Which telescope for beginner

[RikM]

My opinion is the Skyliner 200P, with a Rigel Quickfinder, Cheshire eyepiece, 8mm BST Explorer eyepiece, Sky and Telescope Pocket sky atlas, a red light torch and an ironing stool or set of kitchen steps is the best value for money introduction to visual astronomy you can get and should come in at a hair under £400.

But...please, this is only my opinion. Others may have different ideas.

[andy77]

here's a question for you could the SWskyliner 200p be mounted on a motorised head for the use of astrophotography in the future, or am i going in the wrong direction..........

Andy

[RikM]

Yes it can but it is far from ideal.

Astrophotography is a whole different game from visual observing. Even to the point that the kit you need for lunar / planetary is different again from the kit you need for imaging deep sky objects. You would probably be better off getting the right kit for astrophotography later on when you know what you want to photograph. One piece of advice for astrophotography...start saving.

[Parus major]

Hmm.

In the future you can buy a suitable mount and some tuberings and mount a Skyliner 200P to make a good basis for astrophotography. As it is it's not too suitable but the optics are.

[RikM]

8" f/6 and 1200mm focal length....is a bit big so it will catch the wind, a bit slow so it will require longer exposures and a bit long so you will need very good autoguiding.

Not where I would want to be just starting out in AP!

An ED80 on an HEQ5 on the otherhand...

[Parus major]

This is what I was talking about on the first page - this is a telescope for a seven year old girl with an interested dad to keep it going. Wanting to take snaps with a camera using a telescope you have and talk of ED80's and guiding are two different things entirely.

[RikM]

Absolutely agree. Sorry if that wasn't clear from my post. Just trying to illustrate that for family observing a 200P Dob is a great choice, but don't expect to stick a camera on it and get great pics. Different scopes for different jobs. That's how I ended up with 6 of the things...

[andy77]

Absolutely agree. Sorry if that wasn't clear from my post. Just trying to illustrate that for family observing a 200P Dob is a great choice, but don't expect to stick a camera on it and get great pics. Different scopes for different jobs. That's how I ended up with 6 of the things...

6 LOL LUCKY YOU, So then do i go for a 200p dob or an ED80 on a HEQ5, could you explain the difference between these 2 scopes, i take it for astrophotography the ED80 is the one to go for, what kind of images would this scope produce and would they be as clear as the 200p dob.

Andy

[tony]

i've just ordered an ed80 and heq5 myself, but thats for me. for yourself and family you'd be better off with the dob, besides you wont get these for £400.

[RikM]

Which scope to chose really depends on what you want from it. For looking through it with your Daughter, the 200P dob is the clear choice. This is the UK's most popular scope for good reason. They are great.

For AP, the ED80 is magic but...just the scope and mount is 3x your current budget and you haven't even started yet, there are heaps of other things you need as well. Camera, laptop, dew control, guide scope, guide cam, camera control software, image processing software etc...and it's not as much fun to look through as the dob!

For visual observing you need large aperture and a simple to use stable mount. = 200P dob

For AP (deep sky) you need a really solid equatorial mount and a small scope with good contrast. = HEQ5 / NEQ6 + small refractor + a van load of extras and deep pockets to do it justice!

Just to throw another spanner in the works, my youngest son likes 8x56 binoculars best!

Sorry if I'm not helping.

[andy77]

Which scope to chose really depends on what you want from it. For looking through it with your Daughter, the 200P dob is the clear choice. This is the UK's most popular scope for good reason. They are great.

For AP, the ED80 is magic but...just the scope and mount is 3x your current budget and you haven't even started yet, there are heaps of other things you need as well. Camera, laptop, dew control, guide scope, guide cam, camera control software, image processing software etc...and it's not as much fun to look through as the dob!

For visual observing you need large aperture and a simple to use stable mount. = 200P dob

For AP (deep sky) you need a really solid equatorial mount and a small scope with good contrast. = HEQ5 / NEQ6 + small refractor + a van load of extras and deep pockets to do it justice!

Just to throw another spanner in the works, my youngest son likes 8x56 binoculars best!

Sorry if I'm not helping.

Lol you are helping buddy, well i think im sold on the 200p dob, hopefully get it ordered monday and be here intime for xmas, carnt wait to see me daughters face when she opens the box , and then out into the backgarden we will go as long as we have clear skys

[Carl M]

I took the 200P off my dob to put onto a CG5 (EQ5) to have a go at photography a while back, it really wasn't worth the effort and nearly put me off because everything had to be spot on to get any decent length exposures. The mount is just not up to it for photography only just OK for visual, so if you do buy the 200P dob and want to put it on an equatorial mount at a future date get an HEQ5 as a bare minimum.

[andy77]

I took the 200P off my dob to put onto a CG5 (EQ5) to have a go at photography a while back, it really wasn't worth the effort and nearly put me off because everything had to be spot on to get any decent length exposures. The mount is just not up to it for photography only just OK for visual, so if you do buy the 200P dob and want to put it on an equatorial mount at a future date get an HEQ5 as a bare minimum.

would it be possible to mount a 200p dob on a HEQ5 PRO and what would i need to do this, and how would this setup fair at AP???

Andy

[Carl M]

Yes, you can mount the 200P tube on a HEQ5 pro. When you come to do that you will need a pair of tube rings and a long dovetail bar to attach the tube onto the head of the mount. It would be a good introductury setup for AP. Even better will be to having an autoguiding setup on top of the 200P but that is a whole other bombshell which I've not hit myself yet. You can still get good exposure times without autoguiding though depending on how accurate polar alignment is.

[Grunthos]

Just to throw another spanner in the works, my youngest son likes 8x56 binoculars best

+1

There are lots of good reasons to buy binoculars!

[chunky]

go for the 200p, i bought a 8mm bst from skies the limit as well had some nice views of jupiter with it.