Celestron AstroMaster 130 EQ Motor Drive Telescope (Black)

Amazing is just not enough to describe what you see and feel looking through the eyepiece.Venus was my first stop, "wow" was the word that came out when the image got focussed for the first time. I could see the phases of venus with just the 20mm eyepiece. 10mm made the image a bigger one and astonishing.Moon was playing hide and seek with the clouds but when it was well above the horizon and shining brightly, I was spell bound with its beauty. Honestly you could spend hours just looking at the moon. 10mm eyepiece gave an even closer look at the Carter's, the shadows casted by the craters and the mountain ranges on the moon.Jupiter looks like a 2mm ball with very faint bands of methane distinguishable if observed for longer durations. The four moons of Jupiter are just a very minute dots if observed very minutely. But I felty it requires more magnification power to observe Jupiter with it's methane bands and the giant red spot. (May be collimation issue is there)Couldnot see the most beautiful planet Saturn as clouds came in hope to see it when conditions are perfect.These were my first experience of amature astronomy with my first telescope.I don't write reviews at all but this Celestron Astromaster 130eq is such amazing piece that it made me to write such a review. Though there are some points which I would like to list to get the most out of the telescope.1. Lots of patience is required to be able to see what you actually want to see, trust me patience will give you all that you want from this telescope.2. Try to see the videos and go through the instructions manual before beginning assembly of the telescope as it's quite critical for one who has no idea of any such kind before.3. Lot of things has to go right to get the perfect views, if not getting the perfect view wait for the perfect condition to occur.4. The equatorial mount is very heavy and of solid built quality but the pointers are just not right and you can't be sure which degree u are setting on it.5. The tripod is also of heavy construction but if expanded fully it feels more shakey so I don't expand it.6. The secondary mirror was dangling loose when I first unpacked the telescope which totally dishearted me but I did manual collimation as per the instructions manual provided and it was fairly accurate but will eventually require a lazer collimation which again costs around Rs 6000/- to get more sharper images.7. The telescope is very heavy (around 16kgs) and very difficult to move it around in assembled condition. It gave me body pains the next morning after my first setup and observations.8. There are no cromatic abbrations as it is relfector telescope and the optics are of very good qualityThose who are still reading this review and disheartened because I didn't post any pictures of moon or Jupiter for them I just want to tell that pictures just don't do justice to what you can actually see with your naked eye because human eye has 1000 times better dynamic range than any camera. Even I have gone through all the pictures posted in the other reviews. Trust me you are going to see 1000 times better with your naked eye that any of those pictures.If you want to go for this telescope go for it without any hesitation as it will finally give you and out of the world experience.

(This is my second purchase of the Astromaster 130EQ, although my previous one was an older generation model.)This is a really good and reasonably affordable telescope for casual observation of the moon and larger/closer planets- Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. One can observe double stars and Pleiades easily and they look beautiful. Deep sky objects are a challenge under urban/suburban skies.Using an appropriate Solar filter, sun observation is also possible to view surface details and sunspots.I have not tried astrophotography with this telescope yet.Here are some pros and cons:Pros:1. The new generation model comes with a Celestron StarPointer red-dot finderscope, which is a huge improvement on the previous models which had an optical finderscope. Additionally, the mounting rings of the telescope come with a screw, onto which a cheap cellphone mount can be fitted, and used as an additional guide, using the TELRAD function on the Stellarium app.2. I purchased the model with a motor drive (130EQ-MD), which makes tracking objects easy, without needing to fiddle too much with the RA and Dec knobs (see below). The motor drive assembly itself looks old-school, like it was built in a school hobby shop. But it does what it's supposed to do reasonably well.3. Assembly is easy and the instructions are clear enough. Necessary tools are provided. Consulting YouTube videos makes the process easier.Cons:1. The tripod and CG-3 EQ mount are this telescope's biggest and only weakness. There is a significant amount of play in the locking screws so that even the slightest touch, such as when making fine adjustments, makes the apparatus wobble and can sometimes even move the target object out of view.2. The plastic parts of the tripod are somewhat fragile and my previous 130EQ's tripod broke due to this.The earlier model came with 4mm, 20mm and Barlow 2x eyepieces, while this one comes with only a 10mm and 20mm eyepieces.3. Not really a con, but the telescope and, especially the mount, are heavy and optics are sensitive, hence the assembled apparatus has very limited portability except in and out of a house. This telescope is not meant to be moved around too much.Overall, this is an affordable and easy-to-use telescope for those looking to start out in serious amateur astronomy without burning a significant hole in one's pocket. I would highly recommend purchasing the Astromaster 1.25" accessories kit, for additional eyepieces and useful filters, along with this.