Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P FlexTube or Sky-Watcher Skyliner 150P Classic?

Heritage 130P FlexTube — On a garden table it sits at a child's eye level, and they can move it themselves.

Skyliner 150P Classic — The eyepiece height wanders between standing and kneeling as you move around the sky.

Heritage 130P FlexTube — Sharp on the Moon, and Saturn's rings are unmistakable at 130× on 130 mm (an exit pupil of 1 mm). Jupiter shows two belts and four moons.

Skyliner 150P Classic — Plenty of resolution. You will be nudging it along by hand every thirty seconds at high power.

Heritage 130P FlexTube — Fast enough to point that star-hopping stays fun.

Skyliner 150P Classic — Star-hopping with a finder works well, but the field is narrower than binoculars.

Heritage 130P FlexTube — In white light: sunspots with their penumbra, faculae near the edge, and granulation on a steady morning. Dawes' limit on the Sun: 0.9″ (116 ÷ 130 mm, arithmetic). Measure the outside diameter first, then one of: Omegon Helievo 132 (124–148 mm), Omegon Helievo 152 (144–168 mm), Omegon Helievo 172 (164–188 mm) (€79–€99). Every time: certified filter over the front · finder capped · never an eyepiece filter · an adult with children · never without the filter · measure first.

Skyliner 150P Classic — In white light: sunspots with their penumbra, faculae near the edge, and granulation on a steady morning. Dawes' limit on the Sun: 0.8″ (116 ÷ 150 mm, arithmetic). Measure the outside diameter first, then one of: Omegon Helievo 152 (144–168 mm), Omegon Helievo 172 (164–188 mm), Omegon Helievo 192 (184–208 mm), euro EMC SF100 (187–221 mm) (€89–€125). Every time: certified filter over the front · finder capped · never an eyepiece filter · an adult with children · never without the filter · measure first.

Heritage 130P FlexTube — The brighter half of the Messier list, from a decent sky.

Skyliner 150P Classic — The classic answer. Aperture is what deep-sky observing is short of, and this is where it stops being expensive.

Heritage 130P FlexTube — Fits in a car boot easily; hand luggage, no.

Skyliner 150P Classic — It goes in a car and nowhere else.