Which Telescope should I Buy ?

[TROJAN]

Hi I only joined your forum today... I am a 44 year old male living in Southern England and have just become interested in astonony> ( since viewing Jupiter through a pair of binoculars and seeing what may or may not been its moons ) - I would like to buy a good quality telescope which I can use from my garden, which fortunately has little light polution. I have read quite a few articles on various sites but am totally confused. My main interest will be viewing the moon and its craters, Viewing Saturn and at least seeing its rings, Jupiter and having a look at the planets as they come available for viewing. I have got my choice down to. A skywatcher explorer 200p with an EQ5 mount, a Celestron nexstar 127 slt mak or a Celestron Omni XLT 120mm Refractor. They are all around the same sort of price but which one would be the best for good sharp images of these subjects ? Can anyone please help.........

[TROJAN]

Sorry clearly i cant spell astronomy....

[jimmyjamjoejoe]

From what i gather, if you solely want to view planetary/lunar, then refractor is the way to go. They offer better contrast, low maintenance, and a more suitable field of view for those subjects.

Larger reflectors are more useful for DSOs, whose faint nature requires a much bigger aperture to gather more light.

That said, a modest (6-8") reflector makes a good all-rounder, just incase you do find yourself wanting to expand your horizons to DSOs.

[Keiran]

Hi Trojan, and welcome... I am going to give a bias answer as i have one, but the 200p is a great scope, and you will be very impresed with the views you get with this... do be warned it is a big bit of kit though.

What part of the south are you from... I attend an Astro group in the New Forest once a month and it may pay you to pop along and have a look at the equipment we all have, it may help.

Ill PM you some details if you want?

[TROJAN]

Thankyou very much for the advice, I seem to have cut my choice down to either the refractor or the newtonian. I will have a think about my eventual expectations, but certainly for now planets are my main interest. I live on the outskirts of Hastings, The New Forest is quite a way, but not unreasonably so. Some info on a place I could go to see both up and running would be great. But id have to wait for a long weekend to go to Hampshire.

[onesmallstep]

Hi

Out of the scopes you mention the refractor would probably be better for lunar and planetary work. Also worth considering is the Maksutov design and an alternative to the Celestron NexStar 127 is the Skywatcher SkyMax 127. This has received very good reviews although the only downside is the Mak design means the lens is prone to dewing so a dew shield and/or dew heater strips are desirable accessories.

[TROJAN]

Thankyou all very much, one more question... is the 120mm refractor big enough to see much detail on the moon ?

[ScubaMike]

Undoubtedly, you wouldn't even need that much aperture.

[Keiran]

Thats abit far east of us it would take a while to get here, but you are more than welcome. if not it may be worth contacting Surrey Observers - Stargazers Lounge surrey observers, they may have similar equipment and you may be able to attend one of their sessions.

You do not need great appeture to see the moon, but there is so much more out there that big apeture will allow you to see... Check out the imaging section and getting an idea of what is achievable with certain equipment

Let me know if you are still interested in popping down to hampshire or if you can meet up with surrey obs

[dweller25]

Hello Trojan and welcome to SGL.

I am a keen Planetary observer and own a 5" refractor and A Skywatcher 8" Newtonian.

The 8" Newtonian gives superb views of the planets and has enough aperture to show good detail on Mars - see my drawings in the sketching section. They offer the most bang for the buck of any telescope type going.

An 8" Newtonian has more resolving power than a 120mm Achromat refractor and more light gathering power too.

Hope that helps.

[TROJAN]

Thankyou all so much - and bulldog keiran I will be in contact if I cant find a meet closer, but thankyou all the same. regards Trojan.

[Charon]

Welcome to the forum Trojan.

[TROJAN]

Hi everyone....Having now spoken to just about everyone on the planet I have decided to buy a Skywatcher 200mm Newtonian on an EQ5 mount...I cant wait for it to arrive. In the meantime (dont laugh) I had my existing Helios 4.5 inch reflector out at 0515 am on Thursday morning and could see the banding on Jupiter and several of its moons with nothing but an 8mm eyepiece - I really hope that the skywatcher will be worth the money... ill keep you all posted...........

[onesmallstep]

Hi everyone....Having now spoken to just about everyone on the planet I have decided to buy a Skywatcher 200mm Newtonian on an EQ5 mount...I cant wait for it to arrive. In the meantime (dont laugh) I had my existing Helios 4.5 inch reflector out at 0515 am on Thursday morning and could see the banding on Jupiter and several of its moons with nothing but an 8mm eyepiece - I really hope that the skywatcher will be worth the money... ill keep you all posted...........

Hi

I'm not laughing. The 'best' scope is the one you will use so a 4.5 reflector is more than adequate for a range of targets.

Re your mis-spelling of astronomy. Next time use the spill chucker.

[TROJAN]

I have just been offered one of these for a very cheap price. Does anyone know if they are any good ? its a celestron OMNI 150mm refractor ?

[John]

The Omni 150 refractor is an F/5 achromat. Great for deep sky viewing / wide views at low to medium power but will show plenty of chromatic abberation (false colour) on bright stars, planets and the moon.

Looking at your interests in your original post I'm not sure it's a good choice for you.

[TROJAN]

Thankyou for that John, Im getting into the photography side of things and want to take images of the moon and planets...so abberation would definately cause me a problem. Ill give it a miss...regards Tarn

[ronin]

Buy the one you want.

Which one "tugs" at you?

Ask 3 people and you will get 3 different answers and no scope.

Ask 5 people and you will get a recommendation for each of the 3 you have said and 2 additional recommendations. And still no scope.

[Moonshane]

I have owned a 120mm OMNI frac and it's a very nice scope but the views of all objects (with the possible exception of double stars) would in my opinion be better in the 8" newt.

I am a biased newtonian owner though and many other folk will provide an alternative view.

[todd8137]

go for the 200p its a heavy old thing to move about ,the mak may be lighter and more easy to transport,but like most you will only want to upgrade after a while if you do get the mak ect

buy the next model up to the one you want

[malc-c]

I have got my choice down to. A skywatcher explorer 200p with an EQ5 mount, a Celestron nexstar 127 slt mak or a Celestron Omni XLT 120mm Refractor. They are all around the same sort of price but which one would be the best for good sharp images of these subjects ? Can anyone please help.........

OK here's my 2p worth, seeing as I have both the 200P and a 127 Mak. The Mak is nice and portable (mines on an EQ5) and gives exceptionally good views of the moon and of late, Jupiter. However in comparison to the 200P it lacks the resolving power at high magnitude, which is due to the extra 3" aperture and shorter focal length. In reality you cant really compare the two as they are like oranges and apples.

If you spend an hour or so browsing similar posts, the 200P is recommended in nearly all the posts. It's as close to an all rounder that you'll get. You get nice bright images of Jupiter and Saturn, it's a good light bucket for DSO's. It can grow with you as your interests may change... ie towards imaging rather than visual. I would however suggest you get the 200P / HEQ5 combo rather than EQ5 if you feel that taking pictures of DSO's is something you want to do later. The EQ5 will perform under good skies, but lacks the stability for long exposures and guided imaging. Visually the 200P / EQ5 is a good combination, and is just borderline between being portable or not. The 200P / EQ5 is also a good platform for webcam imaging of the planets, giving nice large image when using a 3x barlow.

However like all these "what scope should I get" the final choice has to be your own. Sometimes just the look of something, or the noise it makes when slewing can put you off. Some of the Celestron kit makes a racket when slewing at full speed... something that may result from complaints from folk next door on those hot summer nights when you are observing at 3am.

[TROJAN]

So clearly the 200p I already own is a great scope. But do you guys all agree the celestron omni 150 would be a waste of money for me as a second scope albeit my friend is selling it off relatively cut price...

[John]

... But do you guys all agree the celestron omni 150 would be a waste of money for me as a second scope albeit my friend is selling it off relatively cut price...

Here is a good (and fair I think) review of the Omni 150:

Astromart Reviews - CELESTRON OMNI XLT 150R

[TROJAN]

You are right John that is a fair write up... Thankou !

[E621Keith]

If it's just for moon and planets I'd pick the 127 Mak. For a start it's the shortest of the three, so it'd the most stable and have the shortest damping time. I found this very important when viewing at high magnification needed for planets.

The 120 refractor is great, but I found it a bit long for my EQ5. The vibration takes longer to settle compared to my C6.

I never really like using reflector for planets, I found the diffraction spikes caused by the secondary spiders very annoying. I admit the 8" Newtonian which I've access to is in a very poor condition, but I still have my reservation on using Newtonian for high contrast objects. Also, using a Newtonian on a EQ mount will result in some awkward viewing angles.