Its my birthday soon! Help me choose a scope!

[66mikeg]

+1 for the SW200P

[JackOptics]

Thanks guys, I really appreciate what you people do here at the stargazers-lounge, looking over the Skyliner 200P features, I would just like to confirm that the "Wooden AltAzimuth Mount" will be enough. Most of the time, the scope will be on a pretty stable patio, however if i was to transport it to a field somewhere off on a farm in the country, would this stand still hold out? or would i find that it would be extremely wobbly? are there any easy fixes for this? I did consider taking a scrap paving slab with me and laying that down on the grass first, would this work?

[Schorhr]

A dobsonian mount is as stable as it gets due to the design and low center of gravity. The base won 't be less stable then a tripod, and considering a stable eq mount weighds more then a rockerbox, a Newton telescope mounted on a sufficient eq/tripod is more likely to sink into wet grass with one trpod leg, risking tipping it over.

Worst that can happen with the dobsonian is that it's not level anymore or you need to clean the center bolt ;-)

Unless you plan on going into a swamp...

you can just take a few laminate/flooring boards with you to level the base or avoid sinking into muddy ground. That'll do ;-)