Still deciding!

[George!]

Sorry people who get annoyed about me and these posts but you are here to help arnt you? It's come down to the Skywatcher 200p Dob and the flextube auto version (would be eventually upgraded to goto) The focal ratios are only F5.91 and F6 (in order) and to be honest it's not much of a bother! Please vote and do not shout at me for my picks.

Many thanks and apologies to those who I can not please,

[Carl M]

It depends on whether you are going to upgrade later on...If you buy a flextube you won't be able to upgrade it and put it on an EQ mount later on if you decide to. Are you staying with visual and then going to start imaging on an equatorial? If so the skyliner would be preferable as you can just take it off the dob, attach tube rings and a dovetail and put it on an equatorial. Different story with the flextubes.

[Pete Presland]

i would save my pennies,and scour the for sale section for something on a eq mount.heq5 minimum if you want to take photo's of dso's

[Spikey]

Get the 200p dob to get you going and drop it onto a GEM at a later date.

[JamesM]

I agree with Spikey and go for the 200p. Better to buy kit that's worth keeping because it gives you options rather than going down the reselling route by which you lose money.

James

[John]

George - I think you will find that the optics of these scopes are all exactly the same - it's just that sometimes the focal ratio is "rounded up" when it's quoted.

So the performance / views will be the same. The decision you have to make (at the end of the day it is you ) is manual v driven v GOTO. Your budget could influence that but none of them are "better" scopes - just slightly different in the mount department

[swamp thing]

George - I think you will find that the optics of these scopes are all exactly the same - it's just that sometimes the focal ratio is "rounded up" when it's quoted.

So the performance / views will be the same. The decision you have to make (at the end of the day it is you ) is manual v driven v GOTO. Your budget could influence that but none of them are "better" scopes - just slightly different in the mount department

John has hit the nail squarely on the head here. The scopes are the same you just have to decide on a mount and that can only be YOUR choice.

Good luck with your decision

Steve

[sgazer]

Depends if you ever want to do imaging. The dobs auto will allow short exposures, but an EQ mount will allow longer exposures. If you just want visual, then go for the dobs auto. The focal ratio on a Newt doesn't really matter for visual.