Celestron 31045 AstroMaster 130EQ Newtonian Reflector Telescope, Dark Blue

Product Information

Celestron Astromaster series telescopes are made as reflectors and refractors with different apertures (diameter) and mounts. The Celestron Astromaster 130 EQ is a Newtonian reflector telescope with a 130mm primary mirror, a focal length of 650mm, and a focal ratio of F/5. The Astromaster mount looks strong but in reality is so full of plastic its about as steady as a jelly trifle. The Skywatcher EQ2 looks a bit Meccano but it does actually work and its plenty strong enough for a 130P.

One great feature of the Astromaster 130 is that it allows for collimation, unlike other telescopes in this price range that come with permanently attached primary mirrors. Moving on from the discussion about the AstroMaster 130EQ Starry Night Astronomy Software, let’s now shift our attention to the Celestron Astromaster 130EQ OTA Assembly. If you can get one that’s motorised, even better, especially if you want to do some astrophotography. Putting my scope up for sale, I decided to play about abit, probably not the best choice of original images.Even if the mount has slow-motion right ascension and declination adjustment knobs, keeping the object in view is hard because of the earth’s rotation. If you are familiar with EQ mounts, you’ll recognize it as a metal EQ2 mount covered in plastic. But don’t let the plastic covering fool you – it’s still a sturdy, well-built mount. The primary mirror of the Astromaster 130 EQ has a diameter of 130mm and a focal ratio of f/5, making it ideal for both deep-space observation and terrestrial viewing.

This image of Venus contains the faintest star I have recorded at 12.25 whats more its in the glare of Venus. The Skywatcher 130P has a decent holder with adjustment screws for tilt - The Astromaster has horrible over long screws with no adequate secondary mirror support. Its a pig to collimate. The sceondary mirror just dangles on the end of some long screws with little to give it support. Lots of good comments have been given. Since you can't focus on infinity, but only near objects, your focal plane is too far in. This a common problem with Newtonian telescopes. Your options are: The 130mm aperture of the telescope provides good light-gathering power, making it possible to see faint objects such as nebulae and galaxies. Both Celestron and Skywatcher come under the Chinese optics company Synta which is why both offer identical spec scopes. A lot of the decision making comes down to personal preference, I've used both makes and can't really tell the difference although I'm a visual observer so don't have the AP factor to consider. Skywatcher seem to offer 'better' quality scopes for the price although Celestron is also a good make.

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Honestly I would not worry about the mirror, it will work fine. If there is no corrector lens in the focuser drawtube it is likely a parabolic. The bulk of the AstroMaster 130 scopes I’ve seen have had acceptable primary mirrors–usually not quite parabolic but not quite spherical either–but a few have had spherical primaries that made for mushy views. I’ve also seen a few with great optics.