Happy cutomer 2.Now had this my first scope for 2 weeks and have to say I'm well impressed, the build quality of the tripod/ mount is surprisingly good and it comes with a nice motor drive which would seem to be a sensible essential views of the moon were excellent Venus Jupiter and moons Saturn and Mars all good (15/05/2020) Dave Brown - Norfolk With 900mm focal length it is easier to get higher magnifications which are needed to view the planets well, this version is better for lunar and planetary observation than the shorter P model but is physically longer. It’s worth borrowing a friend’s telescope, or popping along to a local astronomy club to try before you buy, as it were. This way you can also get a feel of what you like and don’t like, and start to get an idea about the best telescope for you to invest in. Accessory tray: There’s an accessory tray where you can keep items or accessories you intend to use while stargazing.

Then the optical quality lives up to the billing, at least judging it based on the context of its affordable price. What telescope is similar to the Sky-Watcher Explorer 130m and a good alternative to consider? The aluminium tripod is lightweight but surprisingly stable and proved to be a good match for the telescope and mount.

Sky-Watcher Explorer-130PS telescope mount

We also measure the Power with our systems which is essentially the error from the reference sphere to the test optic. The reference sphere we use on our system is a very high quality sphere so the closer to zero the Power, the less error between the 2 elements thus ensuring a higher quality optical surface. In both the 25mm and 10mm eyepieces the waxing gibbous Moon after Christmas was a wonderful sight through this telescope and would easily produce that wow factor for a beginner. Finderscope – Red dot finder: It also comes with a basic 6 x 24 red dot finder. I’ve heard some astronomers talk about the fit of the finderscope with the barrel.

Regarding build quality, the telescope meets the expected quality for its price point. I mean, for all the good qualities of the equatorial mount, it still suffers from a bit of droop. The Celestron AstroMaster 130EQ could be a great alternative to the Sky-Watcher Explorer 130M as it shares many similarities, such as a 130mm aperture and an equatorial mount. Once you introduce the Barlow lens into the equation, you’ll likely observe false color on some night sky objects. At Rother Valley Optics, one thing we pride ourselves on is customer service and quality of our equipment. When we test your telescope, we will ensure that it is of the highest quality otherwise, we will reject the scope under our strict quality control and test another model for your peace of mind. One of the main values to look at when testing a refractor is the Strehl ratio. The higher this number, the higher quality lens you have. At Rother Valley Optics, we will guarantee the highest possible Strehl ratio for your telescope. We will aim to provide 0.95 Strehl or higher on Takahashi, RVO Horizon, William Optics and many more! Generally, the higher the Strehl ratio, the lower the Astigmatism and Coma meaning a better image quality from your instrument. And if you want to take pictures of what you’re seeing with your camera phone, there’s a built-in eyepiece shutter release cable so all you need to do is plug in any standard USB cable (not included) and press the button on top of it. Your phone will be able to capture images through the eyepiece without having to remove it from its holder!So I dusted off the 130M and discovered that it was comparatively easy for me to set it up for viewing objects in the plane of the ecliptic. As the Mars Opposition was close I have been using mine to observe Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and the Moon recently. I had that exact setup not too long ago. The scope itself will show you a lot- it's the skies you use it under that impose the greatest limitations. The Sky-Watcher Explorer 130 is a classical Newton Reflector telescope. In its long tube is a spherical mirror, which doesn’t work as well as a parabolic mirror. Assembly and operation are simple and user friendly in the hopes of providing a welcoming introduction to observing the night sky. The Galilean telescope goes by that name because it is the same design Galileo Galilei used to discover the four big moons of Jupiter and other astronomical objects. 7. How to find Saturn with my telescope?

The Explorer-130PS is supplied with 25mm and 10mm eyepieces providing magnifications of 26x and 65x respectively. You first need to find the general direction where it currently is. Use a sky map or star chart to find that location. You can also Google search ‘location of Saturn’ and Google will show you its current coordinates. You are supplied with two eyepieces that give you two different magnifications to play with. The first eyepiece has a focal length of 10mm and the second 25mm, which provides magnification of 90X and 36X, respectively. Decide what it is you actually want to see. If you are happiest looking at the moon in detail, or a few of our closest neighbours, then your requirements for the best telescope will be different than if you want to observe deep space. If you’ve used other beginner telescopes before, you may be slightly surprised by Explorer’s optical performance. I particularly like it because you can use it for general night sky observations.In altazimuth (AZ) mode, the mount moves horizontally in a 360° circle (azimuth) and vertically (altitude) from the horizon to the zenith, the point in the sky immediately above the observer. This design requires collimation to align the two mirrors accurately with one another and the eyepiece.But, to make life easier for beginners, a large chunk of this potentially perplexing process has been removed. The Sky-Watcher Explorer 130m comes with additional accessories to complement the tube’s optics and usability: The mount is just as important as the telescope and Sky-Watcher supplied the new, dual-mode AZ-EQ Avant mount with the Explorer-130PS so we were keen to see how it performed.