teileascóp/telescope

Gael Uirbeach

conas atá sibh, I havent posted here in a while but ive been following the various threads with interest. Ive finally commited to buying my first telescope (ive been using binoculars/spotting scopes up till now). For my budget ive narrowed it down to the Celestron Astromaster 130EQ, seems to get good enough reviews for the price. Though before I commit i have a few questions I was hoping someone may be able to help me with. First off, Ive seen that theres also a motor drive version of this telescope for an extra bit of airgead, I was wondering if the motor drive would be worth investing in, ive read you can track the object your looking at and what not but how does it work?, is it via your computer or is there a built in source or does it "fix" itself on the object through its position and just follow it that way? Also, from what ive seen on the internet, and i may be wrong here, but it seems that the motorized version can be used to take photos while the non MD version cant, was also just wondering how this works as I wouldnt mind taking the odd pic here and there, Ive a standard enough digital SLR, do you need special adapters to fit it? Im sure there was another question I meant to ask but i cant remember at the moment but im sure itll come to me, anyway, any help would be greatly appreciated,

Go raibh maith agaibh

Gator

Gael Uirbeach wrote: »

conas atá sibh, I havent posted here in a while but ive been following the various threads with interest. Ive finally commited to buying my first telescope (ive been using binoculars/spotting scopes up till now). For my budget ive narrowed it down to the Celestron Astromaster 130EQ, seems to get good enough reviews for the price. Though before I commit i have a few questions I was hoping someone may be able to help me with. First off, Ive seen that theres also a motor drive version of this telescope for an extra bit of airgead, I was wondering if the motor drive would be worth investing in, ive read you can track the object your looking at and what not but how does it work?, is it via your computer or is there a built in source or does it "fix" itself on the object through its position and just follow it that way? Also, from what ive seen on the internet, and i may be wrong here, but it seems that the motorized version can be used to take photos while the non MD version cant, was also just wondering how this works as I wouldnt mind taking the odd pic here and there, Ive a standard enough digital SLR, do you need special adapters to fit it? Im sure there was another question I meant to ask but i cant remember at the moment but im sure itll come to me, anyway, any help would be greatly appreciated,

Go raibh maith agaibh

Just recently bought this exact one, wont be able to answer some of your questions as I am complete novice but may be able to help you out.

I bought the non motor version but amazon cancelled my order, quick search and found the motor on offer for less then the original.

TBH honest the motor drive appears to be a bit of a gimmick but I am sure some more veterened astronomers on here will point out some good factors,

as a matter of interest, how much have been quoted?

peterako

Very quick reply to a very quick read of your question

The Motor Drive on the 130EQ MD drives the RA axis of the telescope's mount.

Your telescope mount has two axes(?) that it can turn about. Dec and RA.

The purpose of an EQ mount (the type that comes with the Astromaster EQ's) is to allow your telescope track objects as they 'move' across the sky.

I'll not get technical here, but the RA axis is the one that allows you to track the object.

The DEC moves the scope 'up and down'.

You use DEC and RA to find an object, then assuming you have at least roughly Polar Aligned the scope (don't worry it's easy) you can track the object with just the RA control knob.

Now, all objects Moon etc. 'move' in the sky (actually...Earth rotates and the objects appear to move....well they are moving too....).

Watching with the naked eye this is not apparent except over long periods.

As you zoom in on an object, eg Moon, Saturn... the higher the magnification you use the quicker they will apear to move and therefore the quicker they'll move out of your view unless you track with the RA slow motion nob.

This is where the Motor comes in. It does the adjustment/moving of the RA nob for you and makes life a whole lot easier.

Well worth the extra expense!

No computers (that'd be GoTo scopes and Autoguided ones).

Won't tackle Astrophotography this time....

Lots of forum members love their 130 EQs!

Clear skies,
Peter

Gael Uirbeach

Gator wrote: »

Just recently bought this exact one, wont be able to answer some of your questions as I am complete novice but may be able to help you out.

I bought the non motor version but amazon cancelled my order, quick search and found the motor on offer for less then the original.

TBH honest the motor drive appears to be a bit of a gimmick but I am sure some more veterened astronomers on here will point out some good factors,

as a matter of interest, how much have been quoted?

I was just looking around briefly but I saw on astronomy Ireland that the non MD one is 189e and the MD one is 230e, not sure if theres anywhere you could get much cheaper once you covert and all, though maybe there is, i still have to look at amazon to see, ill give it a look later, though thanks for the reply lads, go raibh maith agaibh

backboiler

With only 650 mm focal length you'd probably want to think about getting some extra eyepieces with short focal length - probably a 6 mm and 4 mm - to get the full range of magnifications out of it, especially for planetary observations. I fear that you'll be a bit disappointed with what you can see of Saturn and rings with 65x (10 mm) but with a 4 mm you'd get ~160x. You can pick up a cheap one on ebay for less than €20, though quality is variable.

You can get a good idea of the differences between eyepieces (and telescopes) in Stellarium by using the "ocular" plugin (enable this in the F2 menu: Cumraíocht - Breiseáin - Ocular - Luchtaigh ag an tús. Atosaigh Stellarium. F2 arís: Cumraíocht - Breiseáin - Ocular - Cumraigh, and set your eyepiece and telescope properties (use 50 degrees as a guess if you don't know the aFOV). Point at the area of interest in the sky (maybe centre it using Space) and use Ctrl-O to enable ocular and use Ctrl- and Shift- with [ and ] to shuffle between the various combinations. Zooming in and out is disabled to mimic the reality of using a telescope. Moving around is limited to the cursor keys and direction is inverted.

Popoutman

After years of using non-motorised scopes, I can safely say that adding the motorisation is a godsend. For visual work it doesn't have to be supremely accurate, just enough to stop you needing to touch the scope every 10-20 seconds and allowing the telescope to "get out of the way" and allow you to concentrate on the object you are looking at.
I'd say get the motorised one if you can.

Gator

Gael Uirbeach wrote: »

I was just looking around briefly but I saw on astronomy Ireland that the non MD one is 189e and the MD one is 230e, not sure if theres anywhere you could get much cheaper once you covert and all, though maybe there is, i still have to look at amazon to see, ill give it a look later, though thanks for the reply lads, go raibh maith agaibh

Got mine for 160 euro with motor and free delivery

peterako

That's an very good deal!