celestron 130eq

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hello ive just got the celestron telescope and i read what u said
about the under 150mm aperture,so its not worth buying a barlow
lens ,because i was quite dissapionted with the magnifacation usin
the 10mm eye piece. ive got a pair of 20x50 binoculars and there
dosent seem to be much diffrence between the two,mind u its the first
telescope ive had and i might not have it set up rite .ive only looked
at the moon because its mostly been cloudy since i got it 'any advice
u can give me will be a great help thank you

[suthers]

It sounds to me as if you need to give this telescope a chance before
judging it. You should certainly find a big difference between the
scope and your binoculars. Yes, make sure the telescope is set up
correctly, but also don't try to use too powerful an eyepiece if the
sky conditions are poor. A turbulent atmosphere can make images
blurred and dance around a lot anyway, a condition called "seeing".

Good luck.

Paul

[Robin Scagell]

I've just checked the specs of this scope and it's a 130 mm f/5 with
two eyepieces, 20 mm and 10 mm, giving magnifications of 33x and 65x.

So the 20 mm eyepiece will give a bigger image of the Moon than your
20 x 50 bins, and the 10 mm gives a view about three times their
magnification. I can see why you might think this is not very much
more, but it should be a brighter and considerably sharper image than
you get with 50 mm bins.

Not a great deal of point in buying a 2x Barlow, as this would just
give you one extra magnification, turning the 10 mm eyepiece into a 5
mm (130x). This is a case where a 3x Barlow might be worth a try, as
it will give you two new magnifications. It would turn the 20 mm into
a 6 mm (98x) and the 10 mm into a 3.3 mm (196x). The last combination
would probably be pushing things rather a lot for a scope of this
size, but should be OK on the Moon.

There are a few 3x Barlows around: one from Meade (see www.telescopehouse.com)
at £34.99 inc postage, and one from TAL at £34.25 via
warehouseexpress.com, though probably postage is extra (Jan 2009
prices). Can't see one from Celestron, though. If you see something
cheaper on eBay be wary -- it might not be of good quality. Barlows
ought to be achromatic (ie without false colour) and the cheapest ones
just have single lenses that introduce false colour.

This particular telescope should be great for wide-field stargazing at
star clusters and nebulae, and it's small enough that you could take
it to darker skies if your own conditions are not that great.

Robin

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> > u can give me will be a great help   thank you- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -thanks for the advice most helpfull 'i think i will get a 3x barlow and like u said i'll give it chance on the first clear night i get, i think i just rushed into it looked through it for 20 mins and soon as it clouded over thought to my self thats not very good. i think i looked at the box longer and it says look at stars and far away galaxies and i think i expected to much thanks again for ya help