Southern Gables

Which telescope would be best for beginners?

The 2 I’m looking at are the Celestron AstroMaster 130EQ and the Celestron AstroMaster 114EQ

Aperture, Focal Length & Focal Ratio for the first are130mm, 650mm, f/5 or and for the other one are 114mm,1000mm, f9
I know you want a higher aperture but I’m not sure how the other #s come into play. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

The first figure is the aperture which tells you how much light your scope can collect. The second is the focal length – how far is front of the mirror the light is brought to a focus. The third is the focal ratio – this can be derived from the others by dividing the focal length by the aperture. In simple terms this final figure is a measure of how hard the light is twisted around the optical path – a lower number equates to more twisting. Going for a longer focal ratio (higher number, less twisting) lessens a broad range of optical defects at the price of a physically longer scope for a given aperture.

In particular all reflectors need accurate collimation before each use for best results – this is a process whereby the various optical components are correctly aligned with each other for best results. However it is also a process that most beginners do poorly if at all. A longer focal ratio is more forgiving of poor collimation – at f/5 that 130mm will require very accurate collimation to work properly whereas the 114mm will be more forgiving. Bad collimation could easily rob you of the benefits of that larger aperture and then some – badly collimated short focal ratio scopes can often be easily outperformed by a good pair of binoculars.

However if you look at other ranges instead of just Celestron you will probably find a 130mm scope with a longer focal ratio. I know Skywatcher do an equatorially mounted 130mm at around f/7 which is similar money to the scopes you are looking at. Be aware that the ease of collimation does not vary linearly with the focal ratio – the f/7 will be far closer to the f/9 in terms of ease of collimation, not halfway between it and the f/5 as you might expect.

Moon with Celestron Nexstar 114mm slt and quickcam

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