Celestron AstroMaster 130 EQ Equatorial Reflector Telescope 31045 is a dual-purpose telescope that is great for both terrestrial and celestial viewing. The Astro Master 130 EQ Telescope by Celestron produces bright and clear images of the Moon and planets through the telescope 's Fully Coated Lens. The Reflector Telescope has a large 130mm Mirror, making it a great medium-sized telescope that will allow the user room to grow in astronomy. This 130 mm Mirror is the largest mirror in the AstroMaster Series, and will easily provide enough light to see the moons of Jupiter, rings of Saturn, star clusters, and nebulae.

 

These Celestron Telescopes come with two telescope eyepieces of 50X and 100X magnification, which can pull in objects both near and far away. Celestron AstroMaster 130 EQ Telescopes have an Equatorial Mount that allow the user to follow objects in the sky much easier than an Altazimuth (Alt-az) Mount. Equatorial mounts use a set of counterweights that balances the telescope as it moves, making the movement more smooth. This is also very effective in high magnifications, when the smallest nudge of the telescope will greatly affect the viewing area. In addition, these Celestron AstroMaster Telescopes have the Reflector design, which is favored by astronomers with their more advanced setup and controls, when compared to a Refractor Telescope.

 

These Telescopes come with a Tripod with 1.25" thick steel legs, providing a rigid and stable platform. These features of the Celestron AstroMaster 130 EQ Equatorial Reflector Telescope 31045 make it a great telescope for serious beginners and intermediate users. 

 

 

This Telescope’s Optical System . . .

• Reflector optical tube: 130mm (5.1") aperture 650mm focal length f/5 focal ratio Newtonian reflector. All-glass mirrors, coated with highly reflective aluminum and overcoated with quartz for long life. There are no plastic optical components. The 24" long aluminum optical tube has protective tube end rings. The reflector design of the scope is totally free of the purple haze of spurious color visible around the Moon and planets in lesser refractor scopes. Images are sharp and clear. You can even collimate (align) both mirrors for the sharpest images. This will have to be done only rarely, thanks to the special push/pull design of the cell holding the primary mirror.

• Rack and pinion focuser: The 1.25" focuser has dual focusing knobs for precise image control with either hand. The large focus knobs are easy to operate, even while wearing gloves or mittens in cold weather.

• Two eyepieces: You get a medium power 1.25" 10mm (65x) eyepiece and a lower power 1.25" 20mm (32.5x) erect image eyepiece with a 1.5° field of view (three times the diameter of the full Moon). The 32.5x erect image eyepiece lets you use the 130EQ terrestrially, as its images are not upside down as they are with most reflectors. However, the equatorial mount will make it difficult to center and track objects on the ground. The erect image eyepiece will probably serve you better for lunar observing, as it will show you a familiar image of the Moon, oriented as you see it with your unaided eyes or binoculars. Both eyepieces are of a higher quality optical design than you'll find in most other telescopes in this price range. They have antireflection coatings on their lens surfaces for sharp images and very good contrast. Instead of providing low quality eyepieces that give unrealistically high (and generally unusable) 200-300x magnifications as most economy telescope manufacturers do, Celestron has chosen to provide higher quality eyepieces with sensible powers you can use and enjoy every time you take your AstroMaster 130 out to observe.

• Finderscope: A non-magnifying red dot finder is permanently attached to the side of the optical tube. The battery-operated red dot finder seems to project a dot of red light on the sky or on the daytime landscape exactly where the telescope is pointed. The red dot will help you center distant objects in the telescope so you don’t have to search for them using the narrow eyepiece field of view. Collimating knobs on the finder let you line up its red dot precisely with the main telescope optics to make centering distant objects easy and painless.

This Telescope’s Mount . . .

• Equatorial mount: The scope’s sturdy CG-3 equatorial mount is designed for astronomical observing. By aligning the mount on the north celestial pole, you only need to turn one slow motion control knob to follow planets and stars as they travel across the sky. An economical optional #MDASTRO battery-operated right ascension motor drive takes the slow motion control out of your hand and makes following the stars a no-hands operation. Two counterweights on the opposite side of the mount from the telescope tube balance the weight of the optical tube and make it easy to move the scope effortlessly from one part of the sky to another. No tools are required to adjust the position of the counterweights to quickly and precisely balance the optical tube. A micrometer control lets you adjust the altitude of the scope mount to match your latitude for fast alignment on the north celestial pole with no tools required.

• Split Ring Optical Tube mount: The optical tube mounts in hinged split rings that are attached to a dovetail bar that fits into a quick-release dovetail groove on the top of the mount. Installing the optical tube on the mount is quick and easy, even in the dark. The optical tube locks securely in place with no tools needed.

• Setting circles: Setting circles (graduated scales marked in either hours and minutes or degrees) are provided in both right ascension (the east/west position of objects in the sky measured in hours and minutes) and declination (the north/south position measured in degrees). These allow you to align the scope on the approximate position of an object in the sky by using its r. a. and dec coordinates from a star chart or atlas – before you search for it in the finderscope and eyepiece. Setting circles can reduce the time it takes for you to find the fainter and more difficult deep space objects.

• Manual slow motion controls: There are two slow motion control knobs conveniently positioned on the mount so they are easy to reach while observing. One controls the scope’s motion in right ascension (the east/west direction in the sky). Turning this knob enables you to follow the motion of celestial objects as they travel from east to west across the sky. The second controls the scope’s motion in declination (the north/south direction in the sky). Turning this knob enables you to correct for any north/south drift a celestial object may take as it moves across the sky, due to an improper alignment of the scope on the north celestial pole when you first set it up. The two controls combine to give you complete access to any part of the sky. They give you the ability to star hop from a known object to any other object by using a star chart. They let you center objects in the field of view, then track them effortlessly with only an occasional quick turn of the r. a. knob. As mentioned above, an optional motor drive is available for hands-free tracking.

• Tripod: The lightweight pre-assembled tripod has 1.25" diameter stainless steel legs to provide a rigid and stable observing platform. It easily adjusts in height with no tools needed. The no-tool lock knobs that adjust the leg height of the tripod are on the inside of the legs so they won’t snag on clothing in the dark, a thoughtful touch that’s sure to be appreciated. Spreader bars lock the legs firmly open when the tripod is set up. The tripod includes a convenient accessory tray that attaches to the spreader bars to hold your eyepieces and accessories close at hand and up out of the dew-soaked grass.

• Software: The scope comes with TheSky Level 1 sky-charting CD-ROM that has a database of 10,000 stars and objects it can plot and display on your Windows-based computer screen. That’s enough solar system and deep space detail to keep you busy observing for years, yet not so much that you’re overwhelmed by charts showing much more detail than your scope can usefully reveal. Custom sky chart printing lets you print out eyepiece finder charts to use with your telescope to help you locate and identify the planets and many famous and faint deep space nebulas, galaxies, and star clusters by star-hopping from object to object using your scope’s manual slow motion controls. There are 75 full color images of well-known celestial objects to help you identify them through your scope