How close to the moon can i get?

[Davey-T]

And a quick mention for the fact that you can get quite nice views of the Moon in daylight while you're waiting for it to get dark.

Dave

[RichM63]

I have fond memories of that "one night", when seeing conditions were absolutely perfect and i was able to observe the moon using a 130mm scope (f/l 650) and a 4mm EP. It felt as if i was hovering a couple of metres above the surface. Sadly, that was the first and the last time i was able to use that EP. Great investment there............NOT !!!

The heady aroma of the heather and the silky texture of her hair had nothing to do with it.

Love observing the Moon with the warm sunshine on my back and a cool Stella on the table.

[Intruder Trike]

An alternative to the 127......

Would a DOB  Skyliner 150p or 200p or even a Heritage 130p get me closer to the moon and planets than a 127 would?

Would the lack of tracking cause much headache or is it easy to manualy keep tracking objects with those Dobs I have mentioned withouit blur / shake?

[Charic]

Tracking is easy once you get used to it. The higher the magnification the faster things move, hence another reason I use a wide selection of EP's If I view the Moon with my 32mm it just seems to sit there in space in all its glory,  and slowly it will  move out of the field of view. If I use my 8mm or the 5mm Its like I'm running over the Moon! I can still video with my Android at these higher powers, but if your looking at a Planet or a Star, they do shift, but you just shift with it. I often see satellites in my view, and can track them instantly, just takes practice to keep it central, as the rest of the sky goes to a warp-factor blur.

Of all the telescopes I've seen on-line, I think most folk could line their Dobsonian on  a target quicker than the GoTo would take. Plus the Dobsonian only needs a fairly level ground, and no additional tuning, alignments, or set-up, and just about nothing to get wrong or fail. 

[stevend]

Of all the telescopes I've seen on-line, I think most folk could line their Dobsonian on  a target quicker than the GoTo would take. Plus the Dobsonian only needs a fairly level ground, and no additional tuning, alignments, or set-up, and just about nothing to get wrong or fail. 

I think a lot of that is down to user experience and competance. We are talking the Moon here, it is reasonably easy to spot. My goto can be setup damn quick with solar system align if all I want to do is look at our near neighbour.

All the scopes mentioned will do a similar job in regards to lunar viewing and are excellent scopes in their own right. 

I think your earlier advice was spot on; If in doubt try a find a local club and see what these scopes can do, how big they are, what else you might need etc to help you make the right choice.