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Review of Skywatcher Heritage 130P flexitube (posted July 26th 2017)
I have just acquired a Heritage 130P Flexitube for quick observing sessions in the garden and amazingly I had a chance to test it on the very first night under a very transparent and steady sky. This is what I found.....
Unboxing
It’s a lovely little package! The dob base is very nicely finished, solid and surprisingly heavy although the carrying handle makes it very grab and go. The movements are smooth and there is no play once adjusted. The dovetail shoe is very sturdy with a chunky knob. The OTA is very lightweight and nicely finished. The various parts of the OTA (struts, single spider vane, focusser platform) seem like they should not be solid enough but that does not seem to be the case, although I understand that the use of heavy eyepieces can cause some minor flexing so I restricted myself to use of lightweight eyepieces. The helical focusser as has been mentioned numerous times by other owners is too wobbly, but the previous owner has added plumbers tape to make the threads fit tighter. I checked collimation with a homemade collimation cap, attached the OTA to my mini giro (my preferred mount) and proceeded to the garden to observe…
In use
I have a bit of stray light in the garden and the first thing I noted was that this interfered with the light path and the views if you are pointing in the wrong direction. A shroud is definitely required unless one is in a very dark place. I quickly made a shroud from a C8 dew shield and proceeded. Observing at the zenith was a real pleasure with a newtonian and much more convenient that a frac or SCT. Away from the zenith I found I had to lean over the tube to view as the eyepiece was not far enough to the side. Sadly this is not adjustable, but is probably fine when on the dob base on a table and you are leaning down to view. It was a bit tricky knowing where to grab the scope to move it, the struts dont seem like a good place to grab, so I ended up pushing the base of the OTA. Vibration was not a problem, but the scope did take a few seconds to calm down after moving, probably due to the light weight mini giro mount. A light breeze might cause vibration issues though. The focusser was just about ok, although refocussing was needed regularly. The red dot finder worked fantastically, no complaints at all.
Optical Performance
With a seben 8-24 zoom in I started to view some well known objects. M13 was very nice with plenty of outer stars resolved. Many more stars were visible than in my Tal100RS but much less than in the C8, as expected I suppose, but great performance for such a cheap lightweight scope. The double double was an easy split on both pairs, instantly visible. Stars were very tight with nice diffraction rings, so no issues optically. The ring nebula M57 was surprisingly good, with brightening of the outer ring visible and a clear milkiness to the central hole. Next time I'll try a higher magnification. Alberio was a beautiful sight with lovely colours and tight stars. Towards the end of the session I thought I would have a go at the Eastern Veil, not expecting to find it with all the ambient light around, but to my amazement, there it was looking like a curved mini milky way, just larger than the field of view. There was detail in there for sure, with mottling and hints if strands, and on a dark night with an OIII filter I reckon I could spend a long time observing that one.
Summary
After reading all the excellent reviews of the scope, I was not disappointed. It really is a cracking scope and just about as good as it gets for grab and go observing. Its 'back to basics' feel belies its optical capabilities, and strangely made me want to use simple cheap eyepieces to just to show what is possible with budget equipment. Next time I shall be using the supplied Kellner eyepieces and trying to resolve Einstein's Cross! :)
Using my new UHC filter with the Heritage 130P (posted July 31st 2017)
I recently bought an Astronomik UHC-E filter from the very pleasant and helpful Simon at the Widescreen centre. I was a little concerned about whether this was better than a full fat UHC filter but Simon suggesed this might be a good starting point for the smaller scopes in my arsenal (it provides a brighter image) and last night I had a chance to try it with my newly acquired Heritage 130P.
Whilst I waited for the moon to disappear I was delighted to see that I had caught the lunar X and V, only visible for 4 hours every month or so. I took a quick snap for posterity and have shared it in a separate post . This scope seems to like coincidences, last time out I was observing M13 and the ISS went accross the field of view! What are the chances of that happening!?
So it eventually got dark and I had a chance to play with the filter on some objects, using a magnification of x30 for the larger objects and x65 for the smaller.....
- Veil Nebula - the filter made a very big difference, making the eastern veil much brighter and better defined, and making the 'witch's broom' of the western veil visible, whereas it was invisible without the filter. In fact when my wife turned the kitchedn light on and ruined my dark adaption, I could still just about see the eastern veil!
- North America - once I worked out how large this nebula was in the FOV, it was easy to make out the large smoky shape, especially the mexico region with one edge much brighter than the other. Again this nebula was invisible without the UHC-E and thanks to this filter, this is my first visual sighting of this object.
- Crescent nebula - perhaps I was over ambitious but I failed to track down this nebula with the filter.
- Ring Nebula - perhaps a little easier to see central part milkiness but not a huge difference.
- Dumbell - no real difference discernable
- Blue snowball - no real difference discernable
- Pacman - visible as an irregular oval shape, but invisible without filter. Again my first sighting if this object thanks to the filter.
Apparently the filter is not so good for scopes of 8" and beyond where a full UHC is required, but it will be interesting to have a go with the 72mm frac and UHC-E and browse the milky way for emission nebulae.
Looking forward to the next time out with the UHC.
More fun with the Heritage 130P (posted October 16th 2017)
Had another very enjoyable session on Saturday with the Heritage 130P. This amazing little scope continues to delight, delivering lovely pin sharp views of doubles and clusters and effortlessly seeking out faint fuzzies.
Sitting atop the Giro-WR the Heritage was sporting a new home made light shroud which really improved the experience, reducing annoying intrusion from stray lights. Most of the observing was done with the 10mm Hyperion giving x65. The surprise of the evening was Mirach's Ghost.
Highlights as follows:
Nebulae (with UHCE filter):
- Eastern Veil revealed distinct structure, and was easier to see at x65 than x30 due to the darker sky background. Patches of nebulosity also visible in the area of Pickering's Triangle.
- M27, the Dumbell Neb, was a lovely sight, with visibility much improved with the UHCE though not much more detail.
- Iota Triangulii was a toughish pair about 4" apart, the difference in brightness seemed bigger than than their 5.3 and 6.8.
- 65 Piscium was a lovely pair of equal magnitude white stars 4" apart, much more easy to split at 65x than the previous double, despite the separation being the same.
- Gamma Arietes a lovely wide double
- Almach appeared as a beautiful double with bright yellow primary and dimmer bluey white companion.
- NGC752 lovely open cluster
- Double cluster - truly spectacular after doubles and faint fuzzies
- Pleiades. I'm pretty sure I could see the nebulosity around some (in fact most) of its members. I need do a sketch and compare to some photos to check it's not my tired old eyes.
- M31, M32 and M110 were all nicely visible.
- M33 was faint but nicely filled the field of view, displaying some structure visible in its oval disc.
- Mirach's ghost easily visible close to Mirach. A tiny oval smudge which I didn't expect to be able to see
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