Help advice for my telescope purchase

[michaelg]

Hi all,

I am due to order my 1st ever telescope next week and have opted for the Skyliner 250PX flexi and have a couple of questions before I take the plunge

I am debating on wether to get the Goto or not, can you tell me if the Goto gives better viewing quality or for simply viewing are they both the same. As mentioned it is my first ever scope but I know you would require a Goto for astro photography but I think I am a little new to be contemplating photography.

Also if I decide to get a manual setup can I upgrade to a Goto later on

[DOBBY]

It's really the wrong 'scope on the wrong mount for serious astro-photography...you can use a web-cam with a Dob tho.

quality of viewing is the same (same optics) feint targets you can't see with your own eyes can easily be found with a go-to handset...also if you get one of those..'hey..ya gotta see this' moments...the target will still be in the view due to the tracking.

[Thirdway]

I can give a newbies view.

After a few weeks with mine. This is what I found.

To see any Deep sky objects I need to travel to a dark site and get good sky conditions.

You have to be prepared to go out in the car, after work and get cold.

Finding objects, even planets takes some time to learn.

The star finder is not much good at finding objects, you will need to budget for an alternative like a Rigel

You will soon want to get some EPs, the supplied EPs will get you started..budget for 2 or 3 lenses.

Learning to move the telescope and follow the stars is quite a trick.

Astro photography:

The Dobs are big bang for buck.

The mount is at least as important as the scope

A Dob is not great for photographing planets

To photograph DSOs you will need a dark site

I large Dob, even the flexi is an effort to lug around.

Goto needs to be bought from the word go, but it won't do much good for astro photography on a Dob.

The amount of time you get clear enough skies means DSO imaging is a game of extreme patience.

What I have learned is that if you want to get serious about imaging you will need a proper equatorial mount and motor drive for a reflector.

If you want to do planetary work you really need a refractor and a really good mount and guiding system. It's likely to be expensive.

I think you will need a year to become familiar with whatever scope you buy. If you want to start photographing don't buy the Dob mount.

If you have some travelling to do then even the 250 will present a challenge.

Something like a Quattro on a good EQ mount would probably be a better bet, but if you suddenly want to swap to planetary photography then it will not do the job.

[michaelg]

Ok if i take astro photography out of the equation is the Goto setup well worth the extra cash as this would be stretching my budget.

A friend of mine seems to think a Goto set up is a must but but I am unsure and the difference is £517 for manual £900 for Goto.

[Black Knight]

That's a really difficult question to answer because apart from the cost, it's essentially a matter of personal preference. Some people enjoy the challenge of finding their own way around the sky, others don't. It's a lot of money on top of the cost for a manual dob, that's for sure.

[Thirdway]

Ok if i take astro photography out of the equation is the Goto setup well worth the extra cash as this would be stretching my budget.

A friend of mine seems to think a Goto set up is a must but but I am unsure and the difference is £517 for manual £900 for Goto.

I don't have GOTO and it hasn't stopped me visiting the Moon, planets and several Nebula.

I'm stressing the Dark Sky issue because this really does decide what is worth buying. If you are in, or near a town then seeing DS objects is nearly impossible except for the likes of the brighter objects such as Orion Nebula. Even that is not the fantastic glowing lights you see in photographs. Instead it looks like some whispy fog around a few pin pricks of light.

If your going to travel, then a Dob with motor drive is going to be heavier and will require a power pack to drive it. This isn't an issue if you have a nice dark site in your back garden.

My house is in a town. I can easily find and track Saturn, Mars, Jupiter, Moon, Venus, andromeda nebula, pliadies. If I can see them, I can track them. For me the GoTo function wouldn't really help, the objects I can't see because of light pollution, will not be visible even if the GOTO was bang on. So, for me, the only place I could use it, is for those rare nights when, time and opportunity for getting out of the town coincide. Then of course the extra weight and equipment becomes a discouragement.

Like many say, the best telescope is the one you use most often, not the most powerful, best aperture etc.

[rowan46]

If I was getting a big dob it would be for the optics. for me the point of a dob is it's a cheap way of getting good optics for not a lot of money comparatively. goto is great for me I have a small scope so in light polluted skies star hopping is not so easy. A big scope is a little easier as you can see more of the markers. If I was going to drop £900+ for goto it would be this one First Light Optics - Skywatcher Explorer 200P HEQ5 PRO

but if I wanted big optics without the cost I would go for the dob without the goto

[DOBBY]

I live next to the A40 in London...can't get much more polluted skies... I'm lucky to see 2 stars to get aligned on the go-to...but once aligned i can see all sorts invisible to the naked-eye.... I would need a 38mm wide angle eyepiece & know the night-sky inside out & back to front to find anything without it. If you live out of town & have dark skies...it's maybe not so useful

[DOBBY]

with Rowans option...you can start to think about A/P again...