Mount for Sky Watcher Skyliner 200P

[Alastair Smith]

Had a bit of excellent news last night.

My daughters fiance has given me his Skywatcher 200P scope and dob mount for nothing! 

Having had a few thoughts about what I wound like to do astronomy wise, I think that lunar/planetary observation is where I would like to start.  I am also interested in astrophotography, so would like to use my Canon eos500d for this.  My question is, what is the best mount for the scope, especially if I get on well and want to tackle things like deep sky objects? Is there a way to drive the existing dob mount, or would I be better off with a different mount?

[Skipper Billy]

That's a great way to get into the future father in laws good books !!!!!

More experienced people will chime in about mounts but I would have thought at least an NEQ6 to handle that for astrophotography - its a bit of a sail in a breeze. There may also be focus issues if its the P as opposed to PDS.

Either way the fiance sounds like a keeper ;-)

 

[Cornelius Varley]

For imaging you need a stable platform to mount the tube on, probably the minimum a HEQ5 Pro. The second option would be to keep the existing dob base and mount this on an  equatorial platform . This particular one is designed for southern europe but I would assume other versions are available for the UK. An EQ5 would probably be adequate for visual use, but for imaging the HEQ5 would be better.

[brantuk]

Driven dob mounts are fine for imaging planets and moon, but for dso's an accurate driven equatorial mount (preferably guided) is pretty much essential. As mentioned above an EQ5 will be adequate for observing but the HEQ5 is more accurate and a bit more stable ("H" is for heavy duty) for imaging.

However all the extra weight of anciliary gear (guide scope/camera, mountings, imaging camera, dew control. etc) brings it close to working on the limit. My preference for an 8" scope would the NEQ6 which has the required level of accuracy, weight, stability, and guiding, to make sessions painless. Hth

 

[John]

The 200P has quite a long tube. I reckon an NEQ6 or equivilent is going to be needed to do any sort of deep sky imaging.