Is a 200p dobsonian good for Nebulae and Faint fuzzies?

[Olli]

Hi again  

after thinking about getting the 130p dob I think I’ve change my mind and have decided to go for the bigger 200p as I’ve realised it’s not that bad to carry after looking at some videos. As I mentioned before  I don’t really have a good telescope at the moment and have never seen Galaxies or Nebulae properly before. These are my main interests and objects I’ll be observing the most ( and maybe star clusters) . I was wondering if the 200p is good for this type of thing? I live in a south facing garden ( if that matters) and relatively low light pollution.I’ve also seen filters which you can buy to get the best view out of them but not really sure how they work.  Or would I be better off getting a refractor?

Thanks for the help.

[Stu]

200p will be just fine for nebulae and faint fuzzies. If your skies are dark, which it sounds like they are, it will give you excellent views.

Best filters are the UHC and OIII. UHC is a little more general purpose in that it works well on a wider variety of targets, but the OIII is highly effective on objects like the Veil and North America Nebula. It is an often argued point which one to buy first, and there is no right or wrong answer really. Ideally get both if you can stretch to it.

I found the Explore Scientific ones to be good value and quite effective. Top of the desireables list are Astronomik, their price matches their performance though, I'm sure you would be happy with ES.

[Saganite]

Hi,

To get the light grasp of a 200P  in a good refractor is going to be much more expensive. My advice would be to get a 200 P, and enjoy it. It is a very very capable scope which will show Galaxies, star clusters globular clusters, planets, the Moon, enough to keep you happy for a lifetime.

[Olli]

5 minutes ago, Stu said:

200p will be just fine for nebulae and faint fuzzies. If your skies are dark, which it sounds like they are, it will give you excellent views.

Best filters are the UHC and OIII. UHC is a little more general purpose in that it works well on a wider variety of targets, but the OIII is highly effective on objects like the Veil and North America Nebula. It is an often argued point which one to buy first, and there is no right or wrong answer really. Ideally get both if you can stretch to it.

I found the Explore Scientific ones to be good value and quite effective. Top of the desireables list are Astronomik, their price matches their performance though, I'm sure you would be happy with ES.

Thanks for the help Stu . I was looking at the filters you mentioned first as I think I saw someone on here mention them but didn’t really get what the differences were I haven’t heard of the ES ones before I’ll have a look at the,. I’m not going to get the filters straight away when I get the scope as I want to get familiar with it first. I appreciate the help.

[Stu]

On your point regarding colour, most objects appear as grey fuzzies. There are exceptions though. I find M42 regularly shows quite a noticeable green tinge to it even in a 4" refractor so an 8" dob should show this even more.

The objects with low surface brightness such as the larger nebulae will be grey, but planetary nebulae can show fairly clear colour; the blue snowball for instance, plus the blinking planetary shows quite green.

One point I forgot about filters is that they are only really effective on emission nebulae. M42, the Veil plus Planetary Nebulae for instance all benefit, but galaxies do not, neither do reflection nebulae such as that around M45. Dark skies are the only answer for these.

[Olli]

5 minutes ago, Saganite said:

Hi,

To get the light grasp of a 200P  in a good refractor is going to be much more expensive. My advice would be to get a 200 P, and enjoy it. It is a very very capable scope which will show Galaxies, star clusters globular clusters, planets, the Moon, enough to keep you happy for a lifetime.

Thanks for the advice Steve, reason I asked about a refractor is that I’ve heard they give nice wide field views but I think I’m going to stick with the dob  

[Olli]

4 minutes ago, Stu said:

On your point regarding colour, most objects appear as grey fuzzies. There are exceptions though. I find M42 regularly shows quite a noticeable green tinge to it even in a 4" refractor so an 8" dob should show this even more.

The objects with low surface brightness such as the larger nebulae will be grey, but planetary nebulae can show fairly clear colour; the blue snowball for instance, plus the blinking planetary shows quite green.

One point I forgot about filters is that they are only really effective on emission nebulae. M42, the Veil plus Planetary Nebulae for instance all benefit, but galaxies do not, neither do reflection nebulae such as that around M45. Dark skies are the only answer for these.

Thanks I’ll have to do some more research on which ones I think I’ll need I found this site http://www.deepskywatch.com/Articles/what-can-i-see-through-telescope.html which has sort of put into perspective what I can expect to see.

[Stu]

5 minutes ago, Dinoco said:

Thanks for the advice Steve, reason I asked about a refractor is that I’ve heard they give nice wide field views but I think I’m going to stick with the dob  

It's true that the views in a nice widefield refractor are lovely, but I think you are right to go for a bit more aperture. On a few objects you will not be able to fit the whole object in, but most you will, and you will see more detail with the larger aperture.

ES filter here

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/uhc-oiii-visual-filters/explore-scientific-o-iii-nebula-filter-1-25-2-inch.html

[Stu]

2 minutes ago, Dinoco said:

Thanks I’ll have to do some more research one which ones I think I’ll need I found this site http://www.deepskywatch.com/Articles/what-can-i-see-through-telescope.html which has sort of put into perspective what I can expect to see.

This is a good guide for understanding which objects benefit from which filters.

http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org/filter-performance-comparisons-for-some-common-nebulae/

[iapa]

Are you only going to be observing, or are you planning to be imaging at a later time?

 

[Charic]

The sky and viewing conditions will make/break any viewing session, any scope!

From my back garden ( facing North  and plenty of street light ) M31 is not visible to my naked eye, and is not much to look at through the scope either, but its there, just a small wispy grey smudge, not much to look at, not so impressive when you compare to the images you see in books, or like the good folk here produce?

Away from the house, at a darker site, Its possible that my 70° afov  32mm Panaview is still not wide enough to take everything in, such is the difference, viewing  M31 with the same scope, two different extremes!

The 200P Skyliner Dobsonian was a massive step over my earlier 5" scope, and having the right conditions, a larger scope  will improve things for the visual observer, but up to a point, and no more, there are limits ?

[Whistlin Bob]

Another vote for the 200p here- had mine a couple of years and really love it. If you're thinking of complementary purchases the accessories I've found most useful are:

- An adjustable ironing chair. To get the most from the scope it's good to really linger over an object and this helps do it in comfort. They're around thirty five quid off Amazon and adjust to a good height for whatever target your aiming for. Just be prepared for a bit of assisted living spam afterwards!

- A Rigel finder or Telrad. Really helps with finding stuff.

- A RACI finder scope really helps me with the star hopping as well, but others manage fine without.

I'd suggest holding off on the filters whilst you get used to it and decide what you really want.

[Geoff Lister]

I had my Skyliner 250PX, with Synscan, (10" instead of the 200p's 8") out last night. Sirius had a pronounced "twinkle", so there was a little disturbance in the atmosphere. The Orion nebula, M42, was very clear, and by using a 6mm eyepiece, the trapezium in it was very bold, but with twinkling hiding the adjacent 2 faint stars. Without illumination from the Moon, the M81 & M82 galaxies were very clear in eyepieces of 32mm down. They should have been fine with the 200p

A RACI finder is on my "to do" list, although the GoTo system tends to make a finder redundant after 2-star alignment. Still very useful if I use the mount manually.

Geoff