help and advice

[Beardy30]

Hi can anyone please help? what would be best for a beginner a dob 150p of a goto telescope of a similar price?

[John]

Hi James,

I'm not sure which particular scopes you are referring to but, assuming a budget of around £210 (the price of a new 6" dobsonian), you will get a lot more aperture, and therefore performance, from a non-GOTO dob.

Looking at what is available with GOTO for that budget, I think you may have to take a reduction in aperture over your current 130M, which, I fear, can only lead to disappointment with the views delivered.

The 6" dob is only a modest step up from your 130M really so, if you can, it would be worth saving a bit more for an 8" dob to get a real performance boost.

[Schorhr]

Hello Beardy,

a dob will show more for the price and finding and tracking planets is easy, deepsky objects with a telrad finder and maps as well.

Most cheap goto system have telescopes like a 60 or 70 or even 102mm short type refractor that suffers from chromatic abberation (color seams on bright objects at higher magnification) and has too small of an aperture for deepsky.

Other Goto mounts like the ds2000 seem pretty weak, and others come with Catadioptric reflectors (like the 114/1000) to keep the tube short by adding lenses into the focuser or infront of the secondary mirror.

The only decent cheap-ish goto telescope would be the skywatcher or celestron 130/650 reflector but I already pushes the cheap mounts to the limit. For planets the small 102 or 127mm Maksutov can be nice but overall the 130/650 has many benefits (can reach high magnification with bst/tmb eyepieces but due to the low focal length also a great rich field device).

The thing is, a heritage 130p dobsonian costs almost half compared to the goto telescopes of similar aperture.

at under 200£ you'll probably end up with a small 70mm refractor on a goto mount, that can't show half the deepsky objects visible in 5 or 6".

6" is a good alrounder for deepsky and planets, too, but deepsky gets even more interestng in 8"... If you can transport it to a truly dark location without light pollution, street lamps, roads and neighbors that have light in their window all night long...

Learning to navigate the skies is not hard, Stellarium and free maps help a lot, and at the beginning using a cellphone (for example android, astro tools) is fine but ruins your eye's adaption to the dark instantly).

[Schorhr]

I was logged on to the mobile forum layout and didn't see you own a 130mm telescope allready ;-)

you could get just the goto mount... But getting a 8" dobsonian, used perhaps, would be the ideal solution. As John said, the difference between 5 and 6" is hard to see especially under "back yard conditions".

[ronin]

Who is it for, you have a 130M?

If yourself then is the problem that you cannot locate anything.

Other questions Where are you/they - light pollution makes a difference.

Which goto?

The age old one: Where does imaging fit in?

The number of people buying a dob because they are bigger then wanting to go DSO imaging is significant, and basically it cannot be done, yet still it appears.

[Naemeth]

Since you've already got a 5.1" scope, how about waiting a bit and saving up to get an 8" dob? An increase from 5.1" to 6" is not really that significant.

[Beardy30]

many thanks for the replies guys, I am now considering the dob 200p over a goto scope of approx. 300.00 in price ..sounds as if you all think this is a wise move, many thanks again.

[ronin]

There is so much difference between a dobsonian and a goto that it is somewhat incorrect to consider them easily interchangeable. Each has their good and bad points.

[Beardy30]

I didn't want to interchange them I wanted to know which to buy?

[rowan46]

many thanks for the replies guys, I am now considering the dob 200p over a goto scope of approx. 300.00 in price ..sounds as if you all think this is a wise move, many thanks again.

they really are very good scopes I think you will be pleased

[Beardy30]

thanks

[laowho]

Just wanted to say that we agree with the others and with your willingness to follow their suggestions. I'll add that we're even considerin another build--8"--to complement our 12.5" and for easier travel, of course, but also because it would be a great "richest field telescope" for the panoramic views it'll give (2.5 degree TFOV with our 36mm 72* afov EP). That alone will be worth the price of admission. We may lose a little FOV if we go with f/6 (which we'll almost certainly do, and for lots a reasons), but it'll still be our best Milky Way panner. And yeah...if you're going with a reflector, then definitely trade go-to for better aperture. You won't be sorry.

[Beardy30]

cheers guys