Even from the balcony of our apartment in LA (i.e. far from ideal environment) we have been able to see clearly the rings around Saturn and Jupiters Galilean moons. The details of the moon's surface are also clearly visible.
Taking it out of the city lights into the desert we were even able to see Titan, one of Saturn's moons, and the Cassini gap. We could also see the fuzziness of the Orion nebula and the Trapezium.
We have also used it to look at globular clusters and a few other things of interest.
The software, The Sky, that is included with the telescope is particularly useful for figuring out at what time the objects you wish to view will rise. You just have to feed it your position coordinates (most major cities are preprogrammed into it).
I have not used it for astrophotography but you would probably need to get the electronic drive to get good pictures, especially if you intend to photograph faint objects.
The scope is also pretty easy to operate and as it comes with an equitorial mount it's also easy to trace objects as they move across the sky.
Finally, this scope is quite portable, which was important to us in choosing it as we live in the city where conditions are not too great for viewing. It will easily fit in any trunk and is not too heavy to carry around for a few tens or hundreds of meters.
On the whole this is a great telescope for a beginner who is not yet sure whether he/she is willing (or able) to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on equipment. It is good enough to show you most things of interest and light enough to be portable.
For the serious astronomer it would probably be clever to go for larger aperture although that always comes at the cost of portability and higher price.
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Let me begin by letting you know that I am not new to astronomy or telescopes. 20 years ago, I spent countless hours with a 60mm ~f/10 Meade on an Alt-Az mount (a mount that goes up-down and left-right) in both the stark cold of a northern minnesota winter and warm buggy/mosquito infested season of summer. It was fun, and I remember looking mostly at the planets, the Pleides, and the Orion nebula and could even barely make out the Andromeda galaxy, but I always longed for something more.Fast forward to last month. After just having taken my wife to a local Mars viewing provided by the Oklahoma City Astronomy Club, I drop a hint that it might be nice to have a good scope for us and the kids (or ... actually ... just me ... but you can still look through it). After looking around the web, reading reviews, pricing new scopes, and reading some more. I decided that I really wanted the SpaceProbe 130ST (and I could stretch our budget far enough to afford it). It was small enough that I could quickly and comfortably carry it outside any night (many folks complain that they spend more time setting up their large scopes than they do looking through them so smaller means more viewing time). It was large enough optically to see most anything I wanted from in town. It was capable of displaying large star fields (fast f/5 focal length). It also came with an equatorial mount which would allow me to track stars by cranking one knob instead of two (tricky if you aren't comfortable locating Polaris and carefully aligning your equatorial mount). It even had a parabolic mirror! I was sold ... this was going to be my all purpose scope.
Excitedly, I discovered that there was a local Orion dealer, and made a quick visit to his shop one evening, and came home with the Space Probe 130 EQ (the long tube f/7 version). I must have either been deleriously confused, or sick with telescope fever, because I really thought I was bringing home the 130ST, and didn't realize I had the long tube version until almost a day later. This was sort of like the old testament story of Jacob marrying Rachel and getting Leah instead except Rachel is the short tube and Leah is the long tube with the poor sight.
Anyhow I get it out of the box, play around with it, set it up, and enjoy my first evening out with it. I decide, that things aren't as sharp as they could be, so I'll collimate it.
After collimating and recollimating for the umpteenth time (I'm still new at this, so I take this as a fun/learning activity but I don't really know what I'm doing and actually make things worse). Finally, after further research, I decide to pull the secondary mirror out to make certain that the primary is axially aligned with the tube's center. It wasn't since I previously managed to rotate and tilt the secondary to compensate for the rotation achieving axial optical alignment, but grossly mechanically 'maligned'. To make a long story short ... I've got the thing collimated nearly perfectly now but I cannot push this scope to 180x (using the supplied 10mm Explorer II eyepiece and a $30-$40 2x fully multicoated barlow lens). I can resolve Mars at 90x with just the 10mm lens, and I can resolve Mars at 72x with the barlow and 25mm lens, but the image falls apart at 180x. The same thing happens with the Orion nebula when viewing the Trapezium. I can easily make out 3 (sometimes 4) stars at 36x, and I can easily make out 4 at 90x, but when I push the scope to 180x, the 4th star disappears, and the remaining three can not be focused down to tack sharp images (more like large 'circles' of light in the eyepiece). I could possibly blame this on the 10mm Explorer II eyepiece maybe it can't handle being barlowed. I don't have enough eyepieces (yet) to find out exactly when the image breaks down, but my guess is that it occurs somewhere around 100-150x. So, when you read that you should expect roughly 50x per inch of maximum useful power... you should conservatively trim that back to 20-25x per inch for this spherical mirror.
Here's my points of contention with the 130 long tube on the EQ-2 mount (and why it only gets 4 stars).
It has a spherical mirror (The 130ST has a parabolic mirror).
Spherical abberation was plain as day when I finally got it perfectly collimated. At low power (36x) using the supplied 25mm Explorer II eyepice, I could focus on a bright star, then focus out a little further, return to focus again, and then focus in a little further, and I could tell that the spherical abberation was evident. What I saw when out of focus one way was not the same thing I saw when out of focus the other way. A properly collimated mirror (especially a parabolic mirror) should show an equally bright perfectly circular donut shape in both directions from focus. I saw a donut with a brighter outer circle one direction, and a donut with a brighter inner circle in the other direction.
The mount is a little too light weight for thise scope.
The EQ-2 does fully support the weight of this scope, but you are better off either finding a nicely sheltered spot to view from (like a well fenced backyard with trees), or wait until you have CALM and clear skies, because at high power (90x) the image dances around in the eyepiece. I think the 130ST might be less prone to this problem since it has less tube surface area to be caught in the wind and it weighs slightly less.
Overall...
If you want a scope, realize that this is a 'nice' scope. It's not a great scope. It's not an awesome scope. For the price it is a nice scope. It is a lot better than my old 60mm (which I would now give 2-3 stars), and for viewing from inside Oklahoma City, I can still see some of the brighter objects (keep in mind that with the naked eye, I usually have magnitude 4 skies but with the scope, I can usually see stars down to mag 9). When I took it 90 minutes out of town to a dark site used by the Astronomy Club, I could see things I only dreamed of seeing both with the naked eye and with the scope (unfortuantely my time there was limited to 30 minutes since the wind was ~20 mph and the clouds were pushing in from the west).
Word of caution ... you need a few accessories!
If you are going to get this scope or if a you are going to get any similarly equipped newtonian scope (dobsonian or equatorial mount), you should anticipate having to buy one or both of the following:
+ a cheshire/site tube lens
+ a lasermate collimator (or the deluxe version for those really long tubes)
I now have both. The cheshire/site tube allows me to get the secondary centered under the focusing tube (CAUTION: the lasermate cannot do this). The lasermate and the cheshire/site tube allow me to quickly align the secondary to the primary, and the primary back to the secondary. I use the cheshire to start with and then double check with the lasermate. When I want to do a quick touch up outside, I'll drop in the lasermate. When I look back through the 'collimating cap' provided with the scope, things look 'perfect', but the lasermate shows otherwise.
IF I HAD TO HAVE ONE COLLIMATING TOOL IT WOULD BE THE CHESHIRE/SIGHT TUBE EYEPIECE.
Also, I cannot (yet) compare the eyepieces provided with the 130 EQ with higher quality eyepieces, but I plan to update my review after I can compare these with slighly more expensive multi-fully coated Orion HighLight Plossls. I currently have a 32mm HighLight on order to allow me to see wider expanses of sky (28x) and take in larger clusters of stars (but that really won't allow me to compare apples to apples ... for that I'll need both a 10mm and 26mm HighLight Plossl eyepiece). It might be that the better optics and coatings won't do much for my images here in the city but there is a chance (I think) that I might be able to revise my report on maximum useful power if I can try some higher quality eyepieces.
Best Deals for Orion 9851 SpaceProbe 130 EQ Reflector Telescope
My family and I love this scope. We've been able to observe very crisp images of Saturn and Jupiter with 180x using the supplied 10mm eyepiece and a separately purchased 2x barlow. With or without the barlow, viewing of the Orion Nebula is easy. We've also enjoyed looking at the moon and several other objects e.g. Clusters, Andromeda Galaxy.If you're new to astronomy or if you've only used a 3 inch or less refractor, this scope is an excellent upgrade. It's price is right! You will have to buy some extras, but you'd have to with any scope purchase. I promise it'll peak your interest or the interest of your children. I would think that most pre-teens would need a little help using this scope, but you'll enjoy helping them!
Mobile, AL
Honest reviews on Orion 9851 SpaceProbe 130 EQ Reflector Telescope
I finally got my new telescope. I have used before refractor telescopes 60, 80 an 100mm aperture diameter. Never used before a Newtonian scope or an ORION scope but by reading reviews I found out that it was a good brand.The Package arrived in a big box but small enough to put it in the back seat of my car.
When I opened it it was very well packed. Set up time about 20 mins. For collimating the scope I needed to read instructions which were provided by ORION inside the box as a manual. IT WAS HARD,, took me about 90 minutes to complete this task A 2mm Allen wrench, not supplied ( got to buy one ) is needed to collimate the secondary mirror. ORION does give you a a small screwdriver and some wrenches to complete other installation tasks.
Finally got it ready. I got it polar aligned and adjust the view finder.
Sirius: Very bright and sharp enough. M42 : WOW clear and bright with supplied 25mm eyepiece. Bought also a 40mm celestron ELUX eyepiece which show me a more brighter image. SATURN : Impressive no chromical aberration VERY SHARP AT 90X. In conclusion, So far, this scope delivers better images than my previous refractors. Sharpness is a PLUS here. CONS: It vibrates a lot when focusing or when tracking, I will put more attention on tripod and mount installation next time but I don't think I will get a lot better in this vibration issue. Another issue its that it is not very portable, it is not a "grab and go" scope, a Dobsonian might be better in this field. If you are looking for an ASTRONOMICAL TELESCOPE that delivers sharp IMAGES and bright ones THIS IS FOR YOU. So far I AM VERY HAPPY WITH MY NEW SCOPE. Good luck in collimation. Clear nights to All.
Iván G
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