Jump to content

Narrowband

Skyliner 200p - Unboxing and First light/Mini review


Recommended Posts

Hi everyone,

My skyliner 200p arrived yesterday along with my UHC filter, solar film and flocking material. I had my first light last night and have written a review.

Unboxing and Building:

Out of the box the base was nice and easy to assemble, took about 20-30 minutes and the instructions were quite clear although a bit brief.

The first thing I did, being quite impatient :evil6:, was to make my own solar filter from the Baader solar film. Used the cardboard from the box and the dust cap to make a ring the right size. Cut out the middle of the rings and sandwiched the solar film between then made a lip base to hold it onto my scope. All nice and easy again and about another 20 minutes.

First Light:

The first thing I saw through my telescope was the sun. In my eagerness I forgot to leave a piece of solar film for my finderscope so had to do without that, instead judged where to point by using the scopes shadow and I was surprised how accurate I got it. Almost dead centre when I popped my 25mm eyepiece in. This was my first view of the sun and I was very impressed, a nice round white disc with black spots dotting the surface.

Between looking at the sun and night time I got my scope flocked. I took off the primary mirror and slipped in the material and positioned it. Very easy to do with the self adhesive sheets and looking down the scope it definitely seems to darken the whole inside.

Later on, when darkness (if you can call it that now:)) fell I brought it out again and aligned my finder-scope. The moon was just showing so I used that as a nice easy target to align and it didn't take too long. As I was already at the moon I popped my 7.5mm eyepiece in and started scanning the surface. WOW. Amazing detail, not only can I now see the craters but I can make out individual ridges surrounding the craters, ridges and bumps in the centre and lots of other wonderful features. I popped in the 2x barlow and everything stayed ok, just, although there was quite a bit of shimmering.

Next target - Saturn. Centred in the finder-scope, 10mm put in to bring it dead centre in eyepiece and then 2x barlow and 7.5mm placed in. Absolutely amazing, much bigger than through my 130p and good detail, 2 bands visible when seeing was good but just seeing it magnified so much was enough to wow me.

Moving on to the Messiers. My time was now a bit limited as I had to be up at 9 this morning so found my favourite Messier out at the moment - M13. Another astonishing (running low on adjectives here :)) sight. Through my 10mm it took up a good deal of the view. Stars around the edges and some brighter ones easily resolvable, something I hadn't seen before.

Sulafat and Sheliak had finally cleared the roof of my neighbours house so I was dying to try and find M57. Took a bit of hunting round and swapping between my finder-scope and 25mm but eventually I found it and got it centred. Put my 10mm and had a good long look. Stunning (had to look up thesaurus now :evil6:)! After a good few minutes of viewing I remembered my UHC filter. Screwed that into my 7.5mm (after a lot of faffing about wondering how to open the box :evil6:). Popped it into the scope and took another look. A definite improvement in view. Surrounding stars were dimmed while the ring was given more contrast. I may have seen some slight hints of colour but it could have been wishful thinking :(.

Conclusion:

Absolutely brilliant! I can see why this scope is recommended so much and is Britain's most popular. I definitely wouldn't hesitate to recommend this to anyone, beginner or experienced veteran. I would like to thanks everyone for there advice and helping me make my mind up on this scope :).

Just a couple of questions. The AZ movement is a bit stiffer then I like, I have heard people mention car wax to make it smoother, would you recommend I do this or leave it as it is?

Also, while the focuser is a hundred times better then that on my heritage I find it a tiny bit loose (don't know if anyone else has found this) and sometimes just goes past perfect focus when turning. Is there anything I can do to slightly stiffen it up to make better minor adjustments?

Thanks for reading :evil6:,

Sion

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Excellent review and first light write-up! Thank for sharing! Reviews like this really make me wonder whether I should ditch my 'fracs and go dob!

I particularly sympathise with the difficulty getting the UHC out of the case - totally defeated me and my wife had to show me how to get the thing out :(.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Glad you are impressed. Only have a secondhand Orion version with the horrible spring tensioners on Altitude.

Bern at Modern Astronomy does a neat two speed focuser converter that even this aged idiot managed to fit to the crayford.

ENJOY!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the replies and tips, will try out the turtle wax and the centre screw.

Wish I could see the dumbbell at the moment but it hasn't risen above my neighbours roof :(.

Thanks again,

Sion

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.