First light with Heritage 150p

[Chris]

Good to hear, Mark, I'll get to that soon  

[RobertI]

17 hours ago, Stu said:

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

Don't say that Stu, I've an ED100 on the way!

Nice review. The H150P seems like another great performer, I suspect it's light enough to ride on my SkyProdigy mount quite easily, so could be a good replacement for my H130P, which I was planning to give to my Niece. Trouble is I would then have two 150P's (an F5 and an F8) - but I guess to very different scopes in reality.

BTW it's kind of amusing to see a 'beginner's scope' with a premium Televue eyepiece in the focuser!

Edited August 2, 2020 by RobertI

[Alfian]

19 hours ago, Stu said:

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.

Thanks for those useful and interesting comments Stu. Thinking about comparisons with the solid tube 150p I was wondering what the secondary size is? Figured it could be smaller given the 1.25" focuser  which I assume it is. I was also pondering whether something like the little Baader helical focuser could somehow be made to fit making a fine focus possible.

[Corncrake]

On 02/08/2020 at 01:56, Stu said:

was sure I would buy a Heritage 150p, and sure enough, one turned up on my doorstep today

 a hole had been punched right through the outer and inner boxes,

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.

Oh that is a surprise,
I intended to buy one when they were first reported, but my rountuit failed me and I missed the boat, since then they all seemed to be out of stock, 40/60 day shipping

No need to report the hole to retailer, it is a new feature : to let all the traditional free clouds escape 'just in time' , , , or, eeek!

Nice report thank you and I will watch for your further words eagerly 👍

 

 

Edited August 5, 2020 by Corncrake

[Stu]

On 03/08/2020 at 09:31, Alfian said:

Thanks for those useful and interesting comments Stu. Thinking about comparisons with the solid tube 150p I was wondering what the secondary size is? Figured it could be smaller given the 1.25" focuser  which I assume it is. I was also pondering whether something like the little Baader helical focuser could somehow be made to fit making a fine focus possible.

I’m really not sure about the secondary size comparison. I guess it makes sense that it may be smaller; I can measure mine and let you know.

[Stu]

On 02/08/2020 at 15:27, 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  

I did just this using a black Sharpie on the 8” f8 and I worked very well. Will do it on the Heritage too next time I get the chance.

[Nacho3G]

Thanks for your review Stu. Could you tell me how much the tube weighs without the base? I wonder if my az-gti could handle it.

[Stu]

5 minutes ago, Nacho3G said:

Thanks for your review Stu. Could you tell me how much the tube weighs without the base? I wonder if my az-gti could handle it.

Will check when I get home 👍👍

[Stu]

5 hours ago, Nacho3G said:

Thanks for your review Stu. Could you tell me how much the tube weighs without the base? I wonder if my az-gti could handle it.

Sorry for the delay, I got home late and then decided to have a go with the scope and totally forgot to weigh it! Will do it tomorrow.

[Stu]

As mentioned above, I got home a little before 11pm and seeing some clear skies, decided to pop the 150p out for a quick session. The main reason was to try out a Lumicon 1.25” OIII filter I received today.

I popped the filter on the 24mm Panoptic, giving x27 and a 2.5 degree field of view. Lining up on 52 Cygni with the RDF immediately put me on the Witch’s Broom.  The pointy end showed well, sweeping through 52 Cygni before becoming more diffuse into the Broom. I couldn’t detect the split, although that doesn’t surprise me.

Panning across, there seemed to be some very faint nebulously around Pickering’s triangle although nothing readily identifiable. The Eastern Veil however was very clear, including the two ‘hooks’ 

Considering I rarely attempt the Veil from home due to the skies (approx Bortle  7), i was very pleased with the views. I really should get the 8” on it.

i did a quick tour of a few others; M27 and 57 with the filter, and M31 (and 32) without. The first two I also tried at high power for more image  scale; both looked great.

[John]

That's a great result Stu

I have the Lumicon O-III in the 2 inch size and it's my best and most used deep sky filter.

 

[Sunshine]

Nice report! and, a great little scope the 150P is. You mentioned Zeta Herc, after trying for weeks, almost nightly, i finally had a clean split on this most challenging target. It took around 260X, i was so stoked to notice the second blob like star, hovering at the 3 O'clock position and, a gap between them.

[markse68]

1 hour ago, Sunshine said:

Nice report! and, a great little scope the 150P is. You mentioned Zeta Herc, after trying for weeks, almost nightly, i finally had a clean split on this most challenging target. It took around 260X, i was so stoked to notice the second blob like star, hovering at the 3 O'clock position and, a gap between them.

Good stuff Sunshine- feels great to finally split a tricky one like Zeta Herc that you’ve been trying for ages! Have you tried Tau Cyg? I think it’s supposed to be a similar separation but for some reason I find it more difficult- guess it must be a bit tighter as I needed crazy mag to get a clean split

[Stu]

6 hours ago, Sunshine said:

Nice report! and, a great little scope the 150P is. You mentioned Zeta Herc, after trying for weeks, almost nightly, i finally had a clean split on this most challenging target. It took around 260X, i was so stoked to notice the second blob like star, hovering at the 3 O'clock position and, a gap between them.

Great stuff! Was that with your 115mm Orion triplet? Should certainly make a lovely job of splitting them when conditions allow. Last night may have been a DSO night, but it certainly wasn’t a doubles night. I tried a few and they were not great, even struggled to get good splits on the double double. Transparency must have been good, between the clouds!

[John]

The seeing was poor here during the short period of clear sky that I had.

Iota Cass is usually wonderful with my ED120 but had mushy star definition last night. Saturn and Jupiter were far from their best as well.

@Sunshine congrats on Zeta Herc with the 115mm. A tough one !

When the seeing is better I'm enjoying challenging my refractors on Lambda Cygni - another toughie !

 

 

[Stu]

2 hours ago, John said:

The seeing was poor here during the short period of clear sky that I had.

Iota Cass is usually wonderful with my ED120 but had mushy star definition last night

Sounds very similar to my experiences John, one of those nights that makes you question your kit! The 150p felt like a very different scope at high power last night than first light, but I know it was just the conditions.

I am really chuffed with the performance of the Lumicon 1.25” filter; I had been on the verge of ordering an ES one when I saw this and am glad I did. It has just over 95% transmission in both bands so is fairly decent. I’m sure my skies have improved, not necessarily in darkness but quite possibly better transparency due to the reduced air traffic around here. Previous experience has always been pretty unrewarding on the Veil from here even in bigger scopes but last night was good enough to be worth observing it. The NAN was nowhere to be seen other than vague hints, nothing identifiable.

[John]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

 

I am really chuffed with the performance of the Lumicon 1.25” filter; I had been on the verge of ordering an ES one when I saw this and am glad I did....

I think the Lumicon is a MUCH better choice than the ES. I currently have an ES UHC and it's mediocre to say the least

[Sunshine]

7 hours ago, Stu said:

Great stuff! Was that with your 115mm Orion triplet? Should certainly make a lovely job of splitting them when conditions allow. Last night may have been a DSO night, but it certainly wasn’t a doubles night. I tried a few and they were not great, even struggled to get good splits on the double double. Transparency must have been good, between the clouds!

Yes, it was with my 115, seeing was as good as it was ever going to get that night. It felt good to finally see the second star as a separate star and, not just an appendage.

[Stu]

20 hours ago, Nacho3G said:

Thanks for your review Stu. Could you tell me how much the tube weighs without the base? I wonder if my az-gti could handle it.

The tube alone comes in at a fraction over 3.9kg, so should be within the capabilities of the AZGTi, although I would suggest using a decent tripod rather than the standard one.

[RobertI]

8 hours ago, Stu said:

The tube alone comes in at a fraction over 3.9kg, so should be within the capabilities of the AZGTi, although I would suggest using a decent tripod rather than the standard one.

That would sit nicely on my SkyProdigy then. 🙂

Edited August 21, 2020 by RobertI