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Hi from darkest Bristol ;)

fiftyonedegreesnorth

By fiftyonedegreesnorth
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fiftyonedegreesnorth

fiftyonedegreesnorth

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Hi all, checking in for the first time. Been reading a number of the threads and I'm very impressed with the variety of advice given and balanced opinions on equipment (especially to Goto or not to GoTo!).

I still haven't taken the plunge and purchased a scope yet but luckily since I became a member of the Bristol Astronomical Society I have been along to 2 star parties to help out and have had the chance to use a variety of scopes – even having a 8” Meade LX90 GoTo to look after for 2-weeks – unfortunately with only 2 clear nights during that time I didn’t get to use it as much as hoped. I’m helping out at a solar observation day soon so I’m looking forward to my first view of the Sun through a PST (or solarmax if lucky). I really recommend joining a society in your area as they are a great source of knowledge with great people and hands-on opportunities – equipment not people that is!

Having had the chance to use scopes with Alt-Az, Eq and GoTo, I’m still inclined to go with a GoTo so I can spend more time looking at rather than looking for objects. Eventually I think I will go for a Skywatcher 200PDS on a HEQ5 Pro GoTo as I would like to get into imaging and someone I know uses this set up as well very successfully. Meanwhile I am looking at the SW Skymax 127AZ GoTo as a grab & go but with a reasonable aperture. My main problem with purchasing anything technical is “analysis paralysis” by the time I’ve evaluated the best option, I’ve missed the deals or a new piece of kit comes out and I don’t move forward!

What are your opinions on the Skymax 127AZ GoTo as a first scope?

Anyway, enough waffle, great forum and I look forward to any comments.

Cheers and clear skys

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JamesM

JamesM

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Hi and welcome to the forum. I understand the “analysis paralysis” problem and what probably underpins it, is the inability to interpret the real consequences of all those specifications at the eye piece. You have actually started to solve the problem by looking through some scopes at some recent observation evenings and this experience will ultimately help you to establish your own personal benchmark of what you are going to need in order to meet your own expectations. Specifications mean very little unless you have something to hang them from to help muster a decision.

The Skymax 127 is a very good performer. Its long focal length, aperture and its field of view make it very well suited to observing objects within our solar system, planets and the moon. For deep sky objects (DSO's) such as galaxies and nebulae, being so far away and therefore very faint, will require the benefits of a larger aperture (...personally 8" and above) if you wish to resolve some detail and structure which will make observing more worthwhile in the longer term. As you have probably read, having access to a GOTO system that can point the scope to as many as 15,000 objects, won't mean a thing if the aperture of the scope that is connected to this system is only able to resolve only a small fraction of those objects. The decision ultimately rests on what its you wish to do. The future idea of the 200PDS on a HEQ5 will not only offer you a good imaging 'rig' but of course it will provide a very good observing platform too and will do everything that the Skymax will do. The money you save by just going for this set up will go towards some of the other imaging pieces of kit that you will need.

So in conclusion, there's no rush to buy anything now as you can use the Schmidt 8" Cassegrain to keep you going along with all the other observation evenings (...and build up some experience of what will meet your expectations). I would look towards the 200PDS etc as being a good solution of doing both observing and imaging whilst satisfying an important principle when buying kit in astronomy, and that is, buy well and therefore only buy once. There's no rush as the stars aren't going anywhere and fill free to ask more questions as we will help you make the right decision.

Clear skies for now,

James (still sat in the dark, on my tractor!)

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fiftyonedegreesnorth

fiftyonedegreesnorth

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Many thanks for the reply and summing up my situation so well! The appeal of the 127 is reasonable performance and portability - I could easily transport it to darker sky areas for a better DSO search - although how often I don't know. I've seen the PDS200+HEQ5 set up and grab-and-go it isn't, but I know that I will be dissapointed if I can't see many of the DSO in much detail that I've seen thro' the other scopes. I'd better get saving! Cheers and thanks again for the advice.

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