Luke

Thanks Garry! I just dug out these weights, I am not sure if they are definitely correct: Evostar 100ED: 3kg Equinox 120ED: 6.5 Kg Evostar 150ED: 9.5kg Celestron C11: 12.5kg My effortometer: ED100 - a breeze! Equinox 120 - okay, but I tend to grab the 100 for quick sessions! ED150 - in between the 120 and C11! Celetron C11 - I found this a bit more of a heft up to the mount than I care for now! I have become very lazy!!! Hmmm, it is still tempting! Especially if it would be okay on the HEQ5 (I used an NEQ6 for the C11, which I no longer have). Temptations, temptations!

Congrats! This scope is very tempting for me! My main concern, apart from I would have to sell something to fund it as I have no job at the mo, is the size and weight. My F9 ED100 is a breeze to use despite being quite long, as it is so light also. My Equinox 120 does feel a bit weighty but okay, though weighty enough that I often grab the 100 for quick views. Would this monster come out to play enough for lazy me? And I imagine my HEQ5 might not be up to the task! But, but, it keeps nagging me that this would be as big as I would go with a frac, it looks great value, so why not? It would complete my frac lineup (60mm, 85mm, 100mm, 120mm). My current solution to running out of frac aperture when I have the fever is to use a Celestron Edge 8 SCT, which for me has a hint of refractor about it. But is still some way short of the frac experience (not that it is meant to rival fracs on their own terms - it has its own plus points, like compact tube). I have the ED100 and 120 and love 'em! John's issues were a little concerning, but I have only good things to say about the several Skywatcher scopes I have owned and would not be put off given some time has passed also. Ahhhh, those sweet, sweet fracs!

It's out of stock! Did you pull the trigger? I'm just relieved FLO has not put up any of the stuff tempting me lately! Like the Skywatcher ED150 (I'm not taking one of John's old ones though, haha). Or one of those fancy little Tele Vue Delites. Or the Nagler 3-6mm zoom!

Nice one, Charl! Lots of mist our way today!

Very nice! Despite the dodgy seeing!

Very nice! I was lucky to catch a view today, it's so nice to have a decent spot on the rampage again!

Very nice! If I rotate it 180 degrees I think I can make out the number '3' I could see lit up when observing this avo! Those lightbridges or whatever they are called ("strands" connecting one side of the big spot to the other) looked glorious at the eyepiece and have come out lovely in your image too.

Very nice, I especially like the colours!

I was lucky to have a look today in white light and h-alpha. That big spot is a beauty! In h-alpha there was a bright "3" shape that I hope to see in someone's capture! I'm wondering if my wife's Quark has a problem though. We're getting a lot of glow in the eyepiece which is drowning out the proms a bit unless your eye is at a very specific angle. I'll have to do a side-by-side test versus my Quark sometime (which has a bit of a dirty view, alas) so I see them both in the same conditions.

What is it about the 12 inch goto dob that you are finding takes more and more of an effort? Is it the size and weight? I currently use a 10 inch solid tube dob and find that to be very low hassle, apart from it is manual, but I kinda like learning to find stuff anyhow, so it works okay for me. I did try deep sky imaging with a C11 and focal reducer and I did find that a lot of hassle really, far more hassle than using a dob. With hindsight I wish I had started with a fast refractor for imaging, and with an SCT for deep sky I think an obervatory would be useful. I did tire of setting up an SCT for deep sky imaging from scratch every time. I ended up switching to solar imaging and a bit of lunar, which I found to be less hassle for my situation. You only need to capture say 1 minute of video for a shot, and your alignment doesn't need to be as good. But ya need to like the sun! (and of course have the right solar safety filters).

For me, the best scope for clarity on the moon and planets up to £300 is an 8 inch dobsonian. Unfortunately the Skywatcher 200P is probably not available for a while. It has no goto, but the moon and planets are usually much easier to find than fainter stuff like galaxies, as you have a very bright spot/huge moon to aim for in the finder scope! A goto setup would keep the object in the view, whereas with a dobsonian, you have to manually nudge it every now and then. You do get used to nudging dobs, I find. When it comes to the moon and planets, in general, the larger the aperture of the telescope, the finer the detail it can show you, IF CONDITIONS ARE GOOD ENOUGH. How good conditions are typically can vary greatly depending on where you live. Most nights here I find that my 8 inch scope doesn't show much more detail than a 5 inch on the moon. But I still find the 8 inch worth it for when I do get good, stable seeing now and again and it can show the finer details it is capable of! That said, the compact smaller scopes also have their appeal, e.g. they may be easier to take with you on holiday or easier to move around. Maybe you would rather have goto and tracking or a smaller dob than occassional finer detail close-up views. These are all lovely scopes with their own advantages and disadvantages. Good luck picking the winner!

#3 Red Light Torch Preserves my night vision yet allows me to look up targets in my astro books out in the field. My friend Bob didn't have one and he fell down a well. All’s not well that ends well! #2 Focusers We’ve replaced the focuser on most of our scopes. I enjoy using a good quality focuser. Bob kept his stock ones and his Radian eyepiece fell in a cow pat and ever since had a strong tint. #1 Tele Vue Paracorr Coma Corrector Our 10 inch dob has okay optics, but when we stick the Paracorr in, it really tidies up the view. Bob used a home-made coma corrector and thought Betelgeuse had gone supernova.

I used to open the window too for solar imaging. It got a bit nippy in winter. But part of me thinks it would be really cool to just shoot through the window glass anyway! It's been pretty cloudy our way in Bedfordshire the past few weeks, Scotland must be sunnier!!!

Sweet shots! Silly question: window open or closed?! Very exciting that things are starting to kick off into the new solar cycle! Hope you are in tip-top condition soon, pesky virus. Some sunshine vitamin through the window can't harm! ☀️

Very nice! Looks like some good resoloution. Congrats on the new scope. It looks very sweet and well made! Focuser looks decent too.

Sweet! Nice bit of activity this morning! Nice to see those stumpy "horns" behind the big spot. I didn't spot any loops at the eyepiece earlier on. You're much younger than I imagined you.

It was a real treat this morning when I looked in white light to be greeted by that big spot on the limb! In h-alpha there was a reasonable sort of double prom not too far away. And in the area behind the big spot were a couple of stumpy bits sticking out. It's very exciting to be early in the new solar cycle with a decent spot hopefully a taste of things to come! 🎉

I've not seen a really big coronal mass ejection at the eyepiece in h-alpha. It's on the bucket list!

Nice one, Steve, that's a lovely view to brighten up a cold, rainy day here!

Wow, they're sweet shots! The PST mod to my eyes is returning fab detail. My largest frac is 120mm and I am not at all tempted by the Sky-Watcher Evostar 150ED DS-Pro... (I love the SW 100 F9 and 120 F7.5!) I hope you get some calmer weather.

Nicely done, Dave, that's the main prom as I remember it! The seeing appeared a bit rubbish our way at first, though we were lucky and it steadied for 5-10 mins, before falling off again. During that better period I did bag a nice view of some prom remnants some way off the disc.

Thanks for keeping guard! Well done Dave bagging it. I was lucky to have some clear yesterday morning. Nice to see the spot and there was another interesting - but spotless - area. A few okay proms worth looking at. Plus I could see some remnants of proms that had broken away. The sun is getting a bit low in the sky and I had the mount raised to max height and my wife Sarah was struggling to get a view!

Congrats on your new scope, Mihai! It's quite a sharp looking unit as well! That's some feb detail on the moon! A 10 inch solid tube dob or thereabouts is such a lovely, practical scope. Great bang for buck. Awesome on the moon and planets, very capable for deep sky, very little hassle, and only takes a moment to pop out, to be ready to be used in an instant. And just as quick to pop back in if the clear patch never arrives! No great effort to move around. Have fun!

That should be a cracker on the moon and planets! And very capable if you want to do some deep sky observing as well. Yeah I guess it is a heavy piece of kit, I found my C11 11 inch SCT doable but a handful, and if the info I have here is correct, the C11 is 12.47 kg and the 250PDS is 14.4kg. Those weights are not so bad in themselves but when you have to lift them up to the mount on a regular basis, it does take some effort. I always use to grimmace a bit before lifting the C11 up to the mount! I have had heavier tubes for dobsonian mounts, but those are not too bad for me as the mounts are low down so I don't have to lift the tubes that high. That said, I have eaten far too many Jaffa cakes, so you may find it a snap! I would say don't be put off of trying to do deep sky imaging with it if you are really set on it, though a short fast refractor like an 80mm F6 or so would be an easier start for deep sky imaging, its shorter focal length would mean you could get away with less accurate tracking/polar alignment (I tried mainly with the C11 and with hindsight wish I had started with my 80mm refractor - I was wanting to chase galaxies but it was not the easiest start). But an 80mm scope is going to give you nothing like the close-up detail the 10 inch scope would do on the moon and planets, and the 10 inch will be much more capable on observing deek sky objects. I would recommend start with the moon if you go ahead with imaging with the 250, there is plenty to do on the moon with the changing angle of light and the detail you should get from the moon in good conditions with a good 10 inch reflector should blow your socks off! Planets would be lovely too in good conditions. I am slightly tempted to get a 250PDS myself, if it would be easy enough to use it with my existing GSO 10 inch dobsonian base. Have fun!