Brand new to all this and wanting help please

[LukeSkywatcher]

I have to agree completely with Brantuk (i seem to do that very often). I have a Heritage 130P (fl=650mm,f5). How he describes objects is exactly how they appear. Pushing the magnification up (2x barlow and a 6mm EP) is just going to be way too much for the scope to deal with. Whatever the sales pitch on the scope says about useful magnification, you can automatically cut that in half because of the weather conditions in this part of the world.

That's the bad news.

The good news is that its a fine scope and will show you plenty of objects that will keep you going for a long time. Objects such as large galaxies will be visible, but they will be small in the EP. That isnt really an issue though because the imagination kicks in and you think about how far away things are, how big they are and how long it took the light to travel through space to arrive in your eye.

Thats the exciting part of it for me.

You can and will upgrade the EP's at a later date. You can get some great ones for between £30-£50 each.

Enjoy the scope. It will impress you.

[bomberbaz]

Thanks again for all the advice fellas, just waiting for the elusive clear skies now and its on with the winter coat and out into my garden. Nice stone patio to set up on and a hot bovril, can't wait.....

[Siriusmeg]

Hi, I have the same scope and have had a great first year with it - it's capable of teasing out a lot of detail on the Moon for example. I did upgrade the finder pretty quickly and that made a massive difference to its ease of use. One issue I have come up against is that there is no collimation marker on the primary mirror so I have to take that out - otherwise I can't collimate it accurately. just building up the nerve to do that

[bomberbaz]

A lot of this is really sinking in now the more i read and study about. I am glad I didn't charge ahead and buy the EP set. Once I have learned to collimate my scope and I am happy with that, I intend as brantuk sugggested sticking with the stock EP's until i get to know the skies a little better and get used to using the scope.

I did buy a telrad which is simply amazing compared to the rubbish it was supplied with. I have also installed solarium and have ordered S&T pocket guide so I think i have plenty to be going on with for a while.

Again thanks for the kind words, you have helped me reign myself in.

[brantuk]

Telrads a very good purchase - they look a bit naff but by golly they work