Three way split, Leonid 110 vs Skywatch 130P vs Skyliner 150 Dob? Help please!

[Northern Lite]

Evening all,

this is my first post having been 'lurking about in the background' as somebody else put it recently, for the past week or so. I could do with some advice from all you seasoned veterans out there regarding my first scope for astronomy. If I give you some basic info about my location, interests and budget hopefully this will be relevent.

I live in mid Cheshire about two miles from Northwich at about 150' above sea level. Unfortunately immediately behind my house is a long row of very tall trees (c 80-90' high) which completely obscures the whole southern sky. I'm left with a very good view from W clockwise to about 110- 120 degrees. Mars is highly viewable at the moment and I get a good view of the Pleiades (but only because they are so high up). I'm hoping to be able to view enough from my house to keep me occupied for a few months but accept that I will have to travel about 1/2 - 3/4 mile from my house to get a good unobstructed view of the southern sky.

At the moment I use either a pair of Bushnell 10x50 or more usually a pair of Helios Stellar 15x70 which I find very good. I have a couple of sons aged 9 and 10 and would love to be able to show them the planets and moon in much more detail. I personally would like to be able to

view as many planets as possible, to be able to see much more detail on the moon and also to be able to view comets as and when they become visible. In addition I would love to be able to get more beautiful views similar to those I get of the Pleiades. Any distant galaxies, nebulae etc that were reasonably rewarding would be a bonus. I can see myself wanting to take up astro-photography in the future and currently have a Centon PK mount manual 35mm SLR and a Canon EOS33v 35mm. Not sure whether these would be ok or not on a fairly smallish scope.

Biggish limiting factor is my budget. Originally I was only going to spend about £100-£110, but have decided to raid my digital camera upgrade fund, to stretch to a max of about £160 -£165. I'm convinced that I will take to a telescope and would ideally like something that will still be useful in 2-3 years time. I definitely don't want to have to upgrade in just 12-18 months- financially I couldn't afford the hit!

Having read a few threads and scoured the dealer pages i have narrowed choice down to (probably) Leonid 110 with free Philips giftpack for

£165 inc delivery, or Skywatcher 130P f900 for £129 (me to pick up from Stockport) or the wildcard, the Skywatcher 150 Dobsonian f1200 for £150 again me to pick up. Just wondered if anybody could contribute their thoughts on these three. I like the robust build quality of the Leonid and the solid mount, the attraction of 150mm aperture on the latter, whilst the 130P offers good basic spec for the least money.

Any advice would be most welcome. Many thanks in advance.

Karl.

[John]

Hi Karl,

Welcome to SGL

All three of the scopes that you have short listed will serve you well. If you want to put off upgrading for as long as possible you should go for the largest aperture in your budget which is the Skywatcher 150 Dobsonian. It's also very easy to use and portable when you want to go to a dark sky site.

The only downside is it's not really suitable for astrophotography but my advice would be to enjoy the heavens visually before thinking about that - it's a whole new ball game.

The other scopes you picked out are good - but aperture is king, as they say !.

John

[rawhead]

get a tal from ebay

as mentioned in previous posts, going for silly money

(the 2m is very heavy)

[Northern Lite]

Thanks John for your reply, much appreciated. You have confirmed my tendency to view the Dobsonian 150mm as the preferred option. As you rightly state "aperture is king" - certainly all else being equal! I think it is quite likely that i may decide to go down that road. Which brings me to my second choice the Tal or Leonid 110mm reflector. Thanks "rawhead" for your suggestion on this. I had a quick look on ebay and you are right , there is definitely some potential there! I did look on ebay a few days ago but because I hadn't really narrowed things down and didn't do a specific search I just got page after page of cheap rubbish promising unbelievably high magnifications for next to nowt.

I gave up in the end. As i would like to get something sorted for Christmas, i'll probably buy new,but.... could possibly go for a used Tal if one happened along, close by at the right price and in good condition. This weekend will probably decide the issue. I'll post back when I've got something definite to report. Thanks again to you both. SGL is a cracking site, i'm sure i'll be spending many hours here!

[Sam]

Karl,

Welcome to SGL. In my very humble opinion I think the Dob is your best bet for now (unless you find a better deal on Ebay or something). The reason being they're quite easy to handle and with 150mm you'll get to some to seem some great sights. To get into imaging is going to cost some money - even if you have the "right" camera you'll still need to get adapters etc and they all add up pretty quick and then mounts become very important, and the quality of the mount is directly proportional to how much they cost. With the Dob you'll be able to set up a webcam to image the moon etc relatively easy - maybe even Mars if you've got a steady hand and a lot of patience. The biggest aperture you can afford/find (with reasonable quality of course) will set up you up well for a lot of enjoyment and rewarding observing sessions. With the 150mm you'll also be able to move it around really easily, especially if you have move to good observing sites. My advice is not based on much experience but the bit of advice I can give with confidence is that this forum will give you a huge amount of awesome advice from some very knowledgeable and experienced people so ask loads of questions, no matter how basic they seem.

cheers

Sam

[Northern Lite]

Thanks very much for your reply Sam - much appreciated. I have made my mind up to go for the 6" Dob and am in the process of ordering it.

Hopefully I shall have it by Christmas Day! Thanks for all the replies, I needed the re-assurance that I hadn't missed something important or that I was on completely the wrong tack!

Once I have had my first view, hopefully soon after the 25th I will report back with first impressions . In the meantime i'll make do with the bins.

Cheers,

Karl.