Product Description
If the many wonders of deep space fascinate you - nebulas, galaxies, and star clusters - but you don't know how to find those fascinating sights, why not let this Celestron telescope do the finding for you? The new SkyAlign easy alignment technology and Star Pointer red dot LED finder of the Celesctron NexStar 130 SLT 5.1" go-to reflector make lining up on the sky a breeze.
Once aligned, the scope's computer hand control will find more than 4,000 celestial objects for you and will track them unerringly while you observe at your leisure. With its pre-assembled adjustable height steel tripod and easy no-tool assembly, the NexStar 130 SLT can be up and ready to take you on a tour of the Universe in a matter of minutes.
The 130mm aperture of the NexStar 130 SLT gathers well over two and a half times as much light as even an advanced 80mm refractor, for not much more money, giving you deep space images that are bright and well defined. But the solar system is not slighted in this Celestron telescope. With the appropriate high power eyepiece and a resolution 62% higher than an 80mm scope, it will give you lunar/planetary images that are crisp and detailed.
The big 1.73° field of its standard eyepiece is superb for scanning wide deep space vistas. It will more than hold the full Pleiades open star cluster within its field. Put in an optional 32mm eyepiece and you get a huge 2.5° field wide enough to nearly encompass the great galaxy M31 in Andromeda in its entirety.
Whether an advanced entry-level scope for the beginning astronomer, or a second scope for the more-than-casual backyard astronomer, the NexStar 130 SLT has the features and optical performance that will keep any sky watcher happily observing for years to come.
This Telescope's Optical System . . .
Newtonian reflector optical system: 130mm (5.1") aperture 650mm focal length f/5 reflector with all-glass mirrors. Each mirror is coated with highly reflective aluminum and overcoated with quartz for long life. No plastic mirrors. The optical tube is made of aluminum, for fast cooldown in the field. The tube's lower end is sealed to reduce image-degrading thermal currents in the optics.
The optical tube is connected to the mount by a no-tool quick-release dovetail system for fast set-up and take-down. You can collimate (align) the mirrors for the sharpest images, although this will rarely have to be done, thanks to the push-pull collimation system that locks in the optical alignment for minimal maintenance.
The f/5 focal ratio can provide both low power wide-angle views and high power close-ups. The reflector design of the scope is free of the purple haze of spurious color visible around the Moon and planets in lesser refractor scopes. Images are sharp and clear.
Red dot finder: Star Pointer non-magnifying variable brightness red dot finder on a quick-release dovetail mounting bracket. The Star Pointer is a quick and easy way to point your telescope exactly to the desired object in the sky. There's no need to worry about the inverted images you see through traditional finders. Just align the red dot seen in the Star Pointer with the desired star in the sky and you're done.
Focuser: 1.25" rack and pinion.
Two eyepieces: The first is a 1.25" 25mm fully coated Kellner (26x). The eyepiece field of view is 1.73° across, more than three times as wide as the full Moon for expansive views of nebulas, galaxies, and open star clusters. The second is a 1.25" 9mm fully coated Kellner (72x) with a 0.63° field for more close-up views of the Moon, planets, and globular star clusters.
This Telescope's Mount . . .
Fork mount/drive system: Single fork arm altazimuth design with pre-installed dual DC servo motor drives. A compartment in the drive base accepts eight user-supplied AA batteries for powering the telescope. Selectable lunar, solar, or sidereal (star) tracking rates, with nine different slewing and centering speeds for locating objects (4°/sec, 2°/sec, 1°/sec, 0.5°/sec, and 32x/16x/8x/4x/2x the sidereal rates). For more details, click on the "SLT mount" icon in the support tab above.
NexStar computer control: The supplied computer hand control has an illuminated numeric keypad and a two-line 16-character LCD display. It has a database of 4,033 stars and objects, including the complete Messier and Caldwell catalogs of famous deep space objects; a selection of the brightest and best deep space objects from the Revised New General Catalog (NGC); selected SAO stars, including the best variable stars and multiple star systems; the planets; the Moon; and more.
A few keystrokes on the NexStar hand control automatically slews the NexStar 130 SLT to any of those 4,033 objects, including over 600 galaxies, 300 star clusters, and dozens of beautiful binary stars. The computer's software can be flash upgraded via the internet so you will always have the most up-to-date software version available.
SkyAlign Technology: With new patent-pending Celestron SkyAlign technology, you don't have to know Altair from Zubenelgenubi or know how to read a star chart to line up your telescope on the sky. Simply input the date, time, and your location into the computer hand control. The computer will normally default to your last observing site automatically, but can remember up to ten different favorite observing locations for you to choose from.
Once you've entered the date, time, and location, use the Star Pointer red dot finder to align the telescope on any three bright stars, or to two stars and a bright planet or the Moon. The NexStar computer system will automatically determine which objects were chosen and then generate an internal map of the sky that lets it move automatically to any star or object you select for the rest of the night.
After the scope has aligned itself with the sky, it takes only a few keystrokes on the computer hand control to have the scope move automatically to your night's first observing target and start tracking it so you can observe at your leisure. You can find hundreds of fascinating deep space objects your first night out, even if you have never used a telescope before. No matter what level of experience you start from, your NexStar SLT scope will unfold all the wonders of the Universe for you, your family, and your friends. For more details, click on the "SLT computer" icon in the support tab above.
Adjustable height tripod: The preassembled tripod has stainless steel legs to damp vibrations quickly. The center leg brace holds a convenient no-tool quick-release accessory tray to keep your eyepieces and accessories up and out of the dew-soaked grass.
Two-year warranty: All Celestron telescopes have a two-year warranty, double that of competitive scopes.
Tech Details
| Aperture | 5.1" |
|---|---|
| Focal Length | 650mm |
| Focal Ratio | f/5 |
| Highest Useful Magnification | 217x |
| Motorized Controls | Computerized GoTo |
| Weight | 18 lbs. |
| Resolution | 0.89 arc seconds |
| Supplied Eyepiece | 25mm and 9mm 1.25" |
| Telescope Type | Reflector |
| View Finder | StarPointer |
| Visual Limiting Magnitude | 13.1 |
| Warranty | 2 years |
Reviews
Con: The mount is flimsy, tapping the scope caused the mount to vibrate for five seconds or so. (Posted on 10/23/2019)
The NexStar GOTO system works well and seems to have very good accuracy. Setup is easy and you can get going in just a few minutes.
As you may expect from a low cost setup, the real weak link is the tripod. It is very lightweight, not particularly rigid, and quite shaky at high magnification. At low power it is OK, but it is more well suited for a small refractor. The optical tube has a standard Vixen dovetail so it can be used with other mounts and tripods. Still, for $499 you'd be hard pressed to find a better deal for a complete setup. This comes with everything you need to get going. (Posted on 9/1/2019)
I was able to find a 'shoe' that accepts a standard vixen dovetail bar, and swap it in place of the OTA. Then I bought a smallish spotting scope. The spotting scope has the advantages of bring fog free, waterproof, and gives a correct image. You can also use it for birding, shooting, other uses. For that reason, I give this 4 stars.
The mount itself is very nifty. Just a mediocre or poor optical tube that's maybe a 2-star item and maybe just a slight improvement over the next lowest price unit. (Posted on 1/3/2019)
The various alignment choices during the setup are intuitive enough and accurate.
One improvement I have made is to mount the tube and fork on a sturdier tripod which cuts down on movement of the viewed image. I am dabbling with astrophotography. The NexStar will not reach prime focus without a Barlow, but with a Barlow, I am getting some good shots. (Posted on 8/4/2017)
Supplied Accessories
- 130mm Newtonian reflector optics
- Quick-release optical tube
- Go-to computerized altazimuth mount with dual-axis DC servo motor drives
- Pre-assembled adjustable height stainless steel tripod
- Quick release accessory tray
- Hand control with 4,000+ star and object database for go-to operation
- Internal AA battery compartment (batteries not supplied)
- Battery-powered variable brightness Star Pointer red LED non-magnifying finder (battery supplied)
- 1.25" rack and pinion focuser
- 1.25" 25mm Kellner eyepiece (26x)
- 1.25" 9mm Kellner eyepiece (72x)
- TheSky Level 1 CD-ROM star-charting software
- NSOL software for controlling the scope from a laptop or PC
- Dust covers.
SLT mount 
SLT software 
SLT computer 
