Celestron – AstroMaster 130EQ–MD Newtonian Reflector Telescope for Beginners – Aluminized Mirror – Motor Drive to Track Stars – Adjustable Tripod – Includes Eyepieces Plus Astronomy Software Package

So there's been a lot of discussion in the reviews about if this is a beginner telescope or not. As a person who never touched a telescope (except maybe in high school a thousand years ago) until I decided it was something I wanted to try out this year, I emphatically say YES! This is a great beginner scope. Here's the problem with most people's definition of a "beginner" anything. They want it to be rock-bottom priced, and ultra-easy to use. The problem with this mentality, is that often you go so cheap that you wind up getting a product that does not really expose you to the prospective hobby, and while trying to find something ultra-easy to use, it winds up being extremely difficult because it lacks the more expensive tools that were specifically designed to enhance the human ability when performing certain tasks.... NET RESULT: You wind up putting the hobby down out of frustration without ever really trying it out. I think the reality with getting into telescoping (is that a word?) is that you have to first decide that it is something you truly want to try, so that you don't go by a $74 telescope at W*****t (like I did) and expect to actually be introduced to this hobby. So after trying the $74 failure I got this scope due to the (mostly) good reviews, and because of the brand name. Never being in the hobby myself, I still had heard of Celestron. Many reviews showed broken parts. This wasn't the case for me. Everything was intact and assembly was relatively easy for a novice. A few reviews said this was not a beginner telescope because you had to adjust the mirrors, which apparently was a very difficult task to do. I researched this requirement ahead of time, found that for just over $20 you can buy a laser collimator that allows you to do this adjustment in just a few minutes, and decided that wasn't too much to ask to have an opportunity to enjoy this hobby. P.S. when I got the telescope, I used the laser collimator just to find out that the mirrors were perfectly aligned and I didn't need to do any adjusting. But apparently mirror adjusting is inevitable with Newtonian telescopes, so I'll just keep the laser collimator in my kit bag. Now about the beginner using this scope: 1. The red dot starfinder is a life saver! At first I thought you could just look through the starfinder, see what you wanted to look at, then see it in the telescope. NOPE! You really need that red dot to put the object into the site picture of the scope (especially on a low MM eyepiece). My only complaint might be that I couldn't perfectly adjust the red dot. When I first got the scope I focused in on a house way down the street, then tried to calibrate the red dot so that it was pefectly centered on the center of what I saw in the eyepiece... It was close, but wasn't perfect. HOWEVER. It is more than sufficient for my beginning level telescoping. With my $74 flunkee scope, I would use the cross hairs to try to align the scope to an object, yet even on a large MM eyepiece I could never find anything smaller than the moon! With this red dot starfinder, I have (easily) been able to align the telescope to both Jupiter and Saturn. 2. I may have started of with the starfinder, but the equitorial mount is probably the show winner with this thing. Not to keep referring to my $74 fail, but it is good to have a frame of reference when explaining why sometimes you have to make an investment even for entry-level equipment into a hobby. The $74 fail used a super cheap camera tripod. Problem with these tripods is they don't adjust at a fine enough level to make the small changes to put an object into the site picture. And, despite the fact that the cheap scope didn't weigh anything, it still would drift on the tripod... basically making it impossible to do anything except look at the moon. The Celestron is big and heavy, yet the EQ mount holds it masterfully in position, but the real winner is the fine tuning knobs. I didn't realize just how fast objects move in space (I mean.. I get it. The earth is spinning at 1000 mph, I just never put that together to mean objects move out of a telescope site picture QUICKLY). But with one hand on the fine tuning knob, I can follow the object for a reasonable amount of time to enjoy viewing it. NOTE: I recently bought a motor that I am suppposed to be able to connect to the knob, so that it can automatically hold the picture for me (again... spending more to get the right tools to enjoy the new hobby). Only complaint I have is that one knob seems to be able to adjust indefinitely while the other can only change maybe 20 degrees (10 in each direction) before it hits a stop. After additional study, I think this is because space objects only move in one direction, so if you properly polar align the scope, you should only need one knob to get the object where you want (left and right) and then not touch that again, then solely use the (up and down) knob to follow the object as it moves in the sky... but hey.. I'm new.. I'll learn to use this better too :-) Other than that, the only thing left is the scope. Like I said, I've looked at Jupiter, Saturn, Moon. I can't really speak to the provided eyepieces. Understanding from my research about focal length, and deciding that as a beginner it would help if I had an adjustable eyepiece (so that I can start zoomed out, find the object easier, then zoom in), so I bypassed the provided eyepiece and went straight to a x2 barrow with an 8-24mm adjustable eyepiece. So far it's been great! Saturn is still a little small, so I'm going to see if I can go even smaller on MM and higher on barrow zoom to see if I can really clearly make out the rings. ....but do you see what Celestron did? They created a (relatively) affordable telescope that grabbed my interest in the hobby and now I am full on exploring new ways (EQ mount motors, higher zoom barrow, lower MM eyepieces) that I can explore the universe above!

Already I have had opportunity to do a few tests of this telescope and can comment to them that the image is excellent. The construction and the design is robust enough. Only I found two negative details of design. First the screw that is used for adjustment of this latitude evil designed. When one increases the latitude due to the weight of the this assembly it becomes hard to manipulate and when one tries to diminish the latitude, that is to say to slacken the screw in order that the set goes down, the plastic piece separates of the metallic screw turning out to be very inconvinient to do that the assembly goes down almost to the point of remaining united. I come second, the unions of the tripod of stainless steel to the assembly are plastic, these should be metallurgies to give him better permanence in the time. A recommendation for CELESTRON, they must improve the protection of the packing of the Mount CG3, it(he) is not alone to put it in a box without any protection, this one should come protected by rubber(gum), to avoid what happened to me, that in the sending(parcel) and due to the weight of the mount, the mount I strike and there was doubled the screw of Slow Movement in DEC. Lamentably I cannot do claim for guarantee since I am in Venezuela, and the costs of movement going and return of the equipment(team) they be be very high in comparison with the cost of the Telescope. I do not still have mas remedy that to try to repair the piece. David Trujillo P. Barquisimeto, Edo. Lara Venezuela Español. Ya he tenido oportunidad de hacer unas pruebas de este telescopio y les puedo comentar que la imagen es excelente. La construcción y el diseño es bastante robusta. Solo encontré dos detalles negativos de diseño. Primero el tornillo que se usa para ajuste de latitud esta mal diseñado. Cuando uno incrementa la latitud debido al peso del montaje este se torna duro para manipular y cuando uno intenta disminuir la latitud, es decir aflojar el tornillo para que el conjunto baje, la pieza plástica se separa del tornillo metálico resultando muy incomodo hacer que el montaje baje casi al punto de quedarse trabado. Segundo, las uniones del trípode de acero inoxidable al montaje son plásticas, estas deberían ser metálicas para darle mejor durabilidad en el tiempo. Una recomendación para CELESTRON, deben mejorar la proteccion del empaque de la Montura CG3, no es solo ponerlo en una caja sin ninguna protección, este debería venir protegido por goma, para evitar lo que me pasó, que en el envío y debido al peso de la montura, la montura se golpeo y se dobló el tornillo de Movimiento Lento en DEC. Lamentablemente no puedo hacer reclamo por garantía ya que me encuentro en Venezuela, y los costos de traslado ida y vuelta del equipo serían muy altos en comparación con el costo del Telescopio. No me queda mas remedio que tratar de reparar la pieza. David Trujillo P. Barquisimeto, Edo. Lara Venezuela

Pros: * Once it's set up, it produces some nice imagery. The views are relatively clear. * If you set up the red dot finder correctly (YouTube it), you can find pretty much any major star you could see easily with the naked eye. Don't expect anything more, though. * Price -- If you're using this review to determine whether to purchase one, understand: You get what you pay for. The value you get with the imagery for this price range is hard to beat. Period. Please understand that before you read the cons. Cons: * The tripod is shaky. I rate it a 3/10. It's not stable at all, and even with shock absorbers on the feet, you basically have to use this scope hands-off or it's unusable. * EQ mount. To be fair, it's a true EQ mount. However, the engineering quality on the mount is poor. If you want to aim it, you have to manually point it in the right direction. To fine tune it, you can use the RA fine-adjustment knob, but the other knob only works with limited travel. I haven't had a chance to study it and figure out where the bind is, but there's simply too much play to make it useful. I rate it 2/10. * The motor. The motor's mounting location severely restricts how you can turn the scope. Plus, when you have the motor on, you can't use the fine adjustment knob, rendering the ability to fine tune the sighting so the motor can do it's thing useless. Final thoughts: * If you're not imaging, don't get this model. Get the regular AstroMaster 130EQ. It's a great scope, but the motor is not good on this mount / tripod setup. * If you ARE imaging, don't do like I did and get the camera adapter and think you can just go and take great pictures. It's impossible for this stand/mount to balance a SLR. The mount is too unstable / low quality to hand-hold. Go with a lightweight camera -- either amscope or celstron, or get a webcam adapter. * You'll have to fine-tune the red-dot to use it. It took me several sessions before I figured out how to set it properly, and even then, it was more luck than skill. * To really get the most out of this scope, you'll need to buy some better optics. I bought a Barlow 3x and love it. Celestron has some accessory kits, so do some research. If you're really worried about the $$ of upgrading the optics, I think you'd have a hard time buying a reflector scope out of the box that's any better without spending $500. For this price range, it's a decent starter scope. My wife and I like it.

The Celestron 31042 AstroMaster 114EQ is everything I hoped for and more! 😍 As someone totally new to telescopes, I was nervous about the setup—but Celestron made it incredibly easy. The instructions were clear, and I had it up and running in under 30 minutes, no tools needed! This telescope is perfect for beginners who are curious and ready to experience something new. The image clarity blew my mind—moon craters, Saturn’s rings, even some deep-sky objects became real from my own backyard. It feels like having a personal window into space. 🌌🔭 Not only does it perform beautifully, but it looks sleek and professional too. It instantly made me feel like a legit stargazer. If you’re even slightly interested in astronomy or just want to see the universe in a whole new way, this is your sign to go for it. 💫 Huge thanks to Amazon for the fast shipping and seamless experience as always. If you’re scrolling through reviews trying to decide—this is the one. 👏

The telescope is fantastic with great potential. Pulls in an abundant amount of light. Moon looks stunning and I saw jupiter... sort of. I was able to focus it in and even sorta make out the gaseous nature of the planet, and I saw one of the moons. Blurry though at high magnification. All in all, is it worth the price? Definitely! But you'll do yourself a favor making the extra investment Buying an eye piece kit. If you want to see planets, Plossl eye pieces would be the way to go along with light filters. It's difficult but doable to make out the gasses on Jupiter but to really pull in it's detail, you'll need filters. High quality eye pieces like Plossl will be my next purchase so I can push this scope to it's limits which seem far beyond what the included eyepieces can offer. Oh yes, the star finder thingy. It's like using a red dot scope on a riffle. It's a bit of a pain to use but sight it in on a terrestrial object (land) far away first, converge the two dots and it'll put you right on that object. I used it to find Jupiter and it worked well. It took less than a minute to align the scope on it so it did it's job. The tripod. It works nice and all but very shaky. Basically, you have to center it in and don't so much as breath on it and look through the scope. Kinda a pain when you have to touch it to keep it tracked in as the object moves away as the earth spins. Anyways, good beginner set up. Get a high quality eyepiece set to take it to the next level. I gave it Five stars because the Scope for the Money you pay is just Fantastic and this could be an Excellent set up with the high quality eyepieces, filters, and maybe a sturdier tripod if that's an issue for you.

To state that that I was disappointed in this telescope is an understatement. I have never been so saddened and disappointed by a reasonably expensive product in my entire life. I also wish that my poor wife and I could get the entire month we wasted back from struggling with this thing. As of now, I just feel empty inside. All my aggravation and sadness having been spent. I don't think I have ever, in my life, felt so badly about buying something. I feel like I wasted a LOT of money on what ended up being a "garage decoration." I really gave it a good struggle for a whole month of working on it every single day, trying to fix something else that was broken, putting something else on my drill press to modify or repair something else. At the end, I gave up. There's no use for more modifying, fighting, and continued disappointment. It's so bad that I refuse to curse someone else by selling or giving it away, and it's probably just going to go to the recycle center. To be completely fair, I have had a Celestron microscope for years, and it is excellent. I really love it. After having had such a positive experience with their microscope, I felt relatively confident about buying from Celestron, again. I don't know if I'll ever purchase anything telescope related from them, ever, after experiencing this abysmal horror, and this is my warning to anyone else who buys one of these. I'm really sorry, Celestron, but I have to tell the truth. Pros: The tripod is lightweight and pretty sturdy. The locking knobs for the tripod work well. Assembly took a while, but was fairly straight forward, and the provided instructions were easy to understand. I'm really struggling, here, to find another pro. There was no other pros. None. Cons: 1. The Right Ascension indicator, which is non-adjustable, broke free, and now just spins freely, so that now, zeroing it for polar alignment is just poor, sloppy guesswork. 2. While I had the mount partially disassembled, trying to see what I could do to fix the RA indicator, I noticed that instead of bearings, they use three cheap slices of plastic, like the kind you find in blister packs or product packaging. Two of them had already broken, so I had to toss them. 3. The RA and Declination indicator hash marks and numbers started rubbing off, nearly immediately. The scope cover simply falls off at the slightest touch. 4. The finderscope was mounted so badly out of alignment that the dials wouldn't adjust far enough to line it up. I ended up having to drill two holes in the tube to mount an aftermarket finder. I tossed the useless original finder into the trash. 5. The focuser isn't centered on the telescope tube, and is non-adjustable, such that, after you collimate your telescope, you're only collimated for one focus position. That one took me hours of pain to discover. Tightning the resistance spring helped a little, but at the end, it's still misaligned. 6. The soft rubber grips on the focuser tend to just slip around in a circle, instead of turning the knobs. The mirror has a mild aberration, from the factory, such that a 1/3 section of a star looks vaguely like a streak. maybe that's also a symptom of the focuser, as well. 7. The factory 20mm eyepiece is all but useless. I don't even know why they included it, except to add extra "challenge." The worm gears on the equatorial mount grind and seize, grind and seize. You'll never get lined up on what you're looking at. The right ascension knob also gives plenty of declination, because there's so much slop in it, and vice versa. 8. The lock knobs are very difficult to tighten down far enough to keep your scope from moving, and often, simply switching eyepieces causes the whole thing to slew. 9. The mount bounces up and down or bends at the slightest touch, because it isn't engineered to be sturdy enough, which makes wrestling with the grinding gears on the mount extra fun. 10. The mount is designed such, that, trying to point the scope anywhere within 20 degrees or so from straight overhead is impossible, because it bumps against itself, or the tripod. 11. Even when not pointing the telescope up, one of the locking knobs bumps and scrapes against the right ascension dial, because it wasn't engineered with enough clearance. As the elevation dial is essentially useless, my recommendation is probably to completely remove the RA dial, as well, to provide proper clearance.

First, let's cover the greatness about this telescope. The primary mirror is excellent for a beginner's telescope and even rival my $1300 GSO 8-inch. With the included eyepieces, you get decent images...and better images with better eyepieces. Everything also appears to be well constructed. The red dot finder scope is liked by many people, but with my eyes I had issues with it. The motor drive, once the proper speed was determined, does an excellent job of tracking objects. Now for the not so great... The image-erecting 20mm eyepiece is a very dumb idea for an astronomical telescope!!! With an equatorial mount, I can't imagine anyone using this telescope for terrestrial purposes as they might with an Alt-Az mount. So, that means that you end up having to use two methods to move the telescope to center/track targets that you are viewing depending on the eyepiece being used because images in the 10mm eyepiece move opposite those in the 20mm. There is no up and down or left and right in space. I immediately replaced the 20mm eyepiece with a real 20mm astronomical eyepiece that does not erect the image. That was $40 I should not have had to spend. The other beef I have with the telescope is with the equatorial mount...the motor and the DEC axis lock knob render the telescope unable to reach portions of the sky. There is currently no way that I can view the mid-day sun here in SE Texas mid Springtime to late Summer because either the motor or the DEC knob gets in the way. They need to re-engineer how the after-thought motor attaches to the mount so that the telescope saddle doesn't run into the motor. (I say "after-thought" because the mount is a manual mount with provision for a motor drive of the RA axis.) They also need to make the DEC axis about 1/4-inch longer above the RA axis...so that the DEC lock knob does not run into the RA setting circle and prevent the scope from being pointed to a part of the sky. While this is supposed to be a beginner's telescope...If fixing these issues would add more than $50 to the price of the telescope, I might consider giving them a pass. But, I would certainly have paid $50 more if Celestron had engineered a better EQ mount and proclaimed its glory in their advertising! Additional info: if you want a wider field of view than the/a 20mm eyepiece provides...you can go up to a 32mm...to not have the diagonal and spider in the view like what happened when I tried a 40mm and a 38mm eyepieces (both of which I returned).

Tried the Powerseeker 127EQ first and was only acceptable. Then I bought the Astromaster 130EQ and found it to be a fine quality sharp image excellent Reflector Telescope. You should be prepared to learn a bunch before feeling accustomed to this Reflector but you will be rewarded for your efforts. A laser collimator is a must to check, and if necessary, realign the mirrors, known as Collimating. I spent some time learning how to collimate this Scope, or align the mirrors and I devised an additional step in the beginning as I am a former technical writer. First, making sure the laser Collimator is NOT in the focuser tube and is definitely OFF, stand a few feet in front of the opening or aperture of the telescope and look into the opening where you will see the cross frame in front, the mirror in the back, and the reflection of the front cross frame in the back mirror. Then slowly and carefully concentrate on what you see and move your view slowly so the mirror and reflection of the cross frame appear centered within each other and the telescope tube. The point is to confirm that the main mirror is perpendicular to the axis of the tube such that all parts viewed appear to be all centered or concentric with each other. If looking straight down the tube center, you see the reflection of the secondary mirror frame up front off center and offset from the actual frame up front, then carefully adjust the primary mirror in back so everything looks aligned. That means the back mirror reflection of the front cross frame should be aligned behind the frame when looking absolutely down the center of the tube and the mirrors appear correctly centered. After you have assured a nearly aligned primary mirror when viewed from the front, then you can proceed to install the laser collimator into the eyepiece focuser with the indicator target pointing forward as the telescope does. Turn on the laser and DO NOT LOOK into the front of the telescope until you are done and the laser is out and OFF. Slowly adjust the secondary mirror up front carefully and slowly loosening and tightening very delicately each of the three screws until the laser dot is centered on the target. Remember to very delicately loosen and tighten the screws slowly and in steps between the three until you become accustomed to how the adjustments affect the laser dot on the target. Once you have centered the dot on the target adjusting the secondary mirror up front, then TURN OFF the laser and rotate the laser Collimator in the focuser tube such that the target opening is facing the back of the Telescope where the primary mirror is. Turn on the laser and observe the laser dot on or near the target. The dot should be centered in the target and likely will be close or off towards the outer part of the target. Very carefully loosen the locking phillip screws of the back large primary mirror to allow further adjustment with the larger knurled knobs that adjust the mirror. Very slowly adjust one knob at a time while you become accustomed to the results of each adjustment as they affect the movement of the laser light dot on the target of the collimator. Do this all slowly until you gradually learn the tricks to collimate. Do not make big adjustments to the primary mirror unless you have to. When done, turn OFF the laser collimator and remove it from the focusing tube. Once again, DO NOT look at the laser beam or the front of the telescope while the laser is in use. Now that the eyepiece focuser tube is open, look in the tube and you should see a reflection of your eye's pupil in the center of the small secondary mirror and mirrors and cross frame should all look centered upon each other or concentric. NEVER LOOK AT THE LASER BEAM END, ONLY THE DOT ON THE TARGET WHEN IT IS INSTALLED IN THE TELESCOPE. A laser collimator really is a must for easy collimation testing before each use of the telescope and especially after transporting the telescope as vibrations may change mirror alignment or collimation. I highly recommend pointing the telescope horizontal during mirror collimation outdoors as the laser light may be considered offensive by planes with resulting complaints and possible law actions. I collimate indoors. DANGER; never look at the laser beam as eye damage can result. Only look at the light dot on the target when the collimator is installed in the telescope. The laser collimators are very low power but safety practices should always be a way of life. In actual use, I just barely saw the cluster of galaxies between Virgo and Leo on a dark night near the new moon and gladly told myself it was worth the money and effort to have seen the dim but visible galaxies with the fuzzy center nuclei of stars. Dark conditions and eyes adjusted to the dark are necessary. I also viewed Jupiter and five of it's moons in very good detail on a marginal seeing night. The planet was actually too bright and required a filter to lower the the brightness and improve contrast. For the price, it is an excellent light gatherer. I also have a Powerseeker 80EQ Refractor that exhibits very clear images. The Telescope paid for itself when I could see deep space distant galaxies. That is a result of the larger light gathering ability of the Reflector. I recommend Dean Fuller's video on YOU TUBE on how to operate an equatorial mount and polar align for beginners. It was faster and easier to understand than the written instructions.