What to get for ~£400?

[Jaxe]

Hello

I'm looking at buying my first telescope and wondering what is considered good in the £300-450 price range.

Right now I'm looking at these two:

Skywatcher Explorer 200P EQ5 8"

Skywatcher Skyliner 250PX Dobsonian 10"

They are both £419 so I don't know how to choose between them.

Any thoughts on these two or any other recommendations? I'm a complete beginner so I'm not really sure what to look out for.

My plan at the moment is to get something good with a decent mount and then upgrade it with a computer system and other accessories later.

Thanks for any advice.

[GazOC]

I'd go for the 8" on the EQ mount. It'll track, the mount can be GOTO'd and the difference in views between that and the 10" is that great IMHO.

[Whippy]

Hi there and welcome to SGL . It's a tough choice because both scopes will show you plenty of detail on loads of objects and the 10" will show you more than an 8" although IMO, it's not a quantum leap. The 8" is mounted on an EQ mount which makes things easier to track across the sky but it is trickier to setup and understand at first. However, you can upgrade the mount to accept motors or a GOTO system which make tracking so much easier. The 10" is mounted on a simple dobsonian mount which is simplicity itself to use but you have keep 'nudging' it to keep the object you are oberserving in the view of the eyepiece.

Personally, I'd go for the 8"/EQ5 setup as you can add motors to the mount plus you can always buy another scope should you wish to and use that on the mount instead.

HTH

Tony..

[acey]

If you're pretty sure that a driven mount is the way you want to go then get the 8" EQ5. If you were going for a dobsonian I'd again suggest 8" rather than 10", as it would be easier to handle and you wouldn't notice much difference visually. If you went for a dobsonian you could always see about tripod mounting it later on - and you'd meanwhile have some spare cash for accessories.

Andrew

[adamsp123]

Hi Jaxe,

My vote would be for the SW 8" on the EQ5 mount.

Tracking is easier and 10" not such a great leap in light gathering, I think as a single first scope you would enjoy it more once you suss out how a GEM mount works.

Pete

[Ben Ritchie]

My vote would be for the SW 8" on the EQ5 mount.

Agreed - the 10" Dob could be remounted on a GEM in the future, but the size of the OTA really needs an EQ6 and that's relatively expensive. So the 8" + EQ5 seems a good idea to me.

One thing to remember if you're on a tight budget is that there are a few bits and pieces that you need - eyepieces, for example - so worth checking that everything's included or you've got a few quid spare. Friend of mine blew his entire budget plus the loose change behind the sofa on an 80ED refractor + EQ5 only to discover that it arrived with no diagonal or eyepieces, so worth checking...

[ZOG]

Jump in quick and get an absolute bargain.

http://stargazerslounge.com/sale/77532-10-flextube-dob-moonlite-focusser.html

[acey]

Very nice looking offer but I respectfully wouldn't recommend it for a first timer. I have a 12" flextube and I like it a lot. I also have to collimate it and re-align the finder every single time I use it. I upgraded to it recently from an 8" solid-tube dob which I found a great hassle-free first scope and used for nine years. Just my two penn'orth.

Andrew

[Doc]

I second what ZOG has said.

Look at this in the for sale section. It's a bargain.

[Jaxe]

Thanks for all the comments and advice.

The 10" dob on sale looks nice but unfortunately I live over 200 miles away. Probably a bit to fiddly for me anyway!

If I were to get the 8" 200P EQ5 what accessories/extras should I get? I'm already a bit over my budget so I'm not sure what more I can fit in, £20-40 worth maybe.

I live in London so lots of light pollution. Is getting a 8" tele a waste in such a light polluted area?

Also how difficult is it to add GOTO to the EQ5. I see an upgrade kit for £300, is it really worth that much?

Thanks again.

[GazOC]

For that money a Celestron 32mm Plossl off Ebay would be nice addition and maybe a cheap Barlow lens to double the magnifications avaliable to you.

[ollypenrice]

Hi and welcome.

There is one accessory no one has mentioned and which needs to come before everything, including the telescope, and that is a map! A telescope points at a bit of sky about the size of a garden pea so you can't find things just by roaming around at the eyepiece. The map will be at the heart of everything you do. It needs to be big enough to see in the dark - and I think most of us would recommend SkyAtlas 2000 (Tirion and Sinnott) as being one you will never need to upgrade. Personally I find that a sky atlas in A4 format is too small and confusing to see in the dark. Before turing to your skyatlas you could look at a planisphere, a crafty plastic disc with a rotating window that shows you what part of the sky will be visible at your time and location. The Philip's one is to be had in big bookshops.

Another form of celestial cartography comes in the form of a computer programme like Starry Night, Redshift or (my own choice) SkyMap Pro. If you use your PC outside you'll cripple your night vision so you should use the software to print off on paper a part of the sky that you will be studying that night.

I'd strongly recommend getting along to an astonomical society to find out first hand what you can see in which telescope, too.

It's a great and ongoing adventure, astronomy, and one in which a huge amateur community provides the warmest mutual support imaginable. Again, welcome.

Olly

[acey]

I live in London so lots of light pollution. Is getting a 8" tele a waste in such a light polluted area?

I wouldn't say it's a waste of time, but you might want to look at refractors too. If you plan on mainly doing visual work then you'll mostly find yourself looking at Moon and planets, maybe double stars and bright clusters. You don't need big aperture for these, and a refractor will in many cases give better results than a low-cost Newtonian - it would also serve for imaging.

An 8-inch newt on an EQ will be a bit of an effort to set up. A small refractor on an alt-az mount might get more use. Will you be viewing from a garden or balcony? Do you expect to travel to a viewing site? These are factors to take into account when choosing.

[Jaxe]

Thanks for the info. I definitely plan on getting some maps, books, etc. What do you guys think of programs like microsoft worldwide telescope and celestia? I've spent hours on them just looking around.

Will you be viewing from a garden or balcony? Do you expect to travel to a viewing site? These are factors to take into account when choosing.

I plan to go down the end of my garden, it is surrounded on all sides by small 2 story houses (about 20 meters to the closest) but they do at least cut out all of the street lights (well you can't see them directly I mean). It's dark enough to worry about walking into the pond - guess I'll need a better torch. The only really big obstruction is one big tree and one three story flats a little way off (far enough not to be a major problem). Other than that I have pretty clear view I think, and no direct light sources.