First scope - Skywatcher 200p Dob or EQ5 mount kit

[Steve007]

Hi,

I hijacked another thread earlier about a Skywatcher but I would appreciate some advice from those with more experience about these two scopes so I thought I should leave that person's thread alone and ask my own question! Firstly, I'm a complete amateur, but have had a passion about stargazing for many years. It's now finally time to bite the bullet. 

Last night I visited someone who has the 200p Dob who is also inexperienced. We struggled a bit but managed to get a great view of Jupiter and it's banding/moons. But I did find it quite difficult to keep tracking and slight nudges meant we kept losing the image. I totally enjoyed the experience but wondered if it was the scope for me. 

So I started to look at the Skywatcher Explorer 200p with EQ5 mount kit and it sounds very good. I don't mind paying more for it (£415 vs about £280) - I was just hoping for some thoughts from anyone on these two? Is the only real difference between these two the mount? Is the EQ5 relatively easy to use?

I've read a lot about eyepieces too, I plan on purchasing a couple of decent ones for planet/galaxy viewing, I understand the scopes come with a couple already but I'm happy to complement these with some decent ones. 

Thanks in advance and I look forward to joining the stargazing community here. 

[nigelbeaumont]

I started with exactly that kit, and had a lot of fun with it. The EQ5 mount is excellent value for money, quick to set up and polar align, and tracks well. The 200p is a brilliant light bucket, and the two work very well together for visual stuff, none of the constant nudging unlike a Dob. The only downsides are that the 200p is a fair size, so not the easiest to attach to the mount if you are small or slightly built, and a bit of a faff to take to a dark site. I started astrophotography with it, and go it some good shots of M13

[nigelbeaumont]

And to finish what I was going to say, I got some good shots of M13, M57 etc - but the 200p is at the upper limit of the EQ5's capacity for imaging, soni bit the bullet and upgraded to an EQ6

[laudropb]

Nudging with the 200p Dob becomes quite easy with practice. The problem with the EQ5 mount is the bother of setting up and the strange positions the Eye piece can end up in. I went for the Dob and have never regretted it

[nigelbeaumont]

Horses for courses - I'm glad I got an equatorial mount because I live in a light polluted area and it allowed me to image objects using light pollution filters that I couldn't visually observe (and I get a lot more imaging done from my back garden than driving 30 minutes to a dark site). If I lived somewhere with dasrk sdkies, I'd probably have bought a Dob and done a lot more visual stuff

[damnut]

If you have not used an eq mount, then I would say either find a local dealer which may have one on display, or find your local astro club and see one close to. The eq5 is a sturdy mount and once set up you only need to track in one axis.

The best scope is the one you use the most, make a considered choice after you have had a go with the eq mounted scope. Else it may gather dust...

[Steve007]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Much appreciated. 

I like the suggestion of trying one at a local dealer or club, I'll look around and see what I have close enough to me that might have one. 

I'm sure I could get used to the Dob, I really only tried it once and I can see already from looking around this forum that lots of people are using it (and are very happy). 

I won't rush into it, I've waited years already, a bit more research and time spent is going to be worth it. 

[JEF]

I think I am in a similar position to yourself (so take my opinions as inexperienced), starting out and thinking about a first scope, all in goo time. I am tending more towards the EQ mounts because

a) it will make finding objects easier and quicker when the opportunities arise

and

if I find that I want a different or even a second scope then I could sell the Newtonian tube and keep a decent mount for my upgrade.

[JEF]

Sorry about that emoji?/smiley face, that was supposed to be a 'point B', I'm just new to this

[damnut]

It may take a bit of getting used to but the 200p dob has a fierce reputation as a great scope. It also has enough aperture to keep you happy for a while before aperture fever hits and you have bought one of these babies  :---- http://www.sumerianoptics.com/en/

[Xiionn]

Do you have kids? Reason i ask is that a push to dob wont be much good if young kids are involved. The other night i had my daughters party and had 7 10-11 year olds looking at Jupiter, i cant count how many small knocks and bumps the EQ5 took in its stride, anything push to would have been pushed from! I also have a 9 year old, and when she looks through the skope she almost always grabs the end to bring her eye close! Just a thought.

I personally found setting up a dob a total pain in my field. I live in an almost black site, no light polution at all. But my field is on a hill, and the horses are in it. Therefore getting a flat and stable surface to mount  my friends dob was a bit of an ordeal, it wobbled a bit. A Tripod is a tripod, so apart from a little faffing levelling it up and polar aligning it...it will go up on the side of a mountain! That, and as i said earlier in the other post, the nudging was for me, a total pain. I would however totally get a Synscan Dob if my site was flat and level like a patio in the garden, without a second thought. Its lower, easy to push to target and would probably be easier to set up....but its £750. Its also not really much cop if you wanted to get into photography. A Dob, even with tracking is no good for astrophotography. Imagers almost exclusively use NEQ6 and above mounts. So if you get a Dob, its really for viewing, not photography. So £750 seems a bit of an investment for just viewing.

[glowjet]

The 200P is a most excellent scope and very popular. From the may varied accounts I have read on the forum, the scope is doable mounted on the EQ5 system, for observing and the occasional image. If you think you may eventually want to go down the photographic route, it is worthwhile thinking about the EQ6, which is more capable at handling the scope. You do not have to buy new, a good quality s/h EQ6  would perhaps suit your purposes just as well 

[almcl]

I am still a relative newb, but haven't regretted my 200p/EQ5 purchase. It works well and for visual a rough polar align is all that is needed. Motor drives were added and they keep an object in view for hours, as well as providing 'fine tuning' of object position in the field of view. Most recently have modified the EQ5 to allow guiding for astrophotography and am surprised at how well it does that, too.

I didn't enjoy using a very large push-to dob last year - kept loosing the object and had to ask its owner to find it for me! (He always did and very cheerfully, but it was a pain, all the same.)

[Steve007]

Good points. Yes, I do have kids, 12 & 7 so I think the nudging issue you have is something I'm likely to encounter! 

I'm not much of a photography person (well, except for the obligatory family shots) and while I can't rule it out, I don't think it's something I'm going to be looking at in the near future. I have long been amazed at the night sky and my aim right now is to get some time outside (without kids most of the time...) and just to see how many different things I can see. And to enjoy finding them. 

Is Polar aligning essential with the EQ5? And how easy would it be for someone who's never tried...?

[ronl]

I fitted the dual axis motors to my EQ5, easy to fit and well worth doing,

you don't have to upgrade straight away, I waited and picked up a bargain

from Astroboot, they work extremely well, the EQ5 is very good and sturdy too. 

[Astro Imp]

Is Polar aligning essential with the EQ5? And how easy would it be for someone who's never tried...?

For purely visual observing Polar alignment doesn't need to be spot on. Put the mount with the leg marked "N" pointing north and adjust the declination to match your geographic latitude. This will put you in the right ball park. Having done that bring Polaris to the centre of a high power eyepiece by adjusting the declination and azimuth on the mount. By using the right ascension slow mo with just an occasional tweak to the declination the target is kept in view. To be honest having done this a few times I have got lazy and now put my mount out and line the spigot on the mount with north using a compass and find this good enough.

Don't let Polar alignment put you off, once you see the principal it's not that scary.

HTH.

[Steve007]

Thanks, that's really helpful to know -  it doesn't sound too scary!

[Xiionn]

Even doing it with a polar scope isnt too much of a faff. For visual i set my friends cheapo EQ mount up by just pointing one leg North, aiming the scope down that leg, setting the Declination to 51deg (Here in the UK) and that's good enough to track Jupiter manually for ages. On my scope, i point the "N" leg north using a compass app,  level the base which takes a minute, put the mount on, and use the polar scope to align the pole star. Takes a couple of minutes. If you are using the same spot each time you view, like in a garden, then you only need to do it once and the mount is set. You can then either leave the legs out and cover them, or like me, paint three spots on the ground where the legs go. I am in my own field so i put three flagstones down and painted three spots in silver car paint.

There are some excellent Utube vids on setting up EQ5 mounts and how to polar align with and without a polarscope. You can honestly make it as complicated as you like. Me, I'm almost OCD, so i have two different boat levels, a pen level, compass and a fine tip permanent marker for marking "home position", I spent an hour getting everything spot on level and fixing it there. Probably another hour setting the perfect home position of the mount with levels and markers, and finally about an hour making sure the polarscope was perfectly aligned with no drift. However i only had to do this once, and to be honest its massive overkill for viewing!

[Astro Imp]

Thanks, that's really helpful to know -  it doesn't sound too scary!

Glad to help, have fun.