Meade 8 inch 2080 advice sought

[adam from dorset]

I am new to the forum and beginner. I have been struggling for a long time with a cheap Tasco 60mm refractor - lots of fun and a great introduction but obviously very limited, so time to get a bit more serious, but with rather limited resources. I have come across a Meade 8 inch 2080 reflector on original mount with a variety of lenses for £300. I read that when it was new (c. 1985) this was acclaimed as a really good scope for the price - is this good value still or has it now dated such that I should look at more "modern" models? It is claimed to be in vgc. I realise that the obvious question will be "what do you want to look at with it?" but at this stage I guess I am on one hand being oportunist because it looks like a high spec. for the money, and on the other I suppose I just want to explore the world of astronomy a bit and find out what I want to look at - so a basic, no frills but adequate quality set up seems the way to go.

Advice from those who have been here before much appreciated.

[rowan46]

meade optics are very good, their electronics have had at times mixed reports but £300 for an 8"sct tube sounds like a good deal to me. I might look at seeing if I could convert it to a nexstar mount when funds allow if it was me.

[Frank the Troll]

Basic no frills, point and look, and good quality

sound like you should go for a Dob

First Light Optics - Skywatcher Skyliner 200P Dobsonian

[adam from dorset]

Thanks for this advice. There are quite a few Dobsonians around for sale second hand and I am tempted.

My understanding of a Dobsonian is that it was developed to be relatively light and portable and because the mount is simple, relatively cheap for the size you can get. The mount is essentially an azimouth rather than equatorial, which means that tracking a target is more difficult over time. With a small magnification this may not be a big problem but with a larger telescope do objects not disapear from view rather quickly and therefore is an eqatorial preferable? I presume the answer is "not necessarily" as I know that quite large Dobsonians are used without motorised tracking, so can you help me understand?

Thanks

[michael8554]

Depends what you want to look at.

The optics are usually pretty good but at F10 it's more suited to planetary work, if wedge mounted it should track well, the early Meade SCT's are not Go-To.

If you want to do visual on deep sky objects then a big aperture short focal length Dobsonian (plus a dark site) is better value, and the occasional nudge to keep the object in view is not difficult to do..