The Sagan Series

The Sagan Series, Part 1, The Frontier is everywhere.

"We were hunters and foragers. The frontier was everywhere. We were bounded only by the earth, and the ocean, and the sky. The open roads still, soft and cause. Our little  terraqueous globe is the madhouse of those hundred, thousand, millions of worlds. We who can not even put our planetary home in order, riven with rivalries and hatred, ARE WE TO VENTURE OUT INTO SPACE ? By the time we are ready to settle even the nearest planetary systems, we will have changed. The simple passage of so many generations will have changed us. The necessity will have changed us. We're.. an adaptable species. It'll not be we who reach Alpha Centauri and the other new by stars, it'll be a species very like us, but with more of our strengths and fewer of our weaknesses. More confident, farseeing, capable and prudent. For all our failings, despite our limitations and fallibilities, we humans are capable of greatness. What new wonders undreamed of in our time will we have rot in another generation and another. How far will have our nomadic species have wondered, by the end of the next century and the next millennium. Our remote descendants safely arrayed on many worlds in through the solar system and beyond, will be unified. By their common  heritage, by their regard for their home planet, and by the knowledge that whatever other life may be, the only humans in all this universe, come from earth. They will gaze up and stream to find the blue dot in thier skies. They will marvel that how vulnerable the repository of war potential once was. How pairless our infancy. How humble our beginnings. How many rivers we had to cross before we found our way." - Carl Sagan

The Sagan Series, Part 2, Life looks for life.

"As children we fear the dark. The unknown troubles us. Anything might be out there. Ironically it’s our fate to live in the dark. Head out from the earth in any direction you choose, and after an initial flash of blue, you are surrounded by blackness; punctuated only here and there by the faint distant stars. Even after we're grown the darkness retains its power to frighten us, and so there are those who say we should not enquire too closely, into who else might be living in that darkness. Better not to know, they say.
There are four hundred billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy. Of this immense multitude, could it be that our humdrum sun is the only one with an inhabited planet? Maybe, maybe the origin of life or intelligence is exceedingly improbable. Or maybe civilizations arise all the time but wipe themselves out as soon as they are able. Or, here and there peppered across space. Maybe there are worlds something like our own. On which other beings gaze up and wonder as we do, about who else lives in the dark.
Life is a comparative rarity. You can survey dozens of worlds and find that in only one of them does life arise, and evolve, and persist. If we humans ever go to those worlds, then it will be because a nation or a consortium of them, believes it to be of its advantage, or to the advantage of the human species. In our time we have crossed the solar system and sent four ships to the stars. But we continue to search for inhabitants. LIFE LOOKS FOR LIFE -Carl Sagan

Carl Edward Sagan (English pronunciation: /ˈseɪɡən/) (November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, astrophysicist,cosmologist, author and science popularizer and science communicator in the space and natural sciences. During his lifetime, he published more than 600 scientific papers and popular articles and was author, co-author, or editor of more than 20 books. In his works, he advocated skeptical inquiry and the scientific method. He pioneered exobiology and promoted the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI).Sagan became world-famous for his popular science books and for the award-winning 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, which he narrated and co-wrote. A book to accompany the program was also published. Sagan also wrote the novel Contact, the basis for the 1997 film of the same name.


This social media series aimed to spread the message of the need to enhance human efforts in space exploration and astronomy, created by Reid Gower for NASA. Includes original narration by Carl Sagan.

The narration conveys the true feelings of an astronomer to the common man. An astronomer who walks out to stare at the night sky appreciates the vastness and expanse of his vision. The magnitude of countless objects visible to him. The separation between him and object in his line of sight. And then wonder about the scale of his existence. Him on a planet which is like a grain of sand resting on the earth and him living on that grain of sand with other fellow beings. These fellow beings, enriched with such vision, courage and wisdom that they endeavor to explore the humongous objects presented to them by the universe, in tiny small steps. Carl Sagan says that we evolve, and evolve we do. Into better lifeforms, each generation better than the other, greater than the previous one. Progress with generations which lead to species which are humans but very different from us, they are the ones who realize the futility of war for small tiny tangible objects, they realize the greatness which needs to be achieved. The frontiers which need to be conquered, the things which need to be explored, the lives which need to be made better. They explore the vast expanse, they explore the other species, they appreciate what they have done and have already learnt from their mistakes. They do not fight for becoming wealthier, for possessing the rare and precious, they fight for knowledge, which comes from explorations and discoveries. We, such tiny creatures have explored tremendous vistas, this works as the ultimate motivation for them. Those will be the humans who go out to Alpha Centauri, inhabit other planets and become a matter of pride amongst all the species.   

12th February 2011, 23:45 to 02:00 hrs

Was not getting sleep today. Although had not planned any observing session for today, it happened. The telescope was pulled out and planted, polar aligned and i was ready to go. The moon setting at western horizon looked beautiful. Saw Moon, M42 and Saturn today.

Luckily, today camera was able to focus at the eyepieces. So i took a few pictures and few videos. Here they are. The best video was of Saturn. I could clearly make out the rings. See yourself.

In the video it appears slightly blurry. Actually viewing through the eyepiece gives a sharper image. But still its nice that only with the 20mm eyepiece Saturn is visible with its rings. 20mm = 33x magnification in my scope. Planning to get low mm eyepieces. The view will become better.


The moon Video:

Celestron Astromaster 130 EQ with moon setting on western horizon.

This image is taken by mounting camera on the piggyback mount of the telescope. Let me see if you can find out moon in the picture. Huge amount of light pollution.

Moon from Canon SX 120 IS, 10x zoom, ISO 200, Exp:10s, f=5.6, No Post Processing.

M42 Nebula in the Orion. Canon SX 120 IS mounted on Celestron Astromaster 130 EQ no post processing

M42 Orion Nebula. Some post processing on the same picture.

Notice the star in the center sorrounded by a cloudy patch. Thats the M42 Nebula. Which actually looks like the inset image through the telescope. One of the easiest to find nebulae in the sky. Quite bright too.


Moon through 20mm eyepiece. Notice the orange tint of the setting moon.






Few other images of the moon taken today.

Moon through 20mm Eyepiece

Moon through 20mm Eyepiece, Camera zoomed in.

Celestron Astromaster 130 EQ Review

Around a month has passed since I got my scope and I have used to for about 10-12 short and long sessions. I’m now in a position to write a review of Celestron 31045 AstroMaster 130 EQ Reflector Telescope. I will try to make it as detailed as possible.


Many of the reviews i have found on the internet of this telescope are the one's written by experts having 10" and higher scopes, 
Here are some of them:


Review at Astronomy Forum
Cloudy Nights Review and comments.


Some other reviews:
At telescope reviews
Costco review


Very obviously they will not like this scope much. They forget the fact that no one who is an expert is going to buy this telescope, its not meant for the one very experienced with telescopes, then why review it as an expert. The person who is looking for this scope is the amateur first buyer, just like me.

I purchased a Celestron 31045 AstroMaster 130 EQ Reflector Telescope.The telescope arrived home in a heavy package, heavier than I had expected, around 15 Kilograms.  These were the included parts as I remember:

1. Optical Tube Assembly (OTA) (dark green metallic)

2. OTA Lid (Plastic, light black)

3. Eyepiece cover (plastic, black)

4. Dovetail bar (metallic orange color).

5. OTA holders (rings) (light black)

6. German Equatorial CG3 Mount. (heavy, same color as rings, with RA setting circles and slow motion gear of metallic orange color which looks great)

7. Tripod (Steel)

8. Mount to tripod locking knob

9. Latitude adjustment screw.

10. Counterweight bar (steel).

11. Counterweight safety screw (metallic orange color).

12. Two wedge shaped counterweights with locking screws.(approx 1.2 kg in weight, not sure)

13. Accessory tray.

14. Two slow motion cables/knobs.

15. One 20 mm erecting eyepiece (plastic casing).

16. One 10 mm eyepiece (Metal casing).

Recieved parts of Celestron Astromaster 130 EQ

I guess I am not missing out anything but will check once more and update if that’s the case.

So I received these parts and started assembling the equipment. First I expanded the tripod and extended the legs to full length and tightened the knobs in all three. Tripod is lighter than it looks in the images or videos, but sufficiently strong. I placed the mount on the tripod next, attached the latitude adjustment screw, then the dovetail bar, and attached the counterweight bar next, then the weights and the safety screw. Next I placed the OTA and tightened the screws. Balanced the assembly on declination and right ascension and it was ready. This whole process took me around 15-20 minutes, and it was easy. For the first time I got stuck once when I forgot to attach the latitude adjustment screw but the official celestron video of how to assemble helped me out and I was back on track. I would advise all first timers to have a look at the video and then go ahead assembling the scope; it makes the process easier and flawless.

In the first observing session I did not know how to polar align the equatorial mount, and I did not bother about it either, was just too excited to have view from the scope first. I removed the eyepiece cover and inserted the 20mm Eyepiece, then aimed at the moon and with some difficulty was able to point it in right direction. It took some time and I cursed the red dot finder as it was’nt so helpful. This red dot finder is perhaps the most criticized part of this particular make telescope, but it’s not that bad once you get used to it and use it correctly. Please read how to configure and point a red dot finder correctly in the next post.

The moon appeared majestic and in extraordinary detail, even with my camera at 40x zoom I had not been able to view such immense detailed view of moon at just 33x with the 20 mm eyepiece. At first view itself the telescope boasts its power well. I was impressed and ready to insert the next 10mm eyepiece with 65x magnification. The view became even better. It was impressive. I tried viewing terrestrial objects too after that and actually I could not locate what I saw through the scope from the naked eye. This was amazing too.

The first day itself I aimed it at Jupiter; it was difficult as the star pointer was mis-aligned but I had no idea, scope that it could be mis-aligned and can be aligned to point correctly. More about using the red dot finder here. 


So finding Jupiter was tough but I did not give up and finally viewed it in the ocular. With the 20 mm eyepiece I could see the four Galilean moons and Jupiter clearly. On the first day I forgot to change the eyepiece to 10mm, as a result of over excitement. But later I have observed Jupiter, and you can make out the upper band of Jupiter (after the lower band and the great red spot vanished last year) and the four satellites clearly Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto. I should also mention that the focusing knob moves very smoothly and it’s very easy to focus.

In the next few sessions I learnt how to polar align the telescope, which, opposed to the common conception is quite an easy process. The Celestron Manual which accompanied the telescope describes 3 methods of aligning the telescope to Polaris, after polar alignment it is easier to view and track objects, without the knobs and mount coming in the way, or leading to some direction of motion which is not possible. That used to happen with me when I used it without polar aligning it first. I really thank the equatorial mount for the ability to view objects and I am glad I did not choose a alt az mount telescope, for I can now figure out how difficult it will be to follow an object with such a mount. At high zoom the object moves out of scopes view in 8-10 seconds. You have to keep rotating the RA knob to follow it. An alt az mount must be very difficult to use.

The CG3 German Equatorial Mount of Celestron Astromaster 130 EQ

Counterweights Celestron Astromaster 130 EQ

The counterweights are so beautifully shaped it adds to the looks of the telescope. None of the telescopes have so good looking counterweights. Along with the metallic orange gears, screws and dovetail the telescope is a beauty.

The piggyback camera mount is also helpful and I have taken few nice pictures of constellations using it. The front lid has a small aperture covered with a cap which can be opened and helps in reducing brightness of very bright objects such as the moon.

Piggy back mount on Celestron Astromaster 130 EQ

Celestron Astromaster 130 EQ Lid

Till now I have had about 10-12 observing sessions. Some of them lasting all night, and I am very satisfied with the telescope. I have seen the Orion Nebula M42, Saturn and its rings, Venus in its phase and various star clusters such as the Pleiades. All this with only the supplied eyepieces. Celestron specifies maximum usable power of this scope as 307x. Which is a lot compared to the maximum I have seen with it at 65x (with the supplied eyepiece). I have ordered a solar filter and Celestron accessory kit with various eyepieces, filters and Barlow to extract the maximum out of this scope. Definitely expecting a lot more to explore with the upgraded eyepieces.

The supplied eyepieces of Celestron Astromaster 130 EQ

Nothing can be made perfect, so it is with the Astromaster 130. The tripod could have been stronger and sturdier, every time you rotate the knobs it shakes for about 3-4 seconds before stabilizing which gives eye strain. The extension of the legs slightly bends out away from their axial line, which was not what I had expected, but it might be the case with all such tripods. The focuser is not very firm and moves sideways slightly. Yes, I will also mention that the red dot finder is not as good as a finderscope could have been, but not as bad as the degree of criticism it has received. The setting circles could have had vernier scales, as in some skywatcher telescopes for more accurate pointing and lastly the telescope supplied accessories are highly insufficient, one has to buy better eyepieces and a Barlow lens compulsorily to enjoy the scope fully.

 Red dot finder Celestron Astromaster 130 EQ

Overall, for a beginner I think it is one of the best scopes available and huge value for money considering that certain nexstar series scopes and certain meade telescope of the same aperture have very high price for very few added features. I would rate this scope 7 out of 10.

More images at : This page