Newbie need help with what scope to buy

[Funkybird]

Hi everyone, this is my first post. My question to you clever people is this- I want a scope, which one shall i buy? Im totally new to the who scene and have a budget around £150 - £200. Ive had a bit of a look around and have seen the celestron astomaster 130eq and the motorsized version.

Is it worth going for a motor drive??

AAAHhhh help please!

Thanx

Laura

x

[Mr Spock]

Hi Laura

What I would recommend is to get as much aperture as you can for your money. At £197 the Skywatcher 150P Dobsonian will allow you to see much more than a 130.

[Capricorn]

The 150P will gather more light 33% more, but as the eye sensativity isn't linear the final outcome isn't that great. It is however a little useful on what would be the fainter objects.

The dobsonian means you have to locate and nudge the scope to maintain objects in view. Something to be learnt but again shouldn't be a problem.

The 130, hopefully P, in a motorised mount means you still have to locate objects and you have to get the mount reasonable poalr alighned. Then however the object should remain in view for a decent amount of time as the motors will perform the tracking.

So the choice is between slightly larger aperture and tracking.

I would opt for the tracking and the smaller aperture. Don't mind finding things but for an easy life I would then let the mount+motors keep things in view.

[Funkybird]

Thanx for advice. I had a look online and it looks a bit heavy and arkward. i have a small flat big garden so i would have to move it on my own. It also looks very complicated!

[Tribal-Wolf]

I'm in the same boat but having read some bad reviews on the quality of the Celestron I have also been looking at this

Seems a better scope, comes with a barlow and has a better motor set up.

I also think, although it might just be me, that the secondary mirror mount and spiders look very thick on the Celestron compared to other scopes.

The Dobsonian 150P can actually take up less room than a tripod scope and takes a lot less setting up when you move it.