Eyepieces

the Double Cluster in Perseus, using the 25mm eyepiece. It sparkled against the light sky and stood out well. The 10mm eyepiece allowed closer examination of each of the clusters, revealing several of the orange stars scattered throughout them. We picked out the clusters M34, M103 and, higher up, M52, before swinging over to view Albireo, the best double star the summer night sky has to offer. Although it was split well with the 25mm eyepiece, we found the colours showed more vivid sky blue and golden orange with the 10mm. Indeed, by using the 10mm we could split the famous Double Double star Epsilon Lyrae.

KIT TO ADD 1.

Sky-Watcher x2 deluxe Barlow lens (1.25-inch)

Sky-Watcher dual-LED night vision torch

2.

Optical Vision Ltd 1.25-inch light pollution filter

3. Nice nebulae

After viewing the hollow ring-like structure of the Ring Nebula, M57, in Lyra with the 10mm eyepiece, we moved down to the Dumbbell Nebula, M27, which was a lovely sight with a well-defined shape. We also spotted the Swan Nebula, M17, and viewed the hazy nature of the Sagittarius Star Cloud, M24, among a wealth of targets in this part of the sky.

Moving on to the planets, we found that Jupiter displayed its banded nature and all four Galilean moons were easily seen with the 25mm and 10mm eyepieces. Saturn’s rings were obvious in the 25mm eyepiece, while there was a hint of the Cassini Division in moments of good seeing conditions with the 10mm. Its moons, Titan and Rhea, were also spotted to add to the fun. Meanwhile, the Moon provided lots of detail – the Heritage 150P will keep you happy exploring its surface details for many nights.

Although it’s not a photographic instrument, we were able to image the Moon by connecting our smartphone, an iPhone XR, via our own adaptor, which was an added bonus.

Overall, this is a nice grab-and-go setup, a simple to use tabletop Dobsonian that can fire the imagination and provide decent views of a wide range of targets.

A slightly cropped image of the Moon, taken with an iPhone XR and smartphone adaptor connected to the Sky–Watcher Heritage 150P and its 10mm eyepiece

1,000.00 1,140.00 1,270.00

Two basic eyepieces with rubber eyecups are supplied, a 25mm (with 30x magnification) and a 10mm for higher magnification (75x). They worked well for this focal system and gave pleasing views of a wide range of celestial targets. The setup could be enhanced further with a 2x Barlow lens. The focuser is a helical style and takes 1.25-inch fit eyepieces. There was some play when rotating in and out of focus, but generally it did the job intended. Two thumbscrews keep the eyepiece in place and are also useful when rotating for focus. The supplied red dot finder is a suitable choice for this size of