I bought my Sky-Watcher Explorer 130P telescope in March 2009, so I’ve had it for almost two years (February 2011). One of the reasons I opted for this particular telescope was because it had a motorized mount. I didn’t know anything about mounts (or telescopes) at the time, so I based my choice on what I had read on the internet.

I have mixed feelings about the mount. In this article I will share my thoughts on what I like and what I don’t like about it.

good points

1. The physical connection of the mount to the telescope tube and tripod is very simple and can be done in about a minute.

2. Setting up the software is also quite easy to do. There is a one-time task to setting the latitude of your location, which you only need to do again if you are using the telescope several miles from where the setting was made.

3. The setup process for each viewing session is simply a case of turning on the power supply while the telescope tube is horizontal and pointing north.

4. Object tracking works fine as long as you have done steps 2 and 3 above accurately.

bad points

1. The battery pack does not have an on/off switch, which means you must use the thumbscrew to connect and disconnect it from the mount.

2. The mount has two servo motors: one for altitude adjustment and one for azimuth (horizontal) adjustment. I find that the azimuth motor seems to have problems at times, even when the batteries in the battery pack are new. The problem seems to be worse in cold, wet weather.

3. In fact, the support has stopped working several times. If I take it home and leave it for a few weeks until it dries out completely, it usually works again. (I usually keep it in the shed).

4. My phone broke after having the telescope for 11 months.