Skywatcher 5" Flextube

[John]

I've just come across this scope:

SkyWatcher Heritage 130P FlexTube Dobsonian Telescope

Setting aside the "commemorative" nature of the scope (I thought Gallileo used a refractor ???) is this just a gimmick or a rather neat and perhaps suprisingly capable "grab and go" scope at an attractive price ?

Anyone seen or tried one yet ?.

John

[Astro_Baby]

Weird - Celestron are doing one that looks similar but isnt the 'flextube' design and its smaller . In fact the Celestron one looks like the back end part of the Sky-Watcher one. Theres a pic on their site here http://www.celestron.com/c3/product.php?CatID=83&ProdID=568

What a cute little scope though.

[Whippy]

I saw one at Astrofest earlier this year John. Very cute & dinky . I thought OVL could have had a 12" for Daddy, a 10" for Mummy and a gaggle of these 130's for the kids on their stand. Ahhhh!

Tony..

[John]

Thinks ..... I wonder if SW could produce a solid tube, non-comemorative version for £99.99 retail ????

They might have a real winner on their hands

John

[GazOC]

Is that a single vane spider?

[brianb]

In fact the Celestron one looks like the back end part of the Sky-Watcher one.

Looks like .... until you compare the sizes, the Celestron is MUCH smaller, it's only 75mm aperture. I'm a bit dubious about the stability of the "one-armed Dobsonian" mount with the larger scope. Also the "flex tube" appears to have only two supporting arms for the top end of the scope, which seems to me to be a recipe for vibration....

Anyhoo, since Synta owns both Skywatcher & Celestron, perhaps the similarity is not coincidental.

[brianb]

Thinks ..... I wonder if SW could produce a solid tube, non-comemorative version for £99.99 retail ????

They might have a real winner on their hands

Agree - with a conventional two-armed mount and a longer focus mirror .... 130mm f/8 would be nice.

[John]

Is that a single vane spider?

Looks like it Gaz, and a very basic 1.25" focusser (helical perhaps ?).

Still it's interesting to see some different designs around - Orion (USA) have a 4.5" newt on a similar mount I think - it got quite an enthusiastic review from Rod Mollise on Astromart. That must be a Synta product underneath as well I guess.

John