Sky-Watcher 150PL

[RobertI]

The new scope has arrived....

I have to say it’s a lovely bit of kit. Only a slight dink in the tube but otherwise flawless. Collimation was way off, but as @Lockie told me, it actually was easy to collimate. I set it up on the Skytee 2 and, with the tripod legs mostly collapsed, the eyepiece is at the perfect height, with the slow motion controls (the azimuth with a cable and the altitude with a knob) easily to hand without any stretching - seems very promising from a comfort point of view. The tube does hit the tripod legs (I’ve put padding on the legs to prevent damage to the ota) - I don’t know how annoying this is going to be, I’m expecting to work around it by just picking up the whole thing and moving round to the right areas of sky, this will also ensure the slo mo controls are always in the right position and easily to hand for high power viewing (I bought the scope specifically for doubles). I replaced the 6x30 finder with my Altair Astro 60mm finder to help finding those fainter doubles - this may end up being overkill. My only criticism is the focuser is quite stiff, but is nice and smooth - I can’t complain after the helical focuser of the  Heritage 130P! 

I’ve yet to have first light with it, but I’m planning on posting my experiences with the scope over the next few months in this thread. 

[Stu]

Sounds promising Robert. Perhaps consider a half pillar extension to avoid the legs clashes?

[RobertI]

Just now, Stu said:

Sounds promising Robert. Perhaps consider a half pillar extension to avoid the legs clashes?

Thanks Stu, I have been thinking about that, but I thought it might raise the eyepiece height beyond the perfect position it seems to be for observing when standing - I don’t think the tripod legs will go much lower, 6” of travel left at most. I could break out the platform shoes I guess 😄 A pedestal would work but not very easy to move and store. I guess I’ll have to see how it goes...... 

[Chris]

Cool, congrats Robert. Something like this would be ideal, but er? probably not the cheapest solution:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-mount-accessories/skywatcher-pillar-mount-support-for-heq5-eq6-series-mounts.html

[RobertI]

1 hour ago, Lockie said:

Cool, congrats Robert. Something like this would be ideal, but er? probably not the cheapest solution:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-mount-accessories/skywatcher-pillar-mount-support-for-heq5-eq6-series-mounts.html

I have just been out and measured the tripod height (as set for viewing with the 150PL when standing) and amazingly it is almost exactly the same height as the pillar (90 cms), so the pillar would definitely work for me. I can't honestly see myself buying one of these at the moment though, unless there is a perfect storm of me loving the scope, hating the tripod interference, and a cheap pillar being advertised locally!