9.2.2014

Apologies for length of this review, but based on 4 months solid use and all we have experienced.This model was purchased at Christmas as a first telescope for complete novices, largely on the strength of the computer governed motorised Go To function and the good size of the mirror at just over 5 inches. The Go To makes it easier to locate objects, and the size of the mirror means that faint objects well beyond the capacity of the naked eye can be seen. It also provides some basic detail of the the planet Jupiter.The kit arrives with everything you need bar batteries to power the motors (8 AAs not supplied). No complex assembly of parts is needed. The tripod folds out and a plastic tray for odds and ends sits between the three legs,also providing some bracing of the legs. The motor and telescope support arm has some weight but is easily managed, locating on the top of the tripod and secured by screwing up a large plastic nut by hand under the tripod head. The optical tube assembly, OTA, slides into a place locating a metal bar in a dovetail fixing on the support arm. It is secured by tightening a nut by hand, though the OTA needs to be cupped in the arms underneath to lift it fully in place to get the nut tight enough to take out slack and make the connection solid, which is essential. Not the best of design but it works ok with some patience. Once fixed you probably won't have to undo it again. The direction finder slides into a dovetail on the OTA. This is a good design. It contains no lenses. A red LED (not laser so safe to look at) shines against a piece of glass in the finder as a dot with adjustable brightness. The telescope is moved until the red dot is directly over the object of interest. In theory it should then be in the middle of the field of view of the telescope but the finder will more than likely need to be aligned. It is easier to point the telescope during the day at something like a distant chimney, centring the object in the telescope viewfinder by eye and then aligning the finder to match. Two thumb screws shift the pointing direction of the finder left/right and up/down if necessary. In our case there was insufficient travel on the left right adjuster and this required undoing the screws fixing the finder to the OTA with a pozi screwdriver until JUST loose (there are nuts inside the OTA which you don't want to come off and hit the mirror). Then shift the finder. The optics all need to be lined up and should come perfect in the box. They are tested by looking out of focus at any star. You should see perfectly circular haloes. Luckily we did. If not, the telescope needs to be 'collimated', requiring a tool not supplied - see You tube videos.The eyepiece holder fits in the focuser tube and has an adapter to take 2inch eyepieces (which is useful but unlikely to be needed, most eyepieces and accessories at this level being 1.25 inches in diameter). The focuser is ready assembled and an eyepiece is inserted in the tube and two thumb screws tightened to hold it in place. Primitive but seemingly a universal means of fixing whatever you pay for a telescope. The controller hand set plugs in a clearly marked socket. There is another socket for a mains adapter (not supplied) or a separate rechargeable 12v battery pack, a so called "tank" available for around £55 incorporating a torch. The scope will move up and down by hand but not turn sideways without the motor on so power is an essential. Batteries don't last long so are expensive. We found we had an AC/DC adapter on some other equipment providing 12 volts DC at a sufficient max current (2amps is fine) and we used that with an extension lead in the garden. You soon realise though that you need to fork out for the portable battery tank for practical and safety reasons.The big selling point of the scope is the Go To function and there are a number of options for using this. The general approach is to point the telescope at a star or stars (planets can also be used), using the motor to move the scope to another star. The more names of stars you know the quicker it all is but if you know none at all it's fine. The telescope needs to be pointed at three objects in succession reasonably well spaced in the sky and at different altitudes. The computer should then work out how it is aligned and then will go automatically to any of the objects in its database just by selecting them on the handset. We got this alignment to work on the second attempt but it is not foolproof. You need to enter the time on the handset accurate to the second preferably before you start. It is rather annoying that the handset does not have a clock built in so this needs to be done every time the scope is switched on. You also need to enter your latitude and longitude but getting this spot on is not so essential. You can also use the pre programmed locations in the handset though there are only four or five for the UK. In our case London is good enough though we are 25 miles from the centre. But it is simple enough to put your post code in the internet or consult a sat nav to get therequired figures accurately. It only needs to be done once and the handset retains the info. The scope will also track objects once set up so they are kept in the field of view with little adjustment using the hand set.So on to using the scope! What do you see. Forget the Hubble telescope pictures. Using the supplied 9 mm eyepiece (72times magnification) you will be easily able to see four moons of Jupiter as dots, and on a good viewing day, two weather bands as stripes on the surface of the planet showing as a small disk. It is possible to see galaxies as white smudges, very hard to find without the Go To so it comes into its own. The bigger star clusters and nebulae are the forte of this telescope and one can spend ages staring at them. The moon craters will have you going "wow" too.Two issues are relevant. One. The supplied eyepieces are very budget and while it is not essential it seems pointless to buy a telescope at this price and optical quality and not use its full potential. In other words be prepared to spend another £100 or more to get some good eyepieces. You can pay over £500 each ! but we chose the Celestron x-cel lx at around £65 each, which we find are very good, being brighter with better contrast and giving a much wider field of view that makes viewing far less tiring not having to squint. These lenses give real wow moments when you first view say the nebula in Orion M42 (dial it up in the handset to get there) or the Pleiades. Two. The focuser has to be the worst piece of engineering ever, hence four stars and if it was a separate item two stars. Shame on Celestron. The tube with the eyepiece moves on a gear rack to focus and has enormous play. The mechanism is lubricated with very viscous gunk that makes it hard to turn the focusing knob. We find it is best to focus by turning the knob quite quickly from out of focus through focus to out of focus again and then coming half way back to get pin point sharpness. This is undoubtedly an acquired skill but made much harder by the cheap engineering. Some adjustment is possible, not described in the hand book (which is generally useful and in proper english if somehow rather old fashioned - download off the Celestron site to get more insight about using the scope before purchase). Two small set screws sit either side of the focuser locking screw and can be tightened using a small Allen key. This gets rid of most of the play but you have only to use a proper two speed focuser to realise just how poor the one on the 130 is. But don't let this put you off at all. Of course you expect better at the price, but again focusing is an art worth developing as for one thing, touch the focuser and the magnified image in the eyepiece will dance about regardless of how good the focuser is. You can of course easily pay £5000 for a sturdy mount! Make the adjustments to the focuser and take the design limitations as part of the fun.Thirdly, be prepared that the Go To is generally a bit out due to the gears and motor as well as any errors in setting up. Use the low power 24mm eyepiece first to check where you are. This may sound frustrating but you rapidly discover that a big part of the fun is hunting the objects and developing the skills to see faint things.Can you take photos of what you see. £25 will get you a clamp to fix any holiday snaps point and shoot digital camera to your eyepiece and it works remarkably well though. Use the self timer to avoid shake when you press the shutter button. Fiddly to set up but download free software like GIMP (free photoshop equivalent) to bring up the levels and what looks like three white dots turns into a nebula. We also bought a very modest CMOS webcam and using the supplied software produced a very detailed photo of Jupiter including red spot after half a dozen attempts and observing sessions in the back garden. If you have a DSLR you can take off the lens and connect to the telescope using connectors for around £20 and take some remarkable long exposure shots, though you are limited by the mount that results in objects turning in the field of view due to the rotation of the earth. (An equatorial mount is needed and the 130 slt cannot be easily adapted).In conclusion, use the vast resources of the internet to find out what to see each month. You Tube videos are a really useful source of information and expertise not least on astro photography. We were able to see the supernova that had emerged the previous week in M82 and which is gone in a few more weeks. These happen at a rate of about once every thirty years per galaxy so you can be party to some special events with this equipment. This telescope isn't the best of course and it could be better. But it has excellent optics and the ability to put you in awe of the universe. Prepare to spend more money to maximise the initial investment. Observing as a family is great fun - let me have a look, let me have a look! This telescope is recognised as a very good one and no one would think you had wasted your money on it. If you decide to join a club first and see whether you get the bug, if you did, almost certainly you would end up saving up and paying two or three times the cost of this kit, but in the end it might be cheaper. Highly recommended, strangely as much for the flaws which add a challenge, as for the good.I have now moved on to using a DSLR and you can get good results, see M81/M82 galaxies image

18.5.2009

I've wanted a telescope for the past decade, and I recently decided that it was now time to splash out and buy one so that my children (oldest is 6 years) could explore the Moon and planets with me. When it comes to astronomy and telescopes I am a complete novice and so I did a lot of research before settling upon the Celestron Nexstar 102 SLT. Here is what I have learned...Firstly, a telescope is like a mechanical eye that collects light and focuses it onto an eyepiece. The bigger the aperture of the telescope, the more light it can collect and the fainter the objects it can see - so big is good. Imagine that in the dark, the pupil in your eye has a diameter of 5mm that allows light into your eye where it is focused by a lens.That means your pupil has a surface area of almost 2 square cm to gather light. The Nexstar 102 has an aperture with a diameter of 102mm, giving its lens a surface area of over 800 square cm - meaning that it can focus over 41,000% more light onto its eyepiece than you can with your naked eye. This means that it can gather light from very faint sources, such as distant stars and galaxies.Secondly there are two main types of telescope, reflectors and refractors. Reflectors use a curved mirror to bounce the collected light into an eyepiece, whereas refractors use a glass lens. Generally mirrors are cheaper than lenses, are not so heavy and can be made bigger (remember, big is good) but mechanically reflectors are more fragile than refractors and need regular calibration (called "collimation"), whereas refractors are more robust. So reflectors and children might not mix as well as refractors and children. The Celestron Nexstar 102 SLT is a refractor.Next, I wondered what I would do with a telescope once I had bought one. Being a novice, I can't read star maps, so being able to pick out anything in the night sky with the exception of the Moon is simply wishful thinking! And pointing a telescope at an interesting looking object, whilst telling my children that I had no idea what it was that I was showing them, was not the educational experience that I was intending. So, the third thing that I learned was that I needed to buy a "go to" scope, that would point itself at objects of interest in the sky and tell me about them. The Celestron Nexstar 102 SLT does exactly that, and only requires a very simple alignment routine that even I can do. The computer keypad even has a "tour" button, which will automatically point the telescope at items of interest and then tell you all about them. Very clever. And it will also track objects through the sky, keeping them central in the eyepiece automatically. This is very useful, and you might be surprised to see how quickly the Earth's rotation causes an object to move out of view when this feature is turned off.The last thing I needed was a telescope that would allow me to take photographs. The Celestron Nexstar 102 SLT has many optional extras, one of which allows the connection of a digital camera. Great.One important thing that I learned is that you can spend as much money as you like on equipment, and so I set myself a budget of £250 (telescopeplanet were selling the Celestron Nexstar 102 SLT for £249). On the negative side, there are very few things to really call out as criticisms, given the (budget) price of this telescope, but... this is a lightweight telescope (it has to be I suppose, because it is motor driven) which takes a few seconds to stop wobbling if it gets knocked; the "enter" key and "up arrow" on the keypad are very close together; and manually driving the scope to an object is not intuitive to the novice. But these are minor irritants.All things considered, this is an excellent first class educational telescope that is ideal for the beginner, amateur and interested child. It has features that I'm sure would have only been found on professional telescopes only 10 or 20 years ago, and I am sure that it will give me and my children decades of viewing pleasure.

2.1.2020

As a former professional astronomer and user of other amateur telescopes I bought this to try and introduce my children to observing and am mainly comparing this to a 6 inch Newtonian reflector with an equatorial mount which has served me well in the past, but is very large and heavy to set up, so an easier alternative was called for.The first night I used this I was hampered by cloud, so could only do a basic setup and some initial lunar observing, but I was pleased to find that this was easy to set up in a short period of time, using the quick setup guide. The lunar views I got were excellent and my kids (and even my wife!) were enthralled with the first views of the moon that we obtained.The second night,although cloud was again an issue, I managed to set the scope up fully. the set up was easy, following the instructions, although it is sometimes tricky to remember that the arrow buttons are only used for controlling the movements of the scope from the handset and not navigating the menus, however they were largely self-explanatory and made the initial setup easy. I would advise using a custom site for alignment using a smartphone with GPS (almost ubiquitous these days) to obtain the precise location, just remember you will need the location in degrees, minute and seconds of arc, rather than decimal. This is quite easy to find with a quick internet search on a smartphone however. Exact times from a reliable source, such as a synced smartphone is also required, along with your time zone. Once these are in you can choose to align the scope using any three bright stars or other celestial objects (moon or planets), simply align the object in the finder scope, then centralise in the eyepiece and align using the handset. This was done in minimal time, even with poor visibility due to cloud and the computer accurately aligned the scope at the first attempt with no need for firmware updates or similar for the handset. Following alignment I used the sky tour to find appropriate objects and after checking that the sky model was correct (it was able to find the moon without difficulty in the solar system mode) I used the handset to move to Andromeda, which was visible as a fuzzy patch, despite poor visibility and quite bad light pollution. The tracking seems to work fairly well and will keep an object in view for a significant amount of time (quite sufficient for real-time observing using the eyepiece), but did exhibit some element of drift, so would not be suitable for deep sky astrophotography, but this is to be expected with an alt-azimuth mount, as compared to an equatorial setup.Unfortunately, the sky conditions deteriorated further preventing any more testing on other objects, but overall this telescope is easy to set up and provides a quick means of finding astronomical objects. As a starter scope at a reasonable price it would seem that it is difficult to beat. In terms of power, I did buy the external battery pack which allows extended observing and this seems to be the best way to power the scope as while using the internal 8xAA batteries would avoid any problems with cord entanglement, the lack of battery life may limit it without a substantial supply. Cord length and wrapping would be even more of an issue with a mains powered supply and could be problematic for anything more than a small distance outside. The scope does need power to operate though and cannot really be operated without it, which is definitely a downside if you were wanting the use it in an unpowered alt-azimuth mode.Overall, this seems to provide a good observing experience for the aperture and price and is highly recommended for a beginner. Obviously, you could get a larger aperture without the goto function for the same price, but this really wins on convenience. I look forward to may happy nights observing with my kids in the near future.

17.10.2015

This is my first decent telescope so needless to say I had great expectations, having watched Venus, Jupiter and Mars outside my window every morning for the last few weeks I was really excited to get a closer look with my new telescope, as those aren't visible to me till around 5am I went out around 2am for some practice on some stars and maybe a few things that the finder could show me.Getting the scope setup and aligned was fairly easy so I was filled with confidence and excitement this is where my story peaked, from here on it was more or less downhill. Looking at a few of the brighter stars it was hard to tell if they were any more visible than they were with the naked eye,basically just tiny white dots maybe a millimetre in diameter with no detail but they are pretty far away, so I moved on to letting the scope show me some nebulas or deep sky objects, at this point I should mention that I didn't have complete darkness as I was in my garden so there was slight light pollution, but I still expected to see something, anything, but I saw nothing. I persevered for an hour or so with similar results.When 5am rolled around I went back out hoping that I'd have better luck with some planets, firstly I tried Venus which is very visible to the naked eye, all I saw was a bright white shape that wasn't even circular maybe 2mm in diameter, so I moved on to Mars which was another bust, my final hope was Jupiter, it's massive surely I'd see more here? At this point I find myself questioning the purpose of this telescope or if it's broken as Jupiter is maybe 3mm in diameter, if I really strain my eye I think I can maybe see a band around the middle but this could also be wishful thinking and my brain trying to justify the £330 I spent on this telescope.I've read all the reviews on here it's the reason I bought this telescope, but I'm having a completely different experience so far. I did note that some of the people who'd reviewed it had bought other eyepieces and stuff which I've now also ordered, but this review is for the telescope minus any other stuff you have to buy, and to be honest I'm not sure it's worth the money. Also Celestron have been pretty tight with the supplied equipment, at £330 they could have thrown in a power supply and the cable to update the handset.I'll come back and update this when my other eyepieces arrive.Update: I probably should have waited a bit before posting my review, but to be fair the early disappointment is something people should be prepared for, this isn't Hubble and most things are going to look tiny. With that said I've now received my Barlow lens and had a chance to look at the moon, and despite cloudy conditions I also managed to get a really good look at Jupiter, it was still fairly small maybe 4 or 5mm across, but I could see the colour bands and also managed to pick out 4 of Jupiter's moons which gave me a definite wow moment. I've also ordered a Celestron X-Cel LX 18mm on the strength of someone's review for this telescope, it should arrive today or tomorrow so will update again when it does. I'd now be willing to recommend this telescope but with the caveat that you should be prepared to spend more money as the provided eyepieces aren't the greatest, but as a starter point it's pretty decent.The attached picture was taken using an Celestron X-Cel LX 18mm a lunar filter and my iPhone 6s held freehand above the lens.

7.10.2013

There are two ways to use an SLR with a telescope. One is with lenses and the other is using "prime focus". With the SLT 130, to use lenses, you need to buy a T-piece adapter and a camera adapter. You can then stack an X2 Barlow on it or use a zoom (with a threaded eyepiece), but with either there's so little light getting into the camera, it gets difficult to see through the viewfinder. Also, stacking in this way makes the whole system very unstable. The focuser on the SLT 130 is not a quality item and as you try to get it to focus, it can jam as leverage on the focuser with the additional weight causes it to catch on the scope body. The resulting pictures have a significant blue halo on the images which you can arguably use software to remove.

5.5.2014

Product came very well packed (Box in a Box in a Box!!)Out of the ample packaging, instructions are pretty straight forward. Didn't have to collimate the scope which was a plus so it was a case of assemble and off we go.Supplied eyepieces are okay though you will want to invest in some decent ones (along with a barlow lense)."Goto" function is easy to use so long as you "READ THE INSTRUCTIONS" before trying.Viewing wise, Images are crisp and clear and the "Goto" has no problem aligning to what you select from the handset. I've only used it a few times though as finding your way around the night sky without help is part of the fun.Only downsides so far:1.

16.8.2013

The pros:- Very portable, easy to setup. You will probably get to use it more than larger telescopes.- Great at planets. Couple it with an inexpensive webcam and process through Registax and you will get impressive photos of Saturn, Jupiter etcThe cons:- Not well-suited for deep space objects. I upgraded from a smaller newtonian and I was underwhelmed by the DSO views. There is a way to fit an (expensive) f/6.3 reducer, however the thin 1.25" barrel limits your field of view, so the reducer is not really a solution.- Not sturdy enough tripod gives a lot of vibrations (when you touch the focuser, when the wind blows etc) See tips.So, overall, this is a very easy to set up and use scope that is great for viewing and even photographing the moon,

16.5.2017

This review is for the NexStar 130 SLT specifically.As a complete novice to astronomy - I took a bit of a gamble, set myself a budget and decided I'd get the best telescope I could for the money that I had. The fact it come on a mount which can automatically identify and target points of interest in the sky was a bonus for me also.Setting up:I personally found it incredibly easy to set up. Everything fit in place without any parts that felt like they were an ill fit. The mount has a spirit level measurement thing on the top and because this mount tracks things in space, it is important to make sure you level the mount out perfectly to get the most out of your experience.The 'Star Align'

11.5.2016

I spent a lot of time researching scopes as I wanted a good quality scope without the hefty pricetag, budget was set at £400 so the NexStar 130 SLT was bang on for this. Package arrived and was setup easily in 20mins, only had to wait for nightfall to really put it through its paces. Also purchased a 2xbarlow and other camera fittings as I hoped to get some good photographs using a Nikon 3200. It was a clear night that evening with a half moon so we setup in the garden and I was immediately impressed with the quality, both through the eyepice and then on the laptop through the camera.I have attached the best pic from that night and also another pic from a few days later and you can really see the detail level you can achieve with this scope.

22.8.2018

This is part 1 of my review.The Nextstar 127 SLT was delivered from Amazon's Doncaster centre to Whitworth in superfast time. Packaging was substantial ( triple boxed ) and everything present that should be.Assembly of the main parts was dead simple to the point where I was using the hand control to drive the telescope to view distant ( terrestrial ) objects within minutes ( daytime ).Then came a snag . The finderscope ceased to operate ( no red dot ) on the first day ! During online chat to Amazon support it bacame apparent that all they could do was refund the money for the entire order on reciept of the goods when I really wanted a simple replacement part !Instead,

14.2.2014

This telescope is my first, and a great way to get into astronomy, have had it a couple of months now. And it is so much fun, it was so simple to get going, I had it up and running in ten mins on my first go!!,the planets and moon through this are great, Jupiter is my fave, looks like a white pea with a couple of reddish lines going through it, and 4to7little dots next to it(moons), don't sound great but remember this is a small low priced telescope(great value for the money),you are not gonna see loads with this. But, it will teach you so much about the night sky,and it's really portable, i carry it in a big bag, and it takes only ten minutes to get it out and running, the goto is not 100percent accurate,

11.12.2010

I am delighted with the telescope. The images are perfctly clear, and the finder scope is very easy to set up and use. The one drawback I have encountered is the fully computerized hand control. The instuctions are, in places, very poorly translated from an oriental language and are difficult to make sense of. they also seem to not be as complete as they could be.I have only had two observing sessions, and I have yet to be able to align the scope with the computer hand control. After alignment, when I slew to the next object, the alignment is considerably out.I contacted Celestron, and they e-mailed me and said to basically do what I had already done!Admitedly, because I have not been too well,

2.10.2013

I've had this telescope for over a month now it's a really impressive product. The go-to feature makes finding things in the sky a breeze but what I love is it keeps what you are looking at centred in the eyepiece, the mount countering the Earths spin. The only complaint I would make is that the focussing mount rocks as it is raised and lowered so it takes it out of collimation, you have to push against the mount after turning the focus wheel. It's an inconvenience but overall this is great telescope.It has a maximum magnification of 250 and with a 6mm and x2 Barlow you can get close to that. Out of the planets I've only really had a chance to look at Jupiter but the bands on its surface were clearly visible.

5.4.2014

I bought this telescope a couple of weeks ago, it arrived before expected and was in very good condition. It is very simple and easy to set up requiring no tools but perhaps a friend to help. Once set up, as soon as it was dark enough I went outside to try it out, I aligned it with ease and it was very accurate, I first targetted Jupiter and I saw very good detail ( the lines running through it and the moons, also a glimpse of the red storm). This was with some of my own lenses, you may not get such detail with the lenses provided.Everything works well and the alignment has only failed once or twice, it doesnt use up to many batteries if they are descent quality you can also connect it to the mains but you need to buy a cable as one is not provided.

21.2.2012

Firstly, the delivery was super fast; ordered it about 1300hrs on the Thursday and it was here by 0900hrs Friday, amazing service.Secondly, this is quite a bulky object and I have to dismantle it every time I finish using it which is a bit of a bind but rather that than face the wrath of 'er in doors. Only buy if you have the space to store it.Thirdly, when I tried to 'Sky Align' it wouldn't work. I attempted this at least ten times and when it did say that the process was successful it was actually 90 degrees out so the 'go to' feature was useless. I eventually managed to align it with the 'Two Star Align' and when I did my faith in human nature was restored and I spent a number of hours in my garden looking for 'things'

Celestron NexStar 130 SLT - Reviews

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