bomberbaz

I bought one months back, it has had no real light yet but a long with the others I will testify to the fantastic build, A1.

A review of the explore scientific version. Looks a decent piece of kit. https://youtu.be/Dlz-w3DGF-8

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-250px-flextube-dobsonian.html Then to be fair this version is far easier to setup but is quite a bit heavier than the truss option, you should be aware of both what is required to set up and your own physical capabilities before you commit to either of the above but both are flexible options aimed at maximizing your viewing potential.

Another option is a truss type arrangement. These do take a short while to setup, is a little bit more expensive but would certainly be maximizing your light grasp. I have a similar version in 14" and it isn't a big deal moving as such, but I accepted the setup of this at the outset, I knew exactly what I was letting myself in for. https://www.harrisontelescopes.co.uk/acatalog/explore-scientific-ultra-light-10-dobsonian.html#SID=1644

There was a 10 minute gap in the cloud earlier that I took quick advantage of to try out the recently acquired 76.5mm/F16 along with the new sVbony zoom. Not a lot you can gain or say from such a short session, although what was a good start is the OTA is in conservatory which is currently unheated so was already pre-cooled. What I can say is the OTA is surprisingly stable on the skytee 2. There were some slight concerns over a slight dent in the ota tube up near by the objective but @Peter Drew assured me that it should be fine in an F16 configuration and this appeared to be the case on a defocused star, so the dent will be simply filled and ota resprayed later. The sVbony zoom was silky smooth in use and eye placement was very comfortable with no aberrations or other eye ball to eye guard issues apparent in the short spell. The views on Jupiter were ok but it was a pretty poor sky due to smoke and gunk in the sky. So it would be unreasonable to expect a real "visual" review of the gear used, but it was a very encouraging 10 minutes none the less.

My honest reply is concentrate on visual until you gain experience, as @Elp says entry level gear to get you going in both visual and photography would mean you getting two lots of gear such as a seestars and a 200mm aperture dobsonian. So you have observing options available, I do like this version from stellaLyra StellaLyra 8" f/6 Dobsonian | First Light Optics but there are at least 3 other 8" (200mm) dobsonian available with FLO. This one has very good mirrors, an half decent 30mm eyepiece along with a 9mm plossl, a mirror cooling fan and dual speed focuser. There is a lot to like. A month on some dark island with this would be a fantastic way of getting the best out of this instrument. Oh and an FYI, I have seen confirmed colour in just three objects, the blue snowball nebula (NGC 7662), the orion nebula (M42) and the ring nebula (M57), all needed fairly high magnification and very, very dark skies.

Oh and I would get a better diagonal than the 45 degree one supplied, cheap ones are available to get you going and you can update your setup to better stuff once you get into the swing of things. One bit of advice often metered out is to get used to existing equipment before you upgrade, this usually refers to eyepiece however I would immediately upgrade the diagonal as mentioned above as it can be posted together with the telescope, see diagonal below: Astro Essentials 90º Mirror Diagonal | First Light Optics

Given you have apparent excellent skies and will be joining in with her plus your preference for traditional as well as portable along with ease of use you really won't go far wrong with one of these: Sky-Watcher Evostar 90 (AZ3) | First Light Optics You have a reasonable aperture for a begginer scope, it is a traditional telescope in appearance and as mentioned is easy to move around as well, sturdy and also simple to use.

I agree with this sentiment entirely However I will caveat that many kids will also be equally blown away with the tech side of things. That is why I liked the seestar, dwarf idea. I guess it will depend on the individual child, much as our own observing depends upon us. For me, DSO rules, although I started out as a planetary man!

do you also guide with sharpcap kate?

i would add that last year I used the now sold evscope with my grandson ( age 8 ) and his dad who were both amazed by the unfolding image before theirs eyes. Whilst this was happening I was able to explain what they were seeing, how far away etc and this allows a far more interactive experience. I think the interactivity of such equipment allows you to remain far more engaged with an audience over looking through an eyepiece and will be more likely to lead to a positive and longer experience for the child involved. (PS sorry for sounding like a salesman 🤣)

I am with the seestars (or similar) by @Elp, sorry but however much us dinosaurs hate it, that is the future for a significant majority number of the upcoming astronomers. Kids these days live in their phones, if she hasn't got one already, she will by 14. I bought then sold an evscope, sold because although I liked it, I didn't use it enough to validate it's investment but I got how it would be "cool" for the newer generation. Tech is the future for many. Cheers all Steve

I had a moment when I bought the APM Superzoom and after just a few uses of the zoom, I found that all glass of a fixed focal length in the same range was not being used. There were high quality glass too (TV, Nikon, Pentax) so after a little soul searching I let all fixed focal length glass go and I will be honest, they haven't really been missed. My 2 remaining fixed length glass have specialised uses, general viewing is now all zoom based. However it took X thousands of £££££ to come to the realisation 🤣 The most recent svbony zoom is aimed towards my F16 frac but seeing as 4 of the zooms all have 8mm in their range, I will try to put together some kind of comparison at some point using that frac and the 100ED.

Good shout John, I hadn't considered this comparison as I only clicked the buy button last night on a whim. I will bolt the 102ED onto the spare clamp of the skytee 2, I think this will sit in the sweet spot for both those zooms. It might be also interesting to try using the 90mm F5.5, although CA might be an issue at that magnification on brighter objects, we'll see when we get a clear sky, oh erm 😁. I should have also said the 76 F16, that would potentially be a great test, exciting times!

A certain online retailer beginning with A which seemed to be competitively priced and offered instant replacement and/or return. 1p under 50 quid too. I do feel a tad guilty (maybe the wrong word) buying their gear for reasons I will leave out of this forum but sometimes price / quality have to be given priority.

I couldn't resist buying this following so many good reviews and such a crazily low price. I hope it is this one and not the 7.2-21.5 version

Sorry don't want to hijack the thread with this question but I am sure OP will find it useful too. Does sharpcap allow for guiding at all? I found the plate solving easily enough but can't find anything on guiding! Steve

Oh wow both are sublime but the wide field is spectacular. Kudos for taking the time and effort in getting so much data,

I don't know if you bought a laptop yet but I currently run a Ryzen 7 (only 8gb ram though) for leisure purposes and it is as fast as hell. Plus a little searching will show you that they are less expensive than intel processors who have been having us along with their pricing for a few years until the ryzen came along. It was my local pc shop (independents) who told me this. My pc and both laptops are now ryzen based systems and none have ever given me problems. 100% agree that get one with SSD, actually don't know if they do laptops with HDD. Not sure you actually need 16GB ram but getting it does offer some future proofing. Curry's have a great Lenovo (good brand) with touch screen. I have a touch screen for work, I may make it into an EEVA laptop when I retire, they are so easy to use and could easily see touch screen being very beneficial in the dark. Laptop

Hello all, decided to join in on this, I will be using a project rebuilt Prinz Astral 60mm F12 on a Skytee 2 with a 76mm F16 PAstral alongside to do instant revisits on objects that demand that little bit more. All we need now are clear skies, oh erm 🤪🤣 Steve

Well we still doing it, I still hop on the skytee 2 with my fracs, just that less and less use of paper and more use of electronic maps but I get what you mean.

Bingo, ss7 plus does it. It looks a very interesting app with a lot of functionality. I shall have a proper look later, cheers

query, is it plus or pro I want?

Nothing wrong with that approach John, I used to do that too before I became more aware of what I wanted to (hopefully) achieve. I can't do your approach these days, my sky knowledge is suffering due to lack of practice.

Can't seem to find this option, the help menu makes no mention of it being available but I assume 7 has the option needed for my dobs DSC to work. I will upgrade to SS7, seems a more sophisticated option, hope I can share my lists. Think I have seen mention of this somewhere in help menu.