What to get next?

[the milster]

My wife bought me a Celestron Astromaster 130EQ for Christmas, now, I have a bit of money to get an extra or two. I was wondering what would be the best to go for first.

I've been thinking a x2 Barlow Lens (the scope came with 10mm and 20mm lenses), a finder scope as the so called star pointer is almost impossible to use, a Telrad finder or a 6-8mm lens. Any other advise on things I may need.

Thanks

[rowan46]

welcome to sgl this is a useful free program you may not have Stellarium also a planisphere and red light torch may be useful if you are going to get a barlow this is the one to get Tal

[Demonperformer]

FWIW I would suggest you hold off until you know what you want and why you want it. Use what you have and see where you are pushing the limits. When you know that, you will have a better idea of what will be useful rather than your purchase sitting in a box unused. My 2p ...

[brantuk]

Hi Milster - what's your budget for eye pieces. The Tal is a great value for money budget ep. The next step up would be a Celestron Ultima or Orion Shorty barlows. A couple of good quality wide angle ep's would make that scope perform a lot better. Televue plossls, TMB planetaries, Meade Wide angles, William Optic Swans etc would all fit the bill. If you can stretch to the Hyperion Zoom Mk2 that's a good general purpose 5 in 1 ep.

I would advise to buy second hand though. You'll save 1/3rd to 1/2 the price of new and should be able to obtain very good condition

DP makes a good point - join a local astro soc and borrow some ep's to try out and find what you're comfy with.

[the milster]

Cheers guys, I really am thinking a finder scope would be good after another go on the scope. I can't even get the moon lined up properly in the star pointer on the scope.

On the plus side got some good views of the moon after manually finding it, also jupiter and it's moons after trying for a good 10 minutes trying to get it aligned