Skywatcher Explorer-130M 130mm (5.1") f/900 Motorised Newtonian Reflector Telescope 10713

Firstly, I bought this just 2 weeks ago (before Christmas 2013) and paid £167, and now,after Christmas, they've increased the price to £198!Anyway, here's the review.Delivery - The scope arrived within 5 days. It's a massive box and heavy too.Set-up - it took me about an hour and a half. The manual is like most manuals which come withequipment - not very clearly written, but clear enough to get by after fiddling around.The telescope - fantastic! The imagines are sharp, and there is just a lovely 'feel' when you lookthrough the eye-piece. I've already used it a few times in just a fortnight, and have actuallyheld open-evenings, inviting family and friends and impressed them with the views of Venus,Jupiter, it's moons, and of course our own moon.Magnification - like most beginners I was obsessed with magnification before I bought this,and now having actually used a telescope for the first time in my life, I've realised it's more aboutaperture, rather than magnification. Here's why - larger aperture means you can see fainter objectsand see them sharper too. Larger magnification on the other hand, presents many problems:(1) the objects lose definition(2) your field of view shrinks, so the objects move out of view very quickly(3) the atmospheric pollution, air-currents, finger-on-eye-piece vibrations all get magnified tooand make for a shakier image.So, what magnification can you realistically get with this baby? Well, the supplied eye-pieces giveyou x36 and x90. The Barlow lens can double this to x72 and x180. I found Jupiter bestviewed with x90 - this showed me the bands, and the 4 moons. Using 180, the planet just becamea big blog loosing definition.The Mount - I discovered I was actually using this mount completely wrong, until someone set it up forme properly. And then voila! I can now spin the telescope around the sky in the matter of seconds.Pointing to Jupiter one minute, and then swirling it to Polaris the next, and then to Orions belt....The mounts feels very sturdy, and solid, and I must say it's a pleasure to use.Motorised drive - the ''M' in the '130M' means this scope comes with a battery operateddrive, which will automatically track an object once it's the field of view. I have yet to usethis, so cannot comment on it's performance.So, if you're interested in astronomy, and want a starter telescope, you won't go wrong with this one.

For a first scope, this is a good choice. As others have mentioned, the instructions get a little hazy on the important bits I.E how to set the RA to the polaris, but a simple YouTube video answered all me questions. So tricky for a total newbie but with some research, you can get up and running after a few goes.First time round I was able to get a nice view of Jupiter and 4 moons which I was impressed with, only to realise I could do with a filter to cut the brightness a bit. Taking a photo is going to be a challenge itself but that's just practice.The reason for not having a full star set was I was missing an M4 screw from one of the fine adjuster's and completely out of the hands of the supplier, Amazon were dreadful in getting this delivered.Apart from that, worth the money and if your willing to put in the effort of learning a whole new hobbie, you'll be completely satisfied with the results.

Bought this as my first telescope after spending weeks researching and reading reviews, and I wasn't disapointed with my selection. I found it fairly straight forward to assemble and it took a little practice to work out how to use the EQ2 mount. The views of Jupiter are excellent and everything I was expecting/hoping for with this telescope specs and now after I have got used to the EQ2 mount I am starting searching for deep sky objects. It was a little larger than I expected and not very portable due to the size and weight, but with a helper you could lug it over a short distance if needed. For now i'm sticking to my back garden or taking it in my car.The build looks to be of high qualifty and the supplied lenses are also very good. The mirrors came aligned so no callibration was needed but I did have to unscrew the red dot finder mount to shift it in a better position in order to align it accurately.If you are like me and just getting into or testing out this astromony hobby then I high recommend this, but without owning any other telescope I can't compare, however I feel I have got value for money and hope to enjoy many nights looking up at the stars and planets with this scope.

This was a gift for my son. It was easy to mount but is not easy to manipulate or get a good image as it requires some adjustments and the information given in the booklet is not very clear. Otherwise good quality.