Hello from North Northumberland....

[Avocette]

Hi and welcome! I have three 'scopes (all second hand) so I'm not one to talk, but if I was limited to one scope, I would go for the 200p rather than the 250px. The difference in aperture is not massive (for someone with access to dark skies especially) but the 200p is lighter and just a little more tolerant of medium price eyepieces (such as the BST ones at £50 each) than the 250px.

You say you've been using your binoculars for a while to find your way around the skies so you probably have some experience of the variation in the transparency and turbulence (seeing) of the atmosphere. These become much more critical when you turn up the magnification and aperture, and can lead you to doubt the quality of your equipment. My first purchase was a 200p Dob and after some months I bought a 250px, sold the 200p and about a year later bought a 300p and sold the 250px. My motivation was mostly curiosity (aperture fever) and I now suspect the 200p performed as well as either of the others in the typical skies.

I note that a much more experienced astronomer (geographically not so far from you) has been very positive about his SW 200p Dob (see www.neilenglish.net)