Buy Celestron 31153 Skyprodigy 130 Reflector TelescopeCelestron 31153 Skyprodigy 130 Reflector Telescope Product Description:
Product Description
The SkyProdigy 130 mm Reflector Telescope from Celestron is designed for people without any prior knowledge of astronomy or telescopes. In less than three minutes after being turned on, the SkyProdigy will simply "look" up to the sky to self-determine it's position and alignment. It just doesn't get any more straight-forward than this. An eye-opening tour of over 4,000 celestial objects, using SkyProdigy's internal database, is almost instantly available.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful.
Easy but limited
By brymoiser
What does the SkyProdigy have in common with Professor Brian Cox? Well, one of them is a sleek, good looking beast that turns women's heads and the other is a science boffin and former pop star. But, differences apart, they both make astronomy sexy.The Prodigy fits together easily and the dovetail fitting means the scope and mount are easily taken apart and transported. The metallic red finish makes the scope a thing of beauty that is sure to draw the attention of friends and family. The battery pack works well and so far I've had a good 10 hours out of it with Duracells. Long term though you will want to find another power supply - a 12v adapter to plug in to your car (£15), a mains adapter (£30) or a power tank (£60 upwards).The main reason for buying the Prodigy is its ease of use. I recently upgraded my much larger 8 inch scope to Go To and although I'm sure it will get easier it really is a pain to align compared to the Prodigy. With the Prodigy you simply turn it on and it goes through its search routine, analyses what it finds and announces itself ready to show you the night sky. All in less than 5 minutes from being switched on.To date no object has been in the centre of my eyepiece after the scope has slewed into position but they are always somewhere in the viewfinder and easily centred using the straightforward controls. My favourite option is the Sky Tour. Selecting this will allow the scope to pick out the best objects on show such as double stars, nebulae, galaxies and star clusters. Point it at a particular area of sky you are interested in and it will focus on that section only - great if you only want to look around Cassiopeia for example.A hidden bonus is the fact it accepts 2 inch eyepieces. These are great if you want to view deep space objects where a wider field of view is beneficial. The handset also allows you to switch between sidereal, lunar and solar tracking.In the base of the handset is a jack plug socket which the instructions label: `For use with a computer, software programmes, for point and click slewing capability, and updating firmware via PC'. I duly paid £25 for a connection cable and USB adapter for the outdated RS232 connection, plugged in the handset and ....nothing. Correspondence with Celestron confirms that they do not in fact support firmware upgrades for the Prodigy and probably never will. Poor and misleading.The lack of ability to connect the handset to a computer in my view makes this at best a 4 star rating and if you add value for money into the equation it is arguably only 3 stars. The SkyProdigy appears to be a souped-up version of the NexStar 130 SLT which is about half the price. Another alternative is the highly rated NexStar 5 SE which is around the same price, has the same aperture, an object database that is 10 times bigger and is totally upgradeable.In my experience though, the more difficult it is use a telescope the less likely you are to be motivated to spend time observing, especially on cold winter nights when viewing conditions are best. The Prodigy certainly overcomes that problem as it really couldn't be easier to use. There's no excuse for not popping out for even a short session of star gazing. But don't be surprised if you're still there 2 hours later, curious to see just one more wonder of the night sky.I hope this review is helpful.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.Celestron 130 skyprodigy reflector telescope
By steve
Telescope is fantastic for beginners like myself.I have very little knowledge about astronomy ,but with this product you can explore the sky just by setting it up and following the instructions.the only problem that I have is that the slewing motor does not seem to work correctly in the horizontal movement.I have contacted Celestrom and I am waiting for a reply.All in all a great telescope to start with.well worth the money.
18 of 21 people found the following review helpful.
Celestron Sky Prodigy
By james
An excelent piece of equipment, it really does what it says it does.I set it up in the back garden, switched it on, and it knew where it was, I saw jupiter and three moons, I also saw the great spot
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