I"ve recently bought a 12in dob as my first scope and the image quality is insane, probably a bit big for a first scope but I love it. Ive still yet to take it out into the boonies where there would be no light pollution, I can only imagine how good the image quality is there.
This is my first year as stargazer and that is my first scope. I loved it since the first sigts and almost never had problems except for collimation: a very steep learning curve for it, but lovely views each time. Great review as always Jason, keep up the great work!
this is my first scope. Bought bought it 2 years ago (without the motor). I have to agree with absolutely everything you said Jason. I have also followed all your tips on how to improve the scope so big thank you for your help. One thing you forgot to mention on the cons is that the main mirror is not center spotted (adding to the collimation struggles) One question: do you recommend any specific screws to replace the collimation screws? Do you know the technical specs of them?
Hello Pablo, Of course yes.. I forgot all about the centre spot (I always seem to manage to forget something lol)... The only place that I know were you can get ANY type of telescope screw from is Bob's knob's (Yes I know XD) I'll leave a link for you and you will be able to get them from there.. www.bobsknobs.com/
I recently bought this scope for £80 from a local woman. Her dad had loved the scope but he passed and she had no use for it anymore. She included everything with it and I was delighted to get it home and set it up for myself and my son to look through. The first evening, we saw the moon, Jupiter and it's 4 moons and Saturn. Saturn caused me to actually exclaim out loud "bloody hell!" - I was so taken aback. I've since messaged the woman to thank her again and to tell her her dad's passion has genuinely been passed down to myself and my son. We LOVE using it. A definite pleasure to use.
The Saxon version has an all metal rack & pinion focuser, optically this telescope is truly excellent, it retains collimation very well, the manual supplied is useful,clearly written and helpful. This instrument is superior optically to the cheap refractors on the market place. I own some first rate telescopes but won't sell this one, it is a useful observing instrument;as stated the motor is useful for tracking planets and the moon for visual observations. The f/7 focal ratio has a big advantage visually, A sharper image over a wider field of view; ie less coma evident visually. Highly recommended, the Saxon version. William Mitchell
This was my first proper telescope and got me hooked on the hobby. A major downside was that it’s a spherical mirror and only the 130P (parabolic) has a parabolic mirror. It gave me a steep learning curve alright but also gave me a few WOW! moments.
I was looking to get this telescope (for my first one) and I’m glad I came across this video! This is very informative about telescopes in general, thank you!
Hello there, yes, the earth rotates at 15 degrees per hour the stars don't move its the earth's rotation that makes them appear to move across the sky.
I've been using the same telescope with the motor for almost ten years and I'm still very happy with it! Simply love it! It is my very first telescope and it did take me a while to find my way around it. I've only started using the motor a short while ago, but I've managed to take photos with 10 seconds of exposure pretty well. I do very basic astrophotography and it's great with deep sky objects, because with the long exposure, you can often see targets much better than directly through the eyepiece. Only problem I've got with it is that the hole where the screw you set your latitude on the EQ with goes through broke. But I put a nut on the screw and now it holds again. Even used this telescope to photograph the ISS. Only a few of the photos are somewhat usable, but it's fun and I'm still learning when it comes to that. xD
Got the same telescope.been looking at Jupiter with 10mm.quite impressed .2 bands easily visible (with yellow filter) but pretty awful with the supplied barlow lens. Great video thanks Jason and overall a good scope I think.
Perhaps silly question. Could the philips screws not just be changed into some tumb screws if they had the same thread size? Thanks for the review mate! Edit: Well I should just watch the entire video and I got my answer. Have a great day! 🙂
Thumb screws should be standard, but aren't because it's an easy high-profit "upgrade". Serious question: refractors and reflectors both consist of two or more pieces of shaped glass mounted in a tube. Proper alignment of the lenses or mirrors focuses the gathered light for optimal viewing. Here's my question: why do reflectors have to be collimated regularly, yet refractors are good-to-go straight from the factory and stay aligned until you use the OTA as a cricket bat? What is the engineering/mechanical limitation that prevents a factory from aligning a reflector laser-straight and just locking it down rigid?
Hi Jason great videos especially the collimation ones 😊 .As you can probably tell I'm a newbie to astronomy and am looking to purchase a telescope my budget is around the £250 . I do like the sky watcher 130 it ticks a lot of boxes but storage will be a issue so was looking at refactors as tend to be smaller better for storage. Is there one that pars with the sky watcher 130 please? Many thanks 😊 🙏
In your opinion is the equatorial mount a must? There is a model available that comes without it and that's closer to my budget, I'm yet to find a second hand one sadly.
I've just bought this telescope for father, son bonding. Now I'm watching the review after the fact. I love the telescope and find it so much better than my 20 year old Meade reflector that is showing its age having been stored poorly. The pros of the Skywatcher far outweigh the cons so I'd very much recommend one.
I must push back against the myth of a larger telescope being of lesser utility under light pollution. Whatever the amount of sky glow or other unwanted ambient light, all telescopes are affected equally. If a larger telescope is 10X better than a smaller one under a very dark sky, it is equally 10X better when both are under a light polluted sky. The sky glow presents as a fixed baseline to contrast reduction, and this ratio is not altered as a function of aperture. This myth arises from the fact that in numerous instances a smaller instrument performs better under a dark sky than does a large one under a bright sky. But again, when two different scopes are working under the same sky, whether dark or bright the larger outperforms the smaller by the very same ratio, or factor.
Hey, i have been using this telescope for about 3 months. I am still using basic eyepieces that came with the telescope. I am still not good enough, in my opinion, to know which eyepieces should i buy and which are the best. so i am curious, which eyepieces did you bought seperately. i would love to know and thank you (:
Admittedly, I don’t know all the details, but it seems to me that the fault in the heads of the adjustment screws for collimation lies more with the astronomer than the telescope. I would have been on the horn with Bob’s Knobs or my local hardware store a lot sooner than the 3 years Jason has owned this one!
If I was starting out in the hobby I would go with a dobsonian...so easy to set up, so easy to use..the more complicated the instrument the least likely you are to use it!!
Great review Jason. I’ve got a skyhawk 114p and the focuser is the same. Spent an age packing the inside with sticky back felt etc. Got it as good as I could in the end with some thin Teflon tape but it still wobbles a tadge. Strange how the skyhawk has the proper adjuster knobs on the mirror but is a cheaper model to your 130m. Glad to see the channel is still growing. Brilliant 👍🏻
Hey Jason, nice and honest review. I have 2 questions: A) you mentioned that the mirrors for most of those telescopes are coming from the same manufacturer. I recently bought an Omegon 150/750. Would you think they are using the same "standard" mirrors? Well, in that size category. B) the motor is not precise enough for astro photography so is it really worth getting one if the field of view still drifts? Another thought that came to my mind is the focuser. Mine seems to be plastic as well but still rigid with a friction rotary. But it's sometimes hard to find the focus. I would like to upgrade to get a 1/10 ratio focuser element but there are so many different types and I don't know how they fit together. I disassembled mine already. There is the housing, a ring, a tube, the friction wheel and a few more elements. Maybe you could really make a video to explain some focuser and how the mechanics works for them. Would be great! Cheers!
Hello OsZ, thank you my friend.. No, your telescope mirrors Omegon are a separate manufacturer, they are European it's only Sky-Watcher, Celestron and Orion that are made in the same factory in China. Omegon telescopes are great btw just as good if not better than the said three... As for, "is the motor worth it".. Yes.. I use it all the time. It does drift but only a little and visually you wont notice it, only when you do any long exposure ( 6 second and above) photography will you notice any drift because any longer than that you will notice star trailing in the images. But like I say I do think it's worth getting one as you can spend a lot more time at the eyepiece studying the object instead of having to worry about getting back in the FOV and waiting for the telescope to settle every 10 second or so.. All plastic focuser's are worth upgrading in my opinion not that I've got anything against plastic but in my experience they always fail at some point and usually it's what has happened to mine the teeth become brittle and break, thats one of the main reasons I like full metal focusers. Which one you upgrade too is all on how deep your pockets are, the more you pay the better it will be, but just upgrading to a simple all metal rack and pinion is money well spent.. Btw you can get them for as little as £40/$46.😀
Hello. This was the telescope I was considering to buy when I wanted to upgrade from my old small 70/700 refractor, but instead I ended up with a dobsonian SW 130/650 with a parabolic mirror. Therefore I'd only like to comment on the size of the mirror - 130mm. In my beginner (!) opinion it is perfect for a small, "entry-level" scope. DSO are just beautiful! I even compared it to a friend's 150mm newtonian and I could barely see any difference even though the latter was quite more expensive. Considering planets - my short focal length is a little too short but I believe that 900mm must be pretty satisfactory. Thank you for the review.
Hello there, I agree anything over 130mm is a great starter size and even the smaller 76/100 mm aperture can show some amazing sights.. You won't see much difference between a 130 and a 150mm telescope they are pretty much the same beast.. On the other hand if you were to compare 130mm with a 200mm (8") you will notice a considerable difference in the two.. Take care friend, happy stargazing :)
Hi Jason....loved the video so much that 2 days later I bought a 130 for £50...included telescope, tripod, red dot finder and filters. Learning so much from the your other videos.......keep them coming. Cheers George
That’s a great idea. I see SVbony do one that fits this and the skyhawk. There are no reviews I can find anywhere, so would be in they’re interest to send Jason one and get the usual honest review. I can only think the problem with the skyhawk may be the weight??
I have the same telescope, except it came with an optical finderscope. An excellent beginner's telescope. I agree with almost everything you said. The only problem I have is the azimuth lock knob. Sometimes it doesn't stand still, regardless of how hard I tighten it up.
Hello Dusan, Sounds like it could be a damaged thread and if it is unfortunately I don't know how you would go about fixing that without it costing money.. Also, make sure your telescope is well balanced if it's out that will cause it to shift especially if the clutch is worn just having it well balanced could well sort it out for you.. Hope this helps and you can sort it my friend :)
Hello Steven, yes, you will need the correct size tube rings as they are separate but if you already have an eq2 you can use them with it.. In my opinion it's a lot better than the eq2.
@@smalloptics753 ok thanks I think my mount is damaged as when I tighten it there is lots of play it’s very frustrating for sure.I’m definitely gonna buy one now thanks Jason!✌️
Hi, that was a really great video and it answered almost all of my questions. Im considering to buy this telescope as my first, but I have one question. I know, that there is a version, that is not motorised, is it the same telescope or is it different in some way. I will be glad to know, because its cheaper. Thanks for info and bye. (Sorry for my bad english)
Hello there, thank you my friend.. Yes they are both exactly the same telescope, one is supplied with a motor and one isn't that is the only difference . Hope you enjoy your new telescope whichever one you buy. Clear skies 🙂
About two years ago I bought a very similar telescope, Chinese one branded "Opticon Galaxy" with 150 mm aperture and focal length extended by built-in Barlow lens to 1400 mm. It was then about 1000 PLN (≈200 GBP). Today I would rather buy 750 mm version without that Barlow lens but I still could try to detach it or exchange the whole focuser. The mount looks more bulky than EQ2 but the RA locking screw had already torn its threads in the aluminium body so I needed to repair the threads. A week ago I bought a budget motor for 150 PLN (≈30 GBP) dedicated to EQ2 and tinkered a bit to mount it. This weekend I'm going to stick the center marker to the mirror (with your method) and finally collimate the telescope. Generally, these telescopes need some mechanical engineering skills to fix cheap Chinese quality but it's also satisfactory for me. And thanks to it I was already able to see Jupiter's clouds, Saturn's rings and some details of the Moon 🌝 Unfortunately, the clouds didn't allow me to see ZTF comet ☄️😕
How is astro master 130. I am looking forward to buying a telescope,but not able to zero in on any make and aperture... I can't find telescopes above 130mm. Plz review astro master 130eq and powerseeker 100Az
Hello Jason! Saw a lot of your videos. Once you said that you upgraded your telescope focuser with some sandpaper (like made it frictional, as I understood). Could you please tell us more about how you did that? Or make another video? I have an entry level telescope, and the focuser works horribly, especially on a higher magnifications. I'd like to find a way to make it work smoother (because teeth engagement has significant play, which make focusing hard). Thank you!
Jason is right about sizing a scope. i have several "small optics" and a 10'' explore scientific truss tube dob. i love the 10'' and the truss tube is easier to move than other 10'' scopes but i never do. i have it mounted on a square furniture dolly and she rolls out of the garage into the drive way and then back. i do travel with a 90mm celestron and just ordered a small 90mm orion mak that i cant wait to try. if i go to dark skys the small scope are what i take because its easy. as Ed Ting says "the best scope it the one you use".
Hi I have the same telescope. Sorry may get names of parts wrong. Mine have a motor drive which is fine the adjuster knob on that axis can turn for ever(ish) and track across the sky. However the other fine tune knob works differently and had a turn limit. It has what I assume is some sort of tensioning bolt. How should it be set up/adjusted to work correctly ? It's not really covered in this video.
My first telescope was a 4" Jayson Empire refractor with an alt/as mount, and it was awesome! My dad bought it for me second hand and it came with several nice eyepieces. You could just point it, focus, and enjoy. The zoom lens was especially nice because I could make the image larger and refocus a tad to make a very nice viewing of almost any target. It had the worst aluminum, tubular tripod but aside from that, it was great.
Hello sir, i am complet beginner, but i studied a little about telescopes and i know some things, so i want to buy this particular telescope but you said it's not really for beginners. So i wonder if you can recommend some Sky Watcher telescope to me. Thanks! One more thing, as you said, it's important where you live, so you choose a telescope based on that. I live on a hill and here is pretty dark and sky is beautiful. Greeting from Serbia!!
I am one of those people who got it as a present... a few years ago! I was so excited then the instructions that came with it took away all interest, they are unintelligible. I recently got a Dwarf2 and I got a renewed interest in this pup. I managed to understand how to put the motor on purely by looking at your video. Would you consider making a video on how to set up this telescope properly, particularly setting up the EQ mount for the UK?
New to telescopes/stargazing... could you replace the screws for collimation with thumb friendly ones?. Also, could you recommend a telescope that is ideal for astrophotography with a smartphone attached.
My 130x900 is identical except from being a Saxon. Same equatorial mount, tripod and motor. The only difference is it has a cross-hair finder scope and came with three eye-pieces. But it truly boggles the mind as to why it has 6 Phillips head screws on the primary mirror...
I just picked one of these up for £60 without the motor, it was too good a deal even though I wasn’t really looking. Very happy with it so far, although I agree about the awkwardness of collimating it. Good (and fair) review
Hello buddy, my go to eyepiece at the moment is the svbony red line they are great eyepieces for the money. The power supply I made myself out of an old playstation power supply it just happened to be the correct voltage.. www.amazon.co.uk/SVBONY-Telescope-Eyepiece-Broadband-Astronomical/dp/B07C6LRCNN/ref=mp_s_a_1_17?crid=2LU80IY5TK3I7&keywords=svbony+eyepiece+set&qid=1695152386&sprefix=Svbony+eyepiece%2Caps%2C94&sr=8-17
Hi. I bought exactly this scope second hand last year for my 12yr old daughter. We are having a lot of fun with it seeing lots of messier objects quite clearly. I still need to set up for her as the parts are heavy to assemble and polar alignment takes too much time. Please note we replaced the finder with a serious APM finder of 1.1 kilo and the mount has problems to support that: it does make finding stuff a lot easier. We always drive from our bortle 7 area to a bortle 4/5 area and the scope +mount takes a lot of space in the car. Definitely not portable to sites without a car.
I recently bought the celestron omni 150 xlt for $300. It has been a fantastic scope for the price I paid. Planning on upgrading to the motor drive soon. Once again, great vid. Keep up the good work👍
I bought my explorer second hand with the motor drive for 140 quid and I bought five good eyepieces all multi coated plossl and a tmb planetary uw eyepiece and a celestron omni barlow for 145 quid.it’s well collimated as I saw Jupiter and the bands and four moons so I’m over the moon with it and all this for under 300 quid.
@@Stephen-gp8yi the gentlemen in the video said that the 10mm eyepiece needs upgrading. I was wondering which eyepieces would be ideal since you have upgraded them yourself. I don't know much about eyepiece quality
@@Streetecho07 Im knew to the hobby myself but multi coated plossl eyepieces are very good.the ones you get with the telescope are very cheap and basic.on eBay I got two multi Coated plossl svbonny eyepieces for ten pounds each and they are the real deal.the best budget eyepieces in my opinion are tmb planetary eyepieces which are around 40 quid each and svbonny 68 degree uw are good also 40 each but if you buy a set of four you get 30 quid off.which scope did you buy?
@@Stephen-gp8yi i still haven't bought mine, planning on buying this explorer 130m. You reckon it's a good one? And thanks for the info it's indeed useful.
Hey Jason very enjoyable review on this telescope and I've got it too. The big problem with me was its not very portable and I wish it was very portable and motor drive could be upgraded but I'd say it be worth it if you stay in urban area and had car. There are features I think it's pretty good and bad points. I'd say motor drive isn't as good as the more expensive one. Battery pack i didn't like. With more expensive motor you'd get alot of more deep sky objects to photograph. That's why I bought the 72ed ds pro refractor and the skywatcher evoguide 50ed guide scope as this tiny scope is a guide scope plus astrophotography and visual too. 50ed scope is extremely portable being so tiny. 50ed guide scope goes with star adventurer perfectly as a very portable set up. If skywatcher made a new version of your scope that's portable that you can carry that would be pretty great. The dark nights are back and this atunm and winter I'm visiting bortle 1 skies with my Huawei p40pro as I want completely dark skies. Thanks for the video review snd take care friend plus clear skies!
Hello Bushcraft, Your right about it not being very portable, something I forgot to mention (I always seem to forget something lol).. Yes I'm too looking forward to the upcoming dark long nights let's hope we get plenty of clear ones.. Take care buddy, clear skies. :)
Hi Jason yes I bought this 130m about 3 years ago . Collimation is a awkward but agree it does not need it very often . I would like to ask you a question , I keep my 130m in my summerhouse , with the haet is this good or bad . Love your videos .
Hello Raymond, absolutely, your telescope will be fine stored in the summerhouse, after all, telescopes are designed to be used outside. In fact its a perfect place to store it because when you come to use it it will already be pretty much climatised to the outside air so you don't have to wait very long if any) for it to cool down. It's where I'm planning to store mine, well I've got more of a shed than a summerhouse but it all needs to be cleared out fist, I'll get round to it.. Eventually😀.. Take care pal.
i have just bought this brand new motor type £250, just started to use it, so the question is when do i have to collomate it or, how do i know when it needs doing???
Thanks for all the excellent videos Jason, they're very informative, and well done! I started with a Dobsonian scope That sticky/twitchy Dob mount made it nearly impossible to make small adjustments in position, and find anything other than earth's moon and an occasional bright planet, Even worse, it was all but impossible to keep objects in the field of view once found without over-correcting. I blamed myself for a long time, when the whole problem turned out to be the Dob mount. Just my opinion, but I think a GEM mount is perfect for a beginner scope. It's just as intuitive as the Dob , as long as you don't get too close to the celestial pole;...just set the latitude once, point it north, and think latitude and longitude in the sky. Being able to compensate for earth's rotation with a slow motion control is truly brilliant. Thanks again for these videos. You don't 't have any tips for dealing with bloodthirsty mosquitos, do you?
Thank you Peter.. Unfortunately not. Those little vampires are a real menace aren't they? They've got me all round my waist this year, I've been scratching like a dog... Little sod's.. Soon be gone though with winter just round the corner thank goodness. 🙂
This is probably the fairest assessment I've seen of reflectors. I got a smaller 1145p last year and it has been a long 12 months trying to figure it out. I have learned a lot about telescope calibration but haven't done a lot of skywatching in that time. I personally think the EQ tripods are overkill for beginners, you bascially want to 'point and shoot' to begin with and an EQ1 or EQ2 doesn't have a lot of longevity if you upgrade. Out of the box the performance is about equal to a birdwatching scope I have but the 1145p was about 50% more expensive and harder to use. If I had my time again I'd go with 5" dobsonian but they were in short supply last year. With better eyepieces and some other gizmos it's getting better though!
Hello Mike, thanks buddy.. EQ's I agree can be a bit daunting for beginners and I'm with you on dob's... For noob's I always recommend a dob over the EQ mount and to be honest EQ's can be hobby killers to a lot of beginners.. Take care buddy.
@@smalloptics753 Thanks very much, just to say your videos are amazing, from another one I watched today I now have a much improved focusser held together with the centre from a kitchen roll, just a really handy fix and as you advised if I paint it black no one will notice in the dark!
My first scope was a Meade Polaris 130. Same design, but manual, with 560mm focal length and a lower quality tripod. I strongly deviated from this style of telescope as a result of my experiences with it
Hello there, unfortunately it is very common for people to be put off the hobby by buying one of these types of telescopes for the first time.. This is why I like to put these type of videos out to hopefully help encourage folk into the hobby because as you know discouragement and frustration just leads to quitting at the end of the day, and we don't want that.. Take care :)
@@smalloptics753 You'd think an 'Entry level' scopes would try to minimize setup time, maintenance, and necessary storage space. Were I gifting a beginner with a scope, a short tube achromat or small Maksutov on a tabletop or tripod Alt-Az mount would be my choice
My Mrs says 5.75 inches is sufficient. Not sure if she's referring to the telescope 🙃
LOL
I"ve recently bought a 12in dob as my first scope and the image quality is insane, probably a bit big for a first scope but I love it. Ive still yet to take it out into the boonies where there would be no light pollution, I can only imagine how good the image quality is there.
This is my first year as stargazer and that is my first scope. I loved it since the first sigts and almost never had problems except for collimation: a very steep learning curve for it, but lovely views each time. Great review as always Jason, keep up the great work!
this is my first scope. Bought bought it 2 years ago (without the motor). I have to agree with absolutely everything you said Jason.
I have also followed all your tips on how to improve the scope so big thank you for your help.
One thing you forgot to mention on the cons is that the main mirror is not center spotted (adding to the collimation struggles)
One question: do you recommend any specific screws to replace the collimation screws? Do you know the technical specs of them?
Hello Pablo, Of course yes.. I forgot all about the centre spot (I always seem to manage to forget something lol)... The only place that I know were you can get ANY type of telescope screw from is Bob's knob's (Yes I know XD) I'll leave a link for you and you will be able to get them from there.. www.bobsknobs.com/
I recently bought this scope for £80 from a local woman. Her dad had loved the scope but he passed and she had no use for it anymore. She included everything with it and I was delighted to get it home and set it up for myself and my son to look through. The first evening, we saw the moon, Jupiter and it's 4 moons and Saturn. Saturn caused me to actually exclaim out loud "bloody hell!" - I was so taken aback. I've since messaged the woman to thank her again and to tell her her dad's passion has genuinely been passed down to myself and my son. We LOVE using it. A definite pleasure to use.
The Saxon version has an all metal rack & pinion focuser, optically this telescope is truly excellent, it retains collimation very well, the manual supplied is useful,clearly written and helpful. This instrument is superior optically to the cheap refractors on the market place. I own some first rate telescopes but won't sell this one, it is a useful observing instrument;as stated the motor is useful for tracking planets and the moon for visual observations. The f/7 focal ratio has a big advantage visually, A sharper image over a wider field of view; ie less coma evident visually. Highly recommended, the Saxon version. William Mitchell
This was my first proper telescope and got me hooked on the hobby. A major downside was that it’s a spherical mirror and only the 130P (parabolic) has a parabolic mirror. It gave me a steep learning curve alright but also gave me a few WOW! moments.
I'm looking at getting ine second hand should I worry?
I was looking to get this telescope (for my first one) and I’m glad I came across this video!
This is very informative about telescopes in general, thank you!
When using a telescope, it's proof that the earth is rotating!!!!!!!! Everything moves!!!!!
Hello there, yes, the earth rotates at 15 degrees per hour the stars don't move its the earth's rotation that makes them appear to move across the sky.
I've been using the same telescope with the motor for almost ten years and I'm still very happy with it! Simply love it! It is my very first telescope and it did take me a while to find my way around it. I've only started using the motor a short while ago, but I've managed to take photos with 10 seconds of exposure pretty well. I do very basic astrophotography and it's great with deep sky objects, because with the long exposure, you can often see targets much better than directly through the eyepiece. Only problem I've got with it is that the hole where the screw you set your latitude on the EQ with goes through broke. But I put a nut on the screw and now it holds again. Even used this telescope to photograph the ISS. Only a few of the photos are somewhat usable, but it's fun and I'm still learning when it comes to that. xD
Got the same telescope.been looking at Jupiter with 10mm.quite impressed .2 bands easily visible (with yellow filter) but pretty awful with the supplied barlow lens. Great video thanks Jason and overall a good scope I think.
I bought a 130 a year ago.i 've just looked and found they have replaced the newer eyepiece adjustment cog with metal one.
Perhaps silly question. Could the philips screws not just be changed into some tumb screws if they had the same thread size? Thanks for the review mate!
Edit: Well I should just watch the entire video and I got my answer. Have a great day! 🙂
Thumb screws should be standard, but aren't because it's an easy high-profit "upgrade".
Serious question: refractors and reflectors both consist of two or more pieces of shaped glass mounted in a tube. Proper alignment of the lenses or mirrors focuses the gathered light for optimal viewing. Here's my question: why do reflectors have to be collimated regularly, yet refractors are good-to-go straight from the factory and stay aligned until you use the OTA as a cricket bat? What is the engineering/mechanical limitation that prevents a factory from aligning a reflector laser-straight and just locking it down rigid?
Hi Jason great videos especially the collimation ones 😊 .As you can probably tell I'm a newbie to astronomy and am looking to purchase a telescope my budget is around the £250 . I do like the sky watcher 130 it ticks a lot of boxes but storage will be a issue so was looking at refactors as tend to be smaller better for storage. Is there one that pars with the sky watcher 130 please? Many thanks 😊 🙏
In your opinion is the equatorial mount a must? There is a model available that comes without it and that's closer to my budget, I'm yet to find a second hand one sadly.
I've just bought this telescope for father, son bonding. Now I'm watching the review after the fact. I love the telescope and find it so much better than my 20 year old Meade reflector that is showing its age having been stored poorly. The pros of the Skywatcher far outweigh the cons so I'd very much recommend one.
Like! How would this 130 mm newtonian compare in image quality and resolution to a 102/1000 mm achromat ? They are in same price range.
I must push back against the myth of a larger telescope being of lesser utility under light pollution. Whatever the amount of sky glow or other unwanted ambient light, all telescopes are affected equally. If a larger telescope is 10X better than a smaller one under a very dark sky, it is equally 10X better when both are under a light polluted sky. The sky glow presents as a fixed baseline to contrast reduction, and this ratio is not altered as a function of aperture.
This myth arises from the fact that in numerous instances a smaller instrument performs better under a dark sky than does a large one under a bright sky.
But again, when two different scopes are working under the same sky, whether dark or bright the larger outperforms the smaller by the very same ratio, or factor.
May i ask what battery does the Eq-2 motor drive uses? Im currently planning to buy this on December thank you!
Hey, i have been using this telescope for about 3 months. I am still using basic eyepieces that came with the telescope. I am still not good enough, in my opinion, to know which eyepieces should i buy and which are the best. so i am curious, which eyepieces did you bought seperately. i would love to know and thank you (:
Admittedly, I don’t know all the details, but it seems to me that the fault in the heads of the adjustment screws for collimation lies more with the astronomer than the telescope. I would have been on the horn with Bob’s Knobs or my local hardware store a lot sooner than the 3 years Jason has owned this one!
Which telescope is better? Sky-Watcher 130M or Orion Probe 130ST?
Would using moisturizer block the hair follicles?
Thanks for the review! How important would you rate the motor? I mean, how hard is it to manually follow or refind the object?
If I was starting out in the hobby I would go with a dobsonian...so easy to set up, so easy to use..the more complicated the instrument the least likely you are to use it!!
Would you have bought this scope if it was another £120 with a better focuser and full of bobs knobs
I consider to buy that telescope and i am not sure. Is it good for both planetary and deep sky observing?
Great review!!
What do you think of the Quasar brand?
Can’t you change the Philips screws to hand tight ones???
I’m from USA and I can’t seem to find this on the market.. can somhelp
Great review Jason. I’ve got a skyhawk 114p and the focuser is the same. Spent an age packing the inside with sticky back felt etc. Got it as good as I could in the end with some thin Teflon tape but it still wobbles a tadge. Strange how the skyhawk has the proper adjuster knobs on the mirror but is a cheaper model to your 130m. Glad to see the channel is still growing. Brilliant 👍🏻
I noticed in one of your videos you have a refractor telescope on top of your reflector what do you use that refractor for?
Can the computer mount find planets or deep space objects?
Hey Jason, nice and honest review. I have 2 questions: A) you mentioned that the mirrors for most of those telescopes are coming from the same manufacturer. I recently bought an Omegon 150/750. Would you think they are using the same "standard" mirrors? Well, in that size category.
B) the motor is not precise enough for astro photography so is it really worth getting one if the field of view still drifts?
Another thought that came to my mind is the focuser. Mine seems to be plastic as well but still rigid with a friction rotary. But it's sometimes hard to find the focus. I would like to upgrade to get a 1/10 ratio focuser element but there are so many different types and I don't know how they fit together. I disassembled mine already. There is the housing, a ring, a tube, the friction wheel and a few more elements. Maybe you could really make a video to explain some focuser and how the mechanics works for them. Would be great! Cheers!
Hello OsZ, thank you my friend.. No, your telescope mirrors Omegon are a separate manufacturer, they are European it's only Sky-Watcher, Celestron and Orion that are made in the same factory in China. Omegon telescopes are great btw just as good if not better than the said three... As for, "is the motor worth it".. Yes.. I use it all the time. It does drift but only a little and visually you wont notice it, only when you do any long exposure ( 6 second and above) photography will you notice any drift because any longer than that you will notice star trailing in the images. But like I say I do think it's worth getting one as you can spend a lot more time at the eyepiece studying the object instead of having to worry about getting back in the FOV and waiting for the telescope to settle every 10 second or so.. All plastic focuser's are worth upgrading in my opinion not that I've got anything against plastic but in my experience they always fail at some point and usually it's what has happened to mine the teeth become brittle and break, thats one of the main reasons I like full metal focusers. Which one you upgrade too is all on how deep your pockets are, the more you pay the better it will be, but just upgrading to a simple all metal rack and pinion is money well spent.. Btw you can get them for as little as £40/$46.😀
Hello. This was the telescope I was considering to buy when I wanted to upgrade from my old small 70/700 refractor, but instead I ended up with a dobsonian SW 130/650 with a parabolic mirror.
Therefore I'd only like to comment on the size of the mirror - 130mm. In my beginner (!) opinion it is perfect for a small, "entry-level" scope. DSO are just beautiful! I even compared it to a friend's 150mm newtonian and I could barely see any difference even though the latter was quite more expensive. Considering planets - my short focal length is a little too short but I believe that 900mm must be pretty satisfactory.
Thank you for the review.
Hello there, I agree anything over 130mm is a great starter size and even the smaller 76/100 mm aperture can show some amazing sights.. You won't see much difference between a 130 and a 150mm telescope they are pretty much the same beast.. On the other hand if you were to compare 130mm with a 200mm (8") you will notice a considerable difference in the two.. Take care friend, happy stargazing :)
Hi Jason....loved the video so much that 2 days later I bought a 130 for £50...included telescope, tripod, red dot finder and filters. Learning so much from the your other videos.......keep them coming. Cheers George
Thank you George that's great to hear.. Enjoy your new telescope my friend.
I did replace the focuser with a dual speed, all metal focuser on my BK150...much smoother than the focuser included with original telescope.
Hi Craig, do you have a model for your focuser? Hoping to do the same.
I have looked at that scope and was impressed. It has a parabolic mirror.
Which is the best budget telescope for deep space astrophotography?
Do you recommend this telescope?
Come on sponsors - Get the man a focuser.
Ha ha ha.. That would be nice.. Cheers pal :D
That’s a great idea. I see SVbony do one that fits this and the skyhawk. There are no reviews I can find anywhere, so would be in they’re interest to send Jason one and get the usual honest review. I can only think the problem with the skyhawk may be the weight??
I have the same telescope, except it came with an optical finderscope. An excellent beginner's telescope. I agree with almost everything you said. The only problem I have is the azimuth lock knob. Sometimes it doesn't stand still, regardless of how hard I tighten it up.
Hello Dusan, Sounds like it could be a damaged thread and if it is unfortunately I don't know how you would go about fixing that without it costing money.. Also, make sure your telescope is well balanced if it's out that will cause it to shift especially if the clutch is worn just having it well balanced could well sort it out for you.. Hope this helps and you can sort it my friend :)
@@smalloptics753 Thanks for replying. It's actually not a big issue if I'm gentle while operating with it. But balancing might be the reason for sure.
Only big problem I have with this telescope is that it doesn't have center dot in mirror
Agreed 👍
Would an eq 3 mount fit my explorer and is it a better mount?
Hello Steven, yes, you will need the correct size tube rings as they are separate but if you already have an eq2 you can use them with it.. In my opinion it's a lot better than the eq2.
@@smalloptics753 ok thanks I think my mount is damaged as when I tighten it there is lots of play it’s very frustrating for sure.I’m definitely gonna buy one now thanks Jason!✌️
Hi, that was a really great video and it answered almost all of my questions. Im considering to buy this telescope as my first, but I have one question. I know, that there is a version, that is not motorised, is it the same telescope or is it different in some way. I will be glad to know, because its cheaper. Thanks for info and bye. (Sorry for my bad english)
Hello there, thank you my friend.. Yes they are both exactly the same telescope, one is supplied with a motor and one isn't that is the only difference . Hope you enjoy your new telescope whichever one you buy. Clear skies 🙂
@@smalloptics753 Thank you😁
About two years ago I bought a very similar telescope, Chinese one branded "Opticon Galaxy" with 150 mm aperture and focal length extended by built-in Barlow lens to 1400 mm. It was then about 1000 PLN (≈200 GBP). Today I would rather buy 750 mm version without that Barlow lens but I still could try to detach it or exchange the whole focuser. The mount looks more bulky than EQ2 but the RA locking screw had already torn its threads in the aluminium body so I needed to repair the threads. A week ago I bought a budget motor for 150 PLN (≈30 GBP) dedicated to EQ2 and tinkered a bit to mount it. This weekend I'm going to stick the center marker to the mirror (with your method) and finally collimate the telescope. Generally, these telescopes need some mechanical engineering skills to fix cheap Chinese quality but it's also satisfactory for me. And thanks to it I was already able to see Jupiter's clouds, Saturn's rings and some details of the Moon 🌝 Unfortunately, the clouds didn't allow me to see ZTF comet ☄️😕
How is astro master 130. I am looking forward to buying a telescope,but not able to zero in on any make and aperture...
I can't find telescopes above 130mm.
Plz review astro master 130eq and powerseeker 100Az
How much does it weigh?
Hello Jason!
Saw a lot of your videos.
Once you said that you upgraded your telescope focuser with some sandpaper (like made it frictional, as I understood).
Could you please tell us more about how you did that? Or make another video?
I have an entry level telescope, and the focuser works horribly, especially on a higher magnifications. I'd like to find a way to make it work smoother (because teeth engagement has significant play, which make focusing hard).
Thank you!
Jason is right about sizing a scope. i have several "small optics" and a 10'' explore scientific truss tube dob. i love the 10'' and the truss tube is easier to move than other 10'' scopes but i never do. i have it mounted on a square furniture dolly and she rolls out of the garage into the drive way and then back.
i do travel with a 90mm celestron and just ordered a small 90mm orion mak that i cant wait to try. if i go to dark skys the small scope are what i take because its easy.
as Ed Ting says "the best scope it the one you use".
Hi I have the same telescope. Sorry may get names of parts wrong. Mine have a motor drive which is fine the adjuster knob on that axis can turn for ever(ish) and track across the sky. However the other fine tune knob works differently and had a turn limit. It has what I assume is some sort of tensioning bolt. How should it be set up/adjusted to work correctly ?
It's not really covered in this video.
My first telescope was a 4" Jayson Empire refractor with an alt/as mount, and it was awesome!
My dad bought it for me second hand and it came with several nice eyepieces.
You could just point it, focus, and enjoy.
The zoom lens was especially nice because I could make the image larger and refocus a tad to make a very nice viewing of almost any target.
It had the worst aluminum, tubular tripod but aside from that, it was great.
Hello sir, i am complet beginner, but i studied a little about telescopes and i know some things, so i want to buy this particular telescope but you said it's not really for beginners. So i wonder if you can recommend some Sky Watcher telescope to me. Thanks!
One more thing, as you said, it's important where you live, so you choose a telescope based on that. I live on a hill and here is pretty dark and sky is beautiful. Greeting from Serbia!!
I am one of those people who got it as a present... a few years ago! I was so excited then the instructions that came with it took away all interest, they are unintelligible. I recently got a Dwarf2 and I got a renewed interest in this pup. I managed to understand how to put the motor on purely by looking at your video. Would you consider making a video on how to set up this telescope properly, particularly setting up the EQ mount for the UK?
New to telescopes/stargazing... could you replace the screws for collimation with thumb friendly ones?. Also, could you recommend a telescope that is ideal for astrophotography with a smartphone attached.
Hi Jason. Great reviews and videos. Many thanks. I am struggling t9 understand the alignment, however. Can you give me some pointers please??
Have you looked into replacing the screws? They probably have a standardized thread size that you could replace easily.
My 130x900 is identical except from being a Saxon. Same equatorial mount, tripod and motor. The only difference is it has a cross-hair finder scope and came with three eye-pieces. But it truly boggles the mind as to why it has 6 Phillips head screws on the primary mirror...
I just picked one of these up for £60 without the motor, it was too good a deal even though I wasn’t really looking. Very happy with it so far, although I agree about the awkwardness of collimating it. Good (and fair) review
Awesome Review Jason! Definitely a Great Scope. You might want to Review your Dobsonain mount Too : D
Hi there. I am struggling to calibrate the scope. Im really not sure about the different knobs and dials, angkes and degrees 😢
What eyepieces do you recommend chap ? Also where did you buy the mains adaptor from ? Cheers
Hello buddy, my go to eyepiece at the moment is the svbony red line they are great eyepieces for the money. The power supply I made myself out of an old playstation power supply it just happened to be the correct voltage..
www.amazon.co.uk/SVBONY-Telescope-Eyepiece-Broadband-Astronomical/dp/B07C6LRCNN/ref=mp_s_a_1_17?crid=2LU80IY5TK3I7&keywords=svbony+eyepiece+set&qid=1695152386&sprefix=Svbony+eyepiece%2Caps%2C94&sr=8-17
Much appreciated sir 🤠 clear skies to you.
As a suggestion would it be possible to a video on how to collimator a reflector telescope
Many thanks chris
What eyepices do yoi recommend for the upgrade? Amazing video by the way.
Hi Jason, how much is a new focuser? I'm going to buy one of these this week, cheers mate, love the channel
How did you convert the focuser to friction I have a refractor broken focuser tried to repair but doesn’t work properly still works ok
mine was also a great second hand purchase but without the motor and a useless 5x24 finder which i need to replace.
I have a similiar scope. I have the BK150 which came on a EQ3 Pro Goto mount. They are great scopes for everybody.
Jason, why not do a video on all you astormamy kit, eyepeaces and scopes. We want to know whats under the hood!
Hi. I bought exactly this scope second hand last year for my 12yr old daughter. We are having a lot of fun with it seeing lots of messier objects quite clearly. I still need to set up for her as the parts are heavy to assemble and polar alignment takes too much time. Please note we replaced the finder with a serious APM finder of 1.1 kilo and the mount has problems to support that: it does make finding stuff a lot easier. We always drive from our bortle 7 area to a bortle 4/5 area and the scope +mount takes a lot of space in the car. Definitely not portable to sites without a car.
Just bought this and was wondering what eye pieces you would recommend getting to optimise the scope thanks
so THATS the scope in the background 🤣
Jason, cant you just buy some thumb screws from somewhere?
I recently bought the celestron omni 150 xlt for $300. It has been a fantastic scope for the price I paid. Planning on upgrading to the motor drive soon. Once again, great vid. Keep up the good work👍
Hi. what's the physical length of the tube?
I bought my explorer second hand with the motor drive for 140 quid and I bought five good eyepieces all multi coated plossl and a tmb planetary uw eyepiece and a celestron omni barlow for 145 quid.it’s well collimated as I saw Jupiter and the bands and four moons so I’m over the moon with it and all this for under 300 quid.
Hello stephen, What eyepices do you recommend for the upgrade?
@@Streetecho07 which upgrade?
@@Stephen-gp8yi the gentlemen in the video said that the 10mm eyepiece needs upgrading. I was wondering which eyepieces would be ideal since you have upgraded them yourself. I don't know much about eyepiece quality
@@Streetecho07 Im knew to the hobby myself but multi coated plossl eyepieces are very good.the ones you get with the telescope are very cheap and basic.on eBay I got two multi Coated plossl svbonny eyepieces for ten pounds each and they are the real deal.the best budget eyepieces in my opinion are tmb planetary eyepieces which are around 40 quid each and svbonny 68 degree uw are good also 40 each but if you buy a set of four you get 30 quid off.which scope did you buy?
@@Stephen-gp8yi i still haven't bought mine, planning on buying this explorer 130m. You reckon it's a good one? And thanks for the info it's indeed useful.
Hey Jason very enjoyable review on this telescope and I've got it too. The big problem with me was its not very portable and I wish it was very portable and motor drive could be upgraded but I'd say it be worth it if you stay in urban area and had car.
There are features I think it's pretty good and bad points. I'd say motor drive isn't as good as the more expensive one. Battery pack i didn't like. With more expensive motor you'd get alot of more deep sky objects to photograph.
That's why I bought the 72ed ds pro refractor and the skywatcher evoguide 50ed guide scope as this tiny scope is a guide scope plus astrophotography and visual too. 50ed scope is extremely portable being so tiny. 50ed guide scope goes with star adventurer perfectly as a very portable set up.
If skywatcher made a new version of your scope that's portable that you can carry that would be pretty great.
The dark nights are back and this atunm and winter I'm visiting bortle 1 skies with my Huawei p40pro as I want completely dark skies.
Thanks for the video review snd take care friend plus clear skies!
Hello Bushcraft, Your right about it not being very portable, something I forgot to mention (I always seem to forget something lol).. Yes I'm too looking forward to the upcoming dark long nights let's hope we get plenty of clear ones.. Take care buddy, clear skies. :)
Too bad they don’t offer these in the USA. Odd🤔
Your awesome, teaching tks
Hi Jason yes I bought this 130m about 3 years ago . Collimation is a awkward but agree it does not need it very often . I would like to ask you a question , I keep my 130m in my summerhouse , with the haet is this good or bad . Love your videos .
Hello Raymond, absolutely, your telescope will be fine stored in the summerhouse, after all, telescopes are designed to be used outside. In fact its a perfect place to store it because when you come to use it it will already be pretty much climatised to the outside air so you don't have to wait very long if any) for it to cool down. It's where I'm planning to store mine, well I've got more of a shed than a summerhouse but it all needs to be cleared out fist, I'll get round to it.. Eventually😀.. Take care pal.
great video as usual very informative stuff brilliant
i have just bought this brand new motor type £250, just started to use it, so the question is when do i have to collomate it or, how do i know when it needs doing???
Take a look at this channel's videos. There are two specifically on "easy collimation" - they explain all.
Thanks for all the excellent videos Jason, they're very informative, and well done! I started with a Dobsonian scope That sticky/twitchy Dob mount made it nearly impossible to make small adjustments in position, and find anything other than earth's moon and an occasional bright planet, Even worse, it was all but impossible to keep objects in the field of view once found without over-correcting. I blamed myself for a long time, when the whole problem turned out to be the Dob mount. Just my opinion, but I think a GEM mount is perfect for a beginner scope. It's just as intuitive as the Dob , as long as you don't get too close to the celestial pole;...just set the latitude once, point it north, and think latitude and longitude in the sky. Being able to compensate for earth's rotation with a slow motion control is truly brilliant. Thanks again for these videos. You don't 't have any tips for dealing with bloodthirsty mosquitos, do you?
Thank you Peter.. Unfortunately not. Those little vampires are a real menace aren't they? They've got me all round my waist this year, I've been scratching like a dog... Little sod's.. Soon be gone though with winter just round the corner thank goodness. 🙂
This is probably the fairest assessment I've seen of reflectors. I got a smaller 1145p last year and it has been a long 12 months trying to figure it out. I have learned a lot about telescope calibration but haven't done a lot of skywatching in that time. I personally think the EQ tripods are overkill for beginners, you bascially want to 'point and shoot' to begin with and an EQ1 or EQ2 doesn't have a lot of longevity if you upgrade. Out of the box the performance is about equal to a birdwatching scope I have but the 1145p was about 50% more expensive and harder to use. If I had my time again I'd go with 5" dobsonian but they were in short supply last year. With better eyepieces and some other gizmos it's getting better though!
Hello Mike, thanks buddy.. EQ's I agree can be a bit daunting for beginners and I'm with you on dob's... For noob's I always recommend a dob over the EQ mount and to be honest EQ's can be hobby killers to a lot of beginners.. Take care buddy.
@@smalloptics753 Thanks very much, just to say your videos are amazing, from another one I watched today I now have a much improved focusser held together with the centre from a kitchen roll, just a really handy fix and as you advised if I paint it black no one will notice in the dark!
Would you recommend it
My first scope was a Meade Polaris 130. Same design, but manual, with 560mm focal length and a lower quality tripod. I strongly deviated from this style of telescope as a result of my experiences with it
Hello there, unfortunately it is very common for people to be put off the hobby by buying one of these types of telescopes for the first time.. This is why I like to put these type of videos out to hopefully help encourage folk into the hobby because as you know discouragement and frustration just leads to quitting at the end of the day, and we don't want that.. Take care :)
@@smalloptics753 You'd think an 'Entry level' scopes would try to minimize setup time, maintenance, and necessary storage space. Were I gifting a beginner with a scope, a short tube achromat or small Maksutov on a tabletop or tripod Alt-Az mount would be my choice
Haha look him go
This really helped
Given that you were looking for a dob, do you think it would be worth building a dob base for it? Or do you personally prefer the EQ?
He did build a dobsonian base for it.
@@Astronurd I'll have to go find that video!
Hi there, great video as I have this telescope myself. A simple tutorial on the setup of the scope and mount would be very useful as a reference point