Skywatcher Skyline 300p Flex - GOTO or not to GOTO

[Druzzel]

I'm going to treat myself to a new dob and have narrowed it down to the 12 inch Skywatcher.

What I'm not sure about is whether or not to go for the GOTO model.

Ideally I want ease of setup and to be able to 'point and go'. Although I imagine that once I get playing I'll want take some nice pictures with my DSLR.

With the GOTO model do you always have to power it up or can you still manually point and go? If not how simply is the dob GOTO to setup?

I'm grateful for your opinions.

Many Thanks.

D

[GuillermoBarrancos]

As far as I know you can use it manual if you want to by releasing the clutches a bit.

As you said you might want to take pictures. Planetary imaging is also nice with a big dob. Seen nice results. Then definitely go GoTo.

As you cant upgrade manual (yet) and if it becomes possible it will be very expensive.

So better do it right right away.

[AstroAdam]

Just bear in mind you can't do long exposure imaging with a dob, the best you'll be at to do is planetary webcam imaging and moon shots. To do deep sky stuff, you'll need an eq mount such as an heq5 or neq6.

[Avocette]

From my personal experience the 12" manual Dob is quite a lump to move (necessarily in two pieces). I've got the feeling that the extra weight of the GoTo version would be a significant turn off and certainly not 'grab and go'. I favour 'Push To' with self fitted setting circle for azimuth and (inexpensive) Wixey electronic elevation meter.

[Mukv]

Greetings

I have the SW300PDS on an EQ6 Pro, I sometimes used to use it in DOB mode with the clutches set low enough to grip and not slip but now have undertaken an obsy build ( to complete in May /June ) I used it for many evenings in GOTO mode and for photography on the basic tripod . it is very easy to revert back  to DOBS mode but think hard about what you want to do later as it can be very expensive to move up to a GOTO system. 

Andy

[brantuk]

The 300P Flextube Sysnscan goto is an absolute doddle to set up and use (both manually and electronically). But it does depend on good leveling for goto accuracy. It's best to plug it in for every session cos it has encoders that keep track of where you move it to when handling manually. It's also a good idea to use the PAE for the first half dozen objects to refine the accuracy.

What I do is physically move it near to where I want to point and then choose the object to goto. Then it moves the last inch or two automatically - this saves the battery from large slews. The other advantage of course is that when it's plugged in - it's tracking - so all you have to do is pop an eyepiece in and you're good to look.

(It breaks into two parts for transporting around - each bit is easily handled so long as you're careful through doorways - it's more bulky than heavy)

[Druzzel]

Thanks for your views. Looks like I better tell the wife I'll be spending a little more on my new DOB. :-)

[crashtestdummy]

manual,goto on a dob is like adding sunglasses to the mona lisa.the goto one wont be much heavier tbh.I had the 300p auto,like the goto but with simple tracking and it just made it hard to use smoothly when using it manually and it slewed too slow to use in auto mode.save yourself some money and get the manual version and then you don't need a power pack either