Review on 🌌 Celestron AstroMaster 130EQ-MD Newtonian Telescope: Ideal Reflector Telescope for Beginner Astronomers with Fully-Coated Glass Optics, Adjustable-Height Tripod, and BONUS Astronomy Software Package by Danielle Ward

I didn't like the telescope at first. I also didn't like the EQ mount because it was difficult to find objects. But after studying all the intricacies of this telescope for several months, I really unleashed the potential of this MASCHINE. It was of course HORRIBLE COLLIMATED out of the box. A beginner would not know. Every time I looked at Jupiter it was so blurry with almost no glitter underneath that it looked like another Jupiter. Saturn's rings were so bright that the rings didn't look good at all. I stumbled and quickly regretted buying this telescope. Over time I realized that the reason my scope was so awful was because the SPIDER was misaligned. The crosspiece is the entrance to the telescope tube, where the secondary mirror is held by four supports connecting it to the center, which collects the reflection from the primary mirror at the back. Aiming at Jupiter, I blurred it completely where the spider was fully visible through my eyepiece. Only half of the spider showed up, I thought to myself. "Shouldn't the secondary mirror be right in the middle of the spider when I'm looking at it through a telescope?" So I bought a collimating laser, secondary and primary perfectly aligned. But when I looked back at Jupiter, it was still blurry, so I defocused to reveal the spider and noticed that its secondary mirror was still not exactly centered on the four pillars connecting it to the center of the tube. So I grabbed my tool I used to tighten and loosen the secondary mirror and tweaked it a bit, then looked through my eyepiece to see if the spider looked perfectly centered. It took a lot of tweaking to finally center it. And finally I got a secondary mirror centered on the four spider pillars. WHEN I LOOKED INTO THE TELESCOPE I WAS AMAZED BECAUSE MY COLLIMATION WAS NEARLY PERFECT. Nobody told me about this trick of adjusting the secondary mirror so that it is perfectly centered between the four pillars that hold it. It just occurred to me. Now I have great views of Saturn, Jupiter, the Moon and the Orion Nebula. I live in a HORRIBLE polluted city so I haven't reached dark skies yet! Also, get better eyepieces as the standard eyepieces don't represent the capabilities of the scope very well. The tripod wobbles a bit, but that doesn't make me love this scope any less. I always sit in my garages and look at the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn and people come up to me and ask if they can take a look. They are always surprised and thank me because they are lucky to see that. Jupiter's bands are as clear as daylight when properly collimated, and Saturn's rings are beautiful. The moon looks crazy in its waxing crescent phase. This scope isn't going to do you any good if you don't practice the basics properly. Overall I love this telescope and am always glad to have it. 5 Stars !