Timdog

I have a 130p and upgraded to bst starguider eyepieces. To me, as a newbie they were a great upgrade and I agree with the many recommendations that they work well in this scope. If you’re main interest is planets the 8mm would be good, from flo or skies unlimited on eBay. I had the 5mm too but viewing conditions had to be good for it. Baader zoom was very good. I found collimator cap worked ok but Cheshire one better. Definitely put a layer of pterodactyl tape on threads

I have the 20x80, it’s not just the weight of holding them for a prolonged period of time, it’s trying to hold them steady enough to make viewing worthwhile. Ok on the moon for a quick look, anything other than that and you need tripod to hold them steady

I’m no photographer, just like looking and imagining the distances and forces at work but that picture is like everything else these days, photoshopped or airbrushed. It’s special effects and doesn’t appear real. Seen many many far better images posted by the talented people on here. Then again I laugh when a pile of dirty clothes are described as art so maybe I’m out of touch (thankfully)

Hi, just wondering if anybody produces images for sale. I would love to have an image of m29 open cluster to frame. It was the first Messier object I saw together with my good lady, it would make a great gift. There are plenty of images to download which I could just print but if anyone does this please let me know. (Uk ideally) Thanks, Tim

So I either need to wear my Halloween hooded cape or one of those umbrella hats😇

Brilliant review, very inspiring to a newbie, shows what can be achieved. Do you think there’s a significant upgrade from the 130 heritage

Really looking forward to hearing about the 150. I bought the 130 as my first telescope but I’d like to upgrade to the 150 while keeping the portability of the Heritage.

You will notice a big improvement if you are able to justify spending a bit on eyepieces once you have used the telescope. I have the heritage 130 and upgraded to the highly recommended bst starguiders, they are less than 50 each new and often come up second hand on here or on uk astrobuysell. As a start possibly the 8 mm for higher power and the 18 for wider views. I found them to be a big improvement. Last night with the 18 and 12 I had good views of Saturn and Jupiter, the view with the 8 and 5 wasn’t as sharp, presumably due to the low position of the planets. It’s a good telescope, very well regarded. The other issue you can suffer from is stray light entering the tube if you are in an area with street lights etc. It may be worth looking at posts on here/YouTube on making a cheap simple light shroud for it.

Meant to add, there are great packages available if you want to start off with a set up which includes the telescope, with tripod (stainless steel is sturdier if ultra light portability isn’t essential) and manual or WiFi control. The included eyepieces are ok to start with but you will almost certainly want to allow for improving them, they are useable but best described as budget quality to keep initial purchase price low. You will find loads of very helpful advice from people on here who really know their stuff.

From the perspective of a newbie myself, rather than any great experience these are my thoughts. I started with a skywatcher heritage 130, very quickly found that the positives were how quick and easy it was to set up the dobsonian mount and get on with viewing, the downside was having to move it to different tables to place it on. I’m fairly lucky in not being surrounded by houses so I have a good open sky but still need to change from front to back of the house to avoid some trees. So fairly quickly I bought a stainless steel tripod with alt/az mount with slow motion controls( explore scientific twilight 1, other models available) this greatly improved things to me, easier to pick up and move around on tripod and the slo mo controls are great for keeping targets in view, it’s amazing how quickly things drift out of view. Then upgrading the standard eyepieces to a good range, personally I went on recommendation with BST starguiders, great value and I’m happy with performance at this stage. Although trying to learn/ find way around the sky with the aid of book/charts and apps such as Stellarium and SkyView is part of the fun and experience I also wanted to add in the option of just setting up and using a GOTO system to either find things for me and allow the family to quickly be able to come out and view. So I bought the skywatcher az gti which I would recommend but need to be aware of weight limits I have avoided the EQ mount system in favour of the easier to use alt/az simply because at this time I only plan on visual and not photography( that may come later) This all eats into your initial budget unless you are happy to have initial expense and then keeping adding as the interest grows. If, with my limited experience I was starting again I would buy all of the above but I am probably going to either sell heritage 130 and buy the heritage 150 which is still great to pack up and take away with me or buy a skywatcher 200 explorer for extra aperture which will mount on my tripod but too heavy for my goto. Just a few thoughts

After much reading and advice from the knowledgeable people here, I bought a selection of the BST starguiders. You will get two for under £100. If I was buying two I would go for the 8mm and 12 or 18 first, keep the 25 for now as it is the better of the pair that come with the telescope. There is a very noticeable improvement with these, as a newbie I would simply describe them as much sharper with better field of view than the standard. The eye relief is good

Hi, I’m just wondering if anyone has bought the new Heritage 150 to upgrade from the Heritage 130. If so have you noticed significant improvements, I know there’s an increase of 33% in light grab which is significant(on paper) I find the convenience of the Heritage, well, convenient. I will keep it and at some point look at a larger scope to stay at home, however as it’s cloudy and TV is rubbish I thought I’d look into what people are making of the 150, particularly compared to the 130. Cheers.

They are impressive on the moon.

I have the skymaster 20x 80. To be honest I can’t compare them to others but I find them comfortable to use, easy to balance on a tripod but not too heavy to hold and easy enough to focus. For the price I would buy them again.

I read this as I have a fancy for an azgti, yes I want to find my own way round. I was brought up pre satnav! But would like to mix that with sitting out on a suitable night and trying the tour option. Let it take me on a tour of what’s visible at the time. I don’t have bad light pollution here and have some good dark places with 360 degree views. Oh I can see how this becomes an obsession. Honestly first time I came across m29 was pure luck while panning across the sky. Big smile moment. Money is for spending not counting