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On 20/06/2020 at 14:39, JeremyS said:

Achieved first light with the new SW Heritage 150p last night.

I set it up on the patio table. It’s very quick and easy to set up. The scope + mount is stored in a cupboard, so I simply lifted it out and used the built in carry handle cut-out to take the whole thing outside and plonk it down on the table. Easy. Extending the collapsible tube is quick too. I checked the collimation with a laser collimator and it was almost spot on – as it was the other day when first delivered. First thing was to align the red dot finder on Arcturus. I must say I do not like these small red dot finders and this one seem particularly poor. The adjustment screws are pretty hard to move (without jogging the main scope) and don’t seem to work very well. Moreover, the orange tinted front glass reduces transparency and scatters light. I’ve got a few more of these dreadful 1x power red dot finders and one without the tinted glass (if it is glass, that is!!), so I might swap.

I then inserted a Panoptic 24 mm eyepiece(x31)  and focused on Arcturus. The focuser isn’t brilliant, but I wasn’t expecting it to be perfect. It works pretty well, though, and achieving focus was easy. Note that I had wound some PTFE tape around the focuser thread which reduces play and makes focusing smoother. There is some play in the focuser unit as it’s made of plastic. But, again, it’s acceptable given the intended purpose of the instrument – and its price point.

Arcturus and surrounding stars were pint point. Lovely view, actually. Of course the 6 diffraction spike were visible (due to the 3 vane spider). A bit of a novelty for me as a refactor user normally!

Turning to M13, again a lovely wide-field view with the Pan 24 (just over 2 degrees x31). I inserted a Nagler 9mm (x83) and the outer edges were resolved. It occurred to me that the Nagler eyepiece cost 50% more than the Heritage 150p which shows what good value the scope is (or, perhaps, how expensive Naglers are 🙂 )

Next was M57, the Ring Nebula. Again easily found and benefiting from the Nagler 9mm.

Finally, I scanned part of the Summer Milky Way in Cygnus. I think this is where the ‘scope will be used a lot at dark sites as the Pan 24 gives a stunning wide-field vista as one moves through all those amazing star fields.

The dob mount performed well and was smooth enough in both alt and az, especially when I’d adjusted the friction tension.

So, all in all I think this is an excellent telescope. The optics are excellent and the views wonderful. It’s also highly desirable to have 6 full inches of aperture to hand! Yet it’s compact and light enough to put in a small car for a holiday under dark skies. The folding tube assembly obviously has some limitations and the weak points are the focuser (although this can be improved with the PTFE tape) and the red dot finder.

I also have a SW 150 f/8 Dobsonian. This is the solid tube version. I gave it to my younger daughter for her 9th birthday and she’s now a junior doctor, so I’ve had it a while 😊. Mechanically this is much better and the solid tube a real benefit. But it is bulky and not really suitable to take away by car, unless it was the only thing I had on board. If I had to chose between the two, I’d go for the solid tube longer FL ‘scope if I was only intended to use at home.

I also tried the Heritage 150P OTA on two other mounts. The SW AZ5 on a Berlebach Report 312 gives much smoother alt az motions that the Heritage dob base. I also tried the OTA on a SW AZ-GTi: a super combo and this will be great for dark nights away. The goto will allow loads of objects to be swept up easily. I think I will prefer using one of these mounts on occasion, but of course it partly negates the compact dob package that the Heritage offers. You can’t beat the simplicity of grabbing the heritage, setting it on a table and be observing in a couple of minutes! 🙂

 

Hello JeremyS!

I find this telescope amazing for the price and performance, and it is also not too bulky which I also appreciate.
The thing is that I am not a fan of the Dobsonian mount specially for using the pointer.
Could I use it with my light AZ3 tripod?
I would appreciate if you or somebody could share his experience or knowledge here and give me an advice. The telescope plus ocular would maybe too close to the 5kg declared as maximum from the mount. Maybe it could feel unstable?
Thanks!!
 
My tripod: https://www.teleskop-spezialisten.de/shop/Montierungen/Azimutale-Montierung-manuell/AZ3-Skywatcher-AZ-3-azimutale-Montierung-mit-Feinverstellung-bis-5kg::409.html