EXPLORER-130 130mm (5.1") f/900 Newtonian reflector kit

With its larger 5.1" primary mirror, the Sky Watcher Explorer 130 telescope represents great value for money, and remains one of our top selling starter telescope packages.

The award winning Sky Watcher 130 really is a stand out example of truly amazing modern value-for-money and performance – this would be a great scope at more than twice the price.

The EQ2 mount and tripod To the new user it always comes as a surprise that we talk about the mounting before the optics. Are the optics no good they wonder? On the contrary; the large 130mm optics are of excellent quality. But it doesn’t matter how good the optics are if the mount won’t hold them steady. The EQ2 mount is solidly engineered and tried and tested for over ten years now. It carries the weight of the telescope and is generously specified so that it will work well with the additional weight of accessories such as cameras etc. The mount can be upgraded at a later date by the addition of a motor drive. The Explorer 130 is equipped with two manual flexible slow-motion handles that allow you to track and examine a celestial target at high magnification. Basic wide-field tracked photography, using the piggy-back camera method, can be done using the robust EQ-2 equatorial mount.

The 130mm optics The 130mm mirror of this instrument is of excellent quality and is (when used with the appropriate accessories) capable, in ideal seeing conditions, of delivering magnifications up to 265x and 275x without break down. An amazing achievement for a telescope in this price bracket. The 900mm focal length allows very high power magnifications to be achieved easily without employing uncomfortably short focal length eyepieces. The 130mm aperture (that’s over 5” in old money) makes this telescope and all-round performer giving high resolution images of the Moon, planets and other solar system targets as well as penetrating deep-sky views of galaxies and nebulae.

Quality accessories includedThe Sky-Watcher 130 is supplied with good quality accessories (low-quality accessories is a common failing in lesser scopes). The 25mm and 10mm eyepieces are bright and pin-sharp providing 36x and 90x magnification respectively. Also included is a quality 2x Barlow lens that is used by positioning it in front of the eyepieces to double the focal length of the telescope and thereby double the magnification of each eyepiece. So when used with the Barlow 36x becomes 72x and 90x becomes 180x; thus the two eyepieces actually provide four different magnifications.

The red dot LED finder is also a great boon especially for the inexperienced user. The electronic finder is designed to be used with both eyes open and from just about any viewing distance! These features just make it so easy to use compared with squinting through a little optical finder. But there’s more to it even than that – optical finders give magnified views of the sky and they are usually inverted , this can make accurate targeting star identification difficult for the inexperienced observer (actually, experienced observers can be caught out too! James). The red dot finder in contrast is optically one-to-one having no magnification and the view of the sky is natural and not inverted. Simply look along the telescope tube at the sky (no need to look “at” the finder at all) and place the glowing red dot over the target you wish to view – it’s that simple.

strong> We can’t recommend this telescope too highly – it’s a great choice for people who have already enjoyed a basic starter scope and want to move on. But the 130 is also user-friendly enough to be a first scope for the user who knows that wants something one long stride beyond the basic starter scope.

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