Is Skywatcher 13065EQ2 a worthwhile telescope to buy?

Answer 1

I'm not familiar with that particular model, but Skywatcher telescopes, made by Synta Optical in China, are generally decent and well-priced.

Try posting on the Yahoo telescopes group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/telescopes/ ) or the forums at Cloudy nights (http://www.cloudynights.com/ ) for more information.

Answer 2

Sky Watcher is not a well known brand in the U.S. and most of the websites I can find on it that work are Russian.

The telescope itself has about 5" of aperture. This means the diamter of the primary mirror is 5".

It is larger than most starter Newtonians which are generally 114mm (4.5") and you will be able to see a fairly good number of things with it but it may leave you yearning for something bigger. Since I am not familiar with this brand I can't tell you what quality to expect from the optics.

The mount is a german equatorial mount which looks to be more sturdy than the ones on the newer Meade and Celestron scopes in the same price range, but not as sturdy as more serious mounts on the market. The aluminum tripod is probably not the sturdiest tripod you can get. It may hold the telescope still enough but you may notice vibrations under certain conditions. You can upgrade the tripod at a later date if you ever wanted to.

I do not know the price on this telescope. If it's below $300 USD I'd say you might be satisfied with it but you can see more with a Dobsonian from Orion or Zhumell for around the same price: http://www.oriontelescopes.com
http://www.telescopes.com

The mount/tripod on the SkyWatcher won't be sturdy enough for astrophotography anyway.

If it's over $300 USD then it's totally NOT worth it.

Have you ever considered saving until you can afford a really good used telescope for around $500 USD?