Review of Celestron Astromaster 130eq.

This review was long overdue but I'm glad I'm doing it after having enough experience with this telescope. 

I actually wanted to buy Orion starblast 4.5 tabletop dobosonian as my first telescope since it was portable to carry,have enough aperture etc. But there was no stock in India and new stock wouldn't arrive till November due to Corona. So I have searched various alternatives until I finally landed on Celestron Astromaster 130 eq. It had all the specifications starblast 4.5 had(except the parabolic mirror) but with only more aperture because of which it costs 2000 rupees more. But I was willing to spend that extra money because of 1.1 inch extra aperture and also because it comes with an erecting eyepiece because of which I can also use this telescope for day time terrestrial viewing. I ordered equatorial mount instead of azimuth mount.Eventhough it had a little learning curve at first, it's always better to track the object with slow motion clutch instead of always adjusting the view whenever it goes out of the field of view.So ordering done and the baby came in a very good packaging condition. Here's what it looked like just after taking it out of cardboard box.

It had all the necessary components and an instruction manual to assemble the scope. Although they missed a few details in instruction manual such as taking out bushes inside counterweights before inserting them into counter weight shaft etc. But we had done it anyway seeing some YouTube videos,which are better than manual.This is how it looked after the assembly. It has that really professional look that comes from equatorial mount.

Now let's jump into the review and user experience..

1) Quality

Quality of optics is great. Mirror is highly reflective in nature and the telescope comes factory aligned which means you don't have to worry about collimating it before use. Eyepieces are of premium quality and fully coated. 20 mm is just so great to see the moon and for terrestrial viewing.10mm is for planets and gives inverted image as well as high magnification.Although the optical tube is great my only issue is with the tripod which is a very little wobbly and one leg is slightly defective because of which accessory tray doesn't sit properly into the telescope tripod. The parts equatorial mount is made of hard plastic which could have been done with iron inorder to give it a little more sturdiness. But again if they do that telescope becomes heavier. This is just doing fine. 

2) Performance

When it comes to telescopes,you get what you pay for. This scope is no different. The website has mentioned that it will show craters on moon,moons of Jupiter,rings of Saturn,phases of Venus and brighter deep sky objects such as Orion nebula and Andromeda galaxy. I have seen all of the above objects they mentioned and some more. Mind you, they're not going to look like NASA images you see which are shot with high quality DSLRs and advanced telescopes with lots of data processing involved. If you don't keep your expectations low, you'll be disappointed. The only object that will make you go awe interms of detail is the MOON. This telescope is excellent for lunar observation and the crisp details it shows such as craters and slight bluish tint in the middle of moon etc. Here's a photo for the reference,shot from this telescope. The real view exceeds this picture by a factor of 1000.

Jupiter and Saturn will be seen as small blobs with a little turbulence involved in the eyepiece. But you can make out some details on a clear night such as bands on Jupiter and Cassini division on Saturn. Venus will be very good looking like a half moon or like crescent depending on its phase. It will have no surface details since it is by nature a gaseous planet. Mars will be like an orange ball with no surface details. Uranus looks like a blue star. The only way telling it is a planet is by observing that it won't blink as much as stars does. 

Deep sky objects: This is where this telescope out performs basic refractor telescopes and the aperture really comes into picture. Planets are small and therefore can be seen with even a 50-60mm telescopes. But some deep sky objects(DSO'S) are very wide and also fainter. So you need more aperture to see them in their full glory. Always use 20mm eyepiece to see DSO'S. Finding DSOs is easy because of the skyportal app Celestron gives along with the telescope. Do some starhopping and you'll be there.(Setting circles won't work accurately, especially when you're living near the equator and polar alignment is not done with utmost precision.)

The Orion nebula and the three collinear stars in Orion belt are so Awesome. You can see a red tint and cloudy texture of Orion nebula. I cried out of happiness when I saw it for the first time .The next best DSO to lookout is Pleiades star cluster. It's just so awesome seen through this. Andromeda galaxy will reveal some nebulosity on a day with darker sky otherwise it will look like a bright star. Pinwheel galaxy is worst. It's very small and you can't make out any details in this scope. Crab nebula will look black and white and almost like star cluster. North America Nebula is good enough. Ring nebula is soo small but awesome.Coming to the star clusters, M44(beehive cluster),double cluster are the best DSOs I've seen after Pleiades. Rest of all are also good. But not good enough. Amongst stars,you can spot all the famous stars such as Vega,Polaris, Betelgeuse,sirius, Capella,Rigel etc. Sirius is the best when it comes to twinkling. See that with an 10mm eyepiece. You'll be amazed at the rate it twinkles and how fast it changes colors. It almost looks like a small LED light emitting RGB colors. Betelgeuse can be identified as a yellow sphere with 10mm eyepiece. Apart from all those things in the sky,I spotted some magnificent birds doing terrestrial viewing and pointing scope towards hills and trees. I think I've seen enough with this scope and used it to full extent. I can say it's worth the money. Now we come to the final part of the detailed review,namely rating.

Optics:5/5.

Tripod,stability and equatorial mount:3/5.

Optical tube and Performance:4.5/5.

Cost to benefit ratio- 1:2

Finderscope:4/5.

Astro imaging capability: lunar.

Skyportal app and software:5/5.

Final verdict: Go for it.