Heritage 130p; Transformation.

[cotterless45]

Wow, mounted on £10 SW eq2 tripod, the finder is at eye level at the zenith. No more dancing around the picnic table. Pick up and move around the garden is easy.

I put a stuff bag from Poundland on the truss as a light shroud, with careful cutting and enough looseness it'll compact down. The difference is amazing, no more fogging up the 2ndry reaching across to peer down the RDF. No more glare from urban light sources entering the truss. The background was much darker .A crafty person could sew elastic into each end to hold in place, I use sticky back tape.

With a 25mm plossl I found all the dso's currently up.An 11mm Vixen plossl then gave super close ups of M31, M27,M57, M13, Albireo and double in Polaris.The Owl cluster in Cass. was clear and beautiful.

For an amazing wide angle view, I put in the Skywatcher 15mm Panorama. This has an 82 degree fov.

Nearly blew my socks off. It's a Major Tom experience.The view is clear across the fov , with very little coma to the edges.

The tube is 650mm long, so this gives you x43 with 82 degrees, Cosmic.Both Bode's were clear and 3/4 in the middle of the fov.

Going through Cygnus was like looking out of a spaceship window, then onto the clusters of rising Cassiopeia.

I don't know why this works so well, no good with eye relief , just take the specs off and lose them.

I love this set up for it's grab and go and the more than excellent results that it gives.

[TractionMan]

Really nice modding of the Heritage! I need to move around in the garden quite a bit during the night as well and it's not easy to find a level spot for the table sometimes.

[Starhoparfa]

This looks good. Where did you get the tripod from and how does it fit to the Dob base? Will an ordinary camera tripod do?

[MarkMayf]

I think it would have to be a beefy/good quality camera tripod to support the weight of the dob (6kg ish) and be stable.

[cotterless45]

It's an EQ2 from fleabay with a home made hardwood ring to support the Dob base and a longer az bolt replaces the standard. The base then is secured onto the head of the tripod , which would normally take an eq or alt az mount.

I don't think camera tripod would support. I have seen others mount the 130 onto an eq using tube rings.

It's bodger upgrade time!!

Nick.

[MarkMayf]

Here is my attempt at a shroud:

Not brilliant, and the velcro keeps falling off but the difference is massive.

[MAN or ASTROMAN]

Jobs a good 'un! When I was looking for a scope I considered the Dob version,but as you can see from my signature,I went for the Eq2 mounted job,as I thought that the Dob mount could be a bit awkward,requiring even more contortions than a GEM (!). However,I currently believe that if I choose to upgrade,then my next scope will probably be a 200mm Dob-unless I change my mind of course.

[kevrees]

That looks great and its my kind of mod, cheap and it works

[Jeffro]

I know this is an old thread, but I have 130p and would like to do the mod above. I have an old wooden tripod that will take the weight and has a flat top surface with hole in centre. But I'm still unsure or how above scope has been attached. The hole in my tripod is bigger than the bolt, so guess I need some large washers. But how do you stop the triangle put of the dob from turning, when you use the dob, is there another piece of wooden between dob base and tripod, that the original feet sit on. Thanks

[Stargazer_00]

great adpatation. dob-pod!

the pleasure of using this size newt on a alt az is just immense. I switched my grab and go from a ST120 to an explorer 150p recently on an AZ4 and it's just so comfortable to use alt az on a newt at the correct height for your eye, isnt it? This is going to be my grab and go set up for life I feel. the scope itself may change but the concept wont.