130pds

[Cameron]

evening everyone,

I’m planning on buying a Skywatcher 130PDS for imaging. Has angone had any experience with this scope? I’ve heard it’s a very good scope for the price. 

Thanks,

Cam

 

[Jeremy Shears]

Hello Cam,

good to hear from you. I am afraid that I do not have experience of that telescope, but perhaps somebody else does.

Personally I have always found small refractors to be good for wide field imaging, given their compactness, no need for collimation and ability to use relatively small mounts. I recall from your previous postings that you have used an ED80, which was giving you excellent results. 

Anyway, I hope to see some further results from you with whatever telecope you use.

Go well!
Jeremy

[Cameron]

Hi Jeremy, 

Yes the ED80 is great for imaging but it really isnt great for observational and i want to do a bit of that when guiding isnt going my way, spend a couple of hours admiring our universe. The 130 will just have that extra light gathering power that i need. since getting rid of my 8″ ive wanted another observational scope

 

Cam

[Nick James]

Hi Cam,

I don’t have any experience of this scope either but I would certainly agree with Jeremy that small refractors are best for imaging at these scales. For visual deep sky though, you’re right that aperture is key, the more the better! You may notice that the really dedicated visual DS people now need to transport their scopes on trailers!

FYI, I’ll be showing a couple of your images during the Sky Notes session at next weekend’s BAA meeting. If you are going to be there please say hello.

Nick.

[Grant Privett]

Hi there,

Sorry to take so long to post.

I had one of these for a review a while ago. Appeared in Astronomy Now I think. My memory of the equipment was that the tube was luggable, would go nicely on an HEQ5 and yielded good clean images. I liked it – though the focuser was only just adequate – and quite heavy.  It made a very affordable alternative to the hideously overpriced ED or triplet refractors that are unable to bring all the light to focus at one point, giving it an edge in creating luminance images.

I think the PDS needs to be used with something like a Baader coma corrector when combined with a large CCD sensor, but there was minimal coma seen when imaging with a Starlight H18.

Obviously, the secondary mirror supports generate diffraction spikes around bright stars, but brought up in the pre-SCT era I have no problem with that.

I rather fancy a 300PDS. Would be okay on my EQ6 Pro. 🙂

 

 

[Jarvis Brand]

I have no experience with that scope myself but on stargazerslounge there is a thread devoted to imaging with the 130pds

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/210593-imaging-with-the-130pds/

 

[Callum Potter]

I caught up with Cameron on Friday evening when I gave a talk at Coventry & Warwickshire AS – he’d recently taken delivery of his new scope – but plumped for something different, a second hand  GSO 8″ F4 imaging newtonian. 

Will be interesting to see what results he gets with that.

Callum

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