1st Scope Advice

[Ohmsford]

Hi,

First, allow me to apologise for yet another newbie scope thread

After spending some time with some binoculars and visiting one of the Stargazing Live events I've decided I want a telescope. But there are so many to choose from.

After a month of searching, I'm still not too sure what would suit my needs so any advice offered would be much appreciated.

My main interest is to observe the planets and the moon, particularly Saturn's rings. I've always wanted to see them with my own eyes. It would be nice to have an option to photograph the planets and moon at some stage. But that will come much later. Would be nice if it performed fairly well with DSO's too. I'm asking for a lot now aren't I?

I have a budget of £200. It would also be nice if it were quite portable. I intend to travel to darker skies so the more portable it is, the more often I would be likely to venture out beyond the back yard.

After reading these forums I was initially drawn to the Skywatcher 130p Heritage. But was concerned about having something to stand it on. (I'm 6'4 so thought it might be too small)

Then I was looking at the Skywatcher 130p Explorer, which then turned to the Skyliner 150 dob and then back to the 150 explorer.

Then I got concerned about the portability of these scopes. They seem rather large to be lugging about.

Recently I've been leaning towards getting a refractor. Either the Skywatcher Startravel 102 or the Startravel 120 (yes I know that ones over budget, but you know how it is lol)

Hope that all makes sense to you. Is there anything I havent considered? I know thats a fairly mixed bag of scopes and mounts, theres no wonder I'm so confused.

Any help would be much appreciated.

[Ags]

Welcome to the forum.

firstly if you priority is viewing planets then I would forget the startravels (note that I own one of these!). These are good for low magnification views of relatively dim objects and taking in large sectinos of the sky, but at high magnification, a bright object will show color fringing - imagine Jupiter with only a few colors in focus and the rest of light blurry! Not ideal.

The other type of scope I own is a maksutov - these are small planetary specialists. A scope like the skymax 127 would serve you well visually (and also for imaging planets and the moon) but it is a bit over your budget unfortunately.

Of the scopes you mention the 150 dob is the best but it is very big and not so suitable for planetary imaging.

[Catweazel]

Hi ohmsford. On a £200 budget, I would go for a 150P dob, and just get as much viewing apperture as you can for your money, and think about photography later on if you still want to do it; nothing that you buy at that price will be good enough for photography, as you will need a decent mount as well, which will take you well over budget

[Trickystar1]

Hi and welcome to SGL!

I have got a 150p dobsonian and you won't get a better scope for your money, once you have learnt about the sky and knowing where to look its a good all round scope. Bigger apature is key in my experience. I would save the money and not go to imaging until you got a few eye pieces and are satisfied with just visual first.

[Ohmsford]

Thanks for the replies folks.

I think that the skymax 127 is a tad too expensive for me which is a shame. I'll go for the 150 dob then.

Can I ask why its no good for photography? I can understand the mount being no good but why isn't the scope. Could it be put on a better mount in the future?

And will it fit in a car boot? How long is the actual scope?

[Catweazel]

You could do AP with that scope but not on a dob mount. You would probably need an EQ5 motorised mount. I think the scope is about 4' long and the dob bit is about 2', but you can seperate them easily. I guess it depends on how big your boot is?

[stevetynant]

put the scope along the back seat with your seatbelt on and the Mount with your bits and pieces in the boot - should be easily transportable and quick to set up.

[rowan46]

Thanks for the replies folks.

I think that the skymax 127 is a tad too expensive for me which is a shame. I'll go for the 150 dob then.

Can I ask why its no good for photography? I can understand the mount being no good but why isn't the scope. Could it be put on a better mount in the future?

And will it fit in a car boot? How long is the actual scope?

you can put a webcam on it and take pics of the moon and planets but because it is an alt az mount you will get field rotation this means long exposure work is impossible. the cheapest mount rated for long exposure work is over £500 new.

the scope can be put onto rings and thus onto a mount suitable for imaging when funds allow