Which telescope to buy, to see Sirius B and Encke Gap clearly

[mor aase]

First, Im closing 60 (since I was born).

Second, astronomy has always been a big interest, but lack of money and big famliy have restricted my viewing to a Leica 10x25 pocket binocular.

Third, I want to see the ringsystem of Saturn. I want to see the whirpool galaxy (M51) as a galaxy, not a bright star. I want to see Sirus, both A and B :-)

I am about to make a big decision, a brand new telescope! And I am about to make my lifes biggest mistake -- in buying the Sky-Watcher Explorer 130 EQ2!

In this fantastic forum and after sevaral hours at Gooogle - there is two of them,

the 130 and 130 parabolic. The 130 is on sale, the 130 P is hidden away, at special order only. But my store sells them at excatly same price :-(

Thus - I need advice, for Sirius, Saturn, icecap on Mars, what do I choose?

-- the Explorer 150 PDS OTA

-- the explorer 130 P EQ2

-- the explorer 200 PDS OTA is a bit too expensive, but if yoy insist …

Or something else?

NB -- I have a 30 kg Manfrotto tripod, a relict from the 1980ies, with the biggest ballhead- usable for attaching a ´scope?

Lastly, I live in suburban area with dark nights, not far from Polar circle and we have a lot of aurora borealis!

[Moonshane]

welcome to the forum! you live in a great spot for astronomy compared with the bulk of our members, myself included. Any of the scopes you have mentioned will provide a big improvement in detail upon your current binoculars.

if you have a restricted budget then I'd suggest you forget imaging and you have not mentioned this so that's a good thing.

for visual observing, aperture and the stability of the mounting is really what counts so the largest aperture you can afford is what I'd generally suggest. to get larger apertures and again assuming a limited budget you generally need to use mounts called dobsonian mounts. these are much sturdier and stable than the EQ mounts often supplied with telescopes these days.

the objects you mention are very specific. is there a reason you have mentioned these?

Sirius B will be very difficult to see from your location I think as Sirius will never rise very high in your skies and therefore I fear atmospheric turbulence will almost certainly prevent you splitting the star no matter what scope you have. I have never seen the Enke division on Saturn but it may be possible with excellent seeing, excellent collimation, excellent optics and an experienced observer. The Cassini Division is relatively easy to see as are Saturn's moons.

M51 is likely to be an easy target for you with your dark skies so again I'd expect most telescopes will show this in decent detail (but not image like) but more aperture will provide more detail.

My recommendation given what you have said is a 200mm Skyliner dobsonian. This has a decent aperture, a 'friendly' focal ration of f6 and will provide excellent views of most objects.

[acey]

Moonshane is right, Sirius only ever rises up to about ten degrees above your horizon, so Sirius B is going to be virtually impossible in any instrument. A good view of M51 depends on sky darkness more than anything else, so as long as you can get far enough away from urban lights (and the aurorae aren't too troublesome) you'll be able to see it as non-starlike in binoculars. With an 8" you'd see the companion galaxy as clearly separate from the main one, and with sufficient viewing experience and a dark enough sky you might even get an impression of spiral structure. I agree that an 8" dobsonian would be a good way for you to go, capable of giving good views of planetary details and deep-sky objects.

[umadog]

It's not easy to see the Encke division clearly. Are you sure you don't mean the Cassini division?

[dweller25]

I would suggest you buy the biggest Dobsonian you can afford.

[Stu]

Won't add anything different to what these guys have said and will just say it is very good advice

Stu

[LukeSkywatcher]

It's not easy to see the Encke division clearly. Are you sure you don't mean the Cassini division?

Judging by the opening post info about always being into astronomy, i think you are correct in assuming the poster means the Cassini Division.

Regarding which scope to buy................................

The general opinion of most people is to go for a "Dob", the bigger the better.

But what is afordable and what is portable is the one to go for.

[mor aase]

Of course Cassini....

You see, I have a MD (almost PhD) in Botany, I know every little green alien around Norway :-)

At University, back in the 80 is, there was a group of astronomers "to be", I didnt follow them properly, but I knew that this was something I should (instead of botany, which didnt end up in employment when PhD was "done")

Thus, 25 years have passed, now late in my life, I am about to realize my dreams. I thought I knew a little about Saturn, but I have consulted Wikipedia again, now in Norwegian, one of very few proper scientific Wikipedia articles :-)

Encke seems to be 10% the width of Cassini, oh yes learnt something new today ....

I will indeed look at the dobsons, but :

a) The Skyliner 200 P is way to expensive for me, I will find it hard to defence this steep price to my famliy

The skyliner 150P is right in price.

c) Why should I not buy the Explorer 150 PDS OTA, and put it in my manfrotto tripod.

I have narrowed my choices to these three, now I need some good argumetation to put forward to a Mother :-=)

What do you see of details in Uranus?

[dweller25]

The Skyliner 150P is also excellent and will be very stable on it's base....

[ollypenrice]

Camera tripods are not astronomy mounts. The pivots are in the wrong places. The camera tripod pivots in altitude BELOW the tube whereas an alt-az astro mount had the pivot, in effect, THROUGH the tube. This has a huge effect on balance and becomes more important as you head towards the zenith. A DObsonian mount is a far better idea.

You are asking a lot, notably SIrius B. I have never seen it and I have some big stuff at a full time observing and imaging centre.

Spiral structure in M51 needs a big scope and a dark site but some nebulosity around the cores is fairly easy in a small scope at a dark site.

Your best bet, as above, is the biggest Dob you can afford. There really is no doubt about this whatever.

Olly