Choosing a first telescope and need some advice

[Temporal_Mechanic]

Hi,

First my apologies for the length of this post. That’s what happens when I read too much on a subject I’m interested in.

I’ve been observing using binoculars for a while and think it’s time to acquire a telescope. I’ve been doing quite a bit of reading and have narrowed down the options but I need some advice to make the final decisions. As well as asking questions here I’m going to go to a local club’s public observation evening to talk to people and hopefully look through a couple of telescopes to get an idea of what I can expect to see.

I’m interested in observing a bit of everything so I’ll need a setup that’s reasonable all around. I’d like to experiment with a bit of photography but am under no illusions that I will be able to produce good images, I just want to be able to attach a camera and have a go from time to time. I’m not looking for a GOTO but wouldn’t mind auto tracking. I don’t have a fixed budget, it’s more a case of what I can justify to myself. This doesn’t mean that my budget is unlimited either. £1500 is probably the absolute top end but I’d like to spend quite a bit less than this. I’m looking to buy new rather than second hand.

So the first part is what ‘scope to get. Having done some reading and measured the storage space I have available, as well as working out what I can lug up and down the stairs on a regular basis, I have two main telescopes in mind:

1) The Skywatcher Explorer 200pds probably on a HEQ5 mount.

2) The Meade Lightbridge 12”.

As far as I can see each has good and bad points.

Lightbridge pros:

Much bigger aperture

Simpler to set up

More of the budget left for eyepieces etc.

Doesn’t need external power supply

Lightbridge cons:

No way to add tracking so it can’t do anything but basic photography.

Possibly inferior optics and build quality.

And the Skywatcher is basically the opposite of the above.

The main general question is which of the two would be most useful to a beginner with some basic knowledge of the sky like me? I’m not actually expecting a definitive answer to that but any pointers would be great. I think the time and effort for setup would be about the same as the equatorial is more complicated but the dob is bigger and harder to move around.

I’ve heard that the Meade isn’t as good in terms of build and optics as the Skywatcher. Is this the case?

The HEQ5 appears to be discontinued. Is this the case and are they still available? If not what is a good alternative as the EQ6 is bigger and more expensive?

The second thing I’d like some advice about is the accessories I’ll need.

Eyepieces are the obvious main part of this. Having read the article here on eyepieces I would need a 2x Barlow and either 8mm, 18mm and 25mm for the Skywatcher or 6.75mm, 18mm and 27mm for the Meade. The Meade comes with a 26mm and the Skywatcher with a 28mm. Obviously these supplied eyepieces will need replacing eventually.

As far as I can see I have a few options here:

1) Buy all three required eyepieces and the Barlow with the scope. This will limit me to buying mid-range eyepieces somewhere around the £80 range, maybe a little lower.

2) Buy one of the eyepieces at higher quality now, make do with the supplied eyepiece and add the others later. This would allow me to buy a better eyepiece, probably in the £200 range. I could possibly afford a cheap to mid-range Barlow as well to extend my options and replace it with a better one later.

3) Stretch my budget and buy one top range eyepiece now. This would be something like an Ethos and would mean it would be longer until I could afford the other eyepieces. I may also be able to add the low to mid-range Barlow.

I think if I went with options 2 or 3 it would probably be the highest power eyepiece that I would buy initially as the supplied eyepieces cover the low power.

What would be the most useful option here? Options 1 & 2 would be about equivalent in terms of price. Option 1 will give me more observing flexibility but options 2 & 3 will give me more observing quality.

I am aware that these telescopes are not top of the line. Will really good quality eyepieces be more important because of this or will they be affected by the limitations of the telescopes?

Given that these are fast telescopes I was wondering about adding a coma corrector. Would it be worth adding one of these now bearing in mind that the money for it would come out of the eyepiece budget?

Will it be worth spending some of the eyepiece budget on a laser collimator with either of these scopes? I’m thinking that the dob will need collimating every time as it will need to be disassembled for storage.

Finally is there anything that I’ve missed? Anything else I’ll need that I haven’t mentioned apart from star charts and warm clothes?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

[nicnac]

the best all rounder for me is a reflector so collimation is a must for better views.

you have a fine budget there so i am going to post a few suggestions for you if i may be so bold

First Light Optics - Celestron C10-N GT (GOTO)

First Light Optics - HoTech SCA laser collimator

First Light Optics - Celestron X-Cel LX eyepiece

First Light Optics - David Chandler Night Sky Planisphere

First Light Optics - Astrozap Flexible Dew Shield

i would spend more time on the whole of the questions but i can only skive work for a few minutes lol

[Temporal_Mechanic]

Thanks for the reply. One constraint that I forgot to mention is that if I go with an OTA that is a single solid tube 8” is the largest size that will be easy enough to get from storage to outside. The reason I was looking at the Lightbridge is that an OTA which can be moved and stored in separate pieces is the only way I could use a larger aperture.

Those eyepieces look like exactly what I’m looking for.

I’m definitely leaning towards an 8” newt on an equatorial mount. I notice that Celestron do an 8” version of the one you recommended, is there any reason to prefer that over the Skywatcher?

Thanks again for taking the time to reply, I hope no one noticed at your work.

[nicnac]

I’m definitely leaning towards an 8” newt on an equatorial mount. I notice that Celestron do an 8” version of the one you recommended, is there any reason to prefer that over the Skywatcher?

Thanks again for taking the time to reply, I hope no one noticed at your work.

i posted that one for the mount really, the CG5 is sturdier than the EQ5.

the celestron did get some fine reviews, a top marker but, to be honest the OTA's are pretty much the same, i think the skywatcher has a different focuser.

i am an accomplished skiver so no worries

[archuna11]

The celestron nexstar 102gt Telescope is great choice for young astronomers (who are beginners) as you can see planets clearly as they move towards earth, and if you have a moon glare shield (availible on the Celestron homepage :)) Then the moon's details are beautiful. The smallest of craters are visible and you can almost see the dust surrounding the surface. Great choice, it was my first telescope.

p.s. It comes with a holographic finderscope which is great too.

Thanks, Archuna

[Temporal_Mechanic]

The 8" version of the celestron newt comes with the same mount. I think its between that and the skywatcher with some variant of the eq6. The latter would be more expensive but should just squeeze into my budget and would be able to handle bigger scopes or more kit like cameras and guide scopes later if I need it to. I'll have to see what kind of deals I can get on them.

archuna: its quite a while since I've been accused of being young I've ruled out a refractor as I can't afford an apo and chromatic abberation drives me crazy.

[nicnac]

Sounds like a plan.

Keep an eye on FLO's clearance, their prices are very good and they price check