Which scope?

[Zachariah]

I cant decide which scope is best for me.

Skymax 102 synscan 102

Or

Skymax 127 supaTrak

Any advice?

[Catweazel]

Could you tell us what you primarily tend to use the scope for? That would help others to advise better

[Zachariah]

Do I understand the diffence. The102 will find the subject but not follow and the 127 will track once I manually find it?

I want the scope to help me find some of the dimmer objects but I do only spend a lot of time observing moon and jupiter and some easy stars like plaides, orion etc

[Donkeiller]

Skymax 102 Synscan will find and track very accurately.

Skymax 127 Supatrak will not find, but will track.

My advice (budget permitting) would be Skymax 127 Synscan.

[BazMark]

Someone may correct me on this but I think you'll find that the 'Supertrak' will track anything other than planets and the moon once you have set it up correctly but it will not find objects to look at. The Synscan GoTo will find and track things including planets and the moon, that are in it's database but it will not track things that you find yourself and locate with the slew controls. At least mine doesn't.

I will add that I very quickly lost interest in setting up the GoTo especially as there is an awful lot of stuff in the database that relatively small scopes can't see and I find more enjoyment in locating things myself. I do a little research before I go out and then use the 'star hop' method to locate stuff. The free software 'Stellarium' is good for helping with this. I find it more rewarding doing it this way and it helps you get to know the sky. As I'm a visual stargazer I wouldn't buy another scope with a GoTo system, I'd spend my money on the Optics.

[Zachariah]

I have a tal1 reflector (very good) and a SW 150 dob (nice but tracking, forget it) just something that would find things for me AND track. I have stellarium snd I know the main constellations plus plaides, orion neb. But had no success with others, msybe lp. Hoped that a goto system would help plus use for moon etc.

[BazMark]

LP is a pain isn't it. Where I live it's quite bad at times. I can just about see the Pleiades with naked eye. I can't see the 'Beehive' or 'Andromeda' without aid and can only make out the milky way once or twice a year but only very faint. However, once I know where things are, there are enough stars to be able to 'hop' to locations I've looked up ahead of time. I've managed to locate the 'Ring nebula' and various globular and open clusters this way. Double stars are nice to find as well. I managed to find the 'Coat-hanger' (Brocchi’s) cluster recently this way near the double star Alberio.