Skywatcher Heritage 130p Flextube

[devdusty]

I am interested in buying the above mentioned telescope, as it appears to have 5 star reviews all the time. A couple of questions .As I live in a light polluted area and the telescope has an open tube surely stray light will affect the view. Also presumably you need to have a solid garden table to mount it on ,to ensure its stability.

Any comments or advice would be welcome.

Chris P

[Demonperformer]

You can either buy or make a light shield (black yoga mat wrapped round the tube?) Anything you put it on will need to be very stable, as to the height, I would wait until you get the scope and see what you will need as a decent observing height. Getting a foldup chair and observing sitting down may be a decent option, depending on your circumstances.

[devdusty]

Thanks for your reply Demonperformer. Does any member of the forum use a Skywatcher  Heritage 130 p flexitude.? Is it as good as the 5 star ratings promise.?

look forward to any comments. Thanks . 

Chris P

[Helen]

It is a really nice little scope 🙂  I've got one which is on loan to a friend's son and we've had a lot of fun with it.  It can be tweaked to improve performance (eg the light shroud, and some plumber's tape on the helical focuser just to remove a little slop), but for the money it is really good!  @Mark at Beaufort uses his tube on a different mount too.

Helen

[Alan64]

The AWB "OneSky" is the same kit, made by Synta.  There is this long-running thread within Cloudy Nights...

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/463109-onesky-newtonian-astronomers-without-borders/

It has a great following.  At that price-point, you can't go wrong.  But as with all entry-level kits, and advanced ones as well, there are pros and cons.

But ignore that, as 130mm of aperture is a wonderful thing, and the telescope's 650mm focal-length will enable you observe the gamut, everything in the sky that the aperture will allow; with the aid of 2x and 3x barlows.  Collimation is not all that difficult at f/5.  I have a 150mm f/5, and it hasn't been too difficult.  Then, there's its compact size, ready to go at a moment's notice.  It has a stalk-type secondary rather than a spider-type, and I've found that to be preferable whilst observing with  my 114mm f/8...

It's nigh near a modern Cassegrain's configuration in that.

The main complaint of the AWB "OneSky" is the helical-focusser, and that of the "Heritage" in consequence, but it's not inside the tube, and can be adjusted with a bit of DIY.

The tube is removable, and can be placed on a tripod-type mount in future, for improved control.

[Mark at Beaufort]

Hello Chris - as Helen mentioned I have the Heritage 130P which I use as a quick grab and go but also I take it to outreach events with my Astro Society.

I have made a few changes to the scope which you can see on the photos. I have changed the secondary screws to 'Bob Knobs'. I have drilled the main OTA to fit a dovetail so I can use a 9x50 finderscope. Finally, I made a shroud out of neoprene which is secured by velcro.

The two photos show it fitted on various mounts - a Skywatcher AZ5 and a standard photo tripod with a geared head for travel.

[Ignoro]

I bought the Heritage last summer as a complete beginner and I still didn't buy anything bigger, although I'm a bit tempted to do so. It's a great and portable scope and you can see stuff with it. The moon, planets and clusters look great, nebulas and galaxies are a bit fainter but still fun. If you find really dark skies probably they're less faint... 

I enjoy manual tracking and star hopping with a red dot finder, but for that you need dark skies, if you want to observe from a light polluted location then you're limited to planets and the Moon.

The good thing about the scope is that it's very light, cheap, good optics (I'm no expert but they seem good), for storage I keep it in my not very big apartment and it actually looks nice on a shelf. 

The focuser is not very good, you can focus with it on small mag, but on bigger mag I find it very difficult... I've added some grease so it's better, but still...

If storage is not an issue you can get a full tube scope of same aperture which should have similar weight but it's larger as it's not foldable, but should have a better focuser...Also I'd like to have a sun filter which doesn't seem to be a good idea with an open tube...

As for the mount I use dome aluminum ladder and an improvised wooden box, it's actually very stable. Sometimes I use just the wooden box and sit on a small stool, that's also comfortable...

So whatever you buy it should be fun...

 

 

 

Edited May 22, 2019 by Ignoro

[Skipper Billy]

10 minutes ago, Ignoro said:

The focuser is not very good, you can focus with it on small mag, but on bigger mag I find it very difficult... I've added some grease so it's better, but still...

I agree with all you say - cracking scope for the money and probably my most used scope.

BUT !!

I would carefully get rid of all the grease you have added - if it gets onto your eyepieces it will be a proper issue.

Remove it and put a few turns of PTFE plumbers tape around the threads - it will take up the slack and provide a nice positive but smooth result and without any fear of damaging anything.

Enjoy it !!!

 

[Ignoro]

3 hours ago, Skipper Billy said:

I agree with all you say - cracking scope for the money and probably my most used scope.

BUT !!

I would carefully get rid of all the grease you have added - if it gets onto your eyepieces it will be a proper issue.

Remove it and put a few turns of PTFE plumbers tape around the threads - it will take up the slack and provide a nice positive but smooth result and without any fear of damaging anything.

Enjoy it !!!

 

It's not real grease but some graphite grease which I use for my guitar nut and you're right I should be careful ... I think I'll listen to you and try with the plumbers tape...

Thanks

[happy-kat]

I use mine with it on an upturned bucket and I am sat on garden chair or it is just on the floor.

 

[devdusty]

Thanks for all your replies and comments. Great photo of your telescope Mark.

Unfortunately I have no practical skills so would not be able to make any adjustments as mentioned. Also  I doubt that I would be able to collimate it if necessary. I have a bortle 8 sky so what could I expect to see through it apart from the moon and bright planets.  I would like to see some of the colourful doubles in the night sky , but I can,t even see Albireo at mag 3.1 with the naked eye.! So presumably  deep sky objects are out of the question.

Chris P

[jetstream]

2 hours ago, devdusty said:

Also  I doubt that I would be able to collimate it if necessary.

This is super easy with a refractor collimating eyepiece- it takes seconds. You might want to consider a goto mount under those skies as it will put you right on the doubles. Our H130 shows color stars nicely. Another option would be star hopping with a finder scope but mounting one on the H130 would be difficult.

[devdusty]

Thanks for your advice Jetstream. Unfortunately a Go To mount is way beyond my budget. The SW heritage 130 P is just about within my means.

I note your comment about collimation. I did have a 90 mm   SW  refractory but never successfully lined up the finder with the telescope.

Chris P

[LukeSkywatcher]

I bought one about 10 yrs ago when they were new on the market. The Heritage 130P is Indeed one little powerful scope. 

The only negative thing I have ever read about it (and agree) is that the focusing mechanism where you put the eyepiece in is not great. Not anything to worry about and wouldn't deter me from buying.

Don't worry about collimation. Chances are you will just need to check it when its shipped and may never have to do it again. Mine was perfect when it arrived in Ireland from the UK, and I've never had to collimate it since.

 

Edited May 28, 2019 by LukeSkywatcher

[devdusty]

Thanks for your reply LukeSkywatcher. I notice that problems with collimation  crop up frequently on the forum.

Also the Heritage 130P has a Red Dot finder which will be of limited use in my light polluted skies.

Chris P

[jetstream]

On 25/05/2019 at 17:50, devdusty said:

Thanks for your advice Jetstream. Unfortunately a Go To mount is way beyond my budget. The SW heritage 130 P is just about within my means.

I note your comment about collimation. I did have a 90 mm   SW  refractory but never successfully lined up the finder with the telescope.

Chris P

This telescope gives a nice 2.4 deg true field of view and this is enough to star hop, the screw focuser always works, down to -40c and I like its simplicity.

 

4 hours ago, devdusty said:

I notice that problems with collimation  crop up frequently on the forum.

Not so much with the H130- I own some serious collimation tools- Catseye autocollimator included ( and can make it work) as well as Glatters laser equipment. Our H130 secondary has never needed collimation and the primary is never off much. It takes seconds with my cheap SW refractor collimatiing eyepiece. Using this tool the H130  supports 270x on the moon with a Vixen 2.4mm HR...

These are great scopes.

[CraigT82]

5 hours ago, jetstream said:

These are great scopes.

From someone with a 24" dob and a 5" Tak... this is no faint praise.

The heritage 130 was the first scope I bought and is the only one that's stayed with me. So far its seen off a C8, a 127 mak and a Tal100rs. Outperformed them all!  (To be fair I think the C8 wasn't the best example)

[devdusty]

Thanks for all your advice and comments. Will have to give this some thought over the next few days.

Chris P

[happy-kat]

The more you sit and observe the more your eye and brain learn to see. Could wear a hood or towel to maximise keeping light or of your eyes.