Oakbeard

Im not even sure what I was afraid off. The site was close enough to town that some people are bound to wander through. Mostly bored kids as I have seen them around or twice. I actually know a much better place fenced off and everything but it goes from 10 mins drive to 45. I think Ill try to befriend someone who wont mind some beers in exchange for letting me set up. For a laugh, it seems much less isolated seen from above 55.6876798, 12.3660658

My plans were thwarted when Saturday turned out to be cloudy and then Sunday I had no one to tag along since most people need to sleep for Monday 😅

I have a relatively nice darker spot near my big city, so tonight being clear I loaded up the car and off I went. It was really dark there and I must say that I chickened out... Clear nights dont come often round these parts but it is what it was. Surely I cant be alone in some last minute psychological self inflicted drama. So I hope this "report" can maybe offer a little consolation to some and a frustation outlet for me.

It slipped by me being like this for a while now. Not that I can see any markings on the diagonal but still 😕

Hi, I just noticed that on my ar152 one of the screws that holds the diagonal on the focuser is not under the compression ring band, I think this is not normal?

I did miss that one 😁 but is the mount not a neq6? On the newt that is.

I'm sure most of you have watched The Expanse by now, well season 1 ep 9 at 22:08 has a funny blopper. For a series focused on space you figure they would know which way to point a dob

I did not venture too far on my idea. I have a largish reflector to mount and thought of building something myself. Started by deciding that the simplest would be a dob mount but I wanted gears to motorize it and realised I did not know how powered mounts hold the scope in place. I think in my mind I had crossover between dob mount and those motorized forks meade uses in the LX series.

It had never occurred to me how complicated mounts can be. When a mount is holding a telescope in place I guess it holds it there via one of two things: friction or gear lock. I made up the name gear lock, I actually don't know what to call this. If I make 2 gear wheels how would they not simply backtrack to achieve equilibrium? Do motors create constant tension? Im puzzled how to lock them but also have them being able of reverse motion.

Thank you all for the input, I like the laser idea but don't want to deal with rules or laws, so that's off the table. In my local area I found someone selling a stellarvue 50mm finder for a very reasonable amount, now this of course cannot go on the edge of the 130p Heritage (around 500 grams). I admit I want o get my hands on it to use as an even quicker grab and go BUT is there any way to mount this to the dovetail of the heritage? There is quite a bit "after" the base clamp and that seems to be the only solid place such a thing could be attached. I'm not sure what to call this if it is a thing at all. " synta style mounting base " was a very useful new term for me Im guessing this is what would be needed, in a different size ofc: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adm-vixen-type-v-series/adm-rings-on-v-series-dovetail-adapters.htm

My red dot finder on the 130p seems to have given up on living. Are there any common problems with these? Battery change had no effect. In any case, because I use it with the original dob base it sits very low to the ground, and the finder is a pain to use, are there any finders that don't make you align yourself with the scope? Sort of like there are prisms for not having to look straight from the base of a refractor. Edit: I overlooked these: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/finders/sky-watcher-6x30-right-angled-finderscope.html but I'm not sure I can mount them the same way as a red dot and its a bit overkill for such a small scope, any red dots with this principle?

What a beauty. I have been toying with the idea of getting a 10" myself and there really isn't a lot of info around about these scopes. Thank you for the post. Functionally it means nothing but in your pictures on the part that has the focuser there seems to be some glue seeping out from where the wood discs meet the cylinder? I will take function over aesthetics any day but there is some careful work to do to obtain a new telescope license in my house In any case congratulations, I hope it brings many delightful nights once this absolutely horrendous weather blows over.

Loved to read that enthusiasm, it is quite something to see them by oneself. Happy views

In anticipation of getting some new eyepieces I decided to actually put some time aside and check collimation on my heritage 130p. Truth be told I'm not sure it needs any but I also reckon that this is a difficult task for me. First I have no basis of comparison and second the focuser is of such a design that precision cannot be achieved, at least in my opinion. I only have a cheswire and was confused for the longest time until I figured that the tube must be inserted quite a bit out so as to be possible to see the secondary mirror. After a little thinking I tried "rotating" the focuser and of course the alignment just kept changing, so I believe there is no point in trying to align anything at all at least with a cheswire. In any case my conclusion is that this scope can only be roughly collimated and as soon as you try to bring an eyepiece into focus the collimation will most certainly not be perfect anymore. That being said I did purchase a collimation cap and that will be my next attempt at this. Of course I would love to be told I am deeply wrong on this matter

I thought about that but since everyone seems to lay them down I'm wondering if I would be exposing them to worse "bumps". A case is always useful and monoprice have slimmer ones, shipping was free so I would probably order another one if I find this one not up to the task. Appreciate the thought

I could not find the name for them but I recalled having seen some cheap flight cases and ended up ordering this one, should anyone want a relatively cheap one: https://www.monoprice.eu/products/pure-outdoor-by-monoprice-weatherproof-hard-case-with-customizable-foam-8-x-7-x-6-in?_pos=13&_sid=5f0c5bbea&_ss=r maybe its too deep but I think it will work just fine. Regarding the barlow, I did get the baader one mostly because deciding later would just not be worth it when shipping costs are factored in. I wont be throwing the other one out just yet Thank you for the link regarding storage.

Well, the deed is done. I hope that the next upgrade will be the scope itself but I also hope it will be much later. Thank you fellow stargazers

Thank you all for the input, I really like the idea of this zoom + baader barlow, very budget friendly and perfect for my current situation. Two more questions, are there any filters worth getting? and what are the tubes for keeping eyepieces called, I cant seem to find them at FLO?

Another "vote" for zoom I think I was enamored with the baader zoom + barlow for quite a long time but was a bit scared of the combined weight.

Since I was only getting my feet wet I went with something cheap, https://www.celestron.co.uk/shop/celestron-1-25-univeral-barlow-and-t-adaptor/ I think that my main issue with it has been that with the 10mm I have I couldn't achieve focus if the barlow was all the way in the focuser. That made for some frustrating fiddling.

The Hyperflex seems like a bit of kit that wasn't around last time I looked at zooms, cool tip 👍 I was hoping to actually do away with the barlow. Mine I think is not particularly user friendly and its one more thing to get in the way of observing.

Skip the preface if you are not in the mood for nostalgia I got my Heritage 130p back in January and I must say it has been a blast. I did not get anything more with it other than a cheap barlow. I have not been out as much as I would like but the times I did it was a simple matter of picking it up and go. I only recently got a car so most of my expeditions have been on bike or simply walking outside to the public park. This means that most of my observing has been of planets or the moon but what a treat it has been. I don't think I will ever forget how I managed to actually see the rings in Saturn with this tiny telescope, on what must be a not so good 10mm and a barlow not fitted all the way in on the focuser so that it would come to focus. That particular night I also managed to find and observe M45, it was just the faintest thing but beautiful none the less. That being said my binos also provided great fun and it was with them that I had the best view of the neowise comet, I was just at home, it was 1am and I had found about it online, jumped out of my pajamas and rode my bike to the park, by sheer luck I looked on the right spot and there it was, a beautiful blue trail. Or how could one forget the Orionids comets in October, just laying down in the fields and feeling wonder. Well no matter what time I come around there always seems to be something of a lifetime going on in the sky. This brings us to December and the approximation of Saturn and Jupiter. Since I have not acquired any eyepieces so far and I would like to keep it budget friendly my plan was to get a bst 5mm or 3.2 and a 8mm. Would 5mm be suitable for this event? Im open to all recommendations ⭐

I was referring to how high from the base the whole ota (is ota the name?) should hang. It came all the way lowered for transport hence my question I will def wait until I know a bit more the scope before attempting any collimation. Waiting to actually be able to look at the moon to decide how sharp the images are.

I got my 1st scope, an heritage 130p and today the weather finally cleared up for a quick out. I live in a major city and after a short 20min stroll I arrived a big park where I planned to observe (the heritage can be carried without too much trouble, but I need to figure out a backpack solution). Conditions where I think as good as they were going to get for my inexperienced star gazing. I had planned to focus my attention on Orion but I was fouled by trees blocking most of the constellation. My so saved the session by suggesting we look "over there", I wasn't sure what it was but it was the Pleiades and what a beautiful sight it was on the 25mm. I had fun poking around the sky, looking at venus (trying 130x I could actually see a crescent shadow) and at some of the brighter stars, vega and pollux mostly. Towards the end I decided to revisit the Pleiades again trough my binos and sorely miss a support but good views nonetheless. All in all I would say it was a great, albeit short, first session. It was getting a bit cold but it was immensely pleasurable to be out learning the night sky. Cant wait to go back out again, especially in more favorable skies.

Admittedly I was eyeballing what baader has to offer. My scope is a cute heritage 130p, I know that more aperture would be probably better over fancier ep's but space is at a premium in my apartment right now and I dont think that anything larger would have made the cut