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Skywatcher Heritage 130p


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Good evening all,

I've spent a year with a Celestron travel scope http://www.celestron.com/astronomy/celestron-travel-scope-70.html and enjoyed a good few sights with it, learning the sky and managing a few sights like Saturn (tiny), Jupiter's moons and our own moon. Now I'm looking for  small upgrade, keeping simplicity and costs relatively low.

After a few weeks reading around various sites, mostly here as the advice is great, it would appear that a sensible upgrade would be the Skywatcher Heritage 130p Flextube.

Would this offer a noticable difference? I mostly look at planets and the moon. In Glasgow the light pollution is bad but being able to transport it to darker skies not a far drive with little set up time is the biggest draw for me.

Thanks in advance for any help,

Iain

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Ian,

I have the Heritage 130p. It is a great scope and gives really clear views but I found that I had to upgrade to some good quality eyepieces to get the most out of it.

I don't know your current scope but can say that the 130p seems to have a great reputation which is bourne out by my own experience of owning it.

Be prepared to spend a few quid on some eyepieces and I am sure you will be happy.

Derek

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If I said could you stretch to a 150P dobsonian would you be upset?

As you have a car I think it would be a better investment at the end of the day.

Also the 130P may itself be smaller but I think you need a table or elevated platform of some sort to put it on, so for transport that would be a necessary part of the equipment to transport.

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Thanks for that Derek. I have a few eyepieces donated from family who no longer use them (their scope has been long sold) so I'm lucky in that respect and have something to start with. The scope I have now is far too wobbly to do them justice.

Thanks Ronin, not at all upset, I decided to try and aim for the 130 becasue I'd hoped to be moving later in the year, I'd set asside some pennies to play with and was hoping to not go too far over. With the weather, travelling out to the darker skies is a rare occurence!

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I own both the Celestron 70 travel scope and the Heritage 130P.

The Travel scope does exactly what it says it does (casual observing). Its a cheap wide field scope (moon,clusters etc). The Heritage 130P is a more serious scope. The difference is huge.

If you are thinking of buying the Heritage.......................i say "do it". It punches above its size.

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No bother, I'm told it's spelled the Gaelic way...

I have a table in the garden and a decent camping chair to sit with.

The biggest worry was would there be anough of a difference to appretiate between my scope just now and the 130 or go for something bigger, I appretiate the pointers!

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Iain, (sorry for missing the second i frst time!)

I don't disagree with ronin that the 150p would be a good choice but if you are constrained by budget then you can solve the problem of having an elevated platform for the 130p for £10 with two of these: http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/20011413/

I simply have to laugh at the notion that the Heritage needs to be placed on a raised platform. I am in a wheelchair and have owned a Heritage since 2009. I can easily use it  from my seated position. My wheelchair is the same height as a standard kitchen/camping chair.

Yes if you want to stand while observing...............a raided platform is needed, but observing while seated is much better.

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Yeah, exactly what I wanted to know. I still feel I'm finding my feet in this hobby after a good first year and I think the 130 will do for many years to come. Thanks for the suggestions about the 150 though, really appretiate them!

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Yeah, exactly what I wanted to know. I still feel I'm finding my feet in this hobby after a good first year and I think the 130 will do for many years to come. Thanks for the suggestions about the 150 though, really appretiate them!

If you want to take images,the Heritage is not the scope for you. You would do better buying the Explorer 130P...........on an equatorial mount.

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I simply have to laugh at the notion that the Heritage needs to be placed on a raised platform. I am in a wheelchair and have owned a Heritage since 2009. I can easily use it  from my seated position. My wheelchair is the same height as a standard kitchen/camping chair.

Yes if you want to stand while observing...............a raided platform is needed, but observing while seated is much better.

Touché :smiley:

I mostly struggle to use my 130p at seat height due to the high trees around my garden. I am lucky enough to be bale to go for stand-up observing, but admit that sitting down is much preferred :wink:

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Pretty much decided on it, seems like a reasonable step up for someone still relatively new. I've heard good things about First Light Optics so will place an order with them soon. Thanks agan everyone!

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Hi Iain, did you order the Heritage? I'm in a quandary on wether to just get some plossil EPs for my old Tasco Luminova to keep me going for a while, or wether to just bite the bullet and get the Heritage Flextube.

What size aperture is the current scope you have ? If it is 60 or 70 mm then I'd certainly recomend upgrading the telescope first. Light grasp is a big factor as you probably know.
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What size aperture is the current scope you have ? If it is 60 or 70 mm then I'd certainly recomend upgrading the telescope first. Light grasp is a big factor as you probably know.

It's 450mm so not a bit upgrade to the 500mm Heritage. Been discussing it on another thread but I reckon I'm just going to get a new EP or 2 just now and wait a bit before upgrading my scope. Save the cash and maybe make a bigger jump to the 150p dob instead.

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It's 450mm so not a bit upgrade to the 500mm Heritage. Been discussing it on another thread but I reckon I'm just going to get a new EP or 2 just now and wait a bit before upgrading my scope. Save the cash and maybe make a bigger jump to the 150p dob instead.

you mean 4.5 inch not 450mm I take it ?  well Im not mega experienced like some on the forums, but its not really worth it for such a small jump in aperture.

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Yes, sorry, 4.5"

well I think youll be surprised what a difference a step up in glass will do . the stock lenses you have with letter (h) hugens design . they are not really up to standard of modern eyepieces. the (sr) is a ramsden  I think , again not much good.

 you will get a big improvement on those by even getting a nice plossl second hand ,like  meade 4000 ,or vixen npl .

 I take it your tasco  uses 1.25"  .

 be interesting to hear your findings ,good luck.

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