Celestron nexstar vs Skywatcher P200 - and hi!

[CookeeeMonster]

Hi there,

I'm Jason, I'm 39 and 11/12th's old and as you may have guessed....I have a big birthday (and present) coming up soon...and having noticed the near total lack of 'what telescope' threads on here, thought I'd start my own

I'm looking for my first telescope in 25 years...so effectively I'm a beginner....but I dont want a beginner scope that I'll want to upgrade in a few months if (if!) I really take to this astronomy lark once again. Plus I have a couple of young kids that may (or may not) want to get involved once it's up and running.

I've done the usual internet searches (including this great forum by the way - it's got a nice, non cynical friendly vibe about it) and I've narrowed it down to 2 main options with a potential third. I keep going round in circles as to which one will suit best - any advice especially from people who have used these scopes would be appreciated.

1st option: SkyWatcher Explorer 200P EQ5 SynScan GOTO Newtonian Telescope

The sort of aperture that I would've dreamed of as a young astronomy obsessed teenager back in the day. Has a GOTO mount which will be great to save time finding things for the kids (and me), plus comes with a number of eyepeices and accessories that'll have me sorted for quite a while. 

But it's massive. I have space (in theory...and practice) in the outhouse/shed, but as anyone with a family knows, any space you have for storage gets filled up pretty quickly. This would take up a fair bit of space. Not a deal breaker, but something to think about. The telescope itself seems to get really good reviews, I couldn't see me growing out of this any time soon.

2nd option: Celestron Nexstar 6SE

Excellent optics for the size, great GOTO mount, VERY compact for storage, easy to use and setup, great reviews, portable...but 2 inches smaller aperture wise, comes with minimal accessories (not a deal breaker as I can add to it as the months go by), little bit more expensive, not as good for astrophotography (but almost certainly good enough in truth for what I'll want to do to in the short and medium term).

Plus I always drooled over Celestrons on the back pages of astromomy magazines in the 80's....always mega expensive and unattainable for a 12 year old though

3rd option: Forget the GOTO mount, buy a Celestron tube (ideally 8 inch if I could source one cheap enough...I'd really love an 8inch Celestron ) and buy a cheap (but good enough) EQ mount for it. Can anyone tell me what sort of prices I would need to pay for a basic mount for this? Celetron tubes come with a dovetail mount attatcher thingy if that makes any difference.

Sorry for the long post, but any advice given would be greatly appeciated. I'm gonna have a look in the widescreen centre shop on Baker Street the weekend to see these in the flesh...if only Broadhurst, Clarkson and Fuller was still located in Farringdon - loved that shop!

Thanks in advance!!

[Thewitty]

Sadly I can't give you any advice on which scope to get. However, in my short time looking at the stars I have only 1 regret from when I bought my telescope. I wish I had gone for the GO TO mount.

I am now looking at spending another £500 to replace my EQ3-2. I convinced myself that with a manual mount would learn how to find things. This may be true but I didn't take into account tracking for photography.

Of course, if you set your mind on an EQ3-2 I know someone who has one for sale

Brian

[Laurie61]

Hi, for the same sort of money you could have an 8" Go-To dob. The Explorer's EQ mount would need polar aligning which although is not difficult needs to be sorted as part of the scope set up, the Dob might also take up a bit less space. It also uses the f 6 optics rather than the Explorer's f 5 meaning less coma. Down side is it will not do deep sky imaging.  

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-200p-flextube-goto.html      

[Astro Imp]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

You might like to peruse this recent thread:- http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/217916-dob-vs-se/

[CookeeeMonster]

Thanks for the responses so far. Laurie61 I actually feel like a proper member of the forum now I've had my first 'get a DOB!' post To be honest that looks bulkier than the Skywatcher I was looking at and about £45 more expensive, so I probably wont go down that path yet (DOB's are amazing value for money though - 12inches for under a grand...wow).

Leaning towards the Nexstar 6 at the moment...but no doubt I'll change my mind a fair bit before I finally decide

[CSM]

Being in the London area I assume that light pollution may be a factor.  Can be difficult for beginners to find their way around without the help of a GOTO unless you travel to a darker site.  I started off with a Skywatcher 130EM reflector with a RA motor.  Worked ok but even though my skies aren't that bad had difficulty finding objects.  The Celestron NexStar 6SE which I then got solved this problem and, when I eventually realised that I really want to astrophotography, it has given me surprisingly good results.

[CookeeeMonster]

Thanks CSM you're right, there will be light pollution to deal with. Not as bad as where I grew up in inner london but still not quite top of a mountain in Chile quality Do you (or any others) use any filters to reduce the effect of light pollution on viewing or is this just for astrophotography?

Anyway, the nexstar 6 looks like a very good option for my needs. Any recommended accessories I'll need to get for this to begin with? Do they really need a dewshield? Or is that for certain types of weather?

Thanks again everyone

[CookeeeMonster]

Ok just for the record I ordered a Nexstar 6 SE from Wex photographic, an 'as new' used/returned as not wanted one for £499...plus I got a powerr tank.

Should be here in a day or two... :)

[CSM]

You certainly need a power tank and a dew shield though not the heated variety.  Other than that use what comes with it until you get used to it - and of course Stellarium.