Celestron 127EQ Review – An Affordably Priced Telescope For The Amateur Astronomer
Finding a telescope now is very easy. That is a good thing and a bad thing as well. As easy as it is to find a good telescope, it is also very easy to get fooled by a cheap piece of equipment. This is why when it comes to telescopes it would be a good idea to rely on nothing but the best quality optics from the trusted brands. The Celestron 127eq review here is to introduce you to a great telescope if you do not already know about it and to present to you the features that this one comes with.
Buying your first ever telescope as a budding astronomer can be a fun task. But there are so many out there in the market – some cheap ones and some really expensive top models. Which one should you buy? How much should you really spend? Would it be alright to splurge on an expensive telescope right when you start out? There might be so many such unanswered questions in your mind. Answering all of these, and carrying a price tag that would not shock you, comes this powerful telescope from Celestron.
The most popular types of telescopes are reflective, catadioptric, and refracting telescopes. The Celestron telescope here is a Newtonian reflector type of telescope. These are pretty good but come at slightly lower prices than refractor telescopes. It is not just the magnification that sets the telescope apart but the numerous features and the reliability because of the high-quality elements that are designed with this telescope. The size of the aperture, mirror size, eyepieces, in every aspect this one takes a strong stance and comes as a good competitor to those that are costlier but with similar features.
Celestron 127EQ Features and Specs
- Comes with a 127mm aperture
- Field of view- 0.8”
- Focal length-1000mm
- Focal ratio-7.87
- Maximum and minimum useful magnification levels 300x and 18x respectively
- Features a German Equatorial mount
Is Celestron 127eq the best low priced telescope for a budding astronomer?
The Newtonian telescopes continue to be one of the most popular choices among the new stargazers. The Celestron 127eq is one of the most reasonably priced Newtonian telescopes that has all the features you would ever need to enhance your stargazing experience.
This one comes with a 20in long tube and aluminum optical coating. The optic coatings are carefully chosen in order to significantly improve the transmission. This one comes as a reflector telescope where mirrors are positioned in order to suitably reflect light and thus result in clearer pictures.
The aperture is good, the price tag- good again, but then there are some flaws or rather, features that do not impress every astronomer. But in the end, if you are looking for a good value for money and decent performance this sure is a great telescope for the beginners.
An aperture you would love
The bigger the aperture size on a telescope, the better would it be. Some of the high-end telescopes that are used by the pros come with aperture sizes that are several meters. But for an amateur version, anything that is in the range 80-300mm is considered to be a good choice. The cheap models come with very small apertures that reduce the brightness of the image. But surprisingly the Celestron 127eq, in spite of the lower price, comes with a decently sized aperture that does display bright images. And this is pretty good for first-timers.
Design of the telescope
This is one good looking telescope that doesn’t have too many controls cluttering the outside. It is simple to use, easy to mount and quite simple to focus as well. The focal length of the mirror is 1000mm. The focal length is an indication of roughly how long the optical tube of the telescope would be. But with the advancement in telescope designs, we now find scopes smaller than the focal lengths. And the Celestron 127eq is one such telescope featuring a modern compact design.
The integral part of the telescope- the reflecting mirror
One of the prominent issues with the spherical mirrors is the problem of distortion resulting from multiple focal points due to parallel light rays. But spherical mirrors and lenses are cheaper than parabolic counterparts. This telescope comes with a spherical mirror. To tackle the issue of distortion to some extent this one comes with the corrective lens.
All that you should know about the performance of this telescope
The telescope has been designed for versatility. Be it terrestrial sighting or gazing at the night sky this one can achieve both with absolute ease. Using the telescope to sight celestial objects is a breeze for the beginners. One beneficial aspect is the inclusion of the software called TheSky that makes it easy to view the sighted objects on a laptop or computer.
Collimation of the mirror on this one is quite simple. Remember to take out the corrective lens before you perform laser collimation. The equatorial mount is often preferred because this comes by default aligned with the axis of the earth making it easy to move the telescope to spot stars. You would not find it difficult to use this one because correcting multiple axes is not required on the equatorial mounts.
How easy is it to use, for the first-timers?
To begin with, you do not need any special tools to put this telescope together once you receive your package. There is a very easy setup process required. The next fact is that this is a great telescope that has been designed keeping in mind the novice in the field. But that doesn’t mean that the pros would hate it. If you are looking for a telescope that your entire family can use with no difficulty this one would surely surprise you. The mount type makes the use of the telescope even simpler. So this does come as one of the best models in terms of the ease of use.
Pros
- One significant aspect of this scope that you would soon be impressed with is the stability of the build and the mount. This makes the scope easily repeatable. So you would get the same results every time effortlessly.
- The build quality is pretty evident when you use the telescope
- The optics on this are reliable and they do stay as good as new for a long time. So this telescope would make a great choice for a long-term
- This one comes with a ready to mount design. Unless many other telescopes that have some complicated assembly processes this one is pretty straightforward. This is another useful factor for the beginners who still do not have enough experience in handling telescopes
- The size of the tube, the telescope, on the whole, is one other positive. It is pretty light compared to several other popular telescopes. This makes this one of the most convenient telescopes in terms of portability. Get the right carry case and you are good to take this around wherever you go.
- The eyepiece on the Celestron 127eq can directly be used and you could also choose to upgrade this one if you required. But the default eyepiece does work pretty well with no complaints.
Cons
- The spherical mirror leads to some amount of aberrations in the image in spite of the presence of the correction lens. But the optical aberrations on this one occur towards the edge of the images and this doesn’t bother the view too much.
- One thing we know about telescope with mirrors is the fact that there is slight movement in the mirrors that occurs over time. So occasional tweaking might be essential. For the first-timers, this is a concept that might be a bit tricky to get used to. This is what is called the collimation of the mirrors.
- The usable magnification mentioned by the manufacturer is 300x. But the best images are displayed up to 200x or 250x. Beyond that, the clarity does go down a bit. The overall quality of the images displayed below 200x is stunning though!
Conclusion
The Celestron 127eq is easy to set up and takes very little time to learn how to use this one. There are reliable optics that have been included on this and the mirrors are glare-free and bright in image delivery. So you would find it very easy to view celestial objects with great clarity. To make things better you could always choose to add other eyepieces if you find the standard eyepiece inconvenient at higher magnifications. So this is a telescope that has everything that you would need in your early days into astronomy.