Please help I am now confused

[michaelg]

Ok so after a lot of questions on this forum re purchasing a telescope I opted for a Skyliner 250px flexi goto

I went to a local telescope shop to order and pay for it today

priced at £915 after talking to the assistant he was telling me I would be better off with a Sky Watcher Explorer 250PDS with an

HEQ5 pro syn scan mount this did cost £1150 but he assured me it was a better long term investment.

And before you think he was just trying to get a better sale he first advised an 8" scope that would of been cheaper but I told him I wanted a 10"

Just wondering what you guys think given the amount of money I am spending was the advice he gave good advice.

[John]

I guess it depends on what your interests are. If you mentioned to the assistant that you might be interested in imaging either now or in the future, especially imaging deep sky objects, then I think I can understand why he pointed you in the direction of an equatorially mounted scope. If your interests are purely visual observing then, in my opinion, the dobsonian mounted scope, ie: the Skyliner 250PX would be just the job.

Optically they are the same scope. Actually the HEQ5 might not be sturdy enough for deep sky imaging with a 10" scope - the EQ6 might be required.

[AWR]

There is no simple answer. You need to think about how you want to use your scope. What do you want to do with it? Where are you going to view from? How are you going to store it? How are you going to power it? What are your viewing conditions?

I use my dob because it is big and simple. Take it outside, point at sky, view. I don't have goto on my dob because:

1) I like finding things,

2) It would need power and wouldn't be so simple.

I'm not anti-goto. My next mount will have goto. I might do a bit of imaging with it.

If I was looking to get into AP I'd buy the best mount I could afford and buy a quality (80mm) refractor (if I had somewhere to set it up).

There is no one set up which will do everything and you will go mad if you try to find one.

Probably no help:o

Andrew

[spaceboy]

I would have thought the dob to be the best choice for visual TBH. A 250PX on a HEQ5 would struggle at any worth while length of exposure if imaging and if visual you would soon get sick of where the focuser ends up after slewing.

My vote would be for the dob!

[Northern Soul man]

Hi Michael, I think personally if your really into the hobby and its going to be a long term thing, then its best to go for the biggest aperture you can afford - I think for visual it'll be fine but the imagers on here will say to go for a better mount - imaging can really stretch your budget and run into thousands and not hundreds, visually, dobs are fantastic but on the other hand Equatorial and alt az mounts really both need levelling and polar aligning for the Equatorial.

I've gone for an 11" SCT purely for visual work and that's over 2 grand and no good for imaging, so I think that if your into Astronomy for the long term, its a great set up and you'll have years of fun with it - so look at the long term Michael and enjoy. Paul.