So glad I bought a new telescope....

[Dannomiss]

49 minutes ago, Corncrake said:

Yes, that looks like a nice finder 🤣🤣

errr, we are still talking about the finder , , , , are we ? heheee.

 

Well we must dream big - even though this is smaller than than the heritage 150p and infact I think the mirror isn't as good

[John]

3 minutes ago, Dannomiss said:

Well we must dream big - even though this is smaller than than the heritage 150p and infact I think the mirror isn't as good

The 130P mirror will be of the same quality as the 150P. It is the same mirror set that the Heritage 130P uses in fact.

 

 

[Dannomiss]

3 minutes ago, John said:

The 130P mirror will be of the same quality as the 150P. It is the same mirror set that the Heritage 130P uses in fact.

 

 

Well that's good news 😉 

[John]

It might have a finder that can be pointed in the same direction as the scope too !

[Dannomiss]

2 minutes ago, John said:

It might have a finder that can be pointed in the same direction as the scope too !

Exactly 😁 the reason I went for the heritage 150p was due to space and thought it would be perfect as a starter scope. The skywalker explorer maybe too big anyway for storing in our flat 

[Corncrake]

11 minutes ago, Dannomiss said:

 mirror isn't as good

It depends, , ,  what you mean by "good" !  The SW ads always tell how much more light gathering they do compared to the smaller model, never how much less than the bigger brother.

 

 

[Dannomiss]

3 minutes ago, Corncrake said:

It depends, , ,  what you mean by "good" !  The SW ads always tell how much more light gathering they do compared to the smaller model, never how much less than the bigger brother.

 

 

That's true the heritage 150p was 33% more light in than the 130p and I think the explorer is 30% more light than the 114 model 

[Chris]

3 hours ago, Dannomiss said:

If there's a problem with replacement may swap it for this instead... 

I would definitely definitely consider the updated version of this, the Starquest 130p. I have a review for this on my channel and it has some benefits over the old Explorer 130p EQ2. 

[Chris]

5 hours ago, John said:

So what is different in the way that the 2 finders are mounted / adjusted ?. Maybe @Dannomiss does have a faulty unit ?

I know that @Lockie had some issues with the finder on the one that he was loaned for review and I think @JeremyS might have had similar.

Trouble for me is that I'm shooting "blind" on this, not having an example of the scope to hand to play with.

Hi John, I bought the H 150p and the Starquest 102 R with my own money rather than loaned. I was starting to feel a bit guilty loaning scopes to review with such a small Astronomy channel. Maybe once my channel is a little bigger and it's more worth their while

As for the RDF issue, it's definitely more of a problem with the H 150p than any other scope I can remember, but I think the mirror alone is worth 200 quid knowing what I know, so I'm happy to tinker and fettle with a bit of scope experience under my belt.

If I was new to the hobby, and lets face it, this is a beginner scope for many, then I would probably feel more comfortable switching to something that will work with minimal to no tinkering out of the box. 

I'll raise the issue in my next H 150p video in the hope that one day word will get back to Skywatcher. As fantastic value Skywatcher scopes are in Europe, I do feel they may have dropped the ball a tiny weeny bit with this faux pa.  

[JeremyS]

5 hours ago, John said:

So what is different in the way that the 2 finders are mounted / adjusted ?. Maybe @Dannomiss does have a faulty unit ?

I know that @Lockie had some issues with the finder on the one that he was loaned for review and I think @JeremyS might have had similar.

Trouble for me is that I'm shooting "blind" on this, not having an example of the scope to hand to play with.

I have been able to align my RDF with the Heritage 150p. It does take quite a bit of turning the screws, especially the up and down adjustment. And they are quite hard to turn which might not be a bad thing if it also means they are less easy to knock out of adjustment.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, this RDF is a bit different from other ones I’ve used. It’s lens is orange coloured and the dot is a bit big. My Skysurfer III is a bit better in both regards  so I might try that. But even that’s not something I enjoy using. Both have dots that are too bright even at min setting.

I hope your replacement RDF works for you @Dannomiss

[John]

19 minutes ago, Lockie said:

Hi John, I bought the H 150p and the Starquest 102 R with my own money rather than loaned. I was starting to feel a bit guilty loaning scopes to review with such a small Astronomy channel. Maybe once my channel is a little bigger and it's more worth their while

 

Sorry for that misunderstanding Chris and good for you for making that commitment

 

[Dannomiss]

2 hours ago, Lockie said:

6 hours ago, Dannomiss said:

 

I would definitely definitely consider the updated version of this, the Starquest 130p. I have a review for this on my channel and it has some benefits over the old Explorer 130p EQ2. 

You mean this one... https://www.firstlightoptics.com/beginner-telescopes/sky-watcher-starquest-130p-f5-parabolic-newtonian-reflector-telescope.html

[Starwiz]

16 hours ago, Dannomiss said:

does mean i will need to invest in another £30 for a manufacturers fault

Absolutely not.  You are fully covered under the Consumer Rights Act, so the retailer must fix the problem or give you a full refund at no extra cost to yourself.

I'm sure FLO will sort it for you one way or another.

John

[Chris]

10 hours ago, JeremyS said:

I have been able to align my RDF with the Heritage 150p. It does take quite a bit of turning the screws

That's great, Jeremy, I'm not working today so I hope to get a bit of time to tinker with mine. I reached the full adjustment of mine but I reckon I can shim it easy enough  

[JeremyS]

17 minutes ago, Lockie said:

That's great, Jeremy, I'm not working today so I hope to get a bit of time to tinker with mine. I reached the full adjustment of mine but I reckon I can shim it easy enough  

Not sure if any help to you or @Dannomiss, but here are a couple of pics of my RDF in place.

Note that I have it positioned the RDF quite far forward on its base. Otherwise it would hit one of the screws for holding one of the extension rods (another seeming design oversight - it makes the RDF more vulnerable to knocks). I doubt this has any bearing on the RDF's adjustability, but I suppose there is a possibility.

[Chris]

Thanks Jeremy, mine is fixed further back so it won't hurt to try various positions forward and backwards before I break out the shims, thanks : )

[JeremyS]

1 minute ago, Lockie said:

Thanks Jeremy, mine is fixed further back so it won't hurt to try various positions forward and backwards before I break out the shims, thanks : )

Now, that's interesting Chris. If I put my RDF further back than shown in the pic, it hits that screw head that holds the extension rod in place - you can see how close they are in my first pic.

I presume you don't encounter that problem? I wonder if the RDF base in mine is in a very slightly different position from yours. The base is clearly an add-on, so if it is stick on by hand I wonder if it's not always done correctly, resulting in the base beiing misaligned - too misaligned for the RDF mount adjustment to cope with....

 

[Dannomiss]

1 minute ago, JeremyS said:

Now, that's interesting Chris. If I put my RDF further back than shown in the pic, it hits that screw head that holds the extension rod in place - you can see how close they are in my first pic.

I presume you don't encounter that problem? I wonder if the RDF base in mine is in a very slightly different position from yours. The base is clearly an add-on, so if it is stick on by hand I wonder if it's not always done correctly, resulting in the base beiing misaligned - too misaligned for the RDF mount adjustment to cope with....

 

I have the same issue. my RDF hits the extension tube screw too

[Chris]

12 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Now, that's interesting Chris. If I put my RDF further back than shown in the pic, it hits that screw head that holds the extension rod in place - you can see how close they are in my first pic.

I presume you don't encounter that problem? I wonder if the RDF base in mine is in a very slightly different position from yours. The base is clearly an add-on, so if it is stick on by hand I wonder if it's not always done correctly, resulting in the base beiing misaligned - too misaligned for the RDF mount adjustment to cope with....

 

With the tube in the collapsed position it lightly skims the screw when the screw is tightened, but I have the screw loose when the tube is collapsed so it just misses. The bases are probably placed in very similar positions, maybe a little bit of inconsistency.  

[JeremyS]

13 minutes ago, Dannomiss said:

I have the same issue. my RDF hits the extension tube screw too

That's a pain! I wonder what @Lockie will report.

Have you investigated if the RDF base has any slight movement that you can befit from? Mine doesn't. I suspect it's glued on, but I'm a bit reluctant to take the RDF off to investigate given all this hassle. I might do though if I can track down my other marginally better RDF (Skysurfer II)

 

[JeremyS]

Just now, Lockie said:

With the tube in the collapsed position it lightly skims the screw when the screw is tightened, but I have the screw loose when the tube is collapsed so it just misses. The bases are probably placed in very similar positions, maybe a little bit of inconsistency.  

OK thanks Chris. It might be that inconsistency (if it exists) explains why some RDF are difficult to align.

[Chris]

1 minute ago, JeremyS said:

OK thanks Chris. It might be that inconsistency (if it exists) explains why some RDF are difficult to align.

It's my best guess too as there is plenty of adjustment on the actual RDF.

[Chris]

All fixed. Moving the rdf forward made it worse, so I moved it all the way back and voila! The TV Ariel was aligned in both the scope and rdf 👍

It only lightly skims the screw then loose so all sorted. Give it a go Dannomiss

[Dannomiss]

7 minutes ago, Lockie said:

All fixed. Moving the rdf forward made it worse, so I moved it all the way back and voila! The TV Ariel was aligned in both the scope and rdf 👍

It only lightly skims the screw then loose so all sorted. Give it a go Dannomiss

Brilliant Chris. I will give it a go when replacement turns up. Need a repalcement as noticed the front screw doesn't actually tighten and just spins round and round now, so that won't help either. 🙂

[Chris]

Cool, I'm hopeful this will work for you, fingers crossed!