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Newbie after some friendly advice !


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Hi all, am looking into purchasing my misses a telescope for xmas (it will be a joint gift as we both will use it). She's keen on the sky and will often spend time outside just looking at the moon or stars. So i think the next step would be to buy a telescope and learn about our sky and beyond. Will probably go for planets and the moon and hopefully some dso. 

I have been looking and reading reviews etc and seemed to have settled for the skywatcher skyliner 200p dob. Went to a local shop to have a chat and see what they had and was slightly advised not to purchase the dob as it won't be suitable for planets. He did suggest a goto Celestron Nexstar 127 SLT but I don't think we'd like a goto as i'd rather we worked and learnt about the sky.

How hard is a dob to keep track of planets when using one. i understand it will take time and effort to learn, but as someone with no experience am trying to gain as much info before taking the plunge.

thank you.

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I have that Dob, and although I've only managed to use it once as it's rained and been cloudy all the time, I can assure you that it's fine for seeing planets. Due to the mount planets are a lot harder to track, yes, but you can observe them fine. That must be one of the most recommended scopes on here for beginners and beyond.

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Hello and welcome to the forum :smiley:

Your initial reasoning was sound - the 200P dobsonians are great scopes for both viewing the planets and deep sky objects. You will soon learn how to track objects at higher power by gently nudging the scope now and then - it soon becomes 2nd nature.

The Skywatcher 200P dobsonian is one of the most popular scopes on this forum for many good reasons :smiley:

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okies, you seem to have pushed me back into deciding on the dob. imaging won't come until a very later date, would like to learn about the sky before i try take pictures of it. So i think an order of the dob will be happening this weekend.

cheers for the quick responses.

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Whilst I can understand what the dealer was saying ( ideally a tracking scope is good for the higher power planetary views ) a Dob works well for that, and after a while hand tracking becomes second nature ( as has already been said ) like steering a car does.

Happy viewing, Ed.

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Hello Shayne, welcome to SGL.

As others have said - the 200P Dob is an excellent choice and will show a lot of detail on the planets - you need to allow the scope to cool if you keep it in a warm house but once cool you will see Saturns rings - easily and it's moons. You will see banding and storms on Jupiter, the Great Red Spot and Jupiters Moons. You will se the polar ice caps on Mars, dark surface features and early morning mist/clouds.

The Moon will be "rather good"

Then you will be amazed by the Orion Nebula, the great spiral galaxy in Andromeda and the massive globular cluster in Hercules.

And...... oh you get the picture :smiley:

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Hi all............ Went to a local shop to have a chat and see what they had and was slightly advised not to purchase the dob as it won't be suitable for planets. He did suggest a goto Celestron Nexstar 127 SLT ?............

shayne66........ the Celestron 127 SLT,  will be a good telescope, and you'll be doing the dealer a favour, as its obvious to me that he has sold out, his stock of 8" (200P) Sky-watcher Skyliner telescopes?
Now then, who you gonna trust, the dealer? or the friendly users here on SGL that own and use the 8" (200P) Skyliner, and love them to bits. Its a simple design, extremely efficient, works as described, you only need to learn a little about collimation to keep the thing in tune, should you rough handle it? and once mastered, collimation is a breeze.
I love looking at Jupiter, and my eyes are not perfect, and  I still feel that Jupiter is small in my image, I want a little bigger, but that's just me! ( don't think you will get images that are depicted in books from this telescope, or any visual telescope?) but on the right night, under the right conditions, for that perfect moment, Jupiter is stunning!
The Moon will just blow you away, and you can easily photograph the Moon with a mobile phone held up to the eyepiece, check a Moon shot in my gallery. You will also need a pair of binoculars to share, 8x40 up-to 10x50 maybe, no more as the telescope will give you the finest details, the binoculars will provide the wide panoramic views looking at the constellations.
127 or 200?
Celestron or Skywatcher?
Even if the Celestron was an 8" 200mm, it would be better.
HAVE YOU GOT MY MESSAGE!
The 200P (8") telescope is a fine piece of equipment. First Light Optics  sponsor this site, and they provide this scope for £275 ( today's price ) and their support is second to no-one.
Oh! and finally, to answer your original question, take a look at the Skyliner 200 you suggested, a few folk on here like them too, so if your ever stuck, give out a shout!
Welcome to the SGL.
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That's one of the reasons off joining the forum before buying, I'd done a bit of research before going to the shop today, and from what I'd read the skyliner 200p was great to begin the journey with, so when the shop was pushing something else it sort off stumped me, so that's why I joined this forum to get the information from guys with the experience behind them.

I'll be buying from flo despite been able to save myself 25 quid if brought from Jessops as I want the afteresales, and I think the extra 25 quid will be worth it.

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That's one of the reasons off joining the forum before buying, I'd done a bit of research before going to the shop today, and from what I'd read the skyliner 200p was great to begin the journey with, so when the shop was pushing something else it sort off stumped me, so that's why I joined this forum to get the information from guys with the experience behind them.

I'll be buying from flo despite been able to save myself 25 quid if brought from Jessops as I want the afteresales, and I think the extra 25 quid will be worth it.

You might want to talk to the folks at FLO. If the Jessops price is their regular one it's possible that FLO might be able to get closer to it.

It is much nicer dealing with folks who are astronomers and know and have used the items they stock.

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I have the 127 SLT but only chose that over a goto dob as I have zip all storage space, the 127 fits in aa cheap aluminium flight case.

I Couldn't be without the goto, and if using 2 star align you'll still need to know the sky (although 3 star you don't), goto will track an object for hours and as not manually pushing can concentrate on detail without having mount wobble when using high powered EPs or a Barlow and webcam. A tracking mount even in alt az will let you do basic astrophotography on planets, moon mosaics even decent shots of brighter DSOs. Dont know his easy it is to add goto and tracking to a manual dob

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congrats on ordering the dob, so now we know who's next in line to blame for cloudy skies.. it was me as I had purchased a 200PDS Net from FLO a few months ago (fantastic service), and the clouds rolled in a day or so after delivery HEH

fingers, toes, eyes and everything else crossed for clear skies when it gets unboxed

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Hi, so ordered the 200p dob from FLO. Looking forward to xmas day now when the misses opens it and we can venture into the skies.

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

If this is a surprise gift? when the scope arrives, two boxes, its something you cant hide, these boxes are big!

Nice choice of scope.

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My scope was good to go out of the box? You can make your own collimation tool from the existing dust cap, or an old 35mm film case!

Of all the tools, the Cheshire is the most reliable for my needs. I also opted for the 'long' version of the tool, it gives me a tighter field of view, enabling better alignment IMHO.

Unless the scope is dropped from a great height, the packing is robust, your scope should be ready to go after the hour it takes to put it all together. Align the telescope to a target on your horizon during the day, lock the scope, then set-up, align the focuser to the same target. Then at night, pop in the 25mm keep BOTH EYES OPEN when searching with the finder, locate your target, the Moon for example, , then try the 10mm...........Enjoy!

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okies, i'll have to set it all up on xmas eve when am at my dads so if the weather is clear xmas day night time then we can have our first cold trip.. Turn Left at Orion came through the post today, had a quick glance, look's like it's going be a very useful book.

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