devdusty

Thanks for all your advice and comments. Will have to give this some thought over the next few days. Chris P

Thanks for your reply LukeSkywatcher. I notice that problems with collimation crop up frequently on the forum. Also the Heritage 130P has a Red Dot finder which will be of limited use in my light polluted skies. Chris P

Thanks for your advice Jetstream. Unfortunately a Go To mount is way beyond my budget. The SW heritage 130 P is just about within my means. I note your comment about collimation. I did have a 90 mm SW refractory but never successfully lined up the finder with the telescope. Chris P

Thanks for all your replies and comments. Great photo of your telescope Mark. Unfortunately I have no practical skills so would not be able to make any adjustments as mentioned. Also I doubt that I would be able to collimate it if necessary. I have a bortle 8 sky so what could I expect to see through it apart from the moon and bright planets. I would like to see some of the colourful doubles in the night sky , but I can,t even see Albireo at mag 3.1 with the naked eye.! So presumably deep sky objects are out of the question. Chris P

Thanks for your reply Demonperformer. Does any member of the forum use a Skywatcher Heritage 130 p flexitude.? Is it as good as the 5 star ratings promise.? look forward to any comments. Thanks . Chris P

I am interested in buying the above mentioned telescope, as it appears to have 5 star reviews all the time. A couple of questions .As I live in a light polluted area and the telescope has an open tube surely stray light will affect the view. Also presumably you need to have a solid garden table to mount it on ,to ensure its stability. Any comments or advice would be welcome. Chris P

Thanks for your reply Proto Star. As I stated previously I had great difficulty using the equatorial mount for pointing the telescope in the right direction. Are there any videos on the internet showing operation of a telescope on an equatorial mount.? I have contacted local astronomy societies to see if anyone would visit me to give assistance but without success. Chris

Thanks for all your advice and comments. I have looked at the Startravel-80 az3. Refractor and it seems nice and compact. Previously I had the 90 mm f/10 refractor which I found too long and bulky to manage. The only problem I can see with the Startravel 80 is that it has a red dot finder. From my back garden near the city centre the naked eye limiting magnitude is only 3.0 to 3.5 due to light pollution , so a red dot finder would be of limited use. Also as I mentioned I did try to align the finder with the main telescope by focusing on nearby TV aerials I needed to put masking tape on the finder so that it was a tight fit in the holder. I thought I had linked the main scope with the crosshairs in the finder during the daytime,but at night nothing seems to be aligned. I have tried contacting local astronomical societies for help,but without any success. Chris

I am thinking of buying a 20_60 x 80 spotting scope for astronomy. I have tried using a 90 mm refractor on an equatorial mount without success. I could never work out how to move it in ra and declination. Also I couldn't, align the finder scope with the main telescope. A spotting scope seems easy to operate on a tripod and also the image is the correct way up. I would appreciate any comments or thoughts about this. Chris.