Question 1

Please share what details can be seen of Saturn and Jupiter.  Can the red spot, bands and rings be clearly resolved?

Accepted Answer

The rings can be seen on Saturn, the bands on Jupiter, and the Great Red Spot. You can make out the reddish hue on Mars, but don't expect to see the ice caps. On a clear night you can see this items fairly clearly. The moon has some excellent detail in it, but that's not too difficult to achieve. You can also view some star clusters nicely as well. The Great Red Spot "can" be resolved if you have a sharp enough focus and clear enough night. The double cluster looks fantastic.

Question 2

Hi, I have been able to see Mars today but could not get any details.  How can I focus more? I have all the kits with me.

Accepted Answer

Details on planets depend on several things: Telescope alignment, quality of eyepieces, distance to the planet, and the planet itself.If you don't have a laser collimator, get one. They are well worth the $50-$70. While the secondary on this scope will stay very nicely in place, the primary (being heavier among other things) will need regular alignment and a laser collimator makes this less than a 5 minute job.The eyepieces that come with this scope aren't the best. If you want to do decent planetary viewing, get a good 6mm eyepiece. (Expect to spend at least $100, and read reviews from users to get the best bang for your buck.)While you'll get some good views of Saturn and Venus, and some really excellent views of Jupiter, Mars (and Mercury) generally don't show much detail. Further, right now, Mars is a great distance away from us and getting farther away each day. Every planet will give the best views when it is closest to us with Mars and Venus showing the biggest improvements when closest.When a planet rises at sunset, it is closest, or at "opposition." This also puts the plent highest above the horizonn around midnight, but gives good views starting around 9 PM.Your best view of Mars will come again on May 22, 2016. Jupiter Feb 6th, 2015, and Saturn on May 23rd, 2015. But note even then, Mars will not yield much detail beyand a distinctly orange disk and a definite whiteish area at the pole.When searching for eyepieces, you might also want to investigate a good 14-16mm eyepiece plus a 10% transmission filter for really great lunar views!For solar/sunspot viewing, you will need a special filter that fits over the front of the telescope tube.

Question 3

Has Celestron fixed the problem of needing to reset the clock each time the telescope is turned off yet?  RonR

Accepted Answer

You can avoid this by either spending $99 extra on Celestron's wifi module, or by tethering the handset through its USB plug to a laptop.  Then you can save some time on setup by syncing your local time and GPS location to the scope on startup, with the added advantage of using planetarium software like SkySafari to select 10x more targets with a point and click.  Basically controlling your scope with the laptop or phone.

Question 4

What do you consider must have accessories for this scope? I have the moon filter.

Accepted Answer

A laser collimator.  It'll help to make sure your mirrors are aligned.  It's pretty easy to do.  Look on Youtube for "Collimating your Newtonian" to see how it's done.  You'll usually want to check it before each viewing as they can get out of alignment with bumps.  If your mirrors are out of alignment, things will get blurry.The Orion Shorty Barlow is a good accessory too if you don't want to buy extra eyepieces.  It'll effectively double your eyepieces (turns your 9mm into a 4.5mm  and your 25mm into a 12.5mm).  Better eyepieces will make it a better scope as well.  Superplossls are much better than what's included.

ASIN	B0007UQNNQ
Additional Features	Portable
Age Range Description	Adults
Best Sellers Rank	#691 in Camera & Photo Products ( See Top 100 in Camera & Photo Products ) #17 in Telescope Reflectors
Brand	Celestron
Built-In Media	20mm and 9mm eyepiece, Accessory Tray, NexStar+ Hand Control, Optical Tube, Single Fork Arm Mount and Tripod, Star Diagonal, StarPointer™ red dot finderscope
Coating	Aluminum
Compatible Devices	Smartphone, Camera
Customer Reviews	4.4 out of 5 stars 2,190 Reviews
Dawes Limit	0.89 arc_sec
Exit Pupil Diameter	26 millimeters
Eye Piece Lens Description	20mm and 9mm eyepiece
Field Of View	6.3 inches
Finderscope	StarPointer™ red-dot finderscope
Focal Length Description	650 millimeters
Focus Type	Manual Focus
Global Trade Identification Number	00050234311458
Item Dimensions D x W x H	38"D x 56"W x 38"H
Item Highlight	Parabolic Primary Mirror for Excellent Deep-Sky Views of Nebulae, Galaxies & Star Clusters, Easy-to-Use SkyAlign Technology
Item Weight	11.4 pounds
Manufacturer	Celestron
Manufacturer Part Number	31145
Model Name	Celestron NexStar SLT Series
Model Number	31145
Mount	Altazimuth Mount
Number of Batteries	1 Lithium Metal batteries required. (included)
Number of Items	1
Objective Lens Diameter	13 centimeters
Optical Tube Length	63.5 centimeters
Optical Tube Length Measurement	63.5 centimeters
Optical-Tube Length	63.5 centimeters
Power Source	12 VDC - 8xAA Batteries (not included)
Telescope Mount Description	Altazimuth Mount
UPC	050234311458
Unit Count	1 Count
Warranty Description	2 years warranty
Zoom Ratio	20

NexStar 130SLT Newtonian Reflector Telescope - Computerized GoTo

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