Skywatcher Skyliner 300p Review

[Corkeyno2]

I recently got my Skywatcher 300p Flextube Dobsonian Telescope! It came with a 10mm eyepiece and a 25mm eyepiece. I must say, this thing is absolutely huge. A scope this size can still fit nicely in my car, which is average size. Let me warn everyone who is looking at one of these: no matter how much you drool over one of these things, please go and see one before you buy it! They are much bigger than in the pictures! And it also comes with a nice 9x50 finderscope.

The first couple of nights after getting this thing were cloudy, so sorry for the delay. But last night was nice and clear, so I did not hesitate to take the scope outside and do a bit of observing. The first star I observed was capella (at least I think it was!). Despite light pollution being so bad it might as well have been day, the star still showed the diffraction spikes. I waited for around two hours in my car, keeping nice and toasty waiting for the cope to cool down so I could make some ACTUAL observations. Remember to allow around 2 hours for this scope to cool down before you make crucial observations.

As soon as Orion came up a pointed the scope at betelgeuse,and then rigel. Rigel was definitely brighter than betelgeuse in the eyepiece.

I decided to test it out, despite the extreme light pollution, on the Orion Nebula. It only took a few minutes, but at 50x magnification I got it. Through the telescope, it was amazing. No colour, which was expected, but an amazing view. The pleiades cluster also is a treat in this scope.

Overall, I strongly recommend this telescope. It is very heavy, but is not too hard to move once you detach it from the base. Personally I did not purchase the goto version, but I heard it has over 30,000 objects. And with a foot of aperture, it's very likely that it will be able to show you a large number of these. It's really for DSOs.

Here's a picture of the scope that I found on google images.
Clear skies to all,

Corkey

[cloudsweeper]

Glad you like it and are making a good start with it, Corkey!

Look forward to hearing about observing galaxies and the like!

Doug.

[spaceboy]

Nice report on your first light. I had the goto version of this scope and I agree they are a handful.

I have found on nights of good transparency colour really comes through on DSO's unfortunately that isn't very often though. There are one or two colourful DSO's that can be seen in less favourable conditions like the blue snowball and I can sometimes make out green in M57 when directly over head. Good collimation can also make a lot of difference.

[Floater]

Nice one, Corkey.

Onward and upward! ?

[scarp15]

Good start, you will grow accustom to the size and get used to the handling, they are always a suprise when you first lay eyes on them. Low power observing is possible without becoming overly concerned with cool down time. do not dismiss planetary observing, these scopes can yield fantastic views, when conditions are right. Do you have a cheshire collimator? 

[Corkeyno2]

49 minutes ago, scarp15 said:

Good start, you will grow accustom to the size and get used to the handling, they are always a suprise when you first lay eyes on them. Low power observing is possible without becoming overly concerned with cool down time. do not dismiss planetary observing, these scopes can yield fantastic views, when conditions are right. Do you have a cheshire collimator? 

No, but I am going to get one soon

[Timebandit]

Nice scope buddy and well done?

But now comes the expensive part eyepieces ?.

But us chaps and ladies on here will guide you through our favourite talk about eyepieces televues, and Delite, Delos , nagler and wallet busting Ethos.

Quality Wide field of view eyepiece with decent eye relief really do transform the scopes ability. But you have a cracking good scope with decent aperture so a great base to start building some great eyepieces to use in it.

Hope you got deep pockets buddy , ?

[niallk]

Congrats on the fabulous scope 

I have its little brother, the 250px (solid tube version) - it is a grrreat scope, and has shown me so much on a wide variety of targets from planets to all sorts of DSOs. Best astro money I have spent, no question.

Enjoy, and take it to dark skies for a real treat

PS an inexpensive fan will definitely help the cool down time - worth considering I'd say. I see a benefit and always use one on my 15" fwiw.

All the best,

-Niall 

[nicks90]

definitely dont dismiss planetary/lunar viewing - contrast can be lower than a long slow frac unless the seeing is really good - but a trick i used successfully is to make a stop down ring for the front to reduce it to 200mm aperture. Turns the scope in to a 200mm F7.5 which is amazing on jupiter!!! 

And as others have said, dont worry about cool down time too much. On very lower power (25mm or larger EP), then you wont notice it too much. Also worth getting an astrozap cover for the flextube bit. Stops the primary dewing up as much and increases contrast by cutting out internal light scatter from any local light pollution.

I own the goto version and most evenings I only use 2 pieces of glass - my 24mm 82deg ES explorer and an antares x1.6 barlow. Covers the vast majority of viewing requirements and only if i decide to do a bit of high power jupiter viewing do i stick anything else in the focuser. Dont get giddy and spend squillions on eye pieces until youve put a half decent low power one in and decide what you want the scope to excel at and what suits your eye.

[Lorne]

You will enjoy this scope, no doubts... had one until earlier this year - best scope I ever owned

[Corkeyno2]

21 hours ago, Lorne said:

You will enjoy this scope, no doubts... had one until earlier this year - best scope I ever owned

What happened to it?