Heritage 130p Arrived!

[AstroRecord]

Guys, the telescope I ordered last week arrived today!

I could CLEARLY see that those UPS guys can't handle fragile material...    Damaged box and both the collimation eyepiece and red dot finder were just laying there with their boxes opened (from rough handling I bet).

Once the telescope was out I gazed at it for a couple minutes (what a beautiful piece of equipment ).

During the day I aligned the red dot finder using a buildings antenna about 1 km away and then spent a couple hours reading about collimation before actually trying it.

After dinner, I decided to get to work and check collimation which I knew was off due to the perilous trip it had..

Bingo, it was off. Checked using the collimation eyepiece that I also ordered:

According to what I had read and what I saw(as shown), both the primary and secondary were out of allignment.

I thought that collimating the telescope would be hard but it turned out pretty easy, not even 20 min.. Took me longer to find the Allen key. Hehehe:

You can't see very well due to the bad camera quality my smartphone has, but through the collimation eyepiece I can see the three things that hold the primary mirror, the secondary is a circle and the center mark on the primary is almost on the cross intersection of the eyepiece.

I need your opinions about my collimation:

-Is it enought for good views?

-What can I improve? (Collimation wise)

Anyway, I don't think its that bad for a first time.

I couldn't test the telescope. Last night clear skies, today, dark clouds...

Same thing happened when I got my binocular...

Oh well..      

Thanks for reading this Mates!

Once I test my telescope, I will share my first light. 

To finish, I found the perfect place to store it hehehe. Goes well with the furniture I guess:

[ghostdance]

Congratulations!

I'm not too sure of your collimation but it is a marked improvement on how it looked. I'm no expert so I'll leave suggestions to those much more experienced than me...

Nice place for the scope, but just two things: dust! And keep your cologne spraying *well* away from your optics!

Hope you have many fulfilling nights out with the scope

[AstroRecord]

Thanks mate. 

And thanks for the cologne advice also. I bet I wouldn't remember that...

I'm currently so anxious to try this baby.. Oh clouds, why...

BTW, I also have an eyepiece which I ordered together with the telescope which IMO is better then the ones that came with it. A Skywatcher 6mm UWA planetary eyepiece. Is it possible to see the GRS on Jupiter with it?

[ghostdance]

With good conditions, a 6mm Radian/8mm TV plossl/9mm orthoscopic (without my notes at hand I forget which) in my 6" f5, I could make out the GRS. My London skies are pretty poor tho, lots of turbulence which seems to have more effect than light pollution (Jupiter's very bright, so easier to see than dim DSO's).

Remember with the dust and sprays, stuff will get in around your primary mirror...when not in its case, I use a shower cap over the bottom end of my scope.

[scuffer]

I wouldn't keep it near any hair sprays or any thing like that , I recently got one but have only tried it the once , I was impressed with the views against my 200p - on Jupiter they were nearly as good , on that night night none of the scopes had the bands clear enough to see the grs though so time will tell on that one. I was using my 6 mm that night. I also live in a city so if your somewhere with less pollution the views will be clearer.

[DRT]

I owned one of these a couple of years ago and it gave me a great introduction to astronomy.

Your 6mm eyepiece should work well with it but from memory I think that is approaching the maximum practical magnification of the scope if you have any light pollution to deal with. I had good quality 4mm, 5mm and 7mm EPs at the time and couldn't use the 4mm at all. The 5mm went in on very clear and very dark nights but the 7mm was useable most of the time.

You should be able to see the GRS but be prepared to sit out for a long time to allow your eyes to adjust properly. There is a great iPhone App from Sky & Telescope called Jupiter's Moons which allows you to see when the GRS will be on the front of the disk. It also allows you to predict moon transits/shadows so that you have something interesting to look out for.

The 130P is also great for the Orion Nebula and especially for the Moon, which is stunning and a good first target to aim at because it is so easy to find

Best of luck.

Derek

[AstroRecord]

Thanks guys for the advices!

Now I just need clear skies which according to the weather website won't happen until next wednesday   

[Pondus]

Congratulations with your new telescope  .

Got the same scope, and still use it alot even though I got a bigger scope aswell.

From my novice point of view: the collimation looks fine.

Regarding magnification :

I can easily go up to 180x observing the moon (have to do some nudging every minute)

But on Jupiter I usually end up with 100-120x.

The only eyepiece I use is the Baader Hyperion Zoom with 2.25 barlow, and this little scope handles it well.

Rune

Ps

My scope was also in miserable shape when I got it.

Had to physically bend the secondary mirror holder (the single 'arm') quite alot to get it into the shape its meant to be.

[happy-kat]

Don't forget to download stellarium great piece of software.

[bingevader]

Congratulations!

It looks like you've made a great improvement in the collimation.

I don't know how accurate the photo is, but where as there might be a slight off-set in an f5 'scope of the central large black circle, the white circle inside that, the small back polo and the small black dot, should all be right in the very centre over the cross hairs.

You certainly aren't far off and you'd definitely be able to see objects through the 'scope as it is.

[Hootsitabernacle]

Ah now surely you should know that with every telescope purchase comes a free bank of dark clouds for the next two weeks!