Which one and why??

[johnkirkpatrick]

If you had to buy one of the below, Which one would you and why??

1. Explorer 200p EQ5
   
2. Skyliner 250px
   
3. Skyliner 300p
   

[Doc]

Do you or are you likely to use it for astrophotography?

[johnkirkpatrick]

Not any time soon but would be considered in a few years or so.

[Doc]

Then without doubt I would pick the 300P. Reason is that it's so simple to set up and use, and big enough to show you almost every object you wanted to see, if you are willing to learn your way around the sky of course.

[Astro Adj]

I agree with Mick, and faced a similar buying decision recently!

The only other consideration is whether the scope's size/weight is something you need to pay attention to? I couldn't fit the 300P into my room (well, technically I could, but it would have ended up going out of the window shortly after my wife saw it...) but ended up going for the Flextube version as it didn't dominate the bedroom when collapsed.

If you can live with the bigger size, the 300P will reward you with what you can observe with it that wouldn't be possible in 250. In fact it can gather 44% more light than the 250!

[themos]

Hmm, I'd recommend against the 300P even though I have one. The 250 will be less of a pig to get onto an equatorial mount. But my 300P was a second-hand bargain.

[Doc]

Hmm, I'd recommend against the 300P even though I have one. The 250 will be less of a pig to get onto an equatorial mount. But my 300P was a second-hand bargain.

I was thinking off the 300P Dobsonian

[themos]

So was I!

[dweller25]

For deepsky - 300P

For planets 200/250P

[Chris H]

I thought you'd already made up your mind :D:D

[John]

Not any time soon but would be considered in a few years or so.

I could not help smiling at this - I you are anything like some of us, you will have had a number of scopes by then, whatever you buy now

Seriously, give the large aperture a try if you can - 12" really presents a lifetime of visual observing potential.

[johnkirkpatrick]

I thought you'd already made up your mind :D:D

LOL, So did I mate. My problem is that I have just learned how to polar align and use my scope properly, not screwing and unscrewing the lat adjustment screw to get to where I want to point the scope. Now I really like it.

Thats where the exp 200p eq5 comes in as its the biggest scope on a mount I can afford.

The 250px Dob would give me 2" extra mirror or the same cash and I could possibly push to the 300p Dob.

The size isn't a problem as I would have it only a few meters from my garden.I want to start hunting down DSO's mainly as i've only seen a few also viewing planets with the dob I worry, As you have to nudge the scope and would wobble like mad i fear.

The comparison you did for me was a great help and has pushed me to the dobs.

[simon84]

I have the 300P but on the NEQ6 and not on a dob base.

It is fairly weighty but I am glad I went for a big a scope as I could.

The views are simply breath taking, I upgraded from a 114mm Newt and the differences are nothing short of amazing.

If you go for something smaller you will always be left wondering "what if" and eventually it'll get at you and you'll end up getting the bigger scope anyway, so get it now and save all the aperture fever hell.

As for astrophotography, I always thought I'd end up using my 300P to take some pics but its just too big for it so I got myself a little ED80 frac which on the NEQ6 is as solid as a rock.

Choices choices, but I know where I'd put my money.

[Chris H]

I went through the same thought process weighing everything up, looking at different models, refractors, cassegrains, maksutovs with goto, push to, manual etc etc until in the end I thought b******s to this and just bought something. It was the Skywatcher Heritage 130 and straight away I knew the DOB design was for me and bought the XT10i, very happy so far.