Celestron31045 AstroMaster 130EQ Reflector Telescope & 94119-A 1.25 Inch Moon Filter

I had a meade scope when I was a child so had a little knowledge using this type of scope and setting one up but fir a beginner it isn't to hard to setup I would recommend Google ngl a setup video to aid you. The scope is super clear with the 20mm and even the 10 mm when looking at the moon, all the pics are just putting my phone up to the lens of the scope nothing more. You can see Jupiter and its monns and even can see orion nebula although it is difficult to take a clear picture of seeing it through then scope is much clearer. This is just my first day using it but so far top marks. I would recommend getting a chair to sit whilst you look to help keep it stable and avoid shaking. 100% worth it also investing in more eye pieces to give me a better and deeper view of what's out there.

I think it's always good to give some background info on myself first so if you're in a similar position you know what to think. I'm 18, finishing my A-Levels, about to start an Astrophysics course at Uni and i've not personally used a telescope before.I'd been toying with the idea of buying a telescope for a while, and after Christmas had some spare cash so set out to find one for >£250. I spent weeks researching and contacted friends, teachers and professors about what would be best for my situation. the feedback i essentially got was to buy a Newtonian reflector of minimum this diameter aperture.Being 18 and not wanting to overspend i bought this one. And after a combined usage of about 6 hours i think i can come up with a good review. On the upside: It's easy to assemble regardless of the instructions. I didn't look once and had it together in 20 minutes; it produces a VERY clear image and have seen brilliant detail of objects like the moon, the bands of jupiter and it's moons and more recently the Milky Way; it comes with some good extras such as the two eyepieces. On the downside; it's hard to use at first, the dot finder for example was useless (infact i took it off completely and instead screwed on my point and shoot camera and used the zoom on that to locate what i wanted to see, reduced the time to find, for example, jupiter from 30 minutes to 30 seconds) making it hard to use for beginners although with a few hours practice you'll be fine; it's not particularly transportable, to move all the bits and pieces single handed (i.e. the telescope, the counterweights and the tripod) it takes 3 trips and you need those three trips unless you want to mark every wall in your house and develop a back injury as the combined thing weighs a lot; it's also quite hard to control, the "precision" controls are pretty flimsy and i feel like i'm going to break them, not to mention the fact that you get roughly 4 seconds of visual time on any object before you have to re-align it as the object's drifted away.On the whole i gave it 4 *'s because for it's price it does the job nicely. It's not super expensive (especially here on amazon) which means you get a lot for your money, the concepts are easy to pick up and it gives you the single greatest feeling ever. The first time i saw jupiter for example it made it worth every single penny. So, if you're in the same boat as me. You want something to mess around with a couple of hours a week. And to see something really cool. Look no further, or rather not too much further (see below). For the price this was brilliant and arrived quickly all in one piece (figure of speech).HOWEVER!!!!!There are two MASSIVE things to keep in mind.Firstly, if you are like me, a beginner. You MUST!!!!!!!:1) Buy a light filter too, otherwise you'll see for example the moon for 3 seconds and you'll come away nearly blind. I wouldn't opt for the celstron one amazon recommends, it's ok, but not great. Instead spend the extra pound and get this "Light Blue 1.25" Telescope Filter - (73% transmission)" type it into amazon and you can't miss it2) Don't get this one. The is the 130 EQ, get the 130 EQ-MD, the MD stands for motor drive. Which means that it'll track whatever you're looking at. This means you'll be able to actually look at stuff rather than glimpse it then re-align. This also comes in EXTREMELY handy with astrophotography (see below) as it means you can have longer exposure times. It's worth paying the extra £20 for a better quality stand3) If you're interested in taking pictures using this scope you need to buy a 1" / 1/4" adapter and a T-Ring of your particular brand DSLR camera. This is the easiest way for doing it, as in my experience afocal imaging is hard to do. Although if ALL you want to do is take pictures of stuff, don't bother with a telescope, buy a DSLR camera, a telescopic lense, a stand and an automatic shutter release. It's so much easier to do, and produces just as good pictures as the telescope a lot more easily.And secondlyIf you're not a beginner. Don't buy this telescope at all. This is a good scope, but having seen the quality of a picture taken on a £7000 telescope the price really does matter even at a smaller scale. pay as much as you can afford and i promise you'll be happier with it. Although i can't really advise you much on what to get.

this is my second Celestron Astro master 130eq telescope and its amazing first telescope easy to build it took me about 20 minuets on my own. was delivered on time and there was no damage whatsoever to the box or item. very sturdy when built and easy to use, only fault i found was not the item but the Celestron cd that came with it, if you have a laptop with no disc drive its Awkward to get it installed, i still not have it on my laptop but i do have other programs that are basically the same programoverall i give this 99prercent (less 1 percent for the cd issue)

Depending on how much you paid for this telescope will determine wither it's a 3 or 4 star product. For the sake of comparison this is based on the 130EQ with Motor Drive (MD) bought for £189.99 on Prime.The packaging it comes in is very good I have to say. Well thought out and everything is secure. All the spaces are carefully packed so that nothing falls out of place.The build took me 45 minutes. I guess a lot of that time was taken watching a YouTube video of how to assemble it. It's simple enough with the video guide, the quick assembly guide which comes in the box is poorly written and the pictures are too small to see clearly what's going on. At least it's in colour though.Once assembled you do need to load up that CD or look online on how to align and to use the telescope. The Equatorial Mount (EQ) is a more technical set up than the dobsonion mounts but allows for tracking an object through the night sky. There's no instructions on this and I guess you are assumed to know this before buying this telescope. So do, do some research before hand.The build quality is good and the tripod mount is pretty sturdy. Could be heavier just to minimise vibrations but I guess at this price point it isn't bad.The MD is a welcome addition but what they don't say or it isn't mentioned is that with the MD in place the DEC fine tune cable can't be used.The lenses (10x and 20x) that come with it are basic and are the same ones that came with my Celestron spotting scope which was under £50. So not the best lenses/optics by any means but more than adequate for viewing the moon.There is a filter thread on the focuser which allows you to attach a DSLR via a T mount. Haven't taken pics yet but can't wait for clear weather next week.You can use the optional mobile phone holder and use your Google Pixel phone (which has specially adapted optics for astrophotography) or a decent mobile camera.Once set up and aligned it's pretty neat. Looks the part but the proof will be in the pudding as they say. But so far so good with the preliminary views.The software, which is free, doesn't work on your mobile. Again they don't tell you that. After registering and signing up for it you can download a pc or Mac version. But there's no app as such. It's free but pretty useless unless you are going to have your laptop / MacBook with you.Luckily there are free apps which suffice and do the job.Overall, pleased with the purchase. Some niggles here and there but nothing detrimental to the overall performance.Good second telescope moving on from beginner scopes.

Sturdy and accurate. My first ever telescope so I don’t have much to compare it to but it’s an enjoyable past time.