Another newbie looking for advice...

[welshrob87]

Hi

Sorry for creating another newbie thread (seems like you've had a few of them since stargazing has been on TV) but I didn't want to hijack someone else's thread with my questions.

I've been thinking of getting a decent telescope for a few years, used to have a relatively simple one by today's standards when I was younger but unfortunately it broke. Would like to replace it with something more sophisticated.

I would mainly want to look at the moon and planets, with maybe a few DSOs, depending on the capability of the telescope, and maybe take some photos. I think I would go down the webcam imaging route for now as I don't have an SLR where I'm able to remove the lens (unless I was to borrow a camera from work). I also wouldn't mind looking at the sun if there was a compatible solar filter for the telescope.

With a budget of about £300 -£400, I've been searching online for the last few days and the following scopes caught my attention:

Skymax 127 SynScan AZ GOTO

Explorer 130P SynScan AZ GOTO

Orion Starblast 6i Intelliscope

And then with further searching and reading the following dobsonians attracted me:

Skywatcher Skyliner 150P Dobsonian

Skywatcher Skyliner 200P Dobsonian

So my first question is which of those (or any others) would people reccommend? I was initially thinking of getting a scope with GOTO tracking as I thought it would be easier to find objects I wanted to look at and to keep them in view. Is it that big of a deal though or would I be better spending the extra on a larger aperture scope rather than a tracking system?

Am I right in thinking that both the 127 scopes wouldn't need collimating but the others would? is that a complicated process?

I've noticed on FLO that there is a solar filter for the 127 scopes but not obviously for the dobsonians. Would most 6" filters fit on the 150P (or 8" for the 200P)?

I think that's enough questions for now Thanks in advance if anyone is able to give me advice.

[nicnac]

dobs are not great for astrophotography and aperture is king, bigger the better.

collimation can be a daunting task to start with but its pretty straight forward, astrobabys guide to collimation is a great read.

i think, if i was in your shoes, with more an interest in planetary and lunar work with occasional DSO's, i would be looking at the skymax range or the omni xlt mac, (they are pretty much the same)

[welshrob87]

Thanks.

The more I read reviews the more I'm tempted to go for the 200P, the bigger aperture would allow me to DSOs better. Astrophotography isn't a big deal, and the more i think about it the GOTO feature isn't that important to me. Part of the fun of it is finding the objects for yourself, and the sense of achievement when you do find what you're looking for will be much better than having the scope find the things for you.