Skywatcher Skyliner 200p Dobsonian goto

[Spoon]

Hi everyone,

i am thinking of getting the skywatcher Skyliner 200p Dobsonian GoTo after Christmas as this is when I have the most money (I am 16 so I don't pay bills ) , which makes me believe that this will be a suitable scope until I finish my A-Levels (just over 2 years). Would this be a good choice? I would get the 300 goto but I don't have enough money for that! The link is below.

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-200p-flextube-goto.html

Thanks for reading everyone!

Cam

[VigdisVZ]

Hello again Cam.

This scope is a mighty fine instrument, and should be a very nice companion for those dark nights. The only thing it doesn't do is provide a stable platform for photography.

[Spoon]

1355865079[/url'>' post='1745824']

Hello again Cam.

This scope is a mighty fine instrument, and should be a very nice companion for those dark nights. The only thing it doesn't do is provide a stable platform for photography.

Hi, I considered my options about astrophotography and came to the conclusion that I might aswell wait for when I am older and have a bit more money, I may consider photography in my UNI gap year, this will give me plenty of time to go to dark sky sites and use them to my advantage, and just a quick question, you said it doesn't provide a stable platform, why is this?

[VigdisVZ]

That might be a wise choice since AP is a huge money sink, atleast initially when shopping for mount and camera.

To answer your question, the motors aren't precise enough to keep the dob-goto steady for imaging, and since the mount is not equatorial, the object will start to twist slightly in the field of view as the earth turns (called field rotation).

For GOTO and visual tracking it's good however.

With this being said, hook up a camera and you should still be able to get a reasonable result with Jupiter and the Moon as these are so bright to allow short enough exposure times that the faults from the motor drive wont affect images that much.

[RikM]

Hi, I considered my options about astrophotography and came to the conclusion that I might aswell wait for when I am older and have a bit more money, I may consider photography in my UNI gap year, this will give me plenty of time to go to dark sky sites and use them to my advantage...

Great decision

... you said it doesn't provide a stable platform, why is this?

The Skyliner Dobsonians offer very nice stable platforms for looking through, it is just that a different sort of mounting is needed for astrophotography. You are wise to concentrate on visual astronomy to start out with.