What dobsonian should i buy?

[buejflem]

im interested in getting a skywatcher dobsonian for a christmas present.

However with limited knowledge of what is a good scope i came here to get some advice.

The three scopes i'm looking at are as follows

Skywatcher Heritage 130p

Skywatcher Dobsonian 150p

Skywatcher Dobsonian 200p

Any help would be really appreciated, any photographs that could be posted would be great just to illustrate the power of the scopes

thanks very much

john

[Black Knight]

There are loads (and loads) of very happy 200P dob owners about on this forum. It represents excellent value for money, whilst at the same time being a very capable scope. For visual observation, aperture is (almost) everything, so it is reasonably sensible to go for the biggest you can justify... and handle - after 200mm, the scopes start to get seriously big

[Carl M]

Fully recommend the 200P Dobsonian, I got it for christmas last year and was very impressed with it as a first scope. Majority of the ££ you spend will also go into the optics also meaning you get good bang for your buck.

[umadog]

The first time you see a 200P you may find it rather large. In reality, however, it's not unreasonably big and will result in significantly improved images over the other scopes. In general, the 8" to 12" range is a really good place to be in terms of the aperture/portability trade off.

The only thing you want to consider is how dark your skies are, how often you will be taking the scope to darker skies, and how you will be doing this. Do you have a back-garden? If not, from where will you be observing? Do you have a car or easy access to one in some way?

Unless you live in places like northern Scotland or a small village in the middle of Wales then your skies will, unfortunately, be light polluted. If the light pollution isn't severe then you may be in the happy position of finding yourself able to observe a lot of stuff from your house. Still, you may want to go somewhere darker from time to time.

[ismangil]

Any of the three scopes listed is a good first scope. The bigger the better, as long as you can handle it. A 200mm tube will be about 1.1m long.

[swamp thing]

Hi

Storing and transporting the 6" or the 8" will be similar, as both scopes are around 1200mm ( that's 4' in real measurement:D).

And the bases are similar size.

So it's more about budget than anything else.

If you can afford the 8" it will afford better views.

Regards Stev

[todd8137]

hi john i was at this cross roads a coupe a year ago ,i was thinking about the 150p and 200p i went to a star party and there was about 50 scopes there of all shapes and sizes reflectors and refractors ,from 3" right up to a 22 inch home made reflector ,i wanted a reflector i went round them all ,the best part was that all the guys there were uber cool and would let me look the last scope i looked through was a 12" reflector the old boy that had it told me he loved it and had owned it for 8 years it looked battered and worn but he showed me the skies for a hour and is golden words rang in my ears he said ,this to me if you set on a reflector,if you want a 4" ,get a 8 inch ect i settled on a 12" because after read in posts and all the reast i see people upgrade after a few weeks

on the power front as you put it i never use real high power mid power yes most things can be seen at low power

get the 200p

[peterules]

I'd go for the 200p, It's a very nice scope!

[Daz Type-R]

Bigger is better, love mine!!!!

[BAZ Senior]

The 200p is a very popular scope with many good reviews, here's the Sky at Nights.

"“The Skyliner 200’s flat-packed base is very easy to build and set up, and comes with excellent instructions….The optics were sharp across 80% of the 1 degree field of view….We were very pleased with the appearance of al the test objects – we even managed to find the Crab Nebula, M81 and M82 in near-full Moonlight, whereas the other scopes were struggling. Under darker skies the Double Cluster had that ‘Wow’ factor when it was centred using the 25mm eyepiece, as did M35. The Pleiades (M45) was just a bit too large to fit in the field of view, but the main central stars looked stunning….Turning to Saturn, the view really took our breath away: we saw five moons, a clear-cut Cassini Division and a colour difference between the A and B rings. Not only that, but Saturn also displayed a prominent belt – with this scope planetary detail is certainly not compromised….Fans of deep-sky observing would certainly find the Skyliner satisfying….The Skyliner was a joy to use.”"

BBC SKY AT NIGHT MAGAZINE

If I recall correctly it's the most owned scope on this forum. (correct me if Iam wrong.)

[arnav2310]

You could try the GSO 8" or its Pro version.

[ghostdance]

So few recs for the 200P! I'm surprised! (Evil grin)

It's the SGL mantra, lol...

I read this blog the other day, an interesting opinion (I admit bias - I don't own a 200P, but not for any quality-of-view issues ):

http://stargazerslounge.com/blog/1450/entry-1803-established-wisdom-or-opinion-parroted-as-fact/

Cat/Pigeons

Tut... Just realised this is a resurrected deadthread. Sigh Hope the xmas present worked out well!

[swamp thing]

You could try the GSO 8" or its Pro version.

As this thread was started in 2011 I should imagine the decision has been made by now

[bomberbaz]

As this thread was started in 2011 I should imagine the decision has been made by now

hahahaha, someone has been digging deep to find this one   

[garryblueboy]

As allready stated the 200 p is a great all round scope