Skywatcher GOTO system - useful, lazy or a waste of cash?

[Astro Imp]

Hi Darren.

A couple of things come to mind.

i) You will need a reliable power source if you go down the GOTO route.

ii) In an earlier post you indicated you had a fair amount of land at your disposal. Have you considered a simple observatory, look for roll off roof observatories in the DIY observatories section of the forum.

HTH.

[carlpenn]

Hiya

I am new to all this and decided on buying a Skywatcher Star Discovery 150p Goto.

I appreciate you are looking at bigger models, but as you asked about the Goto I figured my reply may help.

My opinion is a Goto is an excellent device, for me personally one main reason.

When I first got the scope, I found it extremely difficult to master the manual locating of Sky Objects, this then 'spoiled' the experience a little. However, that is why I bought the Goto. Because, after initial set up, I could tell the Goto where to Go and it did and I enjoyed the Viewing, Seeing Jupiter for the first time was simply amazing for me.

Once my Goto was set up, I would split using the Goto with manouvering the Scope manually to locate Sky Objects. So, I would track Jupiter with the Goto and then swing the scope round to Regulus or Arcturus etc. Using Stellarium (an App - Free on Windows devices but costs £1.56 on Andriod) to guide me. I feel this helped keep the interest up, whilst I learn to master the art of manually moving a scope to seek Sky Objects.

This meant whilst enjoying the easiness of the Goto system, if all went wrong with my Manual movements, I could tell the Goto to look back at Jupiter and it did etc.

The downside to the Goto is you have to have it flat level, slight unevenness results in problems with the Goto locking in correctly. At the moment I am using three cake tins filled with sand to help with this !!!! (Works a treat by the way!)

 

 

 

[DarrenH]

Hey all!

Lots of posts, so feel free to pull me on anything I miss.

I'm pretty much decided that the GoTo system is a good choice for me. Buying the GoTo scope allows me to use it or ignore it as I choose fit.

Size9 - Plenty of dark sky here! I think I would do better the other way round. Use goto to start with, then move onto manual star-hopping as my knowledge increases.

Andrew -  Appreciate the thoughts. What I want vs what I need is a tough one. I generally tend to dive into things head first. I need hands on experience to keep my interest peeked. Some folk might be happy using a pair of bins for a year and buying the odd book before they purchase a scope, but that's not me. If I'm reading a book on scopes, I want a scope in front of me to use and practice with. I'm not rushing into anything at the minute though. Probably mull it all over for another few days/week yet (pay day on the 25th you see...).

Alan - Power source will either be mains if I'm using the scope out of the window, or the SW 17Ah power pack when outdoors. As for the observatory, that's a bit tricky. Most of the land is used as grazing pasture or for growing our organic hay. As such no structures can go in these fields. Can't have an observatory in the orchard as that would ruin it, nor in the courtyard garden as I would be crucified over open flames!. The east lawn is full of random shrubs and plants, plus the boss has her summer kips here so also a no go, and the west lawn is a work area (compost bins, firewood stacks, storage for tractor attachments etc). The back garden is where we grow our veg/summer fruits, so again not an ideal spot. A lot of land, but none of it is really 'free'. The only truly free land is a half acre towards the front of the house, but that is very rough ground (used for cattle grazing back in the day) and too close to the road to leave anything of value in it. Rural as we are, there are times when the pikey caravans come rolling into the village...(things go missing).

Carl - All opinions welcome! None of the ground here is flat or level (was a working farm for 250+ years) so I will have to combat that issue as and when it occurs. I'll prob start with just sticking he scope out of a window for a week or so, just to get to grips with everything. Once I'm happy I'll just have to find some choice spots around the gardens and level them out during the daylight hours.

 

Edit:

I could do with a few other websites that offer international shipping if anyone knows of any?? France is a little backwards when it comes to tech, so generally I do most of my shopping online outside of France. FLO is cheaper then Amazon, so no need to link Amazon.

[DarrenH]

Evening folks!

A quick couple of questions before I bite the bullet on a 250px goto. I was realllly tempted by the 300 goto, but common sense dictated otherwise in the end. Buying the 250 gives me 500 euro to spend on accessories though, so I'm happy...

1. Can it run off mains? I can't find any info which gives me a yes/no answer to this. Reason being is there might be the odd occasion were I just fancy sticking the scope out of the window to have peep at a full moon or something.

1.5. Are all power packs born equal? Do I need to buy the skywatcher 17ah battery, or will anyone do? The official skywatcher retailer here in France doesn't sell the skywatcher 17ah pack oddly enough, but they have:

Orion Dynamo Pro 17 Ah159,00 €

Celestron PowerTank 12V 17Ah219,00 €

2. Is this a required purchase, or something I can add at a later date

- https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dew-prevention/astrozap-light-shroud-for-skywatcher-flextube.html. My light pollution is minimal.

3. Dew strips. From what I've read these seem a good buy? Any particular product worth buying over another?

4. Can the battery power a laptop? My laptop under minimal load (web browsing forums) has a 4 hour (ish) life span, but anything taxing the CPU soon drags that down to 2 hours or so. I plan on using Stellerium as my navigation via said laptop.

Thanks.

[Gazabone]

Goto or not goto is always a debate that sparks quite strong views.  I'm quite happy finding stuff manually as long as I have setting circles, either on my Dob or the other scopes on an eq mount.  I find star hopping quite difficult.  I think one of the key things with finding objects in the early days of getting into this hobby is recognising that an object is in the eyepiece when it's there.  The first time I found M97 (through a 120mm f8.3 refractor) I didn't even realise it was there to start with.  Similarly M51 is difficult to spot if you've only seen it in nice photos before. At least with a Goto set you, you can be reasonably confident your target is somewhere in your ep!

[DarrenH]

Yeah I'm dead set on a goto Dob now. I weighed up the pro's and con's of a computer aided 10" dob vs larger manual  12" dob, and the computer won. It makes more sense to have the help as and when you need it. If I ever get to the point were I can point the dob at an object without needing help then the computer system is easily ignored...

My copy of Turn Left at Orion just came  Will read that in the garden with a beer come noon.