Birthday gift delimmna

[cutepetgroomer]

Okay I need pros and cons of each of these scopes .. they’re all respectively bigger than what I already have ..  I have to narrow it down more my choice .. I’ve got 7 months lol

[Alan64]

The Zhumell Z130, if a solid-tube is desired, or the SW "Heritage" 130P if you prefer its collapsible feature.

[Alan64]

In so far as this one...

https://www.telescope.com/Orion-StarBlast-102mm-Travel-Refractor/p/132065.uts

...I think that I have the same configuration, my Meade 102mm f/5.9 achromat...

...?

Orion, of California, states within its specifications that it is a 102mm f/5.9 achromat, too.  Although, I have my doubts, as that of the Orion kit appears to have a somewhat shorter optical-tube; minus the focusser, the lens-cell, and the dew-shield...

Strange, that; the Orion 102mm looks to be at f/5 rather, and with oodles of false-colour to be had.  I wonder if you know what false-colour is, chromatic-aberration.  I'll show you what it is.  When you point the telescope at a small bright object, like a planet or star, with a fast-achromat like that Orion, if indeed at f/5, instead of seeing the object clearly, it will be smeared somewhat, and with strange, unnatural colours...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WANNqr-vcx0

Another unpleasant thing is that it comes, not with a 2" focusser as expected, but a 1.25", instead.  It may also be of plastic.  I wouldn't be surprised.  That of my own is a 2", and of metal.

In the end, run away from that one.

Edited November 17, 2022 by Alan64

[allworlds]

The Skywatcher and the Zhumell are very similar and will give the same views. The Heritage 130P has been around for ages and is well regarded; the collapsible tube makes it store more compactly but not everyone likes its helical focuser. The Zhumell has a rigid tube and a more conventional focuser. IMHO unless you really like the idea of the flex-tube, just get the one that's more available or/and cheaper from reputable astronomy retailers.

The Starblast refractor is optically worse with less aperture and strong chromatic aberration, and I'm not convinced by photo-tripod-style mounts. The refractor is suitable for terrestrial viewing as well as astronomy if that's something you want, whereas the other two are really just for astronomy.

The three are pretty much equal on weight and portability, with the Heritage 130 being the most compact to store, but all of them would not be hard to carry down stairs or on public transport.

[cajen2]

9 hours ago, Alan64 said:

In so far as this one...

https://www.telescope.com/Orion-StarBlast-102mm-Travel-Refractor/p/132065.uts

...I think that I have the same configuration, my Meade 102mm f/5.9 achromat...

...?

Orion, of California, states within its specifications that it is a 102mm f/5.9 achromat, too.  Although, I have my doubts, as that of the Orion kit appears to have a somewhat shorter optical-tube; minus the focusser, the lens-cell, and the dew-shield...

Strange, that; the Orion 102mm looks to be at f/5 rather, and with oodles of false-colour to be had.  I wonder if you know what false-colour is, chromatic-aberration.  I'll show you what it is.  When you point the telescope at a small bright object, like a planet or star, with a fast-achromat like that Orion, if indeed at f/5, instead of seeing the object clearly, it will be smeared somewhat, and with strange, unnatural colours...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WANNqr-vcx0

Another unpleasant thing is that it comes, not with a 2" focusser as expected, but a 1.25", instead.  It may also be of plastic.  I wouldn't be surprised.  That of my own is a 2", and of metal.

In the end, run away from that one.

Mmmmm, good to hear "White Rabbit" again, after all these years! 😄

[cajen2]

Personally, I'd have the Heritage 130p. It's SO convenient to store and carry, with great optics. If you can afford it, the slightly bigger brother (150p) is even better.

Edited November 17, 2022 by cajen2

[happy-kat]

In America the heritage 130p is the same basically as the OneSky, at astromomers without borders

 

Edited November 17, 2022 by happy-kat

[Alan64]

The "Heritage" 130P is also available in the U.S.  Either/or...

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1466512-REG/sky_watcher_s11705_heritage_130mm_f_5_tabletop.html

[Louis D]

Here's a good video showing the difference in planetary views between an f/8 6" achromat refractor and an f/5 6" Newtonian reflector, similar to your two options:

 

[bosun21]

I would definitely go for the Zhumell over the Heritage. With it being a solid tube you don’t have the need to start messing around with light shrouds to stop stray light ingress. Secondly the Heritage has a poor plastic helical focuser, which you need to tape the threads with PTFE to reduce the wobble. If you don’t mind doing these modifications then either one will be a good choice.

[bemak187]

I am not  a reflector guy but I do prefer solid tube vs collapsible too.  I know when you get into bigger apertures the storage/weight becomes an issue but both of these are compact and easy to move around.

[Louis D]

3 hours ago, bemak187 said:

I am not  a reflector guy but I do prefer solid tube vs collapsible too.  I know when you get into bigger apertures the storage/weight becomes an issue but both of these are compact and easy to move around.

Agreed.  While I have a solid tube 6" f/5 alt-az Newtonian, I would never trade my 15" f/5 truss Dob for a solid tube Dob or EQ.  I actually helped setup an old Coulter 17.5" solid tube Dob once at a star party.  It required a full size van with a custom wooden floor cradle to get it there, and two to three people to unload and set it up.  It was very similar to the one pictured below:

[Alan64]

I just don't know, the collapsible.   It's a bit reminding of the wild side of the 1960s, of life transient perhaps.  It does have that charm, albeit not its best feature to consider, but I feel that it would be more engaging for the user.  Rarely has such garnered so much attention.

Both the collapsible and solid-tube variants could be transferred to a tripod-mount, an alt-azimuth still, in future perhaps...

Although, the collapsible's balancing on such might prove difficult.

[happy-kat]

I have a heritage 130p and observe under street lights and I did make a light shroud but I tended to not bother using it, though I did flock the secondary mirror shield, stray light was much more of a problem from hitting the eyepiece or my eyeball directly.  I've never got round to adding PTFE tape on the focuser, it might be plastic but it's not flimsy and I rarely bothered with adjusting collimation.

[Louis D]

On 18/11/2022 at 04:14, bosun21 said:

Secondly the Heritage has a poor plastic helical focuser

And here I thought it was made of metal all these years.  I have a 2" to 1.25" adapter with a helical focuser.  The outer part is aluminum while the inner part is brass so it moves very smoothly.  It was built by a machine shop somewhere in Canada, I believe.

It works well, but I wish the threads were a bit more aggressive to make it more obvious when best focus has been achieved.  A full revolution moves the eyepiece about a millimeter or two, so very fine control, almost too fine.  Being kind of heavy, it works a bit like Televue's Brass Equalizer 1.25" adapter, only with built in focusing.

[Naughty Neal]

Though an old thread for some the following may help,  the Zhumell is mounted via rings and a heavy duty Vixen dovetail  bar   so is easily mounted to any dovetail mount and tripod.  The focuser is a bit basic % plasticky but does the job.

Edited April 1 by Naughty Neal

[Jonathan_Shields]

I vote for the Heritage but if you can go for the 150 instead all the better (light gathered is proportional to area of mirror so you are getting like a 40% brighter image at 150 vs 130mm). 

I have the 150 and

The focuser is not great but it works. As others have said wrapping with PTFE improves it s bit.

You will need to make a shroud unless you live well away from any stray light. You can make one with 3mm thickness black EVA craft foam from Amazon.

My least favourite is the refractor. Chromatic abberation and at that kind of price the tripod often sucks.

 

 

[Carbon Brush]

Well I wonder what the OP eventually did buy?
Given the last site visit was Nov 2022, soon after the opening post......
Yet another case of SGL members trying to help by venturing their opinions and never finding out if they were considered valid.