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Hello from Manchester.


domc

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Hello all. It's about time I did something like this! I've always had a fascination with the night sky, as a kid I had a pair of 10 x 40 binoculars I used for bird watching but I soon discovered the moon was just  as interesting and beautiful. Anyway for the last few years my interest has grown, thanks to the BBC and having far too much time on my hands and I'm about to take the plunge and buy my first telescope this week. I've decided to go for the Explorer-130P Parabolic Newtonian Reflector as it's in my price range and seems to get good write ups. Any thoughts on this model? Bear in mind that I am a complete novice in this field and I apologise if I ask any blindingly obvious questions.

Anyway ...nice to be here and I'm looking forward to learning more about and enjoying our wonderful corner of the universe.

Dom C.

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Hi Darren. I'm going to buy it from Stockport BT centre and from what I can see it comes with the EQ mount. And yes..more clear skies!! I was in Oxfordshire last year, middle of nowhere and the clearest sky you could ask for. Paradise. I can see myself heading off up to the peak district more often.

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Hi and welcome to the forum. For around about the same kind of money you might want to consider Skywatcher's 150P which as you can see is a dobsonian scope. A little bit more aperture for your cash and in my view a much firmer mounting solution too. The problem with many scopes that are perched on top of equatorial type mounts at this price range is that the mounts themselves are not up to the job and are a little too "twitchy". It is so difficult to manual track and focus at higher magnifications whilst viewing planets because every time you touch the scope you have to wait for it to settle down by which time the object has moved out of the field of view and you have to start all over again. I have no criticism of the actual scopes themselves which are in the main good performers but the equatorial mounts that are typically supplied at this budget are just too flimsy and make observing a frustrating experience. The alt-azimuth mounts are more solid and more intuitive to use at the beginning and of course you can always mount it on a more substantial equatorial mount later on when additional funds become available. Hope that helps you rather than confuses your selection.  :smiley:

Clear skies for now and hope you enjoy the forum

James

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The peaks are good, I've tried a few random places round Stockport/buxton but I tend to just go up to todmorden astronomy centre.

Great place to start. Try some scopes? Get some advice?

Open day Saturday. You get a few up there if its clear, check out peoples scope's, find out what type of astronomer you want to be. It affects the scope/mount you buy.

I could've saved a fortune starting there before buying scopes that were good but not for me.

www.astronomycentre.org.uk

Clear skies.

Darren.

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