another scope advice thread!!!!

[Andy274]

Just to add to plethora of them - I'm getting on famously with my recently purchased 10x50 bins. So far, I've been outside & can now point out ursula major & minor & can from there get to cassiopea without too much pain & drama (chuffed with myself!).

Now to the meat of the thread, Im looking towards my 1st scope already, I'm mainly looking at the skywatcher explorer 130M, any thoughts or recommendations to the contrary???

ideally, i don't want to purchase a beginner scope that i'll outgrow in 6months, so i'd like to have something that has legs, by that i mean longevity!!!

Cheers

Andy

[Craig20264]

200P Dobsonian gets my vote, although i've only had it a day!

[sabana]

You can't outgrow a good tripod mount like the HEQ6. But thats a bit overkill to start with. I suggest deciding which route you want to go down . VISUAL or PHOTOGRAPHIC. It sounds like your enjoy the visual so a good large Dobsonian will last you for many years. And it makes a great cupboard filler when not in use.

[Andy274]

Thanks for the comments, I'm decided that i'm only interested in viewing & not in astrophotography.

Im leaning away from the Dobsonian scopes - and forgive me if I'm wrong, but the flat bottom baseplate wouldn't lend itself to where i'm able to find dark skies - i like heading out up into the hills & would like to take the scope with me when I'm out - therefore I'm thinking of a scope that i could fit on a tripod.

Does that make sense???

Cheers

Andy

[Dunkster]

Sadly Andy, aperture fever strikes sooner or later regardless of what you buy and you end up wanting a bigger scope anyhow

If you need to carry it far, you will prolly need something small and portable like a small(ish) refractor or Mak, depending on what you want to see. There is no perfect balance between wide views, light gathering and portability (I wish!)

I'm not sure how a dob works on uneven ground, but they're pretty popular so I'm sure another member will contribute shortly.

[Andy274]

Thanks for the comments, I'm under no illusion about aperture fever lol, however, for now I'm looking for something that I'm not going to outgrow in 6 months & that will give me the views i want - which up to now is planets & the moon, not too sure what other objects a 6inch tube will be able to pick up, but I'm definitely not looking towards astrophotography or a load of DSO's.

Cheers

Andy

[paul schofield]

Sky-watcher Skyliner 200p Dob gets my vote too. Lots of aperture for the money. Wont be long until you want to clock up some DSO'S. Good luck with your choice of scope.

[Dunkster]

A 6 inch will show you plenty... even my 127 Mak has shown me plenty! It's more about how dark the skies are where you observe, any scope will show you more in darker skies.

When I asked this sort of question (only a few months back!), the answers I received were really encouraging... mostly that - skies permitting - I should be able to see pretty much any of the Messier objects and then some more with the scope I ended up choosing (Mak 127).

If you're confident about finding things, a dob is a lot of mirror for the money. I bottled out and bought a goto... maybe this year I'll get a nice big dob