Skywatcher Heritage130P FlexTube Dobsonian Telescope

[knighthawk2001]

Hi, I'm Stephen & new to astronomy although have wanted to take this up for many years.

I was advised that the above telescope was a good starting point for beginners.

I know it's a bit late to ask as I've already ordered one, but what I would like to know has anybody used one and if so have I made a good/bad choice?

Any advice will be helpful

Many thanks stephen

[DRT]

Hi Stephen,

Welcome to SGL

I started with the same telescope and can highly recommend it as a good beginner's scope. The focuser can be a little tricky to get used to as it suffers from what is known as "slop", meaning the eyepiece will move slightly once you let go of it so it can be a challenge to get it into sharp focus. Don't worry too much about that as a little practice will sort it out for you.

This scope is good for viewing the Moon and planets. Once you get used to using it you might want to upgrade or expand your collection of eyepieces to get more magnification, wider field of view, sharper images, etc. My advice would be to not do that. Once you feel the urge to be seeing more it would be better (and ultimately much cheaper) to upgrade your scope before spending lots of money on eyepieces

Best of luck.

Derek

[VigdisVZ]

It's offers great value for the money, but as a fully manual telescope it takes a bit of getting used to navigate with it. However, once you're used to a dobsonian, you can easily upgrade to the larger models with great ease.

If you're just starting out I'll recommend the book "Turn Left At Orion" as a good guide to what objects to chase down with your new little dobsonian.  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Turn-Left-Orion-Hundreds-Telescope/dp/0521153972/ref=dp_ob_title_bk 

[happy-kat]

Hi

Stellarium great software and free to download.

I have this telescope.

Wrap a little plumbers take around the focus thread it takes up any slop.

If lots of local street lights you may want to make a shroud for it I made mine from kite material others used card board or hobbiest foam, cheap to do if needed.

I disagree with eyepiece they make a big difference and any bought go with you with new telescopes where the 1.25 former is shared.

My 16mm maxvision works brilliantly. Would need to look second hand mid priced eyepiece. Not sure any left new.

My GSO 32mm gives the widest field of view this telescope can do. Cheap eyepiece.

[Digger1895]

This is a brilliant scope to start to start off with and is not just good at the moon and planets, it's great at DSOs too, and its 'rich field' terrific on open clusters.

I'm with happy kat, get some decent eyepieces makes a big difference. The GSO 32mm to help locate stuff and the GSO Superview 68 degree SV15 and SV20mm are good cheap eyepieces. Then pick up a planetary EP and you're laughing.

[NGC 1502]

Hi, I'm Stephen & new to astronomy although have wanted to take this up for many years.

I was advised that the above telescope was a good starting point for beginners.

I know it's a bit late to ask as I've already ordered one, but what I would like to know has anybody used one and if so have I made a good/bad choice?

Any advice will be helpful

Many thanks stephen

Hi Stephen, welcome to SGL.

Please be assured you have made a very good choice.

A senior member of my local astronomy club has a Heritage 130 and loves it, so its not just for beginners.

He bought it because he was fed up with his "way too much hassle" go-to telescope, he wanted an easily portable telescope with fast set up.

If I could mention the only problem I see, its that the scope needs a solid small table, or other means of making it high enough for

comfortable viewing.

Hope you get loads of great viewing, Ed.

[happy-kat]

An upturned bucket is what I use and sit on a garden chair or camping stool

[AstroJon]

I too have this telescope and I also highly recommend it.

Although the slop issue has been mentioned I find it is not too bad at all and most of the time I am not really aware of it. If it is a problem it is a cheap and simple fix.

The 25mm eyepiece that comes with the scope is actually not bad at all. The 10mm is not great though so if you do want to get eyepieces something in the 5-8mm range and something to replace the 10mm are good options. I have a 5mm BST which works well and has given some really nice views of Jupiter and the moon. I also definitely second the MV recommendations, I have the 16mm and 24mm and as stated above, they are fantastic for clusters.

[DRT]

I bought a very sturdy little table from Ikea for £5 when I had my 130P and it worked very well.

I seem to be outvoted on the eyepiece issue

...so to explain - I bought the 130P new and very quickly got onto SGL asking about eyepieces. three months and about £300 later I had an almost full set of Celestron X-cel eyepieces, which worked very well with my 130P. I then decided to buy a bigger scope and very  soon afterwards decided that I wanted a wider field of view that the Celestrons provided. About a thousand pounds later I had a good set of Televue Nagler/Ethos eyepieces, having sold all of my Celestrons. I have since bought and sold a set of Televue Plossls and bought a set of Explore Scientific wide angled eyepieces. I have also bought five more telescopes, two of which have since been sold.

So, my advice is to not rush into buying things until you know what you want from a telescope. Also, as some very experienced people here have often mentioned, buying another telescope to change what you see is often cheaper thanbuying more eyepieces.

Derek

[Digger1895]

Hey Derek, as for me I wasnt talking about a set of or even one top of the range EPs. I just meant 2 or 3 or 4 budget ones that are still good enough to give a much improved view with little cost, eg The Superviews can be bought here for $39 which equates to around 20/21 quid (I don't know the UK price or even if they are readily available there).

Because I got such a great view it meant that I didn't feel the need to rush out and get a bigger/better scope, although of course I would 'want' one.

[LukeSkywatcher]

As everyone has said, its a great scope. Apart from a slightly stiff focuser, i have had no issues with mine. A good range of eyepieces that work very well with it are Vixen NPL's which sell for between £30-40 each. The 32mm GSO is a great sky scanning EP. With this scope you will have fantastic views of the moon and the inner planets look pretty great also. DSO's are visible, but can and do look tiny.......depending on their actual size.

Good luck with the scope.

[happy-kat]

Once I have finally finished fettling mine and made the most of it I may then consider a new scope, but I like to absolutely exhaust what I have before then so I won't hold my breath

[NGC 1502]

Once I have finally finished fettling mine and made the most of it I may then consider a new scope, but I like to absolutely exhaust what I have before then so I won't hold my breath

 

Very few of us (including myself) have exhausted the possibilities of what a 130mm reflector will show to a patient observer.

I'm convinced that a Heritage 130 could give many years of great observing. If I had one, I'd probably sort out some sort of shroud to exclude stray light, and I'd want to upgrade the stock eyepieces, although the supplied ones will get you going for quite a while.

I wish something similar had been available when I started out.

Regards, Ed.

[happy-kat]

I have made a shroud.

The 25mm is fine to use, even the 10mm let us see Saturn with a defined seperate ring, not the division, so they are useable but I can't wait to try again but with my new 6mm WO SPL which works brill on the Moon.

[Charic]

'slop'......'beginners scope'........needing better eyepieces'?

Knighthawk2001......hi there, welcome to SGL.  Not really what you want to hear after buying a new telescope? But this is often the case. If all this puts you off, and you have ordered online, you still have 14 days to return the goods. If you have ordered from a High street store, it can only go back if its broke!

The telescope in question is a celebratory designed model to celebrate the Year of Astronomy for 2009 and to celebrate the anniversary of Galileo's telescope! Now galileo may have been down his local  having an ale or two, chatting about using some old mirrors he had lying around his office, but the telescope is clearly a Newtonian designed unit.

The telescope gets good reviews, but all telescopes have their limitations performance wise due to their design quality and materials used, and the conditions you are observing from? 

Despite the video stating......."terrific light gathering power - powerhouse? " you will more often than not, achieve these parameters with the next size up. "Bigger Aperture" is often quoted, as a must requirement for seeing fainter targets under the right conditions. Please note that the telescope , although designed for table top use, will work better from the Garden table, not the bedside table from within a warm bedroom and the open window? You'll need to be outside to get the better results.

Copy paste the link ?

Enjoy your new telescope.

( www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEs_MMcJ7JA )

[Digger1895]

Chaotic you're always going to get that argument "wish I'd got the 6"", wish id got the 8" over the 6"." "Wish I'd got the 10" instead of the 8". But in reality you have to start somewhere, the 5.1" is plenty and I bet there are plenty saying "I wish I'd got the 5" instead of the....."

I made a shroud out of a 3mm thick yoga mat that was hanging around. I'm not very good at this sort of thing and it's blue so looks kind of dodgy but it has got rid of stray light that was coming in on my 4mm Skywatcher UWA.

I did mount mine on an EQ5 for a while, and this held it rock steady but put the EP in some really awkward position especially since I was on our 3rd floor balcony. But because it was so steady I got some really good shots of the moon and Jupiter holding the camera to the EP.

[Digger1895]

Sorry that is not my picture of Saturn!! I picked the wrong one when using this iPad, below is the correct one:

[Digger1895]

And post #16 should say the Moon and Saturn, not moon and Jupiter...phew, I have only been awake for 15 mins

[AndyWB]

As everyone has said, its a great scope. Apart from a slightly stiff focuser, i have had no issues with mine. A good range of eyepieces that work very well with it are Vixen NPL's which sell for between £30-40 each. 

I agree with Paul, a couple of cheaper-end eypieces won't go amiss, and the NPL recommendation is good. I reckon the Vixen NPL 30mm is my most used eyepiece with my 130p. I'd also recommend something like a 5mm BST Starguider. This will give you a nice 'low power/high power' range. I don't think 'buy another scope' is necessarily the only valid route to upgrade, and having bought a much bigger scope, it's worth noting that there are things the 130p can do that it can't. In particular, the field of view on the 130p can be fairly wide. The Pleiades and the Andromeda galaxy can look better in this than my 10" scope, which simply can't fit them in the field of view.

The weakness of this scope (and they all have at least one!) is the focusser. Some are a bit stiff, others a bit sloppy. It's made of formed plastic, so it's all about how well they really fit. However, a bit of teflon based plumbers tape on the focusser thread seems to help them greatly (if it's a problem. Mine wasn't, but a friend's was a bit sloppy)

As to the scope's capability? Well, under dark skies you should be able to see all the items on the Messier catalog; I've clocked up 70-odd objects on it with mine. Yes, bigger scopes will show you more. Yes, better eyepieces will show you more. Don't worry about that - it's an excellent scope for the price, and a good way of seeing where your astronomy interests lie. They are quite a popular scope round here.

My 130p still sees more nights out than my 250px, just 'cos of it's portability. 

[happy-kat]

A grey smudge is a grey smudge however big it is.

It is knowing you found something and that it is so old, so big, so far away and looks like that glorious hubble image.

It's the story you paint over on what you found that fills in what you can't define in detail.