leo82

@Franklin Thanks for your reply and your explanation.

Hi, does anybody know whether these eyepieces are parfocal? I have the 8mm and like the overall quality of this brand. I'm thinking of getting a binoviewer and was thinking the less tinkering at the eyepiece would be more effective. Thanks.

I will have to have a look how mine is mounted. This is what I downloaded

oftware/synscan-app/ TBF I stopped doing point level north alignment, pain in the proverbial. Thanks. I've updated the app from the skywatcher website now through your link. I've not tried it though. I've always wondered how do I know if the telescopes mounted on the left side or right side? I think I'm on the correct side as when I press up on the app button, the telescope goes up.

Thanks, I'll try this.

Yes it's greyed out. I've tried the brightest star alignment with same results.

I'm using a heritage 130p with the standard 25mm to try and align with. I've just been out and tried to reset alignment but it won't let me.

I've come to use my az gti for the first time in a while. It won't align with any stars I try to align it with, brightest star or North level alignment. It's always about 4-5 degrees off target. I only use it in alt az with no eq wedge. I have tried using synscan and synscan Pro apps. I have updated the mount to the current firmware. I have put fresh duracell batteries in. When I first set it up, I make sure I'm pointing north by manually finding polaris in the telescope. I then lower the telescope so it's lying horizontal. I then turn the mount on and try to align with polaris. It's always off target so I use the app buttons to centre it. Then off to second star. The same thing happens so I centre it up again and pick a target I want to observe. Again it's way off target. I could get closer to an unknown manually than by using goto, which shouldn't happen. I must be doing something wrong, I just don't know what? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I started off with the standard 25mm and 10mm that came with my telescope. The 25mm ain't too bad but the 10mm isn't the best. The first thing I bought was a 2x Barlow. This meant I now had a 25mm, 12.5mm, 10mm and 5mm. As the 10mm isn't the best I bought an 8mm BST. This was such a difference compared to the standard 10mm. I'm looking to replace the 25mm now for a wider field of view. To answer your question, the first eyepiece you need is a 25mm or 30mm for lower magnification. This is how you will starhop to your target, before homing in with your 10mm. It is also good for the larger clusters and asterisms. I use the celestron 2x Barlow and wouldn't think of needing a 3x Barlow so can't comment on yours. Your 10mm is probably standard so upgrading it to either an 8mm or 10mm BST would be a great option. Those 2 eyepieces and a 2x Barlow is all you'd need in my opinion to get you going through beginner and intermediate observing.

With regards to paint peeling... If it does bother you, I would put a vinyl wrap on it rather than prepping and repainting. The last thing you want is paint or dust to get onto the optics! Edit..the last few unread posts just came through, I didn't realise you wanted to repaint it.

I started using a camera instead of an eyepiece (e.a.a) and it's great for picking out detail. The disadvantages for me though is the set up and the fact you are looking at a screen. Looking through the eyepiece you tend to see less but your imagination tends to kick in more, your eyes get more dark adapted and generally feel more involved. Combine the two and you have the best of both worlds. Do the same session twice, but do the visual one first.

I use the Skywatcher Heritage 130p. I think it's a great beginners scope. The only upgrade I've done is mounted it on a "goto" mount. Depending on budget you could go for the 150mm or 200mm version?

I thought exactly the same thing whilst I was making it, but then I thought the stars being elongated. As the intention was splitting double stars I thought this would pose a problem if the stars are close together. Obviously, this is just my opinion, so it should definitely be tried! There's a weekend project for you @happy-kat

Hi all, It's been a while since I've been here and also looking up at the night sky. Recently, I read an article on using an aperture mask on a reflector to get rid of diffraction spikes when viewing double stars. This was all I needed to get my blue peter head on and make my own mask as well as dusting off the heritage 130p. I quickly realised the aperture wasn't going to be very big at all. The best I could do without encroaching onto either the single vain or the edge of the telescope was 50mm, but also making it f13. This may have put a few people off but I already had a cardboard cereal box and a pair of scissors in front of me. The main reason I wanted to try this experiment however was to see why people prefer refractors over reflectors for double stars. I didn't have long under the stars last night due to the constant flow of clouds passing by. I chose my targets wisely, knowing 50mm wasn't going to be enough to start splitting any double I landed on. The targets I chose were Mizar a+b, Achird, Albireo and 61 cyg. I used the scope at 130mm first and then stopped it down to 50mm. Eyepieces used were 25mm (26x) and 8mm (81x). Combined with a x2 Barlow I also had a 12.5mm (52x) and a 4mm (162x). At 50mm I could split each star except Achird, this required the 12.5mm. After running through all the eyepieces the best views were through the 8mm. It just seemed about the right kind of magnification to resolve the stars without dimming them too much, or it could be that my 25mm is a standard eyepiece and my 8mm is a BST. The result of the refractor vs reflector I think was obvious. The refractor won hands down. Due to the 50mm size the background was darker and the stars were dimmer compared to the 130mm, but without the single vain, the stars were pin sharp! I had never seen stars so crisp! Obviously, a bigger refractor would have been even better, but for now it was great just getting back out there again.

Ah I think I have one of them, an ebay special, i think it's called ebony. Will I need a better one than this or are they all the same? I know nothing about filters.

Theres not much I can do about the light pollution unfortunately but double stars seem the way to go judging by the feeling of splitting stars last night!

I will definitely look into a better finderscope. The other mods look like there worth doing too. I have it collimated now to the best I can get it, using a chesire collimater rather than a laser collimater, then checking it on an out of focus star regularly. Fortunately my phone has night mode and stellarium has the red light feature, I also put the scope out while it was still light to cool down. I just need to get out more and gain more experience

I found it! I also found out how useless my finderscope is. My way of finding it was a last stab in the dark before throwing the towel in, sometimes it's at this point that things can actually work out for you. The way I did it was to turn on stellarium and zoom in to y sge and look for star patterns, there is a triangle next to y sge that points near enough to m27. I followed the point of the triangle until I hit a row of stars which opened up into an open group of loose stars with m27 being in the middle. I checked all the stars on stellarium and they indicated I was indeed looking at m27. I had to use averted vision and there was no way I could make out any shape to it, but I found it. I checked out albireo and almaak, these looked the same with the striking colour contrasts, although, almaak took some teasing to split. Now I also had a look at Polaris and think I split it but not sure any thoughts would be welcome. To the left of polaris between the 8 and 9 position I could see a faint star popping in and out of view, this was using an 8mm BST and a Barlow. I've heard people say it's hard to see because polaris is so bright that it drowns out it's companion. I think this might of been what I was witnessing too.

Weather forecast says clear again tonight so I should get some time to try it out. This way seems alot easier than starhoppng from albireo. I like to look at albireo and the coathanger in this area, I didn't know about m71, I shall look for this too. Many thanks.

Thanks for the reply Stu. I dont have a telrad, I use a red dot finder, then check it in a cheap 6x30 right angle finder scope, then view in the eye pieces. This only works with the brighter stars though. I'm no good at working out degrees in eyepieces and the like. If I were to position y sge star on the edge of a 25mm eyepiece would m27 be visible on the opposite side?

Hi all, How is the best way to star hop to m27? I tried last night for a good 2.5 hours looking for it but failed miserably. The way I tried was coming from albireo, the only problem is the stars seem to faint. Many thanks.

thanks guys. I have jotted these down and shall have a look for them soon, I dont think i'll be out to late I can already feel my eyes shutting.

Hi all, For some reason I observe during winter and it's always the same targets. I did try looking for m13 and m57 the other night, only problem was they were both directly overhead and was a bit uncomfortable trying to find new targets at that kind of angle. I did however have a look at albireo, it is a great sight. What are some good targets to have a look at using a 130mm reflector at this time of year? Many thanks.

Thanks for the speedy reply happy-kat. I've had a read through the thread in your link, I like the alt setting and the bonus holders for the eyepieces! I like the idea of the compass, but as Geoff states the ota deflects the compass pointer. I would like to do the setting circles with the red light, did you complete yours?

Hey happy-kat, I know this is an old post, I came across it looking for setting circles for the heritage 130. May I ask where you got these plans as I have searched all over the internet and cant find any that will fit the 130. Thank you.