Upgrade Which One

[Itabot]

Hi A few questions if I may…...I have a SW Sky Liner 200p which I bought for it’s price and simplicity being new to the hobby, enjoy visual, no wish to do AP, a little complicated for me.

Now finding 200p difficult to move around and use, would like to sell the Dob and upgrade to a more compact scope, initial thoughts, Celestron NexStar 8SE or Celestron NexStar Evolution 8.

Can’t make my mind up if the above scopes are the right choice? Is there any better scope for this price range that I should consider?

The Celestron NexStar Evolution 8, is it worth the extra for the sturdier tripod/mount and WiFi, would I require a new tablet with GPS and Compass, is the Wifi unnecessary bells and whistles, I’ve read that the battery life fails quickly also a second battery is necessary for powering a dew shield heater etc, so having a built in battery pointless?

Lastly would my Tal 2X, Barlow, BST 5mm, 8mm,12mm, 18mm, 25mm EP’s and Skywatcher Panaview 2’’ 32mm (if I buy 2’’ Diagonal) be suited to NexStar 8SE, NexStar Evolution 8?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated…..Thanks

[Putaendo Patrick]

Both the scopes you are considering are good, but whether they are the right ones for you is another matter!

With the tripods, neither are much more portable or lighter than the Dob you have. I certainly recommend seeing them in the flesh - either in a shop or maybe someone has one at a local astronomical club? And you will find they need a little more time to set up. If you go with these, you will probably want an external rechargeable power-pack and depending on what you get, this should also serve to dew heaters etc.

Do you have particular favorites for visual observing? Planets, double stars, nebulae etc.? This may influence your decision for field of view and magnification range.

Both are go-to, and the Evolution in particular has some quite high tech wizardry. Stepping up from a completely manual Dob, is this attractive for you? These features are nice to have especially if you're the type of person who likes playing with gadgets, but not absolutely necessary. They're also quite expensive.

For the same money you could buy a telescope with better optics (although there's nothing bad about the Celestrons) and a simple but good quality Alt-az mount. Again, maybe not for you, but there are alternatives.

You've got a nice range of eyepieces which should be fine for most medium to slow telescopes of about f6 and above, so no problems there!

 

 

[ronin]

Having said

Now finding 200p difficult to move around and use

I doubt that the 2 ones you mention will be any easier to move round and use. You either have to have the tripod and scope as one unit - heavy and not easy to get set up, or you split into tripod and scope get tripod set up then attach the scope, which is not the simplest thing to do. Suppose the simple way to look at it is they are all 8" scopes, so one is not going to be significantly easier then the others.

The goto alignment is also not a 20 second action. Allow 15 to 20 minutes once you are familiar with it all.

Also is an SCT the right scope, the possibly wide views from the 200P will go.

Within reason all the eyepieces except the 5mm BST should be usable, the 5mm will deliver something like 400x in an 8" SCT, bit too much unless very very lucky about once a year. The 8mm (250x) may not get much use but will occasionally get some.

Not sure what to suggest, maybe a 5" or 6" Mak/SCT they seem a popular size scope. Personally I would not suggest lots of additional electronics. They seem to make life difficult not easy. I get the idea people by extra item A to make the alignment easier but then spend twice as long setting up item A so that it can do the alignment then it would have taken just to have done the alignment themselves.

My sort of easy one is a 90mm ED refractor on a manual Alt/Az mount. For goto and tracking that will go on an iOptron CEM 25 mount. Bit too heavy I think for the SmartEQ, but the SmartEQ is 5Kg loading and the scope is 3.7Kg, so it should handle it.

[happy-kat]

Given the potential budget... A skywatcher star discovery mount with a 5 inch mak.

Why the mount, it gives tracking, goto or fully manual movement of the telescope and will work manually with no power The mak is I think pretty compact compared to your 200p.

 

(I haven't used either directly).

[nightfisher]

do you need goto? cant help feeling a skytee mount and bresser 152 frac (the short one)

[Andyb90]

Would keeping the 200p on some kind of trolley so its easier to move around be another option?

I have wondered whether I could do this with my 250px and store it in my garage.

Andy.

[LukeSkywatcher]

I have no trouble moving my 8" SCT or setting it up. The OTA is as light as possible for a scope of 8". The tripod and mount are not too heavy either. I usually leave the OTA on the mount as one piece and the tripod as another.I know the view in the SCT is narrower then in other scopes but to be honest ive never really noticed. Its a great all rounder in my opinion.

[Peter Drew]

I agree with Paul (LukeSkywatcher). I have a 200P and a 8se. The fully assembled 8se is lighter and more compact than the 200p and does not need dismantling to move it about. The main difference is stability, nothing reasonably priced is as steady as a Dobsonian, the 8se has a one arm fork and is on the limit for stability whilst focusing, an electric assist would be a good upgrade. The overall performance is great and the goto is accurate and really only takes  few minutes for visual use. Anything below about 10mm for eyepieces will gather dust in the UK as well as the Barlow. Having been used to an 8" I feel that downgrading much in aperture could lead to disappointment. 

[LukeSkywatcher]

I should point out that the comments made by me about the 8se (see above), are based on my personal experience with the scope, with me being a full time wheelchair user. If i can handle the 8se without trouble, i'm sure most people could.

[Itabot]

Many Thanks all for your advice.

 Decided I'm going to sell my under used Dob SW Sky Liner 200p.  I'm sold on a GO-TO  8'' for visual only, no wish to complicate things with AP, going round in circles, I've added to the mix. 

Celestron C8 Edge-HD VX GOTO £1615.  AVX Tripod/Mount Better/stronger?  Is the only difference better optics being HD.

Are these 3  below all the same spec scopes on different tripods?

Celestron NexStar Evolution 8  £1575.  Tripod stronger? But the Wifi and battery issues put me off?
Celestron C8 SCT VX GOTO  £1339.  AVX Tripod/Mount Better/stronger?
Celestron NexStar 8SE  £1268.  Tripod on it's limit?

[alanjgreen]

Itabot,

Also checkout the CPC800, (i have one for sale in the classifieds ). The reason I went for it over the Nexstar is that it has a much more solid dual-arm mount than a Nexstar so nice and steady while viewing at the eyepiece.

If you are visual only then the AVX is equitorial mount and you may find the eyepiece at strange places & angles. I ruled that out for this reason.

Can't comment on the Nexstar evolution as it was not available at the time but I notice it is a single arm mount once again.

All 8 inch SCT are 2032 (edited) focal length so all your eyepieces will be useful with anything in the 8-25 mm range very useful.

 

Alan

 

 

 

[LukeSkywatcher]

42 minutes ago, alanjgreen said:

Itabot,

Also checkout the CPC800, (i have one for sale in the classifieds ). The reason I went for it over the Nexstar is that it has a much more solid dual-arm mount than a Nexstar so nice and steady while viewing at the eyepiece.

If you are visual only then the AVX is equitorial mount and you may find the eyepiece at strange places & angles. I ruled that out for this reason.

Can't comment on the Nexstar evolution as it was not available at the time but I notice it is a single arm mount once again.

All 8 inch SCT are 2050 focal length so all your eyepieces will be useful with anything in the 8-25 mm range very useful.

 

Alan

 

 

 

My 8Se has a focal length of 2032mm. I wonder where my extra 18mm have gone.

[Itabot]

2 hours ago, alanjgreen said:

If you are visual only then the AVX is equitorial mount and you may find the eyepiece at strange places & angles. I ruled that out for this reason.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks Alan never gave that a thought, I would find an equatorial mount awkward, I will also have to rule that out with my back issues.......Thinking

[Itabot]

On 11/4/2016 at 13:29, ronin said:

 

Also is an SCT the right scope, the possibly wide views from the 200P will go.

 

Would the Celestron f6.3 Focal Reducer solve the narrow FOV on a 8''SCT for visual or is it more for AP?