GOTO confusion

[irhut]

Hello all,

I am having a bit of trouble deciding on a scope. I currently have a skywatcher heritage 130p which I have really enjoyed using. However due to having a young family I don't get much time now to look out at the stars. I therefore decided to get a GOTO scope and put in an order for a Sky-Watcher Star Discovery 150P Computerised Go-To Reflector for around £380. However I was contacted and told there are none available for at least a month.

I have spent the day looking at other options and have decided to spend a bit more, but I can't decide which direction to go in. I want to look at dso and planets and be able to do simple photography using webcam. Occasionally I will want to play with my DSLR - but nothing serious. Being able to chuck the scope in the car would also be good. I am looking at

Skywatcher Explorer 200P EQ5 GOTO - £708

Skywatcher Explorer 150P-DS EQ-5 PRO GOTO - £715

Skywatcher Skyliner 200P FlexTube GOTO - £749 (Dobsonian)

All 3 of these are a similar price. The flextube is appealing as it is more portable but I am not sure how a big dobsonian would handle. Not sure what advantage the DS bit brings to the 150.

I have also been looking at

Celestron NexStar 6 SE Computerised Telescope

This looks interesting as it seems very portable.

Then I saw this - Skywatcher Explorer 150P-DS EQ3-2 / EQ3 PRO GOTO - £406 Which is more in line with what I can actually afford but I am worried that the eq3 mount would be too flimsy.

Basically I am completely lost with where to go so any help/thoughts would be hugely appreciated!

Ian

[jambouk]

Ian

Can you get to a local astronomy club event, and look at the various scopes and look through them, and inspect the various mounts. And speak to the people who own them and find out if they'd recommend that scope for you.

If the £700 mark isn't going to cripple you for months on end, i'd go with one of the eq5 goto set ups. You need to investigate if it is easy to achieve focus with a dslr in these scopes. If you want to do planetary web cam imaging too you need a barlow or powermate of better quality than the stock one which potentially comes with the scope, factor this cost in, and the webcam and modifications you need to make. How are you going to power the mount in the field? Factor this cost in too.

James

[Kropster]

The 150 PDS will be good for DSLR as you will be able to focus which may not be possible with the  standard 'P' scopes.

I have the EQ3-2 Pro which would be okay for the 150 PDS but probably not the 200P.

If you can afford it, go for the EQ5 mount.

If you want to do any photography, the Dobsonian won't be much good due to field rotation. You really need an equatorial mount for photography.

Just beware that you can be led along the path of..."If I spend just a little more, then I can get a...."!!

[mart1nw]

Hi Ian,

Let me take you through part of my life. 

I've always been interested in the night sky. About 8 years ago, at great expense compared to my expendable income, I bought a Meade ETX90 + (this bit is important) t-ring. It was useless. It picked useless stars for alignment and although I was amazed at the four moons of jupiter, I couldn't photograph anything.

Of it went on eBay..

Fast forward 8 or so years. Children have arrived but still my obsession is with the night sky.

I'm going to get another telescope I tell her!

Lots of reviews - 130P Heritage arrives.

OMG - everything I wanted, fantastic jupiter, orion....... I'm sorted.

Now lets find Andromeda.... Push and pull, up and down. Can I find it? Can I hell?

(I did find it in the end)

Sod that, I need goto....

Now the bit you are interested in....

I bough the 200p EQ5 GOTO mount. Now, it won't surprise anyone that knows me but I'm short and fat and need glasses. With the 200p on the mount, I needed to lie on the floor to polar align - I might have been missing something but it wasn't for me. It went back.

In exchange for.... the 200P flextop goto...

OMG, what a beast. If I could keep typing OMG I would. Simple set up. easy to use, visually, tracks nicely. Perfect.

I bought a NextImage 5 camere - superb. From a small, bright, circle in the sky to my avatar - love it. Can't fault it.

But....

Going back to those first days. Why did I buy a t-ring? why did I want to connect a camera to the telescope? It is because I really do want photo's and it's not really up to it ... The spending continues.

I really do recommend the 200P Flextube goto and if you want to see one, PM me, I'm not far away.

[irhut]

Hello all,

Thanks for all your responses. Very helpful. mart1nw - really interesting to hear your story. I too am short, overweight and wear glasses! Many thanks for the offer of coming to see your 200p flextube, but having two weeks off over Easter where i want to play with a new scope and being extremely impatient I would greatly appreciate it if you could answer a couple of questions.

1. How easy is it to move the 200p around - I would like to take it out every now and again.

2. As far as I am aware GOTO scopes need to be levelled - how does this work with the dob? (I had a very unlevel back garden)

Does anyone have any thoughts on the Celestron NexStar 6 SE Computerised Telescope?

Cheers

Ian

[mart1nw]

Hello all,

Thanks for all your responses. Very helpful. mart1nw - really interesting to hear your story. I too am short, overweight and wear glasses! Many thanks for the offer of coming to see your 200p flextube, but having two weeks off over Easter where i want to play with a new scope and being extremely impatient I would greatly appreciate it if you could answer a couple of questions.

1. How easy is it to move the 200p around - I would like to take it out every now and again.

2. As far as I am aware GOTO scopes need to be levelled - how does this work with the dob? (I had a very unlevel back garden)

Does anyone have any thoughts on the Celestron NexStar 6 SE Computerised Telescope?

Cheers

Ian

Hi Ian,

I don't have to be worried about moving the scope as I'm fortunate to live in a village with no street lights. I have a bit of LP from Cheltenham to the south but East is really good. I don't travel with any of my scopes.

Lugging it around the house isn't too much of a problem but I wouldn't want to walk far carrying it from a car.

With regard to levelling, again, as it only goes out into the back garden, on a patio, it's not really a problem. When aligned, the accuracy is pretty good. When I use the tour function, the desired object is usually there.

HTH

Martin

[Tinker1947]

I have a Skywatcher 300P GoTo Dob, it sits on a very level slab, 2 star align and it will place anything you aim it at in the FOV  (17mm Naglar) i just use a 30mm 68' EP to align just centre the chosen star you could change  to a high power and recentering would make it more accurate.....

[irhut]

I love this forum! Martin, one of the slight frustrations with the heratige is that you need to sit it on a table. Is this the case with the 200p or does the larger size allow you to use it on the floor? Because of the wine I am probably going to order something tonight! (I can always cancel in the morning)

[mart1nw]

I love this forum! Martin, one of the slight frustrations with the heratige is that you need to sit it on a table. Is this the case with the 200p or does the larger size allow you to use it on the floor? Because of the wine I am probably going to order something tonight! (I can always cancel in the morning)

Ha! Hmmm.... Wine

It sits on the floor. Nice height. You can use a chair for viewing most of the time. Although I have no affiliation with them, if you do order, use the site sponsor - First Light Optics - I can throughly recommend them.

I'm pretty sure, if you are only interested in visual, you won't be sending it back.

Martin

[Kropster]

Don't forget...dobs are very nice for visual, but if you ever want to do DSLR astrophotography you are ruling it out by going for one.

[garryblueboy]

The flex tube are great scopes I'm on my third and portable to , the 200p and 250p easily manageable above that they get quite heavy mine is a two person lift . Goto works well but it helps if you level the tube first .

[irhut]

Again, many thanks for all your thoughts. I managed to resist ordering last night - despite the wine!

I don't think I have ever been so indecisive about anything in my live!

It is now between a Dobson or EQ5 mount.

[cotterless45]

Good ! If you can get to see and look through scopes and talk to observers, you'll be better informed to make a choice. Try a local group, stargazers are a friendly generous bunch,

Nick.

[Astrosurf]

Combining visual and astrophotgraphy is a trade-off. For visual, you tend to need more aperture, but for AP, large aperture isn't so important. For small objects my 200P is great and for the larger nebulae I use my 72mm frac. The 200P's also great for planets with a Barlow.

I used my 200P on my HEQ5 Pro mount for a long time before I got the frac, and I love it. It's extremely sensitive to any breeze, but still does well. I autoguide with it.

The 150mm/130mm Newts are supposed to be good all-rounders and are lighter, but I don't know about the focusing issues with them. So check out P and P-DS versions for both visual and AP with First Light Optics (FLO). they're brilliant at helping!

The HEQ5 Pro mount is very expensive and at the limits of its capacity with the 200P, supposedly. Check the EQ5 Pro's weight capacity with FLO.

See my attempts at imaging in my sig block!

Alexxx

[shotokan101]

Don't forget...dobs are very nice for visual, but if you ever want to do DSLR astrophotography you are ruling it out by going for one.

Sorry for the Noob question but why is this ? my son is looking to get a first scope and is looking at an Orion Skyquest XT8 PLUS Dobsonian and possibly a Telrad Red Dot Finder (all greek to me)

I'm a keen amtuer photographer and would probably like to be able to borrow his kit for some astrophotography 

Also interested in any alternative options that might be better - UK based myself

And finally is it possible to add/modify the Orion model above to add computer controller functionality afterwards ?

Thanks

Jim

 

[Kropster]

Sorry for the Noob question but why is this ? my son is looking to get a first scope and is looking at an Orion Skyquest XT8 PLUS Dobsonian and possibly a Telrad Red Dot Finder (all greek to me)

I'm a keen amtuer photographer and would probably like to be able to borrow his kit for some astrophotography 

Also interested in any alternative options that might be better - UK based myself

And finally is it possible to add/modify the Orion model above to add computer controller functionality afterwards ?

Thanks

Jim

 

On an equatorial mount, the axis of the mount is parallel to that of the Earth and hence by rotating about this axis, the scope follows the stars...which appear to stand still in the field of view as the mount exactly cancels out the rotation of the Earth and twists as it goes across the sky from East to West.

A Dobsonian mount moves left to right and up and down..... you can move it to follow a star, but the field of view rotates about the central point as you move to follow the star and the dobsonian scope doesn't twist to compensate for this as the equatorial does... so you will get star trails around the central point. Not good for long exposure astrophotography!

[shotokan101]

On an equatorial mount, the axis of the mount is parallel to that of the Earth and hence by rotating about this axis, the scope follows the stars...which appear to stand still in the field of view as the mount exactly cancels out the rotation of the Earth and twists as it goes across the sky from East to West.

A Dobsonian mount moves left to right and up and down..... you can move it to follow a star, but the field of view rotates about the central point as you move to follow the star and the dobsonian scope doesn't twist to compensate for this as the equatorial does... so you will get star trails around the central point. Not good for long exposure astrophotography!

Thanks - I understand now

JIm

[irhut]

Hello all,

Many thanks for all your advice and help.  In the end I went for the 150p on eq3 mount.  I know this goes against some  of your advice but I went for this for a number  of reasons:

1. Cost - I could not really justify spending more!

2. I wanted to learn how to use an EQ mount as I know that in the future I will want to get into photography.

3. I wanted it to be reasonably easy to move to a less light polluted area.  (I am going to keep my 130p dob for camping holidays)

I have had 3 clear nights to use the scope and have really enjoyed it so far.  I just can't quite get the goto system to work accurately - I will keep  trying though!

Ian

[Astrosurf]

Good luck! Ask on here for advice about the handset. It's probably best to start a new thread.