of light pollution is galaxies. Aperture is not always king when it comes to competing with dark skies on gallaxies.