The telescope’s 650mm focal length is a good compromise for observing a wide range of objects, including both Solar System and deep-sky targets. Great scopeBought for husbands Birthday as a first telescope. We haven't used the motor drive yet, but the basic set up was easy to assemble. We have already had great views of Jupiter and Saturn! Fast delivery and great service, thank you! (15/09/2021) Kaz - Kent

Once the star is located in the eyepiece, nearby objects can be found from this start point. Tripod For telescopes that look deep into the night sky and give amazing shots of our celestial neighbours, you would be hard pressed to find a better one than the Meade Polaris 130EQ MD Reflector. With a variety of different eyepieces, you can choose whether you want to view planets, the lunar surface, stars or distant galaxies – all these different things are available right at your fingertips. What I like about it: The Sky Watcher Explorer-130M Telescope is a motorised Newtonian Reflector telescope with a 130mm mirror and is excellent quality. This is capable, in ideal seeing conditions, of delivering magnifications up to 265x and 275x without break down. The 900mm focal length allows very high power magnifications to be achieved easily without employing uncomfortably short focal length eyepieces. The 130mm aperture makes this telescope an 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.

A budget telescope with a high-end equatorial mount that’s perfect for exploring the deep sky

Other measurements such as the PV and RMS are important too. With these measurements, the lower the number the better as it shows less curvature on the lens. The flatter an optical lens, the better it will perform. The PV rating (Peak To Valley) is a measurement from the highest point (Peak) to the lowest point (Valley). From this we get the RMS (Root, Mean, Square). This is a similar figure to the PV and measured exactly the same way. The RMS is basically an average height difference from the PV so again, the lower the better. As you can see form the example below, we measured an RMS of just 0.027 wave which is a very good value. Most importantly of all, remember to have fun. After all, what is the point of a hobby if you don’t enjoy it? You can have the best telescope in the world, but it’s usless if you don’t have a good time using it! Excellent scope and excellent serviceAn excellent telescope which will do me for a while to come. Setup was mostly straightforward, and I have had several "wow" views of the night sky already, including the Orion nebula. Harrison offered an excellent service, with extremely fast delivery. Very pleased with both scope and service. (09/01/2022) Stuart - Essex

mm eyepieces, x2 Barlow Lens, Red-Dot Finder, EQ2 Mount and Tripod, R.A. Motor Drive (D.C.) with Multi-Speed Handset Great ExperienceFast Delivery, set up was not difficult at all. Was really impressed with the magnification of the moon on the first attempt. (24/03/2021) Max - CardiffBut at this magnitude, you’ll see Jupiter and its moons, Saturn, the ring fog in the Lyra, the Andromeda Galaxy, split double stars, and much more. What magnification can you have on the Sky-Watcher Explorer 130 motorized telescope? It has a fairly long focal length (900mm), which allows you to achieve high magnifications. Long focal lengths enable you to get higher magnifications for viewing the planets and the moon. In equatorial (EQ) mode, the whole mount head is tilted on an adjustable wedge so that it points to the North Celestial Pole (in the northern hemisphere) or South Celestial Pole (in the southern hemisphere), around which the sky appears to rotate. Upon delivery, the review telescope was in excellent collimation and produced well-formed stars during this test – it really did work well straight out of the box.