new gazer, future scope.

[art-101]

Hi Everyone,

Bought a new house last year right on the north east coast where looking out to the east it's beautifully dark unlike the oranged-tinted west so I get some fantastic skies and most nights want to get a better look at what's in my skies.

So with that in mind I'm looking for a fairly decent telescope.

My budget maxes out at the 200 quid mark and I've looked at the Skyliner 150P Dob but my house has a few stone steps to scale to get into and out of the house into the back garden so squeezing it out of the door is begging me to have an accident (if I can I will) and break it to pieces.

So I've looked at a couple of Skywatchers and a Celestron 130 'scopes.

So far I'm looking at these fellas:

Astromaster 130EQ & 130EQ MD

Skywatcher Explorer 130P (EQ-2)

Skywather Heritage 130p Flextube

I suppose I'm pretty much asking which is the better scope, they all seem like very good telescopes but which ones give that little room for doing anything else with in the future.

I've also got a Canon 450D DSLR so there's the potential to attach that in the future if I wanted to go that way so which would be the better option to cover me for that, also what additional fittings would be needed?

I've read a little about collimation so I presume it would be recommended to get a collimation cap or something along those lines. 

Also guessing grabbing the David Chandler Night Sky Planisphere would be a good bet as well?

Are there any other eyepieces that would be suggested or are the supplied pieces sufficient for a little while?

That looks like quite a few questions now I've typed it out so I hope I haven't went over the top there.

Not looking to buy until early next year as I'm due to get the house rewired so will be moving out while that happens so I'm not in a rush to get it right away unless some offer leaps out at me at an earlier time.

Thanks for any help you can give.

Arthur

[rwilkey]

Hi Arthur, welcome to the lounge.  The Sky Watcher Explorer 130P on an EQ-2 mount looks the best to me, though the automatic tracking of the Celestron Astromaster also looks good, but I have always preferred Sky Watchers as they are less plasticy.   The Flextube is not so good in the sense that it is a table-top telescope and that may present problems, there are many users of this telescope on this forum and many swear by its quality and portability.  I think you have a difficult choice there.

[happy-kat]

Hi

The eq2 may not bear the weight of a telescope and a camera and not wobble/vibrate.

The 130p is a parabolic mirror, a good point.

Achieving focus with a dslr the 130p may mean moving the primary mirror further up the tube. But a webcam for planets/Moon is possible.

You could put your dslr directly on the tripod for wide field imaging.

If not in a rush could look at second hand equipment.

[Scott]

For me it would have to be the heritage. if humping gear up and down rocky stairs with a 150p dob is an issue, then so would it be with a tripod mounted scope. One thing I will say, if you like it with a 130mm scope, I bet you end up with the 150p or bigger anyway so you may as well just jump straight in...you know you want to really .

Good luck and enjoy whatever scope you choose

Edit:- Sorry, forgot to say, with a budget of £200, I wouldn't really be looking at an imaging set-up so don't comprimise the visual side of things..as always, this is just my point of view and therefore very possibly wrong

[art-101]

Id love to go bigger than 130, if I could get a decent enough shed/summer house built in the backgarden I'd be tempted to go for a 200 to trundle out from there when I could get out but that's a little way off yet I reckon.

In an ideal world I'd get the 200 for the backgarden and maybe the 130 flex for holidays with the kids since it's a nice size but I'm not there yet plus I'm just coming back to stargazing after enjoying it as a child (I'm 41 now) so want to make sure I still enjoy it.

I have missed the sky though and living on the coast has really brought that back to me since the skies are so much darker than living in Jarrow.

I've got a spare 1080p webcam sat at work so that could always be brought into use it do some imaging work if I felt the need as well so the ability to mount a dslr isn't urgent by any means.

Thanks for the advice though, it's very much appreciated. Im currently swaying towards the sky watcher but like I said, no rush just yet.

I've looked up some astronomy clubs here and the Sunderland Astronomy Society meets just around the corner from me so I'll have to pay a visit and maybe get a look at some gear there before I buy.

Thanks folks.

[mister_wavey]

Meeting with folks and trying their scopes is definitely the best plan. Of course, the minute you see m82 in a 12" vs an 8"...

And then there's the guy who tells you about that time he saw it through a 22"...

[rowan46]

You asked which would give that little bit of  room to do something else with. I would suggest that none of them fit the bill for that. All of them are good starter scopes in fact they all have the same mirror sets. the skywatcher has less plastic but otherwise they are pretty much the same optically. None of them are anything other than pretty good starter scopes. the eq mounts are too flimsy to make good photography mounts webcam imaging is possible but with the 130 you have very few targets and quality images are not  really possible. The motor is not accurate enough for long exposure work, neither can it be easily polar aligned to make such work possible. In short choose any of them as a decent starter scope but don't expect any of them to be at the heart of any future improved system. Actually the heritage at least has the added  ability of being very portable and there are not many scopes which have 5" apparture and are very portable.

[ollypenrice]

To my mind the 150 Dob (or indeed the 200) is far more portable than anything on an EQ mount needing tripod and counterweights. Also reflctors on EQ mounts can be a pest and, frankly, German EQ mounts are a pest for visual use anyway, especially with Newtonians. They exist because of the needs of astrophotographers. If photography becomes important don't make the mistake of thinking that any motorized German mount will do. It won't. You need a good one, very precisely aligned.

My view is simple (and I have lots of scopes here as a provider). For visual, a Dob is the king.

Olly

[art-101]

Lot of interesting thoughts here.

Ok having a change of heart on what I was thinking of going for.

Was thinking the sky watcher 130 and now im thinking of looking at the long game and going for a flex 130 for now and to be very readily portable and once I've got place for it in the back garden I'll stump up the cash for a 200 Dob in the future when hopefully I can tempt the kids into seeing whats out there.

That's where I'm at now. That should give me a feel for what's out there and get me comfortable with a little hopping around while the bug bites hard.

Thanks.

[Charic]

Hi Everyone,

..............My budget maxes out at the 200 quid mark and I've looked at the Skyliner 150P Dob....................

Arthur

Thats todays budget! That could rise by 40-50 next Month and the Month after, once the Christmas bills have settled?

You won't go wrong with a 200P on a Dobsonian mount, the Skyliner's f/6 focal ratio is easy on EP selection.

I  also have a 127EQ system, and its no fun, constantly adjusting and fiddling with the settings, after the initial setup, for just looking at the night sky. 

[Herbig]

If you are in no hurry, buy a good pair of binos and save for your shed and the scope you really want.

[art-101]

Hadn't thought of a pair of binos.

Any particular suggestions?

[Jim Steele]

Hadn't thought of a pair of binos.

Any particular suggestions?

I have the olympus dps 1 10x50 bins which cost around £50 from amazon. Nice wide field views

Ps

Welcome to SGL

[Vox45]

Hello Arthur, welcome to the forum

Clear skies!

[art-101]

Clear skies, check.

Knew I was forgetting something.

I'll have to order some books tomorrow when I get into work.

Thanks folks.

[RichM63]

There is a big difference between binos and telescopes.

But...

My 20x80 bins get used all the time. They are at the limit as to what can be hand held and usually reside on a tripod.

Certainly Bins can get you to pretty much all the Messier Objects and beyond. See Binocular Skies.

For £200, hang fire until the New Year, there will be a plethora of telescopes on the S/H sites. I bought my 200P EQ5 at around that price in Feb.

[art-101]

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone.

All very useful.

The girlfriend has suggested that I just save up for a few more months and get something larger and asked what the options were.

I showed her the SW Skyliner 150, 200 and 250 from FLO for £198, £278 and £435 respectively and even she is pointing me towards the 250p which is fine by me.

Getting it down the steps might be task in itself but I'm sure I'll manage.

Stack of reading to do before then though as well as working out what exactly she wants to counter my spending the better part of 500 quid on a telescope 

[happy-kat]

If storage to observing location is lengthy or involves stairs or is both setting up might become a chore quite quickly especially as the weather is so changeable you might find you don't bother. Some setups are pretty heavy too.

Getting to a shop or local club session will give an appreciation of size and awkwardness of equipment so you could relate what would work for your circumstances.

[art-101]

There aren't a lot of steps, 4 average size stone steps outside of the conservatory where it would be stored leading straight outside to where it will be used.

Luckily I've found the Sunderland Astronomical Society a very short drive from where I live and they have their first meeting of the year on Sunday so I'm planning on paying them a visit and see what advice they can give and what kit they suggest.

Usain Bolt could run to the beach from my house in the time it takes him to do the 200 metres so light pollution isn't too bad which is always a good thing.

[Peter Drew]

Always listen to the girlfriend, they know what's best. 

[bingevader]

Shed and big dob, easy.

To be honest, Olly's point about your other choices was what first came to mind with me, unless you are going to store them disassembled.

My OTA lives in a box in the shed with the mount on top, so I don't lug it around assembled unless I want to shift position once out in the garden.

[art-101]

Always listen to the girlfriend, they know what's best. 

One ex-wife down so I'd disagree although if the girlfriend reads this they are always right.