Jump to content

Banner.jpg.b83b14cd4142fe10848741bb2a14c66b.jpg

You guessed it.

Red Devil

By Red Devil
in Welcome

Recommended Posts

Red Devil

Red Devil

Posted
Posted

Yep. Another newbie :). Just to let you know, I'm new to all this, but I have been interested for quite some time. Anyway, I should be picking up as new 'scope tomoz and think I'm gonna plump for either the Skywatcher 200 dob or the Skywatcher 200 Explorer w/EQ5. My thoughts are that these are pretty much the same piece of kit, but with different mounts. (I'm sure you'll put me right though) Your thoughts on my choices appreciated pls.

Right, that's my first of many questions asked. I'm sure there'll be plenty more. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
blinky

blinky

Posted
Posted

Welcome to SGL! I am sure you will find everybody very freindly in here. :)

As for your question, you are correct the only diffrence (I assume) is in the mounts. The EQ5 is an equatorial mount, this means you can line it up with north and it can track the movement of the stars. This is important if you are going to do any astrophotography as well as being a big advantage when using high magnifications for example viewing planets. The Dobsonian mount is a alt/az mount and you push it to where you want to observe, the Dob mount has the advantage of being nice and simple to set up and requires no polar alingment. As said above if you want to get in to astrophotography I would choose the EQ5 over a dob but if that aint your bag then, well....I would still go for the EQ5 if it was within my price range, it is more flexible than a dob i.e. you can mount another scope if you get one or even have 2 scopes on the same mount. It gives the option for photography if you decide to go that way later on etc...

Its up to you though, bot setups will work very well, I dont have the skyliner scope but loads of folks on here do and it gets a good write up.

I look forward to your first light report!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
geppetto

geppetto

Posted
Posted

Welcome aboard RD, enjoy your stay here.

Hard to suggest which of your choices is the best because they

both have equal fors and againsts.

If you can manage the setting up of the EQ5 mount then as has been said,

that's a more versatile mount.

Good luck with whatever you get and report back as to how your getting on :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
garymcgrory

garymcgrory

Posted
Posted

I have the skywatcher dob and have had it for over a year now. It is a brilliant scope, love the views of both dso's and it does a good job on planetary stuff too. I think the big plus for the dob is it's ease of use, if time is an issue ( i have two kids) you can get out, set up & hunt down a load of targets and still be back in to the bosom of your family before your nads get to cold and the wife gets Humpty!

I was on a budget so the cost issue made up my mind. I would like to get into astrophotograghy in the future so i would have been better to have got the eq5 set up but money was not there and given that you need to get a bit more kit on top of the scope to start taking photo's i will leave this for a bit. My plan is to eventually buy the mount on it's own and just put the dob tube on this. A bit more expensive than buying together but i can then convert my dob base into a nice drinks holder for the colder nights!

Let us know how you get on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
FLO

FLO

Posted
Posted

...set up & hunt down a load of targets and still be back in to the bosom of your family before your nads get to cold and the wife gets Humpty!

Nicely put :)

Perhaps I should quote it on FLO's Dobsonians page :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
FLO

FLO

Posted
Posted

Ah yes (I thought we were in the equipment section).

Welcome aboard RD :)

Other than the obvious difference - the mounts - the Explorer 200 is f5 whereas the Skyliner 200 is f6. The explorer will offer wider angle views and shorter exposure times when imaging and the Skyliner 200 will be a bit less fussy over eyepiece quality, be a bit easier to collimate and offer 20% more magnification for any given eyepiece.

Hope that helps.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Kaptain Klevtsov

Kaptain Klevtsov

Posted
Posted

Welcome to SGL RD. Either one will be good, just depends on what you want it to do really.

Dobs are cheap and cheerful 'scopes (originally they were home made things) and less fussy about the setup. They don't do astrophotography at all well, but as gary said you can whack it on a mount later without any trouble. You would then have essentially two 'scopes. A grab and go Dob. or an imaging system.

Personally I'd pick the EQ5 version for no better reason than it will give you a clue where to find stuff using the calibrated setting circles on the mount. You can pimp up the Dob. to do the same but you would need to do it yourself.

Captain Chaos

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Red Devil

Red Devil

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Well thanks for the friendly reply peeps. :) I have to confess that I told a bit of a porky last night. In the end I went for the 150 x 1200 Explorer with the same mount. I'd not done me sums properly and miss calced as I have another expensive hobby too :). Anyway. You can all thank me for the :) that have rolled in over the las hour or so. Will report back when I've seen summat.

For now though, I'll read some stuff on here to try and get a hold of all the new stuff.

Just had twenty minutes and saw :saturn: for the first time. Wahey. This is easy. :D

Cheers.

RD

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 1 year later...

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.