First Light Review Skywatcher Heritage 130P Mini Dob

[Albenn]

Well, the clouds finally cleared enough for me to think that I may finally be able to get out there and try out my first scope! So, as the sky continued to clear, I decided to follow the advice I had read and put the scope out to acclimatise.

I then thought that this would be a good opportunity to experience the difference between the view looking through a scope that had cooled down and one that hadn't, so decided to leave it a little later to put out the scope until it got a little darker so there would be something there for me to actually look at, plus if it began to rain, I wouldn't forget to bring the scope in if I got side-tracked.

So, between about 8.30 - 9, I saw Venus shining brightly and thought 'That'll do for me!' and went outside to set up. I am not experienced enough to give an accurate account of the seeing but there were huge gaps in the cloud and the stars that I could see were not twinkling much so I guess conditions were okay. I'd just like to add that I was viewing from our garden which look across a large car park and over a golf course so there isn't a lot of light pollution from that side and the house blocks out the street lighting from the other side. It's by no stretch of the imagination a 'dark site' but it's shielded quite well.

I had already collimated the scope a few days previously so I decided not to look straight away at Venus, but to point to another brightish star (sorry don't know it's name) and see if the collimation had worked by de-focussing and seeing if the 'polo mint' appeared.

I carefully lined the red dot finder up and looked into the ep. I had managed to get the star first time! out of focus yes, but it was there. I was well pleased! I then tried to get the 'polo mint' to appear in the ep and was pleasantly surprised that the image was just what I had been seeing in the illustrations which indicated the collimation was okay. I then brought the scope into focus and was rewarded with a pinpoint of light. Again much better than the bino view.

I then turned the scope around to look at Venus. Now, I had seen Venus a few times through my binoculars and it was pretty unimpressive, but as I got this shiny ball of light into focus I realised it was a lot more interesting than I first thought it was. The image was a properly defined grey coloured circle, small and a little flared probably because it was so bright, but the image was a lot sharper and more defined than the view through my bino's. I certainly hadn't expected to see Venus in one of her phases!

I then thought after the initial 'wow' that something wasn't quite right about that crescent. I then realised that it was on the wrong side of the planet and then realised just as quickly, that it wasn't really as the scope turns everything upside down and back to front! Doh!

I continued to study the planet and noticed that as it got darker and the scope acclimatised, the image got a little better as regards the stability but the glare increased reducing the sharpness. I then remembered the 10mm ep and hoped the extra magnification would reduce the glare. Well it did and after refocusing the image, Venus was a lot sharper and a lot bigger. Well pleased again!

This scope is so manoeuvrable and smooth to manipulate. I had it sat on a garden table so the ep would be at a good height if I had to look to the zenith. It took me a while to get used to the upside down back to front world of the telsccope as I was so used to bino's but it started to come together later on in the night.

The ep's supplied with this scope are a lot better than I had heard from others and agree with their findings that the 25mm is optically superior to the 10mm but that doesn't mean the 10mm isn't any good, it is. Okay, it is a little harder to keep your eye the optimal distance from the lens of the 10mm but it give good, clear views and it's quality certainly wouldn't stop me from using it. In fact, I spent the rest of the night using the 10mm as I was having so much fun and didn't feel the need to use the 25mm at all.

Anyway, next up was Mars. Again through my bino's this was a reddish blob but through the scope was a well defined definite red sphere. I couldn't see any detail of course but you knew you were looking at a planet.

Unfortunately my favourite object, the Orion Nebula is not visible when it gets dark from where I am as it is too low on the horizon, so I'm just going to have to wait until the Autumn/Winter to come around. Can't wait to see it in this scope!

I then spent the next 2 hours just generally looking about and getting used to operating the scope until the clouds won over and I had to come inside.

My opinion of the Heritage? Well, having never owned a scope before I am not in position to make any comparison with any other unless you count my bino's, but I will say this: I found the scope easy to set-up, easy to use and to quote a much over-used phrase it did exactly what it said on the tin! The views in my opinion were clear and sharp with the supplied eyepieces and the focuser worked much better than I expected. There was a slight wobble when focussing but this dampened down in about 2 seconds. The overall build quality is excellent given the scopes low cost and I would recommend anyone thinking of getting this scope not to be put off by reports of the quality of the lenses. It really is a great little scope and am once again well pleased with my choice:D

Apologies for the ramblings, I'm off out again now to do some more observing with my new scope.

[Bart]

glad you're pleased. good luck with it. the start of a beautiful relationship.

[wrinkly]

Ramblings? What ramblings?

You gave a very honest report on the Heritage and as such deserve congratulations. Nice bit of kit, affordable and switched on your enthusiasm. What more could one ask?

[LukeSkywatcher]

Good honest report. Its pretty much as i find the scope to be.

[Cjg]

Congrats on your new scope, the 130P Heritage was my first too.

Orion will be around again in October / November, but you've Saturn, M13 and lots around Cygnus to view in the meantime. Have fun.

Chris

[Albenn]

Congrats on your new scope, the 130P Heritage was my first too.

Orion will be around again in October / November, but you've Saturn, M13 and lots around Cygnus to view in the meantime. Have fun.

Chris

Chris, Luke

Did you have trouble getting the RDF to go low enough to fully align with the ep view? If so, did you manage to resolve it?

[wyx]

Nice review, think im going to get one for my first scope.

Sent from my GT-I8150 using Tapatalk 2

[Cjg]

A little, never managed to get it "dead on", but only out by the smallest of a fraction; enough to get the object centred in the 25mm eyepiece, but the altitude screw was as far as it could have gone - the RDF is not quite up to the same quality as the rest of the scope in that respect.

Chris

[Cjg]

Nice review, think im going to get one for my first scope.

There was a review on here from last year with some superb, really stunning afocal pics of the moon through a Heritage.

Fantastic first scope.

Chris

[ismangil]

Confirms that for a first scope, tripods, eq, and so on just complicates matters...

Perry

[Albenn]

Nice review, think im going to get one for my first scope.

Sent from my GT-I8150 using Tapatalk 2

I honestly don't think you will regret it if you do decide to get one. These are so portable, uncomplicated, easy to use and I think it is a great little product which fits my needs perfectly.

[Albenn]

Confirms that for a first scope, tripods, eq, and so on just complicates matters...

Perry

Agreed. But the beauty of this scope is that I can use it later on as my observing skills/need develop (or my knees give out, whichever is soonest) with an EQ mount and also retain the grab & go functionality on the Dob mount!

[Albenn]

A little, never managed to get it "dead on", but only out by the smallest of a fraction; enough to get the object centred in the 25mm eyepiece, but the altitude screw was as far as it could have gone - the RDF is not quite up to the same quality as the rest of the scope in that respect.

Chris

Thanks for feedback CJG. In your experience, would it be worth getting a replacement RDF and if so, which one would you recommend?

[LukeSkywatcher]

I'm in a wheelchair and i place my Heritage on the ground. This leaves the EP in a good position for me but the RDF is useless to me in this respect.

[Cjg]

Alan,

I didn't replace the RDF - it was good enough for the scope; if you were to replace it, then am sure most folks would suggest a Telrad or Rigel, but at £35?

I did read somewhere of someone making a small shim to go under one end to correct the problem.

If you can get it almost there, then with a dob it's easy.

Chris

[LukeSkywatcher]

I should also have said that as a replacement "method" for my RDF, i use a Wixey (digital guage). I use books to find objects and find out their elevation and then i point the Heritage to the same elevation and simply scan across the sky in a straight line in the direction of desired object until i find it.

Its not perfect but its good enough for me.

[Albenn]

Alan,

I didn't replace the RDF - it was good enough for the scope; if you were to replace it, then am sure most folks would suggest a Telrad or Rigel, but at £35?

I did read somewhere of someone making a small shim to go under one end to correct the problem.

If you can get it almost there, then with a dob it's easy.

Chris

Chris.

I think I'll persevere with the RDF and shim it as the alignment is not a million mile out. I agree that £35 for a Telrad is a little ott given that the RDF is only slightly out. That kind of money could be better spent on other things like a decent x2 Barlow, a moon filter or even another eyepiece.

I may place or even epoxy a little 'U' shape of wire or plastic around the rear section of the dovetail on the scope so that when the RDF clamp is tightened up it will force the back end up a little.

I agree that it's easy to align with the Dob and found that even with the RDF being a little high, that as long as I got the object a little lower than the dot, then it was either in the ep or very near.

[Albenn]

I should also have said that as a replacement "method" for my RDF, i use a Wixey (digital guage). I use books to find objects and find out their elevation and then i point the Heritage to the same elevation and simply scan across the sky in a straight line in the direction of desired object until i find it.

Its not perfect but its good enough for me.

Paul. I'm intrigued! Tell me more - what's a Wixey.?

[LukeSkywatcher]

Alan, a Wixey is a digital angle reader that can be magnetically fitted to any scope that has any amount of metal in the scope construction. As you tilt the scope upwards you get a digital display readout of the angle the scope is tilted at/pointing to:

They are available from FLO and cost about £30.

They ONLY work in the ALT and not in AZ.

Brilliant investment for any Dob owner.

[Bart]

you can also try here, although they seem to be out of stock atm. seems cheaper too.

Digital Angle Gauge with magnetic Base

I love my Wixey............found many, many objects with it that I know I would have spent hours looking for.

You wont know yourself. You will need a program like stellarium or cartes du ciel, or phone app like skysafari to tell you where they are at a particular moment in time but wow, what a difference.

Barry

[peteftm]

The Wixey and my widefield eyepiece has the object in view in seconds

[ismangil]

If you already have an Android smartphone just download SkEye and mount it to the scope.

It has a cool indirect mode, so your dob becomes a push-to.

Perry

[Albenn]

Thanks for the feedback re the Wixey guys. Looks as though it may be worth considering as a future addition to my kit as I get a little more adventurous in my viewing. I quite like the idea of the SkEye but would need to get a smart phone though!

I can see the advantage and simplicity of the Wixey type device and because you have to scan the AZ to find what you are looking for, I can envisage seeing a few nice surprises along the way.

Would I be correct in assuming that the OTA would first have to be horizontally levelled using spirit level?

[Albenn]

Just thought I'd let you know that I have resolved th RDF alignment. I have posted this in my original query in the beginners help and advice section.

[ismangil]

I quite like the idea of the SkEye but would need to get a smart phone though!

Indeed, doesn't make sense unless you already have a smartphone.

On the other hand, it's an additional benefits of buying a smartphone, as I use it heavily for running my business anyway.

Perry