Celestron 31051 AstroMaster 130EQ Motor Drive Newtonian Reflector Telescope, Dark Blue

Review of Celestron AstroMaster 114EQ Reflector Telescope:Update (July 2018):I've spent a lot of time with this telescope now, perhaps 100 hours, and have an even better opinion of it than before. As a cheap small telescope it is ideal for beginners like me and I couldn't ask for a better experience for the right-above £100 price I paid. It is one of the most cost effective pastimes I've enjoyed.With the telescope, I've observed:The MoonVenusMars and its ice capJupiter, its cloud lines, and its big red spotSaturn and its ringsSatellitesMany open clustersMany globular clustersA few nebulas (The orion nebula is amazing!)The Andromeda GalaxyOver the past months I have gathered some tips for getting the most out of this telescope:* The 114EQ has a corrector lens built into the eyepiece tube that also acts like a 2x barlow lens, essentially "zooming in" by 2x power by default. This works well for planetary viewing, but for objects like open star clusters and the andromeda galaxy it can be too much magnification to get a wide enough view with a 20-24mm eyepiece. Also, for faint objects like nebulas it can reduce the exit pupil of the telescope to a very small size, which limits the ability of your eye to gather light. A solution I found is to use a 0.5x barlow lens to reduce the overall power to 1x. I recommend the Solomark 0.5x Focal Reducer available on Amazon, which screws into the bottom of your eyepiece.* I tried a number of different eyepieces, including moderately expensive ones. My favorite experience was the Seben 7.5-22.5mm Zoom Eyepiece. While being one of the least expensive eye pieces I used with the telescope also offered the most adaptable experience. I rarely use the other eyepieces now because the seben zoom allows me to spend more time viewing and less time fiddling. When paired with a 0.5x barlow, it gives the telescope a wide range of configurations that allow it to be a nice platform for viewing all objects below absolute magnitude 10.* The mount has a cheap bearing for the equatorial axis which has a bolt that both acts as the axle and as the tightener. This is where most of the vibration in the mount comes from. In order to make it work well, it is critical that the washers go in the correct order and that the bolt is torqued such that it is tight but not binding. The correct order is the metal washer first and the rubber washer second on the bolt. If they are reversed, the bolt will back its way out when turning the equatorial axis and lead to a lot of wobbling.* I removed the locking screws for the collimation knobs on the primary mirror. The telescope keeps its collimation well without the screws, and the knobs are much easier to adjust in the field without having to take the screws out first. Speaking of which, accurate collimation is critical for all reflector telescopes, so if you are not comfortable learning how to do this time consuming process, you should buy a refractor telescope instead, which does not require collimation. After learning the process, it is painless to do. Reflectors like the 114EQ are cheaper for better image quality than refractors, but collimation is the price you pay.* I switched to using Stellarium for my session planning instead of the included Starry Night. I find Stellarium easier to use, and it also allows me to plan which eyepiece configurations are appropriate for a particular object. The mobile version of stellarium is way better than the mobile version of starry night -- more stars included, and easier interface.Really love this telescope! While viewing feint objects like nebulas begs for a larger telescope, I have found my time with this scope highly rewarding at a fraction of the price. I highly recommend this telescope for budding astronomers.Original Review (March 2018):I spent some of my teenage summers with a cousin who loved astrology and introduced me to many of the concepts. Many years later I decided to invest in my own small scope, nothing like the big one my cousin had. After reading reviews and studying specs I picked the Astromaster 114eq for it's nice blend of small size, price, and performance. On our first night viewing, my girlfriend and I caught views of the Orion nebula and beehive cluster right out our apartment window. Wow! It made me realize what I had been missing out on!I am far from an astrological expert, but I can see that the EQ114 can go far, especially with the right adjustment. Collimation is difficult with the stock screws, but after spending several hours over multiple sessions I got it pretty darn good and the picture is nice to my uneducated eyes.The included software helped a lot to find things to view and to track them down in the sky.I don't want a big telescope due to storage, but I'd like to see how far my eq114 will go. To that end I bought a better eye piece than the cheap ones it comes with to see how far the little guy can stretch. The eye piece cost almost as much as the telescope, but I hear they make a huge difference so I am looking forward to trying it out. It's the kind of thing that will last for 50 years so I'm not worried about the investment. You shouldn't be either! Don't hesitate if you're on the fence, this is a good little scope I can fully recommend.

After much searching and investigating I picked this telescope as it had the largest aperture for my price range.It is very well built and was easy to setup and build. The guide is useful, but ended up searching YouTube for a video guide - this also included how to balance the telescope [...]).The telescope itself was supplied with 2 lenses, a 20mm and a 10mm. The 20mm is plastic and I only use it as a starting lens to position the telescope first to what I want to see. The 10mm is a good little lens and give nice view of the stars and moon. I also purchased the 'Celestron AstroMaster Accessory Kit' at the same time - this included lens filters and additional 5mm, 15mm and 2x lenses. This gives more range of magnifications to use with the telescope.Viewing with the telescope is very good. The moon is amazing, but you will NEED a moon filter - it is very bright. You can clearly see the moons of Jupiter and with my additional 5mm lens I can just about make out the markings of Jupiter. As for the other planets they have not been visible in the evenings yet - but can't wait until Saturn appears!The only fault is the StarPointer. It's not that good, but you can work around/with it.I have even had my 4 year old daughter looking at the moon - which she found fascinating as she could see the craters very clearly.Since buying this, I have also contacted Celestron support (issue with the additional lens). They were quick and put me in touch with their local distributor (Hama) in the UK. Hama were also very helpful.All-in-all this is very good for the price it costs. I wanted a good telescope that would allow me to get started in Astronomy, without using it for a short while and having to replace it when I want more. This is a good start and with the right lenses will do for what I want it for. Good quality lenses are not cheap (it's the price of the telescope itself for a set), but I can now slowly upgrade this over time now that I have a decent telescope.