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Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P is the smallest flextube Dobsonian telescope. Featuring a 130mm parabolic primary mirror, it adeptly balances light collection with portability, unlocking a vast array of celestial wonders. Its innovative collapsible design not only makes it exceptionally transport-friendly but also an ideal telescope for space-conscious enthusiasts.
For those venturing into the world of astronomy with a budget of $200 or less, the Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P emerges as a superior option.
This review delves into the nuances of the Heritage 130P’s flextube Dobsonian design, offering insights into its capabilities and suitability. By the end of this article, you will gain a comprehensive understanding of why the Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P is particularly well-suited for young or novice astronomers, alongside practical advice on its usage and potential enhancements.
Specifications of the Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P Dobsonian telescope
The Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P is a tabletop Dobsonian with N130/650 optics that produce quality images and a collapsible flextube that makes it easy to store and transport.
Here is a breakdown of some of the specifications of the Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P:
- Optical design: Newtonian reflector
- Flextube: This innovative design allows the optical tube of the Heritage 130P to collapse, significantly enhancing its portability and ease of storage
- Focal length: 650mm
- Focal ratio: F5
- Magnifications (with eyepieces supplied): 26x and 65x
- Highest useful magnification: 260x
- Mount: intuitive and user-friendly Dobsonian mount
- Weight: 6.2kg/13.6lbs.
How to use the Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P?
This straightforward guide should help you comfortably set up and begin using the Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P for stargazing and exploring the night sky:
- Assembly: The telescope and mount arrive fully assembled. To set it up, extend the telescope tube by loosening the two slider lock screws, pulling the top part up until it clicks, and then retightening the screws. This extension gives the full 650mm focal length.
- Setting up the finder and eyepiece: Attach the red dot finder to the finderscope base and secure it. Then, insert one of the eyepieces into its holder and secure that too. Remove the dust cap to complete the setup.
- Placement: As a tabletop telescope, position the Heritage 130P on a stable table or flat surface.
- Navigating the skies: The alt-az mount allows you to move the telescope up and down (altitude) or swivel it side to side (azimuth) to locate celestial objects.
- Focusing: Adjust the focus by turning the focus wheel until the image in the eyepiece becomes sharp.
- Using the red dot finder: Aim the telescope by looking through the red dot finder. Align the red dot with the celestial object you wish to observe. The finder has variable brightness control for convenience.
- Preparation for observing: Allow the telescope about 30 minutes to acclimate to the ambient temperature for optimal viewing. To preserve night vision, avoid bright lights and use a red flashlight for at least 30 minutes before observing.
Pros of the Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P
The Heritage 130P ticks the following right boxes:
- Large aperture at an affordable price: The 130mm aperture of the Heritage 130P collects 30% more light than telescopes with a 114mm aperture, offering brighter and sharper images of celestial objects without a steep price tag.
- High-quality parabolic mirrors: Equipped with a parabolic primary mirror made from borosilicate glass, this telescope surpasses others in its price range by eliminating spherical aberrations and delivering sharp, detailed images.
- Compact and collapsible design: The innovative collapsible tube design makes the Heritage 130P uniquely portable, fitting easily into a backpack. This design includes a focuser, finder, and secondary mirror on a circular frame at the end of extendable struts.
- Exceptional value: Combining a large aperture with a high-quality mirror, the Sky-Watcher Heritage stands out in its class. It is an excellent choice for those seeking a powerful, portable, user-friendly, and budget-friendly telescope.
Cons of the Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P
You’ll want to know about these limitations before buying the Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P flextube Dobsonian telescope:
- Helical focuser: The helical focuser, differing from the common rack and pinion design, requires adjusting the hexagonal end to focus. This unconventional design may be confusing and can cause the camera to spin during focusing, posing challenges for heavy eyepieces or cameras.
- Vulnerability to stray light: The open-front design of the collapsible tube can allow stray light to enter, potentially affecting image quality. Light pollution, moonlight, and bright star glare can impact observations.
- Tabletop design: As a tabletop Dobsonian, the Heritage 130P requires a stable table or surface for use, which may limit its versatility in different observation settings
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What can you see with the Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P?
The Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P telescope, with its 130mm aperture, offers impressive views of the solar system’s celestial bodies and brighter deep-sky objects. It renders detailed and sharp images of the moon’s surface, and planets like Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are brought to life with striking clarity.
Mars is seen with its red dust, dark features, and ice caps, while Saturn reveals its largest moon Titan, its iconic rings, and the Cassini division. Jupiter appears as a distinct white disc, showcasing features like the northern equatorial belt, cloud bands, the Great Red Spot, and its four Galilean moons.
In addition to solar system objects, the Heritage 130P excels in revealing deep space wonders such as the Andromeda Galaxy, Ring Nebula, Orion Nebula, and Ptolemy’s Cluster in the Scorpius constellation.
While planetary and lunar observation is less affected by light pollution, viewing galaxies and nebulas demands darker skies, far from city lights. Therefore, for optimal deep-sky observation, it’s beneficial to use this telescope under dark skies, although it can still provide enjoyable experiences of moons and planets in more light-polluted areas.
What are the recommended accessories and upgrades for enhancing the performance of the Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P Tabletop Dobsonian telescope?
If you’ve recently acquired the Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P Tabletop Dobsonian telescope and are eager to optimize its performance, here is a range of recommended accessories and upgrades that can help you unlock the full potential of your telescope:
Recommended eyepieces for the Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P
The Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P telescope includes two eyepieces, one with a 25mm focal length and the other 10mm. The focal length of an eyepiece directly influences the magnification achieved, offering 26x magnification with the 25mm eyepiece and 65x with the 10mm.
The telescope’s maximum useful magnification is determined by doubling its aperture diameter, which for the Heritage 130P with its 130mm aperture, equates to 260x. Exceeding this magnification can result in a loss of image clarity.
But, for those seeking higher magnifications, you have these two options:
Expand your eyepiece collection
Expand your collection with eyepieces of different focal lengths. The smaller the focal length of the eyepiece, the higher magnification you will get. However, going under 4mm is not recommended.
The SVBONY telescope eyepieces are high-quality pieces with fully multi-coated glasses for excellent image contrast and light transmission. Plus, they are some of the cheapest telescope eyepieces you’ll find.
Buy a Barlow lens
You can double or triple the magnification with a given eyepiece, depending on the Barlow specifications. So with a 10mm eyepiece and 3x Barlow lens, you get 195x magnification with this telescope.
The Celestron Omni 2x Balow lens will help you double the magnification of each eyepiece. It’s a high-quality piece with fully multicoated optics for good light transmission and minimal reflections.
However, increasing magnification using a Barlow’s lens has some downsides. For example, the image quality will always be better without the Barlow lens because more lens elements in the light path will always decrease the image quality. Using only the eyepiece (like a 4mm short focal length piece) is always better for higher magnification.
Invest in a flextube cover to protect your Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P telescope
While the open flextube design is remarkable, it does have the issue of allowing stray light to enter the telescope tube, which can reduce image quality. To minimize the impact of stray light, it’s essential to cover the empty portion of the tube.
You can either purchase a ready-made cover or create a simple black cloth cover yourself. For a step-by-step tutorial, check out the link below👇
Is Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P a good telescope for beginners?
The Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P is an excellent telescope for beginners. Its ease of setup and use makes it a preferred choice. Its portability is a key feature, weighing only about 4.5 kg (10 pounds) and equipped with a handle for easy transport. This makes it ideal for quick stargazing sessions, even in colder conditions. As a Dobsonian telescope, it’s user-friendly, allowing beginners to easily navigate and point it toward desired celestial objects.
Additionally, its design simplifies the collimation process, which is often required for reflector telescopes but can be done quickly and easily with the Heritage 130P.
Can you use the Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P for astrophotography?
While the Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P can be used for basic astrophotography, such as capturing images of the moon and planets or short exposure night sky photography, it is not suitable for long exposure astrophotography due to the lack of a tracking mount.
For amateur astrophotography, a smartphone can be attached using an adapter like the Celestron NexYZ Universal 3-Axis smartphone adapter.
For those looking to use a DSLR camera, an additional adapter is necessary to attach it to the telescope’s focuser. However, achieving focus with a DSLR can be challenging, and the weight of the camera may be cumbersome for the telescope.
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Is the Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P a good investment?
The Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P is an excellent investment for both practical and historical reasons. As a Newtonian reflector, a design introduced by Isaac Newton in 1668, it offers several advantages. Its mirrors, as opposed to lenses in refracting telescopes, allow for a larger aperture at a lower cost, enabling better light gathering and clearer views of faint sky objects.
Additionally, this type of telescope does not suffer from chromatic aberration, a common issue in refractors where color fringing occurs due to the lens’s light refraction properties.
Beyond its technical merits, the Heritage 130P is also a collector’s item, featuring a tube adorned with names of significant contributors to astronomy. It stands out for its combination of historical homage, quality optics, portability, and affordability, making it a valuable purchase for under $200.
Where is the Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P Flextube made?
The Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P Flextube telescope is manufactured in China by Synta Optical Technology. This company, headquartered in Taiwan, is the parent company of the Sky-Watcher brand and is recognized as one of the world’s largest producers of telescopes and astronomical accessories.
They offer a diverse range of telescopes under the Sky-Watcher brand, including reflectors, refractors, and Dobsonians, catering to various astronomical interests and expertise levels.
Takeaway: Go anywhere and enjoy stargazing with the powerful and compact Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P flextube telescope
The Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P Flextube telescope is a fusion of portability and optical power, making it an outstanding choice for both novice and seasoned stargazers. This Dobsonian reflector features high-quality optics, ensuring sharp and bright images of celestial objects.
Its innovative collapsible flextube design enhances its portability, making it easy to store and transport, ideal for exploratory stargazing wherever you go.
Additionally, the simplicity and effectiveness of its Dobsonian mount, coupled with its affordability, make the Heritage 130P particularly appealing for beginners seeking a reliable and efficient entry into the world of astronomy.
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