Sky-Watcher StarQuest versus Explorer

[peterjudge]

Hello all - and thank you for having this forum!

I'm about to invest £200+ in my first ever telescope. I'm hoping to look at planets mostly, and while I might try and take photos, I've got no illusions that I can improve on what others are already doing!  I live in London, and plan to mostly use this in Cornwall, where I visit a couple of times a year. 

I seem to be settling on a Skywatcher Explorer 130P.... at least I was, until I noticed that there is a Skywatcher StarQuest, which costs almost exactly the same amount, and seems to have the same parabolic mirror. 

The StarQuest is described as a "grab and go" telescope, and it seems to have a much simpler looking mount, but without some of the knobs (slow-motion adjusters?). It also seems to be quite new, so I haven't seen reviews of it. 

Are there reasons to prefer the StarQuest?

Peter Judge 

 

[Mr niall]

Hi Peter

The Starquest is indeed shiny new, only a couple of weeks old in fact; but the telescope is essentially the same as you deduced

You've picked equatorial mounts. Are you definitely set on an equatorial mount? Nothing wrong with them but I find them a bit of a nightmare personally and much prefer alt-az. Equatorial mounts don't move up-down-left-right like alt-az mounts so they can be a bit fiddly to use when not attached to a Goto system (just my opinion may be giving away my rank amatuerness there!)

What sort of photography are you thinking about? There's two types; Lunar & Planetary and "Everything Else". Lunar and planetary is sort of just about feasible with the 130 provided you have a mount with tracking motors (ironically this is where an EQ mount is your friend) but otherwise quite tricky. The starquest doesn't have tracking motors but theres a rumour circulating that skywatcher may be making them available as an add-on in the future. The moon is do-able if you can hover a phone or camera over the eyepiece though. But everything else is out so remember to keep your expectations low to avoid disappointment.

You know the heritage 130p flextube is another option again - and a bit cheaper. Would be easier to use certainly.

edit: sorry forgot to answer your question! If it were me I'd pick the starquest purely because its newer and looks a bit cooler! But they're basically the same

Edited July 4, 2019 by Mr niall

[peterjudge]

Thank you!  EQ mounts seem more logical for looking at things in the sky.

I'm really not expecting to take great photos at this price range, and take your point about needing a motor. 

I have 

[Mr niall]

2 minutes ago, peterjudge said:

Thank you!  EQ mounts seem more logical for looking at things in the sky.

Debatable....

They are, on paper, much more logical, but the problem is as we look at things from the ground our frame of reference is always up/down left/right. If you are trying to move from one thing to another using an EQ mount you cant move the way you think you should move in your head; you've got to get the hang of describing invisible arc's in your head which can be fairly frustrating. 

I have never found a manually driven eq mount to be better than an alt-az mount for anything, ever! But I'm just one guy (and not a very competent astronomer!)

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

Stick with manual alt az or Dobson if you're buying a first telescope. Less complicated than equatorial and faster to set up and start observing. Around £200 there are several options. The 130PS and AZ5 mount is nice to use. This is the setup that got me going. The tripod isn't the sturdiest, but the 130PS in the package is very lightweight at 2.7kg, plus the AZ5 mount will be useful should you decide to upgrade. The whole lot is is quite easy to store and lug about in a bag.

It is slightly more than your budget at £245.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-az5-deluxe/sky-watcher-explorer-130ps-az5-deluxe.html

Dobsonians are great starter scopes. I've not owned one, only looked through. However, many people here would recommend one.

The Skyliner 150p is £207.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/beginner-telescopes/skywatcher-skyliner-150p-dobsonian.html

As Niall mentioned the Heritage 130p is cheap as chips at £139, easy to store, setup and carry, while still showing you the same views as all the other 130/650 variants. It will fit to a tripod should you wish in the future.

You will also have plenty of spare cash to upgrade the eyepieces.

BST Starguiders come highly recommended and three will cost around £120 new.

http://www.skysthelimit.org.uk/

 

 

 

 

[Cosmic Geoff]

I agree with the advice that a manual alt-az would be much simpler to manage.  An equatorial mount is a liability for a beginner who just wants to look at objects for brief periods of time.

A cautionary note on astrophotography - this will essentially require you to re-equip after buying and trying the telescope you discuss above.  Some newbies may imagine that to get into astrophotography, one just has to strap a DSLR onto an entry-level telescope.  I'm sorry, but you just can't.  These entry level telescope tubes are not well suited to astrophotography - they are not optimized for it, and as for the mounts ... to take impressive deep-space images it is usually necessary to automatically track the target with pinpoint accuracy for a very long time.  Entry level mounts are generally about as suitable for this as a family runabout is for Formula 1.  There are cheaper options, such as placing a DSLR directly on a small tracking mount.  For planetary imaging, which works in a different way, the demands on the mount are less extreme, and it is possible to get results with simpler mounts, but an imaging-class mount makes the whole process more pleasant and productive.  A 130mm scope is capable of producing some sort of planetary images, but it might need to be camera modified, and you would need to expensively re-mount it to make it usable.  A look at what ace planetary imagers like Astroavani actually use may prove instructive.

This is not to say that you shouldn't have a go, but the temptation to get better kit in pursuit of more impressive images could prove expensive.

[peterjudge]

These are all good points. 

I've got no illusions about astrophotography - it sounds like a recipe for throwing money at a goal of trying to reproduce what other people are always going to do better. I think it's a bit like trying to take photos at a sports match. You don't enjoy the game, and you get a worthless imitation of what the professionals get on the touchline with better kit. 

Plus, I know an MPhys whose dissertation involved capturing images of stars, so I've heard about the frustrations (she had a Meade with a digital-driven alt-az, but had to switch to EQ). I will confer on this one.... 🙂

Peter 

[mand83]

Hi,

I’ve just found this feed and interested to find out which one you purchased and your opinion? I am wanting to get my husband a telescope, this will be his first. We had spotted one at Jessie’s however on other searches it wasn’t recommended and the sky watcher 130 was. I was looking at the sky watcher explored 130 p but read above about the az5 deluxe version. I’m confused! I would really like some advise and suggestions, around £200 mark.

Thanks for your help

Edited October 21, 2019 by mand83
Added more info

[Khephren]

Hi Everyone,

  I'm new to the forum and Astronomy in general, and I'd like to thank everyone on this forum for all the hints and tips! (especially about avoiding most cheap bird-jones type telescopes!)

I too am considering buying the starquest 130P, but there was one factor I hope someone can confirm.  I saw a youtube video that mentioned the mounting could be switched from EQ to Alt-az is that true? As it will probably be the decider for me if it is. Also, how difficult would it be to attach a camera phone?

thanks for any help,

Mark.

[Stu1smartcookie]

this post seems to have had an abrupt end .. so , what scope and mount did you get ?

[Nikolai De Silva]

On 14/07/2020 at 20:27, Khephren said:

I saw a youtube video that mentioned the mounting could be switched from EQ to Alt-az is that true?

May be this late. But I saw this now🙂 Yes you can switch from eq to alt az. We have the Starquest 130p and satisfying.