Is The Sky-Watcher Explorer The Right Telescope For Me?
The Sky-Watcher Explorer 130P is aimed squarely at the beginners market. It is a relatively cheap (about £200) telescope that will provide a good introduction to telescope astronomy.
Light Gathering
With a 130mm aperture, the telescope captures enough light to give excellent views of the moon, and acceptable views of planets such as Jupiter and Saturn. Resolution of some of the moons orbiting these planets is also possible. Although Mars is one of our neighbours, it is quite small making it difficult to resolve much detail. Venus is very easy to observe.
Eyepieces
The eyepieces supplied with the telescope (10mm and 25mm eyepieces plus a 2x Barlow lens) enable a reasonable good of magnifications to be achieved, with 130x being the highest. In fact, you probably won't need to go much above this, as images will start to become a bit fuzzy if you try to get anywhere near the theoretical maximum of 260x (twice the aperture). The moon being the exception to this - you can get excellent views of the moon at 260x.
Alt-Azimuth Motor
The SupaTrak Alt-Azimuth motorized mount is nice and easy to use, but I would recommend keeping it indoors. I have had endless problems with mine and I suspect it is because I store my telescope in my shed. I don't think the mount likes being kept in the damp and cold.
Red Dot Finder
The red dot finder is, once you get used to it, easy to use and provides a simple way to find objects.
About The Author:About the Author: John Dixon documents his astronomy exploits in his blog www.MyAstronomyBlog.com. He also maintains a computer history site.
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