Skyliner 200p Dob - Review of observations

[journeyguy]

A week ago I bought my first telescope; the 8inch Skyliner. Before this I had been using a pair of 7x25 bins to view the night sky and I had only intended on upgrading to a powerful pair of 10x50's. Instead, I decided to make the even bigger step up to a telescope and I am really happy I did.

Going by recommendations on this forum and elsewhere it was clear that to get the best views on a budget your best bet was going to be a dob reflector telescope. This narrowed down my search and helped me make my final decision.

Tonight, after a dozen or so nights of observing, it has by far been my most personally rewarding/fulfilling night. I had looked at Jupiter several times before but today everything just seemed to click. The image appeared much clearer than the past nights - I could clearly see the 3 red bands and the sharpness of view was very clear. I am sure this is due to me getting to know the scope better and I think there is a massive pay off with being patient at the early stages. Also I had just watched a documentary on Jupiter's moon Europa which made me appreciate what I was looking at even more.

My back garden view is very tight so was really happy when I manged to get a decent view of Andromeda before it headed down. After seeing this I took a step back to let my body rest when suddenly I witnessed for the first time, a really big shooting star in the Perseus region. It was a spectacular moment because it lasted over a second and it looked like a mini fireball, was pretty blown away by it and astonished with how it looked!

I could babble on a lot, but to keep it short I got a lot of enjoyment looking at the clusters around Mirphak in Perseus. I had always seemed drawn to that part when I was just using the bins. Tried to find the Crab nebula but pretty sure I may need darker skies to view it (can anyone confirm this?) but was very satisfied as the Orion Nebula came out great.

Although not using the telescope, my final satisfaction of the night came from being able to clearly trace the lines of the twins in Gemini - for some reason whenever looking at castor and pollux I could never work it out.. until tonight

Back to telescope! I think it was a great buy and definitely an excellent first telescope for a beginner! The 8 inch aperture for under £300 with quality optics and factory eyepieces means great value so fully recommend it!

I hope I didn't ramble on for too long.

Peace and Gd nightx!

[freeflyjay]

i know what you meen about gemini.....think theres too many hard to see stars under my skys, better on the dog walks , sounds like you have a better viewing spot than me, mine is very restricked due to a street light 4m away and a 3 story house with a 10x10" yard.......newbeish with a new years promise of searching for dark skys .

[journeyguy]

Mine may be just as restricted. The only time I could view the moon and the Orion nebula was in-between two chimney pots ha ha. Is that 250p dob you got a Skyliner? What's it like?

[Catweazel]

Hi journeyguy, thanks for sharing your experiences with your dob. The 8" scope gives some fantastic views, especially DSO's. The great thing about the dob is the ease of use, which makes the learning curve all about learning the skies, not how to use the mount, or GOTO system etc, and that can be a big advantage, especially when time limited by the changeable weather we always seem to get. Clear skies! CW

[fondofchips]

_{Thanks for the write up journeyguy, this is the scope I am thinking of buying so your report is most useful.}

_{Going to a meet at a local club at the weekend before I click the 'add to basket' box!}

[Dude_with_the_tube]

hiya, dobsonians are great piece of equipment put them out,let them cool and shoot away.

Crab Nebula will need dark site for sure as I tried to catch it yesterday from my back garden and i failed.Too much light from streets and neighbours.Any distant galaxy or nebula will be hard to find and spot in LP,thats why i am waiting for weekend to come and fingers crossed there will be clear skies as I intend to bring my scope out to a dark site i spotted a few days ago.

[paul schofield]

Great write up. The 200p is an awesome scope. Hope you get lots of opportunity to use it and the clouds play ball.

[freeflyjay]

Mine may be just as restricted. The only time I could view the moon and the Orion nebula was in-between two chimney pots ha ha. Is that 250p dob you got a Skyliner? What's it like?

yep, a skyliner solid tube, it`s a nice bit of kit though i havn`t got anything to compare it with, but quite manageable and of course being a dob doen`t take up too much room for storage, i`d recommend the meade zoom i have as well, theres a guy in america on the bay selling them for 50 quid (got customs ect to pay but still works out cheap) a nice cheap upgrade from the standard eyepieces, add a barlow and you have a very good range of mags.

[journeyguy]

It would be great if someone could recommend me some eyepieces for it. Ideally I think it would be best to go for a high powered one first so I can look at Jupiter. On a low budget, so I was thinking of getting the 6.3mm Plossl from: http://www.bristolcameras.co.uk/p-skywatcher-super-plossl-6-3mm-eyepiece.htm

Keep hearing about BST's being really good but £47 is a bit steep for me now. Is it worth holding out till I can afford it or are there any other cheaper recommended ones that will be better than the set that came with telescope?

and for high power I read you want it to be a 3/4 of your focal length which would make the eyepiece 4mm, is that what I should be aiming to get?

many gratitude's!

[journeyguy]

_{Thanks for the write up journeyguy, this is the scope I am thinking of buying so your report is most useful.}

_{Going to a meet at a local club at the weekend before I click the 'add to basket' box!}

No probs. Good luck!

[journeyguy]

yep, a skyliner solid tube, it`s a nice bit of kit though i havn`t got anything to compare it with, but quite manageable and of course being a dob doen`t take up too much room for storage, i`d recommend the meade zoom i have as well, theres a guy in america on the bay selling them for 50 quid (got customs ect to pay but still works out cheap) a nice cheap upgrade from the standard eyepieces, add a barlow and you have a very good range of mags.

Cool, can you show me a link?

[Zul]

Congrats with a telescope!

I'am thinking of getting 8 dob as a second scope.

[Ganymede12]

The Skyliner 200p is a great scope. I haven't seen Saturn with mine yet but I can't wait!

[yesteryeargames]

Good review, my order is on the way from firstlightoptics

Can i ask did you buy any extra's with yours?

like the telrad and moon filter ?

[journeyguy]

Good review, my order is on the way from firstlightoptics

Can i ask did you buy any extra's with yours?

like the telrad and moon filter ?

No just bought the telescope and that was it. I've only had one chance to look at the moon and although very bright I didn't think a moon filter was essential. I had to strain my neck a bit to look through the finderscope at first but then found a good crouching method which I don't mind doing for setting up the view. So I'd say leave the telrad until after you've tried the scope and then think about getting one if you think it will make a big difference.

[freeflyjay]

Cool, can you show me a link?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Meade-Series-4000-8mm-24mm-1-25-Zoom-Eyepiece-07199-2-/121004184383?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c2c69533f#ht_3831wt_932

i`m quite happy with this, a zoom will never be as good as quality fixed lens but this is a lot better than the standard lens, they used to be 200 quid, think it`s great value at this price, if it gets stopped at customs there will be a small additional charge but still works out cheap.

[twotter]

I've seen the Crab Nebula in my 200P Skyliner from my back garden before. Admittedly the neighbours had gone to bed so it was as dark as it gets for me, though I have the orange glow of Peterborough to the west of me. The Crab is a faint target so averted vision helps.

The BSTs have a 60 degree field of view, they are very popular and well regarded on here so it may prove best to save up. For a bit less money you could go for plossls from a few different manufacturers, such as GSO Revelation, Meade 4000 series, Vixen NPLs, all of which can be purchased new for around £30 and have 52-50 degree field of view. Be aware that cheap zooms tend to have narrower field of view, so it can feel like you're looking through a very tight toilet roll! I have a Rigel 8-24mm and at the 24mm range it's pretty narrow at 40 degrees, less than an equivalent plossl.

The 200P Skyliner is a good telescope and you'll enjoy some cracking views with it....enjoy

[Champagnerocker]

It would be great if someone could recommend me some eyepieces for it. Ideally I think it would be best to go for a high powered one first so I can look at Jupiter. On a low budget, so I was thinking of getting the 6.3mm Plossl from: http://www.bristolca...mm-eyepiece.htm

Keep hearing about BST's being really good but £47 is a bit steep for me now. Is it worth holding out till I can afford it or are there any other cheaper recommended ones that will be better than the set that came with telescope?

and for high power I read you want it to be a 3/4 of your focal length which would make the eyepiece 4mm, is that what I should be aiming to get?

many gratitude's!

Having used one of these scopes for ~18months i'd say that a x300 magnification is the best you can hope to get out of it so a 4mm eyepiece would give you that nicely. I certainly wouldn't try with anything smaller and more high powered.

[astronymonkey]

Hi Journeyguy,

Congratulations, For me the 200p skyliner dob is simply the best scope money can buy. Years ago when I was first starting out a 6inch reflector was considered the first step with regard to a decent scope according to Patrick Moore but they werent cheap. Now 25 years later, for the same money you can get a quality 8inch scope thats well made and easy to use. And if you decide to upgrade youll still get £200 for it as they have good resale values as do all good scope.

The main thing would be to keep it columnated, but they hold their columnation reasonably well anyway and the only upgrade would make would maybe buy some better eyepieces like the meade 4000 ones which you can get second hand for about £25 each. The ones that come with it are reasonable enough as a starter but this is one upgrade which is worth doing and you can always use the eyepieces you buy on your next scope.

I know you have mentioned the Crab, and you can see it in a 8inch but its really faint and dependant on light pollution and sky conditions. I had a look the other night and could only just see it in a 16inch but I know at other times it will be more obvious so dont give up on it just put it on your hit list and keep trying.

Cheers,

Astronymonkey

[perks2008]

A week ago I bought my first telescope; the 8inch Skyliner. Before this I had been using a pair of 7x25 bins to view the night sky and I had only intended on upgrading to a powerful pair of 10x50's. Instead, I decided to make the even bigger step up to a telescope and I am really happy I did.

Going by recommendations on this forum and elsewhere it was clear that to get the best views on a budget your best bet was going to be a dob reflector telescope. This narrowed down my search and helped me make my final decision.

Tonight, after a dozen or so nights of observing, it has by far been my most personally rewarding/fulfilling night. I had looked at Jupiter several times before but today everything just seemed to click. The image appeared much clearer than the past nights - I could clearly see the 3 red bands and the sharpness of view was very clear. I am sure this is due to me getting to know the scope better and I think there is a massive pay off with being patient at the early stages. Also I had just watched a documentary on Jupiter's moon Europa which made me appreciate what I was looking at even more.

My back garden view is very tight so was really happy when I manged to get a decent view of Andromeda before it headed down. After seeing this I took a step back to let my body rest when suddenly I witnessed for the first time, a really big shooting star in the Perseus region. It was a spectacular moment because it lasted over a second and it looked like a mini fireball, was pretty blown away by it and astonished with how it looked!

I could babble on a lot, but to keep it short I got a lot of enjoyment looking at the clusters around Mirphak in Perseus. I had always seemed drawn to that part when I was just using the bins. Tried to find the Crab nebula but pretty sure I may need darker skies to view it (can anyone confirm this?) but was very satisfied as the Orion Nebula came out great.

Although not using the telescope, my final satisfaction of the night came from being able to clearly trace the lines of the twins in Gemini - for some reason whenever looking at castor and pollux I could never work it out.. until tonight

Back to telescope! I think it was a great buy and definitely an excellent first telescope for a beginner! The 8 inch aperture for under £300 with quality optics and factory eyepieces means great value so fully recommend it!

I hope I didn't ramble on for too long.

Peace and Gd nightx!

i bought my first telescope 4 xmas an it 2 was a skyliner 200p an i gota say im loving it 2 just getting used 2 the upside dwn thing butt think i got it now.