Help Helios Telescope

[robbie c]

hi can any one give me some info on a helios telescope all I no about it is it's a 6inch reflector ,d-130mm f-1000mm said to have good quality Russian lenses, Thanks robbie c

[John]

If it's d = 130mm then it's a 5.1 inch rather than a 6". Do you have a link to the scope ?.

The Helios scopes were chinese rather than russian, unless this is a different one.

[John]

Is it similar to the one in this link ?:

HELIOS / SKYWATCHER SKYHAWK 130mm TELESCOPE ON EQ-2 | eBay UK

[robbie c]

hi John yes it is it's on ebay but not that one this is in Bognor Regis closer to where I live

[Parus major]

As far as I understand after a friend told me his was Helios and needed help on it, they're the same maker as Celestron/Skywatcher - which I saw when I saw it, being as it was a 150/f900 newtonian on a EQ3-2.

Might be better looking at skywatcher at FLO than on ebay

[John]

They are not the best design of scope to be honest. To squeeze the long focal length into a short tube they use a short focal length primary mirror and a correcting lens at the bottom of the eyepiece drawtube. This makes them very difficult to collimate using the conventional tools like a cheshire eyepiece or a laser collimator.

If it was very cheap then it could be some fun I guess (like less than £50) but personally I'd be looking out for a conventional 130mm newtonian with a parabolic mirror.