250p dob or Celestron C9.25 AVX or Evo mount

[Beardy30]

Morning all

 

out of interest out of the two above which would people advise would be a better goto system ? I’m considering the 250p as it’s cheaper but understand it’s bigger which is no issue for me however I believe the Celestron goto system is a tad more user friendly - any opinion on which would be the better buy? 

[KP82]

Hi James,

The 250p GOTO dob is strictly a visual instrument (not counting those snapshots by smartphones) whereas the C9.25/AVX combo can be used for both visual and astrophotography. The C9.25 is more than double the price of the 250p (£2,699 vs £1,199), so your choice will be a question of your intended usage rather than which one is better.

In terms of user friendliness of the different GOTO system, I personally find them all about the same. I've got Synscan (skywatcher) and PMC8 (ES) myself, and have tried NexStar (Celestron) with a fellow club member's C11. For visual use I don't like any of them and prefer my own custom solution made of INDI, kstar/ekos and SkySafari 6 Pro.

Edited January 18, 2022 by KP82

[Shimrod]

3 hours ago, Beardy30 said:

Morning all

 

out of interest out of the two above which would people advise would be a better goto system ? I’m considering the 250p as it’s cheaper but understand it’s bigger which is no issue for me however I believe the Celestron goto system is a tad more user friendly - any opinion on which would be the better buy? 

The AVX will take longer to set up - both physically in terms of moving bits out to the garden (I have to move tripod/mount, telescope and counterweights separately) and then you need to balance and polar align before doing the star align process for the go-to. If you are not going to be doing AP, then I would say the dobsonian is  much better choice from that aspect alone.

I have a skywatcher mount as well, and I do think the Celestron version of go-to is slightly more user friendly, but I would make my selection of kit based on the go-to system unless everything else was equal.

[Beardy30]

I may opt for the evo but I agree the dob is a lot cheaper - I’m not ruling out AP in future however for an SCT might be better mount wise 

 

thanks