First light with Heritage 150p

[Stu]

I’m beginning to wonder why I have all this lovely, and expensive kit! Since they were launched, I was sure I would buy a Heritage 150p, and sure enough, one turned up on my doorstep today and I’m very impressed with it after having first light tonight.

I was a little concerned when I checked it out after it had arrived as a hole had been punched right through the outer and inner boxes, but fortunately there was no damage to the scope.

I never intended to use it on the dob Mount, so have popped it straight on to my Ercole and Gitzo. I did the plumber’s tape mod on the focuser this afternoon and it is now smooth and with just the right amount of resistance, no wobble. I will make a shroud for it once I get hold of some hobby foam.

I fitted the RDF which is a relatively cheap, plastic affair but which works very well and was easy to fit and align.

So, to the observing. I haven’t troubled the standard eyepieces yet, although it would be interesting to see how they perform. I used a 24mm Panoptic as a finder/low power giving x32 Mag and a 2.2 degree field of view. My Nag zoom was the high power giving x125 to x250. A quick star test showed the collimation to be slightly off, a quick tweak of the primary nailed that pretty easily though.

First up was Jupiter. GRS visible easily straight away, along with plenty of detail in the bands. Most impressive I must say, an excellent view. Light scatter seemed very well controlled, diffraction spikes were not intrusive, or really noticeable, and as said, the detail visible was well beyond just the two equatorial bands.

Saturn next, nice again although the Cassini division was not really showing, just the variation in brightness of the different ring sections and some surface banding.

I was hoping for some lunar views, but it was unfortunately hiding behind some trees and although I could get a clear view with my eye, it was not possible to get the scope on it.

I then skipped around various familiar targets to see how I got on.

M13, good view, stars resolving quite deep into the core, helped by averted vision. Under a darker sky I reckon the propeller would show up as there were strong hints even with the Moon lighting things up.

M92, significantly smaller and less detail visible, at least I found it! It has been known for me to fail miserably on this one!

M57, lovely oval ring shape with gently lit centre.

NGC457, an old favourite, easy target but well shown.

Epsilon Lyra, the Double Double. I hoped this would be good given my experience with the 130p and I wasn’t disappointed. It split at the 6mm setting, but at higher settings the view was very nice indeed. Lovely bullseye stars with a single diffraction ring and clear dark separation. A promising sign!

Iota Cass, beautiful triple! Resolved cleanly at around x150 I guess, with really clean star shapes.

Delta Cygni needed a bit more power, but again was split very cleanly and clearly, the fainter secondary pin sharp.

Pi Aquilae, easy innit! Showed as two unequal bullseyes, clean split.

Albireo, nuff said, beautiful colours.

Polaris was easy, pin point secondary again, and well controlled primary.

Finally I thought I would try Zeta Herc, which had been my nemesis for years and only relatively recently in a few scopes, namely the Mewlon, 8” f8 and also my Tak and Vixen 4” scopes. Familiarity really helps here and I’m sure I may have been seeing it before, but just didn’t know what I was looking at. Ramping up the power and with careful focusing I got it! A brightening on the first diffraction ring, consistently in the right place and resolving into a star every now and then with the better seeing. Checking the position in SkySafari showed it in exactly the same position, so a definite split for me.

Last target was Mars, as it had become visible in a decent gap in the cloud. The polar cap was clear, as were some dark markings. x200 worked in well giving a decent image scale and maintaining quality.

That’s all for now, I will write up something more later about the scope itself, likely after the  weekend as I suspect there will be plenty of others interested in buying these I guess. This is an excellent piece of kit; great value but also optically very capable and rewarding to use.

[jetstream]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

I’m beginning to wonder why I have all this lovely, and expensive kit! Since they were launched, I was sure I would buy a Heritage 150p, and sure enough, one turned up on my doorstep today and I’m very impressed with it after having first light tonight.

I was a little concerned as a hole had been punched right through the outer and inner boxes, but fortunately there was no damage to the scope.

I never intended to use it on the dob Mount, so have popped it straight on to my Ercole and Gitzo. I did the plumber’s tape mod on the focuser this afternoon and it is now smooth and with just the right amount of resistance, no wobble. I will make a shroud for it once I get hold of some hobby foam.

I fitted the RDF which is a relatively cheap, plastic affair but which works very well and was easy to fit and align.

So, to the observing. I haven’t troubled the standard eyepieces yet, although it would be interesting to see how they perform. I used a 24mm Panoptic as a finder/low power giving x32 Mag and a 2.2 degree field of view. My Nag zoom was the high power giving x125 to x250. A quick star test showed the collimation to be slightly off, a quick tweak of the primary nailed that pretty easily though.

First up was Jupiter. GRS visible easily straight away, along with plenty of detail in the bands. Most impressive I must say, an excellent view. Light scatter seemed very well controlled, diffraction spikes were not intrusive, or really noticeable, and as said, the detail visible was well beyond just the two equatorial bands.

Saturn next, nice again although the Cassini division was not really showing, just the variation in brightness of the different ring sections and some surface banding.

I was hoping for some lunar views, but it was unfortunately hiding behind some trees and although I could get a clear view with my eye, it was not possible to get the scope on it.

I think skipped around various familiar targets to see how I got on.

M13, good view, stars resolving quite deep into the core, helped by averted vision. Under a darker sky I reckon the propeller would show up as there were strong hints even with the Moon lighting things up.

M92, significantly smaller and less detail visible, at least I found it! It has been known for me to fail miserably on this one!

M57, lovely oval ring shape with gently light centre.

NGC457, an old favourite, easy target but well shown.

Epsilon Lyra, the Double Double. I hoped this would be good given my experience with the 130p and I wasn’t disappointed. It split at the 6mm setting, but at higher settings the view was very nice indeed. Lovely bullseye stars with a single diffraction ring and clear dark separation. A promising sign!

Iota Cass, beautiful triple! Resolved cleanly at around x150 I guess, with really clean star shapes.

Delta Cygni needed a bit more power, but again was split very cleanly and clearly, the fainter secondary pin sharp.

Pi Aquilae, easy innit! Showed as two bullseyes, clean split.

Albireo, nuff said, beautiful colours.

Polaris was easy, pin point secondary again, and well controlled primary.

Finally I thought I would try Zeta Herc, which had been my nemesis for years and only relatively recently in a few scopes, namely the Mewlon, 8” f8 and also my Tak and Vixen. Familiarity really helps here and I’m sure I may have been seeing it before, but just didn’t know what I was looking. Ramping up the power and with careful focusing I got it! A brightening on the first diffraction ring, consistently in the right place and resolving into a star every now and then with the better seeing. Checking the position in SkySafari showed it in exactly the same position, so a definite split for me.

Last target was Mars, as it had become visible in a decent gap in the cloud. The polar cap was clear, as were some dark markings. x200 worked in well giving a decent image scale and maintaining quality.

That’s all for now, I will write up something more later about the scope itself, likely after the  weekend more as there will be plenty of others interested in buying these I guess. This is an excellent piece of kit; great value but also optically very capable and rewarding to use.

Excellent Stu! I must get one.

[JeremyS]

These are real gems aren’t they Stu? If you look beyond the flimsy appearance (which it isn’t!), it has excellent optics and gives wonderful views.

I took mine away for a Long weekend recently. Although I didn’t get clear sky, it easily and safely fitted in the car with all the other paraphernalia. It  even arrived still collimated.

Nice paint job on the fence, btw.

Edited August 2, 2020 by JeremyS

[Chris]

Excellent night out and report, Stu. Looks like it means business on the Ercole and Gitzo. Nice haul of objects too! 

[Timdog]

Brilliant review, very inspiring to a newbie, shows what can be achieved.  Do you think there’s a significant upgrade from the 130 heritage

[Guest]

@Stuthere's nothing like holes in the box to get the blood pumping!😮

[happy-kat]

Although I made a shroud for my heritage I think flocking the secondary shield might have had more impact. The best help for stray light I found was stopping the stray light bouncing off the eyepiece into my eyes, so covering my head to shield from stray light was best of all.

[Timdog]

So I either need to wear my Halloween hooded cape or one of those umbrella hats😇

[Stu]

34 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

Although I made a shroud for my heritage I think flocking the secondary shield might have had more impact. The best help for stray light I found was stopping the stray light bouncing off the eyepiece into my eyes, so covering my head to shield from stray light was best of all.

I did use my observing hood last night and it helped a lot. Will still try a shroud I think as there is plenty of glare around.

[Chris]

47 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

Although I made a shroud for my heritage I think flocking the secondary shield might have had more impact. The best help for stray light I found was stopping the stray light bouncing off the eyepiece into my eyes, so covering my head to shield from stray light was best of all.

I'm glad someone else thinks this makes sense because flocking the secondary shield is on my list of further mods. Also going to make a dew shield for stray light and dew as the focuser is so far forward. Plus blackening the sides of the secondary is on the list.  

[Stu]

12 minutes ago, Lockie said:

Plus blackening the sides of the secondary is on the list.  

What is best to use for this Chris? I’ve heard blackboard paint mentioned before. Any links you could share? Thanks 🙏 

[Stu]

1 hour ago, Timdog said:

Brilliant review, very inspiring to a newbie, shows what can be achieved.  Do you think there’s a significant upgrade from the 130 heritage

Thanks Tim, glad it was useful.

I have both, so should try to do a comparison I guess. The 150p has 33% more mirror surface area than the 130p, and 15% larger diameter and therefore resolution.

These are incremental differences rather than orders of magnitude; many people say to increase by say 4” if moving up eg 6” to 10” or 8” to 12” but still I think there are visible and meaningful improvements In the 150p over the 130p if you have the right expectations. I would definitely say that, for instance, the split of Pi Aquilae was better resolved in the 150p, and M13 resolved more clearly.

As said though, everyone’s expectations are different so I can only speak for myself. That said, this has to be the most portable 6” scope available, and I like it a lot!

[John]

Great report Stu !

"I’m beginning to wonder why I have all this lovely, and expensive kit!...."

The experiences that I've been having with my little 90mm mak-cass and more recently an extremely low cost 90mm F/11 chinese achro refractor have led my thoughts in that direction quite often I'm afraid

Not only do they deliver the goods but they are fun and, dare I say, relatively carefree to use

[Stu]

1 hour ago, merlin100 said:

@Stuthere's nothing like holes in the box to get the blood pumping!😮

Indeed! It wasn’t a pleasant experience for a few minutes... 😱😱

[Mark at Beaufort]

Great review Stu. I love my Heitage 130P which I place on a Pronto alt/az mount with tripod.

The other night using the smaller Heritage I easily split Epsilon Lyra using a 6mm Baader Ortho + the Baader 2.25x barlow (243x).

To be honest if I did not own the Skywatcher 150P Newt I would have bought this larger Heritage.

This scope has to be one of the best value pieces of kit - not only for beginners but also experienced amateurs as well.

Stu forgot to mention but I used a black permanent marker pen to blacken the sides of the secondary - its seems okay and I did clean the secondary with warm water a few months back which did not cause any problem.

 

[Guest]

24 minutes ago, Stu said:

Indeed! It wasn’t a pleasant experience for a few minutes... 😱😱

That would have caused my heart to sink! Best let the retailer know what happened, even though there was no damage to the contents!

[Alfian]

A very good and extensive report Stu, thank you. When I had my Heritage 130 I was quite impressed with it's performance (much better than the Celestron 130eq) but despite the tape tweak on the focuser it was a niggly source of irritation and I eventually passed it on. I've assumed the optics on these scopes are the same as the SW solid tube variants but whether or not you have a good one and of course also a good and experienced eye which helps considerably.

[DaveL59]

to black the edges a sharpie marker pen would work and not be affected by future cleaning in water. Bonus that it won't flake off and drop down the tube as paint might do as it ages.

[Stu]

24 minutes ago, merlin100 said:

That would have caused my heart to sink! Best let the retailer know what happened, even though there was no damage to the contents!

Yes, I have done 👍👍

[Stu]

10 hours ago, jetstream said:

Excellent Stu! I must get one.

You must indeed Gerry! It will perform even better under your skies!

[Stu]

3 hours ago, Alfian said:

I've assumed the optics on these scopes are the same as the SW solid tube variants but whether or not you have a good one and of course also a good and experienced eye which helps considerably.

Yes, I think the optics are the same between the two variants. It is a good scope, but then so is my 130p; I guess they are pretty consistent with their quality levels these days.

I definitely think using decent eyepieces makes a difference. I must try the stock ones out just to see why they are like. It would be a shame to think they are poor, and that people are missing out on the potential of the scope optics by not upgrading.

Experience does play a sizeable role in what you can see. As mentioned with Zeta Herc, I tried and failed for years to see this, then I finally managed it on a very good night with a Mewlon 210 and also the 8” f8 Orion Optics. Since then I have spotted it in my Tak FC-100 and Vixen FL102S. The scary thing is that the £200 150p in many ways resolved it better than the two £’000 refractors because of its better resolution (due to the aperture). With the fracs it is more of a brightening on the first diffraction ring, but in the larger scopes it resolves as two airy disks with diffraction rings. The 150p was doing this in moments of good seeing last night.

[Chris]

5 hours ago, Stu said:

What is best to use for this Chris? I’ve heard blackboard paint mentioned before. Any links you could share? Thanks 🙏 

HI Stu, I was just going to try a permanent marker pen for the reason that it's a relatively low risk procedure compared to using paint  

[Chris]

4 hours ago, DaveL59 said:

to black the edges a sharpie marker pen would work and not be affected by future cleaning in water. Bonus that it won't flake off and drop down the tube as paint might do as it ages.

Yes this   +1 

[Chris]

4 minutes ago, Lockie said:

HI Stu, I was just going to try a permanent marker pen for the reason that it's a relatively low risk procedure compared to using paint  

A second option could be to use thin strips of sticky back velvet flocking paper but I'm going to try the marker pen first. If I'm not happy with the pen I can simply place the flocking strips over the top. With a bit of 'surgery' the flock can be wrapped around the back of the secondary so it has more chance of remaining attached. 

[Mark at Beaufort]

17 hours ago, Lockie said:

A second option could be to use thin strips of sticky back velvet flocking paper but I'm going to try the marker pen first. If I'm not happy with the pen I can simply place the flocking strips over the top. With a bit of 'surgery' the flock can be wrapped around the back of the secondary so it has more chance of remaining attached. 

Chris I have tried using 'flocking' material and it works okay. However, despite the concerns my permanent market pen (wide tip) has been okay.