Do you need a telescope that can probe the deep sky for many years?
If you often find yourself thinking how cool it would be to cast your mind’s eye out into the universe and see its wonders firsthand, you’re a strong candidate for the amateur astronomy hobby. You’ll need a sturdy instrument, one with enough photon-grabbing power and burly build quality to perform well every night you take it outside.
Buy one of these and you may never need another telescope. And if, someday, you find yourself craving more power or special features, we believe these scopes will hold value to help you tradeup. But you need to make a fundamental choice:
Are you a digital or analog observer?
There are two distinctly different schools of thought around what constitutes the best deal in telescopes. Some users — let’s call them the “digitals” — opt for an easy setup and computerized mounts, which find celestial objects without requiring you to study charts or translate coordinates onto the telescope.
Other skywatchers — the “analogs” — prefer to put their money into the optical capabilities of the telescope. They would rather drive their “lightbuckets” manually. Rather than dictatingwhich approach is better, we honor both:
Editors’ Choice (Digital):
Celestron SkyProdigy 130
- Reflector / AltAz / Tripod / Go-To
- Easiest setup; totally self-aligning on the sky
Our first Editor’s Choice, Celestron’s SkyProdigy 130, emphasizes ease of setup and quick “Go-To” target navigation, and provides remarkable optics and more-than-adequate aperture(the size of a telescope’s opening, which determines how much light can be collected).
Credit: Celestron
The SkyProdigy is the first large-scale consumer telescope to offer fully automatic alignment. Until now, you would expect to pay several thousand dollars for this functionality. You’d need an add-on camera, special software, custom mounting and an external laptop computer.
Over the past decade, however, Celestron’s engineers have been busy taking the pain out of aligning a telescope. In the 1990s, the first generation of “Go-To” computerized consumer telescopes required a lot of help. You had to level the tripod, enter your location on the Earth (by latitude and longitude), enter your local time and know the names of three stars in your sky at the time of setup. You then had to find and center the first star; press a key to tell the mount you had found it and then repeat that process for one or two more stars.
In 2005, Celestron simplified this procedure when it rolled out its SkyAlign computing system. All you had to do was point the telescope at three bright stars, and SkyAlign would do the rest.
Now, Celestron has completed its engineering journey with SkyProdigy, which uses the company’s StarSense technology. Just plant the telescope under a dark sky, and turn it on. A camera on the mount’s arm takes an image of the sky, compares it to an internal database, slews the telescope to a few other locations, takes a few more images and then triangulates its position. In less than 4 minutes, the scope knows where it is, and you can pick up the keypad to enter your choice of target from among the 4,000 possibilities listed. This is similar to the way telecommunication, military and science research satellites hold their orientation in space; they employ “startrackers.”
We found the SkyProdigy 130 extremely quick to unbox and erect. The tubular steel tripod is sturdy, with smooth lock knobs that are large enough to operate with gloved hands. Attaching the mount is super simple and mistake-proof — a rare joy!
But effortless setup and precise pointing are not all the SkyProdigy 130 has to offer. It’s a beautifully designed Newtonian reflector with a workmanlike aperture of more than 5 inches (13 centimeters). The optical tube is made in China in the same factory that fabricates telescopes from many other brands (if you’re wondering why so many telescope models appear to be so similar).
You will need to “collimate” this telescope from time to time (a procedure by which you keep the line of light vectors parallel to one another or with equal angles of reflection, so that the image entering your eye is tightly focused). The SkyProdigy 130 has a well-engineered set of adjustment knobs and locks, back by the primary mirror platen, to make this process easier.
Celestron gives you two Kellner eyepieces (25mm and 9mm). With the higher-power eyepiece (9mm), the telescope maxes out at a little over 300x. The focusing mechanism is smooth, with plenty of range. However, we found the knurled focus lock-knob to be small, and it doesn’t completely immobilize the in-out travel. But we do love that the focuser can accept 2-inch (5 cm) eyepieces, which also makes it appropriate for full-frame DSLR cameras (though the additional mass may affect the motorized mount’s tracking).
Celestron doesn’t provide a separate telescopic finder scope (it expects that StarSense will do the finding for you), but there is a “StarPointer” reticle with an illuminated red dot of variable brightness if you should need it. You probably won’t, leaving you a slot to perhaps mount a small camera to take long wide-field time exposures as the SkyProdigy holds its attention on your chosen point in the cosmos.
We think Celestron’s SkyProdigy 130 is a fantastic rig. Just know that you could be spending up to $200 extra for the convenience of automatic setup. If you have the knowledge — and take the time (each and every time) — to align the telescope to your local sky, you can get exactly the same observing experience with Celestron’s NexStar 130 SLT (reviewed below) or the nearly identical Orion StarSeeker IV 130 .
Alternate Editors’ Choice (Analog):
Orion SkyQuest XT8i IntelliScope
- Reflector / AltAz / Dobsonian
- Most “Big Bang” for your buck; largest aperture
Orion’s SkyQuest XT8i IntelliScope takes a different tack. This big Orion gives you huge light-gathering ability — so you can haul in dim objects — and instant manual control. But there’s no motor, and you must know the sky a bit to get where you want to go.
Credit: Orion Telescopes and Binoculars
Bigness is beautiful: The SkyQuest is an 8-inch (20 cm) aperture Newtonian reflector on a Dobsonian mount. If you are going after deep- space “fuzzies” (e.g., galaxies, nebulae…) – but are not intending to photograph them, – this is the telescope to get.
Before you can fly, though, you must build it — and there’s a lot of assembly required. You start by building the “rocker box” mount from precut pieces. Then, you have to fit up the electronic encoder boards; thread the correct sequences of bushings, washers, spacers and locknuts; attach the eyepiece rack; and more. The few tools you need are included, but beware: It is at least an hour-long project, albeit a fun one — especially if you’re not alone.
The Orion’s large parabolic primary mirror is cast of borosilicate glass, chosen for its ability to hold its shape as the ambient temperature changes after sunset. The glass is nicely coated in aluminum and silicon dioxide. The imposing-looking 44.5-inch (113 cm) steel optical tube is strong. The painted press-wood altitude/azimuth mount is brawny. But all this beefiness adds up to mass: The full SkyQuest XT8i rig weighs in at 41.5 lbs. (18.8 kg) and stands about 4 feet (1.2 meters) tall. Yes, telescope bigness is beautiful — unless you drive tiny car.
In contrast to classic Dobsonians (which have no electronics), this scope actually has a brain. Although it’s a manually driven machine, the SkyQuest is called an IntelliScope because its tracking computer can guide you to objects. It does so by telling you which way to move to acquire your target. To pilot the telescope, grab the comfortable navigation knob under the optical tube’s “chin.” It takes a bit of “getting used to,” but the box has a deep database of 14,000 celestial sights to see. To enable IntelliScope, you need to go through a two-star alignment process.
If you have assembled the telescope well, the two magnetic encoders (altitude and azimuth) will do their jobs, and the IntelliScope guidance will work. Several users have reported minor issues with either slippage or binding, requiring workarounds. But Orion’s telephone and live-chat customer services are excellent, and most buyers are quite happy with their purchase.
You will especially enjoy the smooth, precisely machined Crayford-type focuser. It can accommodate 2-inch eyepieces — just what you need for catching galactic vistas, witnessing nearby nebulae in their cosmic context, and drinking in wide swaths of the Milky Way. Your 2-inch wide-field eyepiece must be purchased separately, and we strongly recommend that you do buy it. Out of the box, the SkyQuest comes with Orion’s standard-issue Plossl-type pair of 1.25-inch eyepieces: 25 mm (1 inch) and 10 mm (0.4 inches).
Orion’s SkyQuest XT8i IntelliScope is a fine first telescope. If you like the analog approach and want to go deeper — or happen to be feeling flush with cash —– Orion makes even bigger light-buckets with; up to a whopping 12-inches (30.5 cm) of aperture.
Editors’ Budget Choice:
Celestron NexStar 130SLT
- Reflector / AltAz / Tripod / Go-To
- Best overall value; nicest blend of needed features
The Celestron NexStar 130SLT is a very capable, good-quality telescope that will reward you with many years of first-rate observing. As long as you don’t mind going through an initial alignment process — pointing at any three bright objects in the sky — you can keypad your way around 4,000 targets.
Credit: Celestron
Although the tube is painted a different color, the 130SLT’s optics are identical to those of the more expensive SkyProdigy 130. The tripod is the same. The focuser is the same. Both telescopes have the updated (i.e., thinner than pastmodels) four-armed vane holding the secondary mirror. (Less light is blocked, and fewer artifacts appear, than with previous models.)The NexRemote keypad looks the same as the Prodigy, but its internal programming is different; there’s no StarSense auto-alignment capability in the SLT, of course.
With the ability to insert 2-inch eyepieces, you will get the same astonishing “space-walking” experience on either telescope. The two included 1.25-inch Kellner eyepieces will get you “closerin” to planets, but their images will be dimmer.
The standard red-dot StarFinder adorns the outside of both tubes. It might get more use on the NexStar SLT than on the fully automatic SkyProdigy, but only a little more. When observing with the SLT, the only time you’ll really need the StarFinder is during the initial alignment using SkyAlign (which works remarkably well!). Surprisingly, we found the StarFinder more helpful than those weak miniature refractor finder – scopes previously sold with Celestron models in this range.
Whether you pick the fully automated SkyProdigy or the less-automated NexStar, we can’t say enough about the optical quality of Celestron’s basic Newtonian 130 platform. If you have dark, clear skies, you will be blown away by what these instruments can resolve. And they are brawny enough to wear small cameras, should you want to get into the burgeoning hobby of astrophotography.
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