Heritage 100p first light

[Mr niall]

Bought a heritage 100p this week from @FLO. There’s a funny story behind it involving Jaffa cakes and my lack of careful reading skills but I’ll save myself of the embarrassment of sharing it here...

Anyway, I’d just like to add to the already huge pile of positive reviews of this scope. Having had a couple of Maks, a couple of refractors and a couple of bigger Newts it feels like this little guy seems to perfectly fill the gaps that I couldn’t get with other scopes I’ve owned (including (whisper it!) a 130p flextube)...

It is immaculately built, the tabletop base is as smooth as anything I’ve ever used (and has a built in 3/8 thread for mounting on anything). It can be carried one handed outside and plonked straight on a tripod if required. Focusser is great, very smooth and little to no flop.

First light - I had to adjust the secondary as it was actually quite a bit off but the views are spectacular, the value for money is really something else. Having had a few small scopes I can definitely vouch for the fact there is nothing “budget” or “entry level” about the mirrors or construction. Well... apart from the glued primary which isn’t adjustable but actually - all it really means is even quicker setup and less faff as it’s rock solid and bang on centre.

Using Sirius to set up the RDF I did notice definite diffraction spikes and my first target, M11 was a little disappointing - but I think this was because it was only 9pm and very very low on the horizon. The one thing to be aware of with this scope  is there is indeed definite coma anything outside the middle 60%, but it doesn’t really matter as the wide wide FOV makes it a pleasure anyway.

Things changed considerably when I moved onto the Beehive Cluster. Pow! A blanket of black pinpoint stars with an incredible field of view - was the best view of that cluster I’ve ever had.

Views of the Mars and moon were similarly great, although mars as you can imagine was fairly pointless. The moon was absolutely perfect with the 10mm eyepiece and I saw no deterioration with the x2 Barlow at 80x - no annoying CA to speak of and easy to get tack sharp focus along the terminator.

Anyway, I think it goes to show just how subjective the search for the “right scope” is. The temptation to throw money at a problem is always there, especially in astronomy. It’s nice to find something so amazing quite so inexpensively.

It does widefield, it does planets (just...), lunar too. Enough light grab to hoover up Messiers, enough power to split most doubles, no cool down, easy to setup, weighs nothing, massively transportable, costs very little and has not a single area that I could point at and think “that’s cost saving”. I even like the colour!

Def found my dream scope!

[Stu]

2 minutes ago, Mr niall said:

Bought a heritage 100p this week from @FLO. There’s a funny story behind it involving Jaffa cakes and my lack of careful reading skills but I’ll save myself of the embarrassment of sharing it here...

You ordered this one first perhaps? ??????

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/heritage/heritage-100p-special-jaffa-cake-edition.html

[Stu]

Nice review, these scopes definitely offer excellent performance even compared with more expensive kit. My Heritage 130P gives excellent views.

[Mr niall]

34 minutes ago, Stu said:

You ordered this one first perhaps? ??????

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/heritage/heritage-100p-special-jaffa-cake-edition.html

Maybe... ??

[paul mc c]

Great we scope,took this with mine....only thing negitive is the finder...would really benefit having a right angle finder.

[DavidJM]

You can't say enough good things about this little gem