Celestron SLT 127 Review

[harriri2000]

Hi Guys,

I hope this helps some people looking to buy the Celestron SLT 127,

I finally got the telescope from Ebay, for £261, concidering it was bough a couple of months ago and was still in brand new condition it was a bargin. I was actually looking to but a SW Explorer 200pds - EQ5 mount looking to upgrade it to a GoTo in the future. But when I saw this scope on Ebay I thought I'd put a cheeky bid in and hey presto I won the bid.

So after waiting for a clear night, I read the instructions to make sure I make the most of the clear night when it happens. Setting up the telescope was a doddle the instruction made it really easy to understand and to be honest I didn't need the indructions to set it up it is quite simple. I was really shocked on how heavey the OTA was, it's not a strain but looks are deceiving.

First whilst playing around with it indoors I had a go at to align the StarPointer red-dot finderscope, it's the first time I have every used a Red Dot Finderscope and I loved it, once it was aligned the finder works really well at what it is meant to do, after reading the instructions I realised that you are meant to keep both eyes open rather than close one eye and try and centre the dot (learning cutrve) . It took me about 10 minutes to align, I'm sure the more times I do it the quicker it will become. Now it just had to wait for a clear night......

When the clear night finally came I made sure my 19 month old Daughter was fast asleep (it was time for Daddy to play with his toy) and my wife had plenty to watch on TV....Me time...

Set up

Seting up the scope was a lot easier than the first time a had done it a couple of days ago, still took me a little bit of time aligning the finderscope, the red dot finder is fantastic and really easy to use. Then is was time to level the 127 SLT which has a small bubble level on it that which was also easy to do, now it was time to stargaze.

When you turn on the computerized mount, the handset offers you a varity of options to align it with the night sky, the option I used was (which I'm told is the most accurate) was a two star alignment, the other options are something like one star alignment, two star AUTO alignment and solar system align.

So I started the two star align by inputting the date, time, and time zone, then it asks to slew to any star in the sky and then tell the handset what star it is. first you have to get the star in the centre of the red dot starfinder press enter then fine tune and get the star in the centre of the telescope eyepiece and then press aligned button. Do the same to the other star (which has to be about 30%-60% apart) once this is completed to you good to go!!!!.

Observing

Now I'm new at viewing through a telescope (normally naked eye or Binos), I was like a little kid in a sweet shop not sure where to look first, on the handset you can choose a number of things to view and they are all available at a touch of a button, if you are not sure what is in the sky that night then you can press the "Tour" Button this will let you see the night sky at the time. so I looked through what was on offer, they had Messier numbers, Nebula's, planets, star constellations loads to be fair. On my HTC phone I have an application call "Google Sky Maps", which I find very useful when stargazing you just point the phone up at the sky and it lets you see what you are looking at, it's very very good would really recommend it, save time star hopping. some of the other buttons you have to choose from apart from Tour is M numbers,Stars, Cald ( not sure what this one is yet), Stars and Planets, so there are loads to look at definitely enough to keep you busy. Other great things about this Scope is that if you are new to Stargazing (which I'm sort of am) there is an INFO button which gives you good information about the object you are looking at which is useful.

The night itself wasnt at it's darkest due to the moon being so high and bright, I got my phone out and was woundering what to look at, M52 was my target in the constellation of Cassiopeia, it's not one of the major messiers to veiw but still a nice one, to be fair it was a little faint smudge but I didnt expect anything different the SLT 127 is a 5".

I then looking over my shoulder and I saw Saturn!!! wow this is gonna be interesting!! so I programmed the SLT 127 to find satan after about 35 seconds it was insight bang in the middle. At first I was viewing it through the 25mm which looked a bit small (a circle with a line going through it) so I tried the 9mm, a lot better, you could see the ring clearly, not much colour, but it was really clear I was pleasantly amazed, It was the first time a have actaully seem a plannet with my bear eyes, (i know this sounds a bit stupid) but I was really taken back, after all this time looking through a set of binos I hadnt really had a good look at any plannets, seen loads in magizines.

I do need to buy some more eyepieces maybe a 30-40mm, like I said I am new to all this, so need to call a dealer for advise.

The night ended there, I could have stayed out for much longer but I had work the next day, and with a 19 month old daughter she will probably be up really early.

In a nut shell

I would recommend this scope to someone who has a budget of £300 - £500 would like a GoTo and is also after a pick up and go scope which this one is fantastic due to being so light, The mount is a bit wobbly just dont touch it. But all in all I'm very impressed, well worth the find on ebay (happy days), Just need to get some more eyepieces. I feel I have some exellent night ahead, I there was one would to sum this scope up it would be..."fun" because of the price and it's feature you are going to have a lot of fun with it, the things you can do with this scope are endless, I know the scope is only a 5" but it sure packs a punch for a 5", I will still try and get the exploer200pds maybe my next Xmas prezzy, if you want £'s for the aperture then you're best of with a Dob. Being a 5" my views are going to be resticted but still fun, there will still be some DSO that I will be able to see just not the faint stuff, the limit stellar magnitude it 13 which means you can still see a lot, seeing something as a faint smudge through the 5" will still be a smudge through 8-10" just that it will be a bigger smudge with more contrast.

Thank you all for taking the time to read my review:D

[twotter]

SATAN!!!!!

Blimey!!!!!

Nice review and good to hear you had a good first light.

(Ps. You meant Saturn didn't you?)

[harriri2000]

what a blonker!!!! yes sorry, my bad

[ykket]

Thanks for the review, I have been starting to think about which scope I should get to replace my old Celestron (not sure the model, I got it almost 15 years ago when I was a kid for xmas) and am contemplating the 127 SLT.

[harriri2000]

Hi Russ, its a fab scope a great grab and go, really easy.to use. What do you want from your next scope ie DSO...planetary....ect?

[bm1980]

Must agree these scopes are excellent, also very good at web cam imaging with the spc900 take a look at some images i have captured (on my profile.)

Regards

Ben

[harriri2000]

Must agree these scopes are excellent, also very good at web cam imaging with the spc900 take a look at some images i have captured (on my profile.)

Good photos Ben, I've only really had my scope for a couple of weeks now, do you know of any good eye pieces for the scope:icon_scratch:

[ykket]

Hi Russ, its a fab scope a great grab and go, really easy.to use. What do you want from your next scope ie DSO...planetary....ect?

basically id like to view planetary and lunar (maybe get the neximage for images) and the common DSO that can be seen. More or less, putting together a nice little beginner setup and in the future, once i figure out which path i really want to go, upgrade to different scope/cameras. thanks

bm1980: i just looked at your albums, that is pretty much what id like to start doing! the images look awesome!

[bm1980]

Good photos Ben, I've only really had my scope for a couple of weeks now, do you know of any good eye pieces for the scope:icon_scratch:

Hi Richard as far as eye pieces go i went for a 6.5 mm plossl as this is the maximum magnification you can push this scope to for visual observing. Also i would recommend going for a 32mm for increased field of view on open clusters etc..

Thanks Russ glad you liked my pictures, if nothing else they show what a capable little scope is even in the hands of a newbie like me.

Regards

Ben