The award-winning Sky-Watcher EXPLORER-130 is a fantastic choice for the serious beginner and also receives high marks from more seasoned astronomers. With an extremely useful 130mm of light gathering aperture, this telescope is a highly capable all-rounder for the observation of the Moon, bright planets, nebulae, galaxies and star clusters. Supplied with the EQ2 equatorial mount, which when polar aligned, will allow you to easily track objects as they move across the night sky via its slow motion control cables.
"Our first test on the Sky-Watcher Explorer-130 was to check the collimation of the mirrors, which we found were well aligned. This scope has one of the largest mirrors in its price range, which is a great asset because it means it can gather more light...Optically, the quality of the field of view while studying the star Altair was very good using the supplied 25mm eyepiece. The star remained sharp across 80 per cent of the view, with only slight distortion close to the field edges….Taking everything into account, this telescope made observing the night sky enjoyable and relatively hassle free….great views coupled with ease of use."
BBC Sky At Night Magazin