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Hello from South Dorset UK

martini

By martini
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martini

martini

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Hi there - about to enter this exciting new hobby - I live in Weymouth on the coast in South Dorset. Not purchased my scope yet but looking at Celestron 130SLT as one option - is this a reasonable one to start out with? or should I be looking at something else? ;)

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SteveA

SteveA

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Hello and welcome to SGL....

There's certainly nothing wrong with scope....but imo you could do better.

You are sacrificing valuable aperture for the goto functionality...

For the same money you could get an 8" dobsonian. This will give you much better views and is generally considered a good starter option. You do of course not have the GOTO functionality...but then do you really want that at this stage? There are pros and cons with GOTO ...but if I were in your shoes I would go for the larger aperture at this stage. Of course this is just my opinion...

Hope that helps...a bit!

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JamesM

JamesM

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HI Martini and welcome to the forum. Hopefully you will be shaken but not stirred by our responses! Although the proposed scope is a good performer, I have to agree with SteveA and consider the 200P Dobsonian scope. Aperture equals the amount of light that can be gathered and by light, we also mean information. It is this 'information' that will help you resolve those extra details that will make observing that bit more interesting. I have nothing against GOTO myself and in fact have a mount that performs this function but to get the most out of it, you need to have some aperture that will reveal all the objects that the GOTO mount presents to you. Just because the system lists 15,000 objects doesn't mean that you will get to see them all - that's down to the scope! If you are in doubt about the performance of the Skywatcher 200P dobsonian, take a look at people's equipment signatures and you will discover that it is probably the most popular scope on the forum. Great value for money, easily transportable should you want to observe from another site and is easy to store when not in use. Yes you will have to collimate it (not difficult) and yes you wil have to find objects manually but if you use a free program called 'Stellarium' here, that hurdle will be made a little easier in getting started. Dobsonians represent the best value for money especially when you are starting out and initial interest in astronomy is I believe linked to the number of objects you can see and attempt to resolve - it makes all the difference. Hope that helps.

Clear skies

James

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